Mario Pennycooke never planned to end up in recruiting. He built a career in graphic design, sold cars at a Toyota dealership, then trained as an automotive technician before any of that pointed toward talent acquisition.
Mario is the Director of Talent Strategy at Hendrick Automotive Group, the largest privately owned dealership group in the country, with over 100 locations coast to coast. In this episode, he talks about why he treats every open role like something he’s selling, how he coaches a team that all communicates differently toward the same results, and why AI still can’t replace the judgment call of matching a candidate to the right dealership.
You’ll also hear:
- Why he thinks every recruiter is secretly a marketer, whether they admit it or not
- How he decides when to enforce a company-wide standard and when to let a location do things its own way
- Where he thinks AI genuinely helps his team, and where it falls short
- What he tells young recruiters who are great with candidates but avoid the hiring manager relationship
Connect with Mario: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariopennycooke/
Learn more about Hendrick Automotive Group: www.hendrickcars.com
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