Recommendations are the best way to find great talent.

Companies should stop wasting time on young people who look good on CVs and focus on whether they come recommended for their performance.

We started GapJumpers in part, because Petar earned his first gigs in advertising based on a recommendation from a respected person in advertising. Having that “badge” opened a lot of closed doors.

Whether we admit it or not, recommendations are the prefered way of finding good people. 80% of openings are filled that way. Only if this does not yield anything, companies publish openings on public job boards like Monster and Linkedin.

Job postings create a lot of competition for applicants and a lot of work for companies to sort out the best people. For young talent and for companies looking to hire, this the Catch22.

No relevant recommendations mean companies rely on GPA and university name to screen talent, which, by the way, is no great indicator of the job performance as research from Google shows.

What if Line Managers could pre-screen talent and recommend the best to HR? After all, they know best what type of work needs to be done and if someone can do it?

What if young talent could show their skills directly to line managers and get recommended to HR, because they impressed them?

GapJumpers is a question and answer platform connecting line managers and young talent directly.

Line Managers ask job related questions and young talent can earn that vital recommendation from them to get their best foot in the door.

If we want to create a win-win for everybody involved, let’s make it possible for top talent to earn recommendations by proving themselves. There are many people without great looking CVs, but have the skills needed to be great performers.