How we're trying to create a better entry-level hiring process - for everyone

Matt Mitro, Head of Campus Recruiting
March 2019

Companies relish the energy, creativity, and learning capacity that students and recent graduates bring to a new team.  Whereas research shows that past work experience is predictive of future performance in a similar role, college graduates tend to have very little work experience that is directly relevant to their post-graduate job choice.  Consequently employers tend to recruit graduates based on less precise data points: resume details and general interviews. For their part, student applicants often wonder whether they even applied for the right role or showcased their full abilities – particularly when a large employer offers many choices. At JPMorgan Chase we’re trying to make the entry-level hiring process better for everyone, particularly students.

In recent years, we began integrating pre-recorded video interviews into our application process so students had an opportunity to put their best foot forward, telling the story beyond their resume. And to be sure students really benefit, we offer them practice questions in advance to get comfortable with the technology and the chance to re-take if something goes awry. Our questions are read on video by real recruiters and do not typically have one correct way to answer.  Instead the questions encourage students to reflect on their own experiences in a way that should relate to the job we’d ask them to do. We have found these videos give us valuable insight into how candidates think.

JPMorgan Chase has also started experimenting with a new behavioral science-based assessment technology called pymetrics in its application process. pymetrics is a series of engaging online games, based on decades of scientific research, that have shown to be very accurate in measuring a wide range of relevant social, cognitive and behavioral features – things like attention, memory and altruism. “The concept behind pymetrics,” says CEO and co-founder Frida Polli, “is that there is no right or wrong answer, no ‘smart’ vs ‘not smart’. We aim to provide a platform that helps every person find their place in the world of work.” Once an individual candidate completes the assessment, pymetrics software then compares the student’s results to the profile of successful employees at our firm.  

We recognize that using technology in the selection of employees is a complex field, so we’re starting with a pilot and working with a top partner. pymetrics’ product is based on years of scientific research that validates the predictive value of its games. Its matching engine uses supervised machine learning and an auditing technique called AuditAI that creates gender and ethnic fairness in algorithms. Millions of candidates have interacted with the games and other employers have experienced dramatic improvements in the diversity of their entry-level hiring. Most importantly, we would never rely on this technology alone to make a hiring decision, but we believe it can be an additional data point to consider alongside an applicant’s resume and video interview.

In our earliest testing with pymetrics, we’ve seen extremely high completion rates and satisfaction scores among candidates - indicating that students are seeing the added value in this scientific approach. In the future we hope pymetrics might actually help students better discover and explore the broad array of roles and careers at our firm before they even apply, guiding them to where their demonstrated abilities may be put to best use – without ever limiting their choices.  We think such an experience would be helpful and efficient for both the student and employer.

But before we go beyond a pilot, we will review feedback from applicants to check whether and how we’re getting things right. Additionally, technology should never replace important recruiting foundations like interview training for our managers and diverse representation among our interviewers. When it comes to hiring students, we are guided by an “All Minds Wanted” philosophy.  The more we know about a candidate, the better decisions we can make on offering insights into and opportunities for the right job at our firm - giving every student a strong shot at a great job and successful future.  To us, that’s the essence of an amazing candidate experience.