Best practices: How to hire high school & college students
Employers need an alternative to resumes.
A hundred years ago, sorting and sifting applications and resumes was a laborious task. Companies would assign staff to read resumes one at a time and make educated guesses about which candidates should be considered for an interview.
The difference in today’s hiring is that candidates save on postage. They electronically submit the same old-fashioned forms and paperwork that do little to illustrate why they’re a good fit for a position. It’s 2022, and employers no longer need to recruit staff like it’s 1922.
- The Society of Human Resources Managers reports 83% of employers struggle to find the right candidates for job openings.
- Mercer’s Global Talent Trends Report showed 92% of organizations think resumes don’t tell hiring managers what they need to know about candidates.
Employers are spending extraordinary time sifting through cookiecutter resumes and form letters, and resumes don’t even have the details to help make a decision!
Here’s how to hire high school and college students.
The recruiting and onboarding process is a significant investment for organizations of any size. Hiring the right person is critical – not only for team culture, but also for the bottom line.
Your organization benefits socially and financially by avoiding the long line of job seekers and directly approaching the best-fit candidates. This is especially true when you’re looking to hire young people who don’t have 20 years’ worth of employment to list on a piece of paper.
Hiring managers are the people who know best if a new staff candidate has the skills, motivation, and personality for a position. But because of the high volume of applications, hiring managers are forced to automate the screening process through standard forms.
Here’s what employers are saying about spikeview:
A candidate’s spikeview makes it easy for hiring managers to understand the person behind the paperwork.
Seaside Sustainability
Seaside Sustainability is an organization working in the thriving fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). They offer programs that encourage members of the community, young and old, to build and nurture a relationship with the local land and seascapes.
Seaside’s reputation results in a steady influx of people pursuing internships with the innovative nonprofit. Any time spent reading resumes is time not spent improving the natural environment. Streamlining the hiring process relieves a serious pain point.

Higher Ground
Many underserved high school students work to help their households make ends meet. Higher Ground partnered with spikeview to empower young people and help connect them to paid jobs aligned with their skills and interests.
In Oakland, a high school student gets trained by Higher Ground, adds the new skills and interests to their spikeview, then gets connected to people offering paid jobs. The interactive portfolio format organizes personal interests, experiences, and achievements in a variety of storytelling formats.

Save time and money in your search for new hires!
Copy the success of employers using spikeview. You don’t have time to scour the internet to learn about job candidates after skimming piles of resumes. Companies need to be efficient with their time and resources.
If you’re a hiring manager, have your job applicants submit a portfolio demonstrating the type of person they are to work with and what others have to say about them. Everything an employer needs to know about the person behind the paperwork is all in one easy spot.