SeekOut for Graduate Recruiting: Does It Actually Work?

SeekOut has earned its reputation as a powerhouse for experienced hiring, surfacing hidden talent from public data. The platform accesses nearly one billion profiles through 30+ smart filters and 300 Power Filters. When you hunt for a senior machine learning engineer with specific framework experience, this data density becomes invaluable.

But graduate recruiting operates under fundamentally different constraints. Inbox is already overflowing, candidates have sparse LinkedIn profiles with no work history to search. The challenge is not finding people, but finding the right people from the thousands who already applied. This guide evaluates whether SeekOut's passive sourcing model works for graduate recruiting, or if your budget is better spent on predictive assessment and automation.

The core promise: What SeekOut offers for university recruiting

SeekOut positions itself as the solution for finding passive talent that traditional job boards miss. The platform surface hidden talent beyond keywords from patents, GitHub, publications, and signals that indicate real expertise. For recruiters sourcing experienced candidates, this approach works because professionals have accumulated years of searchable data.

The platform does offer some features relevant to early careers. You can search graduates by graduation year using Boolean strings that display candidates with upcoming graduation years, mentioned graduation dates in their summary, or current intern positions. SeekOut also allows you to filter by HBCUs and universities using power filters and keywords.

SeekOut offers advanced search and Diversity Filters with talent intelligence that helps assess representation within any talent pool, company, or location. The Bias Reducer removes demographic indicators from employee profiles and allows you to customise which information gets redacted.

These features sound appealing if you are trying to diversify your pipeline beyond Russell Group universities. But there is a fundamental question worth asking: does a sourcing tool solve the right problem for graduate recruiting?

Why passive sourcing tools struggle with early talent profiles

Sourcing tools rely on data density to work. SeekOut matches keywords in your search against keywords in candidate profiles.

Here is the problem: graduate candidates have data scarcity.

A senior software engineer lists five previous roles, twelve skills, and certifications. A final-year computer science student lists a degree in progress and possibly one internship. When you search for "Java Developer," you find experienced professionals who list their stack. When you search for "Future Leader," you get nothing because potential does not appear on LinkedIn.

The Years of Experience filter in SeekOut looks for total years since a candidate first graduated from college. If the candidate has not attended college, it counts years since high school graduation. As a result, for graduates with minimal work history, this filter becomes functionally useless because most candidates return identical results.

This data scarcity creates unintended bias. When profile data is sparse, the only searchable differentiator becomes the university name. You end up finding "University of Oxford" graduates rather than "High Potential" graduates because prestige is searchable while capability is not.

The alternative approach flips the methodology entirely. Instead of searching for past experience that does not exist, you create data about future potential through assessment. Psychometric testing and role fit. These tests are designed scientifically to be objective and unbiased, measuring what a CV cannot show.

The volume paradox: Why more candidates might break your process

The volume crisis hits different sectors with varying intensity:

• Overall competition: The 140 applications per vacancy, a 59% increase year-on-year, resulting in 1.2 million submissions for approximately 17,000 graduate positions.
• Digital and IT roles: 205 applications per vacancy.
• Financial and professional services: 188 applications per role.
• Year-on-year growth: applications increased 27% year-on-year, with growth across twelve of fourteen key industries.

Now consider what happens when you add a passive sourcing tool to this equation. You already have 847 applications sitting in your ATS. SeekOut helps you source 200 additional candidates from LinkedIn, GitHub, and university alumni databases. Your funnel just grew by 24%, but your team size stayed the same.

You face a volume paradox. Sourcing tools add candidates to the top of your funnel. Assessment tools filter candidates through your funnel. When your bottleneck is already at the screening stage, adding volume makes the problem worse, not better.

The question is not whether SeekOut can find more graduates. The question is whether finding more graduates solves your actual problem.

Sourcing vs. selection: Where should you invest your budget?

Strategic budget allocation forces a choice. Do you invest in finding more people (sourcing) or assessing the people you already have (selection)?

The cost of bad hires makes this calculation urgent. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates a bad hire costs 30% of first-year income. For an £40,000 graduate role, that is £12,000 per regrettable hire.

Sourcing tools address candidate scarcity. They excel when you struggle to attract any qualified applicants for niche roles.

Assessment platforms address candidate selection. They excel when you have more applicants than you can manually review and need to identify who has the highest potential for success.

For early careers, the ROI difference becomes clear when you examine what each approach delivers:

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The Vodafone case study illustrates assessment platform ROI in practice. Their implementation with Sova saw 65,000 candidates in six months with positive feedback from both candidates and internal stakeholders. They achieved a significant reduction in HR admin time through automated workflows and candidate self-scheduling for assessment centres.

Sova clients have 40% cost and 30% time savings through automated assessment workflows. When your challenge is screening 847 applications efficiently, assessment automation delivers measurable returns that sourcing cannot match.

Sova vs. SeekOut: A feature comparison for graduate hiring

The table below compares both platforms specifically for graduate and early careers use cases. This focuses on what matters for high-volume schemes where candidates lack extensive work history.

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The integration difference is particularly important for operational efficiency. SeekOut's integrations primarily support export candidates to your ATS as prospects. You still need to manually select and push candidates.

Sova's integrations take a different approach, automate hiring stages within your ATS. When a candidate completes their assessment, the system can automatically advance qualified candidates to the next stage.

"One of the key benefits is being able to set up your assessment processes through one platform rather than multiple tools and vendors." - Verified User on G2

"Quick easy acess to candidate scoring , Video assesments and past particpation data . Customer support when used has generally been very quick an effective in their response." - Jordan H. on G2

For graduate schemes specifically, the ability to measure potential rather than search for experience changes what is possible. As psychometric-success.com explains, Sova assessments "indicate future potential, leadership orientation and learning agility that enable hiring managers to make important workforce management decisions."

Verdict: When to use SeekOut and when to prioritise assessment

Both tools solve different problems, and you need to match your choice to your actual constraint.

Use SeekOut when:

1. You need niche PhD candidates with specific research contributions. SeekOut can surface hidden talent from patents, GitHub, publications, making it valuable when you need candidates with documented technical expertise that appears in public repositories.
2. Your organic applicant flow is genuinely insufficient. If you consistently fail to attract qualified candidates for specific graduate roles, sourcing becomes necessary. However, check whether your current ATS already provides similar features before adding cost.

Use Sova when:

1. You run high-volume graduate schemes (200+ hires annually). Assessment platforms scale without linear cost increases. Since April 2024, 55,975 applications processed since April 2024, demonstrating the platform handles volume effectively.
2. You need to identify potential in candidates without work history. Sova assessments measure ability, personality and judgement rather than searching for experience that does not exist. Candidates assessed for future potential not current knowledge.
3. You want to reduce bias in graduate selection. The Vodafone implementation demonstrated that reduced score differences across demographics compared to human assessors.
4. You need to eliminate assessment centre costs. Virtual Assessment Centres through Sova integrate with Microsoft Teams for group exercises, presentations, and role-plays, eliminating venue hire, assessor travel, and candidate reimbursement costs.
5. You require legally defensible selection processes. Scientifically objective psychometric assessments providing documentation for adverse impact analysis that keyword searches cannot offer.

"SOVA provides candidates with an analytical and logical assessment that goes beyond what recruiters can judge from a CV alone." - Nagma S. on G2

The bottom line: match the tool to your actual constraint. If you struggle to find any candidates, invest in sourcing. If you struggle to screen the candidates you already have, invest in assessment.

Ready to see how assessment automation handles high-volume graduate screening? Book a demo with the Sova team to see the platform in action, or view plans on the pricing page.

FAQs regarding early careers technology

Can SeekOut replace an assessment centre?
No. SeekOut is a sourcing tool that helps find candidates through profile search. It does not evaluate candidates through exercises, interviews, or psychometric testing. Assessment centres (physical or virtual) require a different platform category entirely.

Does Sova integrate with LinkedIn for sourcing?
Sova is an assessment platform, not a sourcing tool. It integrates with major ATS platforms to assess candidates already in your pipeline rather than finding new ones.

What is the typical cost difference between sourcing and assessment tools for graduate hiring?
Sourcing tools often charge per-seat (typically thousands of pounds per recruiter annually) or per-profile-view models. Assessment platforms vary by engagement scope. Sova's engagement framework starts with a baseline estimation that scales based on actual hiring volume and candidate pool size. Contact the sales team for a tailored quote reflecting your specific programme requirements.

Does SeekOut work for apprenticeship programmes?
SeekOut's Years of Experience filter, which provides limited differentiation for school leavers. The platform works better when candidates have accumulated searchable professional data.

Key terminology for graduate recruiters

Passive candidate: Someone not actively searching for a job but potentially open to opportunities. Sourcing tools like SeekOut help identify and contact these individuals through public profile data.

Predictive validity: The degree to which an assessment accurately forecasts future job performance. Tests indicating candidate potential rather than measuring prior knowledge.

Boolean search: Boolean search operators explained to create targeted queries. Effective when profiles contain rich, keyword-searchable data.

Psychometric assessment: Measuring capabilities and personality traits to determine role fit. Unlike Boolean search, these assessments create new data about candidates rather than searching existing information.

Learning agility: The ability to quickly acquire new knowledge and apply it in unfamiliar situations. Sova assessments measure learning agility, making it particularly relevant for graduate roles where candidates adapt continuously during their first year.