The Rise of the AI Generalist: How to Adapt Your Entry-Level Hiring Strategy to Hire Difference-Makers
Aug 26, 2025
If you lead early-career hiring, you’re probably bracing for tougher conversations with your CFO. In most industries, hiring targets are getting smaller, budgets are tightening, and the instinct might be to scale back entry-level hiring. After all, if AI is automating more of the “starter” work, do you still need as many junior hires?
Ushering in a New Era at RippleMatch: Building the Future of Hiring
Aug 18, 2025
Three years ago, I chose to join RippleMatch because I felt an immediate connection to its mission of expanding access to opportunity. I saw a product and a team with the potential to fundamentally change how hiring works in today’s world, making it fairer, faster, smarter, and more human. My own journey began in another country at a school few people here had ever heard of, so joining the leadership team of a New York-based tech startup felt like a major milestone in my career. I had worked hard to get to that point, but I also had quite a bit of luck along the way. I was fortunate enough to cross paths with some amazing people who helped me push my career and life forward in ways I never thought were possible. To me, RippleMatch has always felt like a way to pass some of that luck forward and help others access the kind of opportunity that changed my own life.
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The Resume Is Dead: Why Hiring Needs a New Signal Strategy
Resumes have long been the cornerstone of recruiting. The assumed starting point of every candidate evaluation. But in 2025, that foundation is collapsing. With the rise of generative AI, we’re entering a new era of recruiting: one where application volume is exploding, polish is effortless, and every candidate looks good on paper. It’s no longer just hard to find top talent , it’s hard to tell what “top talent” even looks like anymore.
Investing in the Future: How To Build Out an Early ID Strategy Without Overloading Your Team
In today’s fast-moving campus recruitment landscape, it can be difficult to think beyond the next month—let alone plan for next year. But if you want to ensure you have a continuous pipeline of top talent, investing in Early ID programs is essential. In fact, RippleMatch data finds that 60% of candidates say they go directly to a company's career page to check out available opportunities when searching for a job or internship. That means the early recognition you build early on can have a big impact in the kind of talent you can attract later on.
How to Prevent Candidates from Reneging After Accepting an Offer
In today’s hiring landscape, securing an offer acceptance doesn’t mean your job is done. With 60% of Gen Z candidates continuing to passively search for roles after accepting an offer and a number of employers reporting that candidates are reneging on offers, employers must think strategically about how to reduce post-offer fallout—and it starts well before a candidate’s first day.
Creative Sourcing Strategies: Actionable Advice for Tackling Hard-to-Fill Roles and Programs
Every recruiter knows the frustration of a hard-to-fill role. Unlike high-demand positions where you’re choosing between dozens of qualified candidates, these roles either receive very few applicants or an overwhelming number of unqualified ones. Whether it’s a niche skill set, lack of candidate awareness, or low interest, the question remains the same: What do you do when you have a role you just can’t fill?
7 Ways To Refresh Your Recruitment Marketing To Appeal To Generation Z
Do your current recruitment marketing strategies appeal to Gen Z candidates? With this generation constantly shifting their priorities and behaviors, its important to optimize and update for what appeals to this generation.
The Importance of Staying Connected with Gen Z Candidates After They Accept an Offer
Recruitment is no longer just about securing an offer acceptance—it's about keeping candidates engaged and excited as they prepare for their start date. A recent RippleMatch survey found that 73% of candidates will continue passively searching for other roles even after accepting an offer. This means that organizations must rethink their post-offer communication strategies to reduce the rate of reneges and build strong connections with future hires. Here's our top advice for keeping candidates warm in between extending and offer and their start date. Need help understanding Gen Z? Download our quick fact sheet on key Gen Z stats, download our Salary Benchmarking Guide to understand how to offer competitive compensation, or request a demo of RippleMatch to find out how we can connect you with top Gen Z talent.
The Average Entry-Level Salary and Intern Compensation of 2024
In 2024, early-career salary expectations are influenced by the competitive landscape and Gen Z’s priorities. According to the RippleMatch 2024 Salary Benchmarking Report (available to download for free here), competitive compensation is a top priority for Gen Z talent, many of whom value financial growth potential over other job attributes. This report provides a comprehensive breakdown of salary data across fields, industries, and job functions, with particular insights into the expectations and realities of entry-level roles and internships.
How to Write a Job Description That Appeals to Gen Z Candidates
Generation Z is now the dominant entry-level cohort, reshaping early career recruitment with new expectations and behaviors. Unlike previous generations, Gen Z candidates often rely solely on the job description to decide whether to apply, with limited additional research into the company beforehand. Recent data collected by RippleMatch shows that 69% of Gen Z candidates read the full job description before applying, but don't seek out further details on the organization until later stages. This makes job descriptions critical real estate for communicating essential information, as they’re often the only impression a candidate will get before deciding to apply.
5 Ways to Increase Your Job Offer Acceptance Rates Among Gen Z
In today's recruitment landscape, winning over Gen Z candidates can be time-consuming and expensive. Between visiting campus, attending conferences, hosting virtual events, and posting on online platforms, recruitment teams are turning to multifaceted methods to build out their class of entry-level hires and interns. That means when teams do narrow down their applicant pool to the ones they want to extend offers to, maximizing that offer acceptance rate is key. Let's take a closer look at how teams can increase their offer acceptance rate among Gen Z candidates, backed by RippleMatch data collected on what candidates are looking for in the hiring process and workplace. Looking for more effective ways to recruit Gen Z talent without burning through your recruitment budget? Learn more about how RippleMatch can help you recruit interns and entry-level talent here.
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