Select a region
The quest for a paid graduate job after university can be long and soul-destroyingly tedious for the thousands of grads battling it out for jobs and internships year on year. Ditto university placement years, an increasingly popular way to gain industry experience while studying. Wouldn’t you rather kick back, play a few games and let employers find you?
That’s the logic behind Debut, the app that lets companies seek students and recent graduates out depending on their qualifications and skills. The best part? Users can also play their way into work, with innovative in-app games for students to tap their way into top internships.
Over 12,000 people have downloaded Debut since its release in November, and although the gaming element was only added last month, users have already racked up an impressive 650 hours of play so far.
Currently Debut have two games; The Seeker from L’Oreal, which offers the top 30 scorers a summer internship and the top 30 players a fast-track place at their assessment centre, and Agile Minds from Deutsche Bank, who offer tech goodies as prizes.
University of Manchester Electronics and Engineering student Aiden Woodard has already won the monthly prize on the Agile Minds game, bagging himself an Apple Watch and potentially a Macbook Pro if his score remains unbeaten.
He found the games “pretty addictive” and says he’d much rather play his way into an internship than fill out endless applications. “I’ve never seen anything like this before and it’s a pretty interesting aspect. I don’t really enjoy applications because there are a lot of questions that seem a bit weird and irrelevant, and this is a lot more fun.”
Could the gamification of applications change the way millennials hunt for jobs for ever? Aiden certainly hopes so. “If I could only do this instead of traditional applications, I definitely would! When you apply for anything you’re competing against other candidates, so this is just another way to do it.”
If gaming isn’t your bag, the app also has a “Talent Scout” feature that allows employers to reach out to potential candidates depending on their skill set and offer them an application-free ride to their assessment days.
Accounting, Business Finance and Management student Aadam Mullah, 20, was able to land a spot at L’Oreal’s assessment centre and secure a placement year with the brand just by downloading the app and entering a few basic details. “They asked simple questions like what GCSEs and A Levels, what I wanted out of work and what kind of skills I had,” he says, “then two weeks later I got a message saying that L’Oreal would like to fast-track me to an assessment centre.”
For Aadam, the app was a welcome respite from the usual monotonous data entry required involved in applying for placements. “With other companies it’s always a very long process, answering the same questions every single time putting in the same details. With Debut it was more a process of you showing off your skills and companies coming to you.”
Microsoft and EY are due to launch their own competitions on the app in coming weeks, while Debut says it is in the process of developing new games to test cognitive abilities and behavioural traits.
“Games educate candidates on a company and its values in a much more compelling way, which is a useful tool in breaking down any potential misconceptions about that brand,” said Charles Taylor, CEO, Debut. “It also enables top employers to attract previously inaccessible passive talent, broadening the talent pool significantly.”
