If you want to improve your entry-level recruitment process, you have to stop hiring for what a 19-year-old has already done and start hiring for what they are capable of doing. Most firms lose top talent because their job descriptions demand 'experience' that doesn't exist at that age, or their CV filters bin candidates who have the right mindset but the wrong keywords.
Rewrite your job descriptions to remove 'ghost requirements'
The quickest way to alienate a high-potential school leaver or graduate is to list "2 years of experience" for a junior role. This is a ghost requirement. It doesn't actually tell you if they can do the job; it just tells you they’ve managed to find a similar desk before.
Instead, define the specific foundational skills you need. If you are hiring a junior developer, don't ask for two years in a commercial environment. Ask for a basic understanding of a specific language and the ability to explain a project they built for fun. If you are hiring for a customer-facing role, stop looking for "previous office experience" and start looking for evidence of reliability and communication, whether that was at a weekend retail job or volunteering.
Switch to portfolio-based screening
Traditional CVs are terrible at showing you how a young person thinks. A 20-year-old’s CV is usually a list of A-level grades and a summer job at a cafe. It tells you nothing about their work ethic or their curiosity.
Portfolio-based hiring shifts the focus to evidence. Instead of asking for a CV alone, ask candidates to submit a 'work sample' or a short task. For a marketing role, this could be a 200-word critique of a recent campaign. For an admin role, it could be a brief task to organise a mock calendar. This allows you to see their actual journey and motivation. You are looking for how they approach a problem, not just the final answer.
Implement a structured scorecard for interviews
Many entry-level hires fail because the interview was "a good chat" rather than a rigorous assessment of potential. When you don't have a structured process, unconscious bias takes over, and you end up hiring the person who went to the same university as you rather than the person with the most drive.
Create a simple scorecard with three to five core competencies, such as 'coachability', 'problem-solving', and 'resilience'. Rate every candidate on the same scale for the same questions. This forces your hiring managers to justify their decisions based on evidence rather than a "gut feeling." It also makes it much easier to give constructive feedback to unsuccessful candidates, which protects your employer brand.
Speed up your response times
The best entry-level talent is usually off the market within two weeks. If your process takes 48 hours to acknowledge an application and three weeks to book an interview, you have already lost.
Shorten your time-to-hire by blocking out "Interview Days" in the hiring manager’s diary before the job even goes live. Tell candidates exactly when they will hear back. A simple email saying, "We’ve seen your application and will update you by Thursday," goes a long way in building trust with a generation used to instant feedback.
Open the door to non-traditional pathways
If you are struggling to find candidates who have the foundational knowledge you need, look at structured programmes that do the heavy lifting for you. Many organisations now offer pathways where the initial technical training is already handled, meaning you get a candidate who is ready to contribute from day one.
For example, the Capslock Cyber Bootcamp provides intensive training for individuals looking to enter the security sector, ensuring they have the practical skills needed for the workplace. Similarly, major employers use schemes like the IBM Z Apprenticeship at IBM UK to build a pipeline of talent that is trained specifically for their technical environment.
You can also encourage candidates to boost their own profiles by pointing them towards free courses or showing them how to highlight their skills using a CV builder. Shine’s portfolio-based candidate profiles help you bypass the CV filter entirely to see the raw talent and commitment behind every application.
If you make these changes this week—stripping back your requirements, asking for work samples, and using a scorecard—you will stop competing for the same 5% of "experienced" juniors and start finding the high-potential talent that your competitors are accidentally ignoring.