If I feel a question people PM me about will benefit the whole group, I am now going to start anonymously posting the questions here so that everyone can benefit.
Why do some firms recruit primarily from vacation schemes but then there is an option to apply for direct TCs? Surely that means people who apply directly are at a disadvantage and in that case, shouldn’t they just scrap people from applying directly?
Because it completely makes sense to.
You can test out whether someone can actually do the job, which has a much higher chance of making the right hiring decision, compared to interviews and other assessment exercises which aren’t really “doing the job” and even if they were would only show a few hours compared to 70-210 hours.
Direct TC hires are needed as you can’t always bring in the number of interns you want for various reasons (desk space and having enough supervisors are usually the key ones!). This means once people are unsuccessful and some people also decline your offer, you still have vacancies to fill. So you have to go out to an external market.
Some firms also like going out to an external market as it means they can recruit a wider range of people - it’s known many people already in employment can’t commit to summer internships. They may also be able to hire people who have done internships with competitors who got in there early with the candidates, and so the candidates couldn’t commit to your fixed dates of the internship programme(s).
