Firms Turn Job Recruitment Into Stage Competitions—But At What Cost?

Yumi Liberman stood in an auditorium in London with 300 people watching. She wasn't there to sing or dance. Instead, she and two friends pitched a haircare app to a panel of judges, competing for a full-time job at L'Oreal. The experience felt familiar to her—like the competitive sports she'd done growing up, where pressure could either crush you or push you into focus. She won the UK round of Brandstorm, L'Oreal's international recruitment competition, finished third at the global final in Paris, and ultimately landed a marketing management traineeship that led to permanent employment.

This is how some of the world's largest companies now hire. They've turned recruitment into something resembling a televised talent show, with jobs as the prize. L'Oreal's Brandstorm attracted 380,000 applicants globally this year—up 58 percent from 240,000 the previous year. The company says the format works because it casts a wider net, reaching young people who might never have thought to apply through traditional channels. In a labor market where youth unemployment sits at 16.2 percent in the UK, compared to 4.9 percent overall, the promise of a job through competition can feel like genuine opportunity.

But the vast majority of those 380,000 applicants won nothing. And for those who have competed in similar processes, the experience raises uncomfortable questions about who gets ahead and who gets left behind. Melissa Alcruz competed in an internal promotion competition at MTV, where candidates had to develop sponsorship and marketing campaigns and pitch them to seven senior figures. She won the job but hated the process. She was already working full-time at the company when she was expected to complete several substantial projects in her spare time for the chance at advancement. "This is intimidating, even for a seasoned professional," she says now, working in real estate in New York.

Katrina Collier, a former recruitment consultant turned author and trainer, sees a deeper problem. When companies ask candidates to invest months of unpaid work for the possibility of employment, they're creating what she calls "economic discrimination." Not everyone can afford to spend that time without pay. Not everyone has family money to fall back on. "Does that mean only people from financially strong backgrounds proceed?" she asks. "Is that leaving talented applicants who don't have the bank of mum or dad, for example, unable to take part?" Jamie Kohn, senior director for talent acquisition at research firm Gartner, acknowledges the concern but argues that competition-based hiring is here to stay because employers find it easier to evaluate candidates this way than through traditional interviews. Still, she says organizations need to be thoughtful about the demands they place on jobseekers and should provide feedback so candidates learn even if they don't get selected.

Psychologist Amanda Potter raises another concern: these competitions tend to favor extroverts. The format rewards people comfortable performing under pressure, pitching ideas to crowds, winning in front of an audience. Quieter personality types may avoid these processes altogether, or perform worse in them, even if they'd be excellent employees. "Does this approach encourage all types of people to apply, or would certain types of people avoid these assessment methods?" she asks. "This could result in an organisation full of ambitious, competitive people who want to win, possibly to the detriment of others."

Yet Liberman offers a counterpoint. She has severe dyslexia, and she argues that a traditional recruitment process with standard assessments would have been harder for her to navigate. The competition format, which emphasized her ability to think creatively and pitch ideas verbally, actually worked in her favor. More importantly, she avoided unemployment after university. She went straight into her chosen field. "I have a lot of friends coming from extremely reputable backgrounds, extremely educated people who have applied to over 1,000 jobs, and have been jobless," she says. For her, the competition wasn't a barrier—it was a door that opened when others stayed closed.