Questions we answer Hiring and headcount

Should I hire a graduate?

A graduate fits where the work is learnable, somebody has time to teach, and the capability is needed for years rather than months. You are buying potential and paying for it in supervision rather than salary.

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Free · a few minutes · starts from “I think we need another person”

The short answer

A graduate fits where the work is well defined, someone has time to supervise, and you are hiring for potential over an eighteen-month horizon rather than output next month. It does not fit where the role needs to own something immediately, where nobody has capacity to teach, or where the work is ambiguous enough that an experienced person would have to define it first. Graduates are cheaper in salary and more expensive in attention, and the attention is the part teams underestimate.

Hiring a graduate is not a cheap way of filling a senior gap. It is a different decision. You are buying potential, and the price is paid in somebody's supervision time over the first year rather than in salary.

That trade works when the work is learnable, when a capable person has both the time and the inclination to teach, and when the need is durable enough to be worth the wait. It fails when the role needs somebody to arrive already knowing, or when the only possible supervisor is the person who is already stretched.

Is it really this?

Worth checking before you spend anything. These are the signals that tend to tell the two apart.

Signs it is

There is real work that is learnable, useful, and not urgent enough to need an expert.
Somebody in the team is a good teacher and has the capacity to be one.
The need will still be there in a couple of years, so the investment has time to repay.
You would rather grow the capability inside the business than rent it.

Signs it's something else

The role exists because something is not being done now, and it cannot wait for anyone to learn.
The only possible supervisor is the person already at breaking point.
The work needs judgement from the first week, with customers or money at stake.
You are considering it mainly because it is cheaper, rather than because the shape fits.

What's usually behind it

A budget that will not stretch to the experienced person the role was written for.
A genuine long-term need for capability the business would rather grow than rent.
A team with a lot of learnable work sitting with expensive people.
A senior vacancy that has been open for months, where a junior starts to look pragmatic.

What people usually get wrong

Writing a senior job description and then recruiting a graduate into it.
Treating supervision as free, when it comes out of your best person's week.
Giving the graduate only the leftover admin, then concluding that graduates are not worth it.
Having no plan for the second year, so the person outgrows the role and leaves with everything they learned.

The options, and when each one fits

In no particular order. Which of these fits depends on your situation, not on the question you typed.

Hire a graduate
The work is learnable, somebody can teach it, and the need is long-term.
Hire an experienced person
The role needs somebody who arrives knowing, and the budget can reach it.
Develop someone already in the team
Somebody internal wants that direction and already understands the business.
A placement, internship or apprenticeship
You want to test the fit, or the work itself, before creating a permanent seat.
Specialist support
The need is real but short, and teaching it would take longer than it lasts.

When doing nothing is the right call

Graduate recruitment runs on a calendar that is not yours. If the need is real but the teaching capacity is not there this year, waiting until it is will produce a better outcome than hiring into a team with no room to train anybody.

What the diagnostic asks

Whether the need is growing, steady or temporary, and how soon it is needed.
Whether someone in the team could grow into it, and how much judgement the work needs.
How central the work is, and whether a permanent hire is fundable.

“I don't know” is always an answer. Nothing is assumed on your behalf.

The routes it weighs

Every diagnostic weighs all ten routes. These are the ones that tend to matter for this question — a description of the rules, not a promise about your answer.

Recruit
Recruit a new person for a durable, sizeable need that is central to the team.
Develop
Build the capability in someone already in the team, with time and support.
Specialist support
Bring in a freelancer, consultant or specialist for a defined piece of work.
Process improvement
Change how the work flows — remove steps, name an owner, fix the hand-offs.

What changes the answer

A deadline this month rules out anybody who has to learn the work first.
A durable, core need made of learnable work, with a willing teacher, is where a graduate hire is strongest.
High judgement and high stakes from the first week point at experience, whatever the budget would prefer.

Get your own read

A handful of short questions, then the strongest route for your situation, what's also credible, what we still don't know and what would change our view. No account, no setup.