What do companies owe rejected early career candidates?
In many graduate and apprenticeship programmes, only around 1% of applicants actually get hired.
That figure isn’t often published, but it’s a fair calculation when you compare the sheer number of applicants to the limited number of offers. Even the biggest graduate employers, who hire at scale, see very low overall success rates.
That means thousands of young people are receiving rejection messages. And in today’s tough job market, many are facing not one, but dozens (even hundreds) of rejections.
The implications for young people
The emotional and practical impact of this can be significant:
- A massive volume of disappointment, particularly when hiring processes drag on with little communication.
- Candidate disengagement — the “why bother applying?” mindset that not only hurts confidence but can also damage employer brands.
- Pressure on hiring teams, who are tasked with managing huge volumes of applicants.
- A risk of missing out on talent who might not have the most polished CVs but could be an excellent fit.
And that’s just the start of it.
What do employers owe candidates?
This question has sparked plenty of debate. When I posed it recently on LinkedIn, many people highlighted the importance of providing feedback to candidates.
It’s a fair point. Feedback helps candidates grow — and in theory, it’s a positive step for employers who want to nurture early talent. But realistically, offering personalised feedback to every applicant is impossible. Some employers focus feedback on those who reach later stages, but even then, the impact isn’t always clear.
A few organisations that have introduced strengths-based feedback tools found that only a small number of candidates remembered receiving it, and fewer still acted on it.
So before jumping to conclusions about what employers should provide, maybe the question should be:
What do candidates actually want and need from employers?
What young people really value
The data paints a clear picture.
- 86% of young people without experience of the workplace struggle to secure employment.
- Those who engage with four or more employers are 83% less likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
- 67% say that work experience helps them understand which skills they need for the future.
And at Springpod, we’re seeing that first-hand:
- 47,000 new Springpod users explored engineering programmes in the last year, logging 39,000 hours of experience in automotive alone.
- 29,000 explored healthcare and medicine, completing 190,000 hours of experiences.
- 34,000 engaged with energy and utilities employers, totalling 135,000 learning hours.
- 30,207 explored accounting, banking and finance — with a huge 228,460 learning hours recorded.
This level of engagement shows a clear appetite for interactive, skills-based learning experiences that help young people explore new sectors and gain confidence.
When so many early career candidates are still in an exploratory stage, these experiences don’t just soften the blow of rejection — they help turn it into something constructive and empowering.
Rethinking the “rejection experience”
So yes, young people do want engagement from employers, even when they’re not hired. But maybe the answer isn’t another automated feedback report.
Maybe it’s access to meaningful, skills-based learning experiences that help them build their employability and stay motivated.
As for whether companies have a moral obligation to rejected candidates — that’s up to each organisation’s conscience. But in an age of online reviews, viral posts and increasing scrutiny of employer brands, it’s worth asking:
Can employers really afford to reject and disregard 99% of their talent pool?
