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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Recruiting Events Software: 2023 Buyer’s Guide
In a competitive talent landscape, recruitment events are a great way to engage with candidates, giving them an inside look at your organization, culture, employees, and opportunities to help them make informed decisions about where they might want to work. And by offering some of those events virtually, you open the door to connecting with a much more diverse slate of candidates from varying backgrounds, improving accessibility to your open roles. However, executing impactful recruitment events — both virtually and in-person — can be challenging to navigate, from inviting the right candidates to your events, quickly following up afterwards with applications to keep the momentum going, and pipelining attendees who aren’t great fits for your open roles right now.
Why a Quick Application Response Time Is Essential Today
In today’s competitive recruitment landscape, a quick application response time is an indispensable tool for employers looking to attract and retain top talent — especially at the early career level. That’s because Gen Z candidates searching for internship and entry-level roles today expect a quick feedback loop from companies, and prefer to be rejected than ‘ghosted’ during the hiring process.
Gen Z Recruiting Software: 2023 Buyer’s Guide
In a competitive recruitment landscape, it's essential that talent teams have the right partner by their side to help them reach their hiring goals. This is especially true as talent teams are shrinking and they are being tasked to do more with less. For Gen Z talent especially, candidates are expecting high-tech and seamless recruiting processes from their future employers. By working with recruiting software that has Gen Z in mind, you can make strides on your internship and entry-level hiring goals, and bring in the best talent out there today.
The Most Efficient Recruitment Software in 2023
The current state of early career hiring isn't serving anyone, failing to meet the needs of both job-seeking candidates and employers hunting for Gen Z talent. Candidates are submitting over 100 applications to land one internship or job, only to receive little to no response afterwards (commonly referred to as "getting ghosted"). Meanwhile, employers are investing significant time, resources, and funds into finding suitable candidates but are overwhelmed filtering through unqualified applicants, and are struggling to identify and prioritize top inbound candidates. Plus, the response rates for outreach to qualified candidates are alarmingly low, and sourcing candidates through in-person events, such as large-scale diversity conferences and campus visits, is costly and produces unpredictable results.
4 Ways Recruiters Can Support First-Generation College Students
While there has certainly been progress made for each first-generation college student who dons a cap and gown, this population of students still faces difficulty entering the workforce. For example, first-gen college students are more likely to work during college to support themselves than participate in extracurricular activities on campus, which can harm them when it comes time to demonstrate their leadership skills and school involvement on their resumes.
Trend Watch: Why Employers Are Getting Ghosted By Gen Z
Candidates and employers alike agree that the status quo of early career recruiting and hiring today is no longer effective. Candidates are sending out upwards of 50 internship or job applications to roles that they aren’t even sure they are qualified for, and in many cases, aren’t hearing back from companies after submitting their applications. At the same time, employers are spending a lot of time, effort, and money to find the right candidates and build diverse teams, but the response rates on their outreach are extremely low. In fact, for all the work that recruiters are putting into their outreach strategies today, many are experiencing response rates as low as 2%.
What Months Do Most Companies Hire for Internships and Entry-Level Jobs?
It’s no secret that the fall semester is the busiest season for campus recruiting teams. As students return to campus after summer break, university recruitment teams have been known to shift into high gear, looking for top talent to fill internship and entry-level roles with start days that are months away. But how does the fall season compare to the rest of the year in terms of open roles for early career candidates, and when exactly are students applying for those opportunities? Does this timeline change across different industries?
How Fast Does Gen Z Expect to Be Promoted?
Career mapping and providing clear paths for internal growth remain important strategies for keeping great employees in-house, and understanding exactly when Gen Z expects to be promoted at work is an important factor in recruiting and retaining the newest generation of workers. While Gen Zers are often characterized by their desire for quick growth and career advancement, a closer examination of their promotion expectations in 2023 tells a slightly different story. In fact, over the past year, there has been a notable shift in their outlook when it comes to rising through the ranks at work in this economy, and employers looking to future-proof their organizations with fresh talent need to be taking note.
REconference Innovation Series: How Great Hearts Academies Is Reimagining Professional Development for Early Career Professionals
For early career professionals, kickstarting their professional journey can be both exhilarating and challenging. As they navigate the complexities of the professional world, they need support and guidance to unlock their full potential – such as a meaningful mentorship experience and opportunities for continued learning. The guidance of experienced mentors provides invaluable insights, wisdom, and encouragement to those just embarking on their career journeys, while ongoing learning opportunities equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in their fields.
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