What is one recruiting strategy you recommend to employers who want to hire dozens or even hundreds of early career candidates into business and consumer services jobs?

Start recruiting and place job ads as early as possible. Ideally, in September, when students return to college. Proactively outreach to students via email and text messaging, and make every interaction positive. Top students actively seeking employment upon graduation typically receive 2 to 3 job offers before December's break. Use structured, job-related assessments to qualify students and ensure those assessments provide candidates with the opportunity to showcase their strengths. Make job offers as qualified students are identified -- don't wait for the semester to end. And build rapport, trust and excitement in any candidate you interact with. A great way to build excitement is to highlight job development and career paths your company offers. Also, don't rely on AI robots to interview and build relationships with graduating job seekers. More yeses to job offers happen when real recruiters and hiring managers engage and interact with the graduating students you wish to hire.

Having launched Undergrads.com and scaled it to staff thousands of college students, I've found that building a direct pipeline from universities is paramount for high-volume entry-level hiring. Our model connects students to flexible gigs in the hospitality and service industries, tailoring roles to their class schedules. This works because we empower students with practical skills, scholarship opportunities, and a launchpad for future careers, which is incredibly attractive to early career candidates. Our AI-powered job board then acts as an automated job headhunter, significantly streamlining the matching process. This approach allows us to effortlessly staff hundreds, even nearly 1,000 roles for major events like the Kentucky Derby or Super Bowl by tapping directly into local university talent pools. By focusing on mutual benefit and automated candidate matching, you can efficiently onboard large numbers of reliable candidates without the need for traditional interviews.

Set up a year-round "college partnership" pipeline. Pick three or four nearby universities or colleges and stay on their campus calendar, don't just show up at the big careers fair once a year. How to do it Be visible every term. 1. Offer a short guest talk in a business class, sponsor a case-study contest, or run a one-day "customer-service hackathon." Students get face time with your team; you spot talent early. 2. Give paid micro-projects. Instead of formal internships that need months of paperwork, hand out small, two-week real jobs, updating a help-desk FAQ, mapping a delivery route, building an Excel tracker. Students earn money, you see how they work, and the best get fast-track job offers. 3. Keep the follow-up simple. Collect names in one Google Form, text finalists within 48 hours, and schedule all interviews in a single block the next week. The speed alone sets you apart from slower employers. 4. Reward campus ambassadors. Pay £100 or a voucher to any student who brings in a friend that you hire. Word spreads faster than any paid ad. Why it works Trust factor: Students believe a classmate or lecturer more than a glossy brochure. Low churn: Candidates who already know your people and work style are less likely to quit after six months. Cost-effective: A few pizzas and small project stipends can beat expensive job-board ads.

If you are trying to hire at volume, scrap the endless application black hole. Build a simple funnel where people can opt in with just an email, phone number, and three-sentence intro. Make it frictionless. The longer the form, the faster they bounce. Early-career candidates have options and short attention spans. You want to make it easier to say yes than to click away. From there, get obsessive about speed. You need to move them through interviews within five business days. If it takes longer than that, you are going to lose half your pipeline. Seriously! Have batch interview days, group Zooms, text reminders, and pre-scheduled slots. Get them scheduled while they are still warm. If they feel like you actually want them, they tend to show up. Fact is, early-career hires do not get wooed by titles or perks. They care about clarity, fast decisions, and whether you seem like a place that gets things done. So the faster you can move, the stronger your close rate will be.

Hiring dozens or even hundreds of early-career candidates—especially for roles in business and consumer services—requires more than just ramping up job ads or attending more career fairs. Employers need a recruiting strategy that meets these candidates where they are, speaks their language, and streamlines the path from awareness to offer. The key is relationship-building at scale—and the most effective way to do that is by creating a campus-to-career pipeline powered by immersive, branded experiences. Rather than focusing on one-off job postings or generic outreach, I recommend building structured "early career ecosystems" through strategic partnerships with colleges, community programs, and bootcamps. But it doesn't stop at partnerships. The real value is in creating immersive, on-brand experiences—virtual internships, real-world simulations, job shadowing days, ambassador programs, or case competitions. These not only attract attention but allow candidates to "try on" the culture and roles, increasing conversion rates and reducing early attrition. This strategy also requires employers to rethink who they target. Instead of cherry-picking from a few elite schools, widen the net. Tap into overlooked but highly motivated student groups—first-generation college students, community college cohorts, or students from underrepresented backgrounds. Pair that with strong, tech-enabled candidate nurturing: drip email campaigns, text-based nudges, and peer-to-peer content sharing. One employer we worked with in financial services partnered with a network of colleges to offer a "Virtual Experience Challenge" where students spent three evenings working through real business problems in teams. They got to pitch ideas to executives, interact with employees, and learn how the company operates. Over 70% of participants later applied for internships or full-time roles, and the employer saw a 30% higher retention rate among hires who came through this experience versus traditional job postings. To effectively recruit early-career candidates at scale, companies need to go beyond transactional job ads and invest in long-term engagement pipelines. The most successful employers position themselves as career-launching partners—not just hiring entities. When young candidates feel seen, supported, and included in the culture before Day 1, they're not only more likely to join—they're more likely to stay.

No matter the role, early-career candidates are going to assume that it won't be their last stop. They're going to want to continue learning, growing, and accelerating their career in their 20s and 30s. Not every role is conducive to this desire for growth; in fact, many roles have an artificial cap on how far someone can advance their skills and responsibilities. The most attractive thing about consumer service roles is the ability to learn an endless amount about human behavior. Purchasing paths, price elasticity, customer experience and satisfaction, product development and roadmap, customer feedback and continuous improvement... an observant candidate who cuts their teeth in a consumer service role will learn all of these skills on the job, and more. These skills can then be translated into founding a business of their own, which is the ultimate "ceiling" for hungry young talent. So if you want to attract early-career candidates with a desire for autonomy and responsibility, emphasize that they will be wearing many hats, learning a tremendous amount about how to run a business, and that one day they can take what they learn (on your dime, no less) and apply it to their own company if they so desire.

After working in the HRTech field for a while, one recruiting strategy I strongly recommend to employers aiming to hire dozens or even hundreds of early career candidates for business and consumer services jobs is to focus on building strong, direct relationships with vocational schools and community colleges. These institutions are a consistent source of individuals who are not only eager to start their careers but have also often received practical training directly relevant to the skills needed in service roles. This partnership can involve several practical steps, such as participating in career fairs hosted by these schools, offering to conduct workshops or mock interviews for their students, or even collaborating on curriculum development to ensure that the skills taught align with industry needs.

Instead of just posting job ads and hoping for applicants, flip the script. Means, turn your hiring process into a quick, fun "tryout", instead of a boring interview. Here's how it works: 1- Host "Hiring Events" That Feel Like First Days:- Do not do stiff interviews. Run 2-hour group sessions where candidates can actually try simple tasks (e.g.., handling a mock customer call or organizing a spreadsheet). Pay them for their time (even $20/hour). This gets more applicants and shows you care. 2- Hire in Batches, Not One-by-One:- Train 20-50 people at once in a 1-week "boot camp." Keep the best 80% (not just the 10% with a perfect resume). Early career hires often learn fast ... you do not need perfect experience. 3- Partner with Gig Apps & Local Groups:- Post short "tryout" gigs on apps like Upwork. Many gig workers want steady jobs but never get the chance. Work with libraries, churches, or community centers ... they know reliable people who are not on LinkedIn. Why This Works: a) Speed: Hire 100 people in weeks, not months. b) Better Matches: You see skills in action instead of guessing from the resume. c) Loyalty: Candidates feel valued (most companies treat them like numbers). Real Example: A call center near our office, used this to hire 200 agents in 6 weeks . Turnover dropped 30% because hires knew the job before saying yes.

We build hiring campaigns like product launches with hype, storytelling, and multi-touch nurturing across platforms. That includes email series, social takeovers, and shortform video content explaining day-to-day life inside our agency. The goal is not volume but resonance with people who want what we offer. Hiring becomes a conversation, not just a funnel. When we needed 10 campaign assistants, we treated the recruitment process like a content launch strategy. Our job landing page included team interviews, role walkthroughs, and transparent expectations. Candidates appreciated the honesty and applied with clear alignment. That campaign filled every seat within six weeks and taught us how brand drives recruitment.

Before launching a high-volume hiring campaign, ask the hard questions. Does your business truly need this many people? Are you overestimating growth? Instead of rushing to hire dozens or even hundreds of early career candidates, take a day to evaluate your workforce plan, role clarity, and long-term needs. Many companies hired aggressively for tech roles a few years ago without proper budgeting and realized it just wasn't sustainable. Today, we're seeing the consequences in widespread layoffs. A smarter approach is to scale gradually, test your operational capacity, and invest where performance and demand actually align.

One strategy that's worked well for us in hiring early-career talent is peer referrals from recent campus hires. We ask a few of our interns or new grads to refer classmates from their college. In return, we offer small incentives—resume feedback, learning sessions, or public recognition. It's simple, low-cost, and brings in candidates we'd never reach through job boards. Why it works: Students trust people they know. The outreach feels informal and personal. It scales without adding pressure on HR. We keep the process lightweight Google Forms for referrals, WhatsApp for updates, and quick shoutouts when someone's referral gets hired. This approach has helped us fill roles like business analyst and support associate, quickly and consistently. If you're hiring in volume, your best recruiters might already be on your team.

When I was running a division of consumer marketing at Dell, I also was heading up our MBA recruiting for our consumer marketing. We recruited at Harvard, Michigan and other top business schools for incoming MBA graduates. Today it is very different with AI and much easier. We used to review every resume and pick 20 or so that we would in person interview at each school we traveled to. If I was running that now, I would have them answer 3-4 questions that relate directly to the company's core values either in text or video. Then I would have that uploaded to AI with a prompt to analyze the transcript and grade against core values of the company. For example, one of our core values at the company I founded, ROI Swift, is Make it Better. So we have questions like "Tell me about a time where you improved a process through an innovative solution." With MBA grads, we know they are smart and we can teach them skills but you can't teach people to care and you can't teach them to want to learn and innovate. We are really looking for self-starters both at Dell and at my current company. There is typically no playbook when you're innovating at that speed. Cast a wide net and then use AI to analyze down to what matters to your values and who will be a good long term fit.

One highly effective recruiting strategy for hiring dozens or even hundreds of early career candidates in business and consumer services is to build a paid micro-internship or "tryout" program tied to a clear hiring funnel. Here's how it works: * Create short-term, low-risk project roles (2-4 weeks) with real business value—customer research, onboarding process audits, competitive analysis, etc. * Market these opportunities directly to recent grads, career switchers, or vocational program alumni via university job boards, LinkedIn, and career platforms like Handshake or WayUp. * Use the projects as a practical screening tool—evaluate not just resumes, but how candidates problem-solve, communicate, and adapt to your systems. * At the end, offer the highest-performing participants direct entry into your full-time pipeline. Why it works: * You attract motivated, career-minded candidates looking for a foot in the door. * You avoid bad hires by assessing real-world performance, not just interviews. * You scale with lower upfront risk and a more diverse talent pool. It's a win-win: candidates get real experience and access, and you build a team based on action—not assumptions.

One effective recruiting strategy for hiring large numbers of early-career candidates into business and consumer services jobs is to use AI-driven candidate matching tools that prioritize soft skills, adaptability, and customer orientation. These roles often require clear communication, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence—qualities that aren't always reflected in resumes alone. Start by deploying AI assessments that simulate customer service or team-based scenarios. Candidates respond to real-world situations, and the AI evaluates them for traits like tone, decision-making, and professionalism. This helps filter for applicants who may have little formal experience but strong natural aptitude for service roles. Additionally, AI chatbots can streamline the process by answering applicant questions, collecting basic information, and scheduling interviews automatically—saving time while keeping candidates engaged. To make this strategy successful, ensure the AI tools are calibrated with input from your top performers. This helps the system learn which traits predict success in your specific environment and continuously improve over time. By combining smart assessments with automation, employers can scale hiring quickly without sacrificing quality or candidate experience.

Allocate targeted paid campaigns on TikTok with creatives leaning toward lifestyle, growth and purpose. Early career candidates tend to build their prioritization culture and opportunity over the mere show of salary. Set that alongside a referral program for your current team, as most will know someone whose personality aligns perfectly with your culture and environment.

I advocate one strategy in particular: direct alliances with local community colleges, trade schools, and vocational training programs. At LAXcar, we've established connections with hospitality and business programs all over Southern California to access talent pools of early-career candidates. Rather than depending entirely on job boards, we host on-campus information sessions and provide job-shadowing opportunities. This allows students to see an actual path for themselves; it also helps us identify soft skills in progress, which are more important than resumes at this level. The key to this strategy is consistency and mutual value. We match our hiring process with graduating classes, and we give feedback to career advisors about what we want to see -punctuality, communication, adaptability. In exchange, we get access to incredibly motivated candidates who are desperate to prove themselves. It has allowed us to decrease time-to-hire by 42% and drive early retention by ensuring that we are placing the right candidates in the right roles from day one.

Employers who are hiring hundreds into business and consumer service roles should be conducting skills-based testing and stop filtering through degrees or job titles. A lot of early-career candidates have not had the chance to build long CVs. But that does not mean they cannot do the job well. I have worked with admin staff who came from retail, trade school or no formal background at all and usually, they were the ones who are quicker, more organised, and more accurate than applicants holding a diploma. Set up five to ten-minute screeners that are based on actual work tasks. Add calendar conflicts, email tags or simple scheduling issues. This way, you will know the ones who can keep up with the flow during a busy day. Shortlist on the basis of the results rather than on the resume. We began to do this in our office hiring and within six months, we achieved improved output and reduced turnover. It informs you about who can think and remain focused, which is what you require in positions that are administration-intensive.

As a deep recruiting strategy to scale early-career hiring at The Happy Food Company, we successfully built structured micro-internship pipelines with select universities and bootcamps. Instead of recruiting broadly and hoping to screen effectively, we co-designed short-term, paid project sprints i.e. 3 to 6-week assignments, in customer service, brand ops, and logistics coordination. All we had to do was assess real world skills in context giving the candidates meaningful experience and awareness of the brand. The insight here is this: early career candidates are typically creative when they have the ownership and structure accompanying it, but they often don't shine on their resumes alone. So these sprints became an appropriate vetting mechanism, as well as a conversion funnel; over 70% of our full-time hires were sourced from this route. In order to scale these opportunities, we built repeatable onboarding modules, asynchronous training videos, and a clear project success rubric, which allowed our managers to be supported, but not burdened. I will highly advise you to stop filtering for the "perfect candidates" and start architecting low-friction pathways to find out potential at scale. This is good for growth, which is great, but it builds loyalty as well. Many of our hires still reference their sprint as the moment they felt actually invested in the brand.

Make SOCIAL MEDIA your go-to method for hiring lots of people in business and consumer services roles. Sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok put you in front of younger workers who fill most entry-level positions these days. Your employees and people checking out the jobs start passing them along to friends who might be interested. This word-of-mouth effect really pays off when you need to bring on dozens of customer service reps, sales staff, or other front-line workers quickly. You can also share workplace photos, team videos, and daily stories from your employees. It gives job hunters a genuine feel for your company culture before they submit an application. You can use the search filters on these platforms to to find local candidates who have experience that matches your open roles. Plus, you can look through candidates by where they are, what school they went to, jobs they've had, and things they like to find ones who'd really want to work at your place. It cuts way down on resumes from people who aren't qualified and helps you hire faster. Recruiting through social media costs a fraction of what you'd pay for job sites or headhunters—which keeps your budget in check when you're adding lots of new hires. Post your job openings when people are most likely scrolling their phones - usually evenings and weekends work best.

One approach that has worked out really well for us, and the clients we have partnered with, is design what we have called a "preview path" for early-career candidates. Instead of just posting a job advertisement, we create a mini-experience that allows candidates to see and feel what the actual job looks like prior to applying. We do this through short introduction videos of the team, sample tasks or practical scenarios, or even Slack-style mock conversations that imitate how we communicate. It may sound simple, but it builds trust and clarity before candidates show up for the interview especially for candidates who haven't held business or consumer services roles before. The impact? A lot less ghosting with interviews and a lot better alignment between expectations and reality. We have seen large drops in early-stage turnover because candidates have opted in with eyes wide open. Here's the human piece of it: early-career folks aren't looking for perfect, they are looking for real. If you can demonstrate to them exactly what they are stepping into, they will step into it more confidently and they are more likely to stick around.