'I performed on stage to get my first job' - the firms turning recruitment into competitions

Yumi Liberman was up on stage in front of a panel of judges and an audience of 300 people, and she had to perform.

But rather than singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument, she and two friends were in an auditorium in London in 2024 to pitch their business idea, hoping to secure a full-time job with cosmetics giant L'Oreal.

"It reminded me of when I used to do competitive sports growing up and the pressure would get heavy," says Liberman, now 24. "But somehow you just get into flow mode."

She and her friends had got through to the UK final of Brandstorm, an international competition run by the French company, where young adults outline their product and business ideas.

Their proposal for a haircare app saw them crowned UK winners and they went on to that year's global final in Paris where they came third.

While only members of the team that finished first automatically got full-time jobs, Liberman had so impressed senior figures at the company that she managed to secure a place on its marketing management traineeship, with a full-time position at the end.

Turning recruitment into X Factor-style competitions, with jobs as the prize, generates publicity and buzz for companies. But for the young people involved, is it exciting - or unfair?

In the current global economic environment, youth unemployment is higher than the national average in many countries, as companies are reluctant to take on new staff. In the UK the unemployment rate for young adults is 16.2%, compared to the overall level of 4.9%.

Competitions like L'Oreal's can offer hope. But the vast majority of the 380,000 people around the world who applied for it this year, up 58% from 240,000 in 2025, didn't win anything.

L'Oreal told the BBC that its Brandstorm competition works well because it helps the company attract a wider range of potential new recruits, including young people who wouldn't necessarily have thought of applying for a job at the firm.

Yet while Liberman says she enjoyed the formal competition structure, others who have been through similar recruitment competitions are critical.

Melissa Alcruz now works in marketing for a US real estate business based in New York City, but in the past she did the same job for TV channel MTV.

While at MTV she competed in an internal competition for a promotion that she says was referred to as a "bake-off". Candidates had to come up with sponsorship and marketing campaigns, and then pitch to a room of seven people.

"This is intimidating, even for a seasoned professional. I ultimately got the job, but even though I won I disliked the process," says Alcruz.

She points out that she already had a demanding full-time role at the company, and was then "expected to complete several substantial projects" for the competition in her spare time.

MTV's current parent company, Paramount Skydance Corporation, has been asked for a comment.

Former recruitment consultant Katrina Collier, now an author, speaker and recruiter trainer, is concerned that competition-based recruitment processes that potentially require candidates to give up lots of their time for free can create "economic discrimination".

"Not everyone can take time, possibly months, to participate in the challenges for the chance to secure one of a limited number of roles," she says. "Does that mean only people from financially strong backgrounds proceed?

"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, reasons that competition-based hiring formats are here to stay because employers find it easier to evaluate candidates than via the traditional interview method.

But she agrees that organisations need to be cautious about how much they ask of the jobseekers. "And they should focus on providing feedback… so candidates build their capabilities even if they are not selected."

For psychologist Amanda Potter, her concern is that recruiting via competition events tend to favour extroverts, and therefore put quieter personality types at a disadvantage.

"Does this approach encourage all types of people to apply, or would certain types of people avoid these assessment methods?" she says. "This could result in an organisation [ending up] full of ambitious, competitive people who want to win, possibly to the detriment of others."

However, Liberman, who lives with severe dyslexia, argues that going through a typical recruitment process and related assessments would have been more challenging for her.

It has also meant that she managed to avoid any time spent unemployed after finishing university. Instead, she has gone straight into her chosen field, something she can't say about all of her peers.

"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."