The intern you hire today is the analyst you promote in three years — or the one you wish you hadn’t hired at all. Most companies treat early careers hiring as an afterthought.
Early careers hiring fails for the same three reasons. Every time.
The brief is vague — written for an experienced hire, attracting the wrong profiles entirely. The onboarding is an afterthought — three weeks in, the intern is lost and the manager is frustrated. And the company hired for availability, not fit — because it felt low stakes.
It is not low stakes. A bad early careers hire costs time, damages team morale, and tells your future talent pipeline exactly what kind of employer you are.
Built for companies that are growing — not just filling seats.
Moving fast, no HR function yet, and no time to manage someone who needs six weeks of hand-holding. We find early careers professionals who can contribute — not shadow for a month and disappear.
Permanent headcount is not justified yet but the workload is real. We help you to hire early careers talent on defined projects — with a clear conversion path if the placement works.
The senior hires you need in 2028 are the early careers hires you make today. We help companies build a structured early careers programme — not just fill a vacancy once and start again next year.
We are not a job board. We are not a platform that charges candidates a placement fee and calls it access. We charge the hiring company — never the candidate. Every placement is handled by a recruiter with real functional knowledge — not a generalist posting CVs and hoping for the best.
We brief before we search. What problem does this person solve? What does success look like at 30, 60, and 90 days? What level of independence is realistic from day one? We answer these questions before approaching anyone.
We source intentionally. We identify candidates from universities, programmes, and networks relevant to your function — then screen them against the actual role. Not a generic intern profile.
We screen for what predicts performance.
At early careers level, technical skills are trainable. We screen for proactivity, accountability, adaptability, and the ability to handle feedback. These are harder to teach.
We structure the placement. We guide onboarding expectations, check-in milestones, and conversion criteria — so the placement has the best chance of becoming something longer term if both sides want it.
Outside these four — we will say so before taking the mandate.
Analysts, finance assistants, FP&A support, and commercial finance juniors.
Junior developers, QA, product support, and data analysts.
Sales support, marketing coordinators, partnerships, and growth operations.
Talent Coordinators, HR Assistants, Junior Recruiter, Sourcer, Early Careers TA Support
1. Brief & Alignment
We start with a conversation to understand the role, the team, the project, and the timeline. We advise on what is realistic in the current market before we begin — including whether an intern is actually the right hire for what you need.
2. Search & Selection
We draw from our existing candidate network — updated regularly so profiles reflect where people are now. We screen against your specific brief and present a small number of profiles, each with a clear reason why they are there.
3. Placement & Support
Once placed, we stay involved with the interns and the hiring managers regularly. We check in at key milestones and flag early if something is not working — so both parties can course-correct before it becomes a problem.
Conversion path: If the placement works and you want to bring them on permanently within 12 months, we handle the transition at a reduced fee — minus what you have already paid.
We charge the hiring company. Never the candidate.
Our fee is based on the monthly salary and duration of the placement — so you pay proportionally to how long you benefit.
New to early careers hiring? We offer an optional onboarding add-on — role definition, onboarding framework, and check-in structure. One-off fee agreed upfront before the search begins.
Hiring three or more early careers professionals per year? We offer a preferred partner arrangement — a discounted per-placement fee in exchange for bringing your early careers hiring to Substance exclusively. No monthly retainer. No commitment beyond the placement.
No pitch. No proposal. Just a straight conversation.
Most searches fail before they start. The brief was never clear. We fix that first — before a single name is approached.
Every candidate is assessed by a senior recruiter. Not scored by software. Not passed through a junior. If they don’t clear the bar, you won’t see them
No handoffs. No mid-search account managers. One recruiter. Brief to offer. Direct accountability throughout.
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