Technology Employer — Case Study — Digital Internship

Hiring6 min read

The challenge

A fast-growing technology company was hiring aggressively from bootcamps and universities but losing months to mis-hires who interviewed well yet struggled on real deliverables.

The solution

Partnered with Digital Internship to require simulation performance records for early-career pipeline candidates.
Calibrated score thresholds with hiring managers for analyst and coordinator roles.
Reduced reliance on take-home exercises that duplicated work already captured in verified portfolios.

The cost of false positives

Technical screens and culture interviews favored confident communicators. New hires often lacked the follow-through, documentation habits, and cross-functional judgement the role required.

Recruiting volume made bespoke work trials unsustainable. The team needed signal earlier — before onsite loops consumed senior engineer time.

Capability-first screening

Candidates shared Digital Internship performance records showing how they handled scoped tasks, QA feedback, and manager check-ins in a simulated environment.

Hiring managers set minimum capability bands by competency — technical execution, communication, reliability — rather than pedigree alone.

Hiring outcomes

Mis-hires within the first ninety days dropped sharply. Onboarding mentors reported new hires arrived with realistic expectations of team workflows.

The partnership expanded from one business unit to company-wide early-career hiring, with HR marketing the program to candidates as a fairer, skills-based path in.

−41%

90-day mis-hire rate

−35%

Time-to-productive-hire

88%

Hiring manager confidence score

“We stopped guessing from polished résumés. Candidates arrive with scored tasks that look like our Monday morning backlog — that's the interview.”
Marcus WebbHead of Talent, Technology Employer

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