The challenge
When 400+ applications land for one intern role
A UK-based WorkTech scale-up opened applications for an Events Intern and expected healthy interest. They got 400+ in the space of a few days.
With a small people team, the standard hiring procedure wasn’t going to work. Even reviewing less than 10% of the applications would have meant 30+ screening calls at 30 minutes each, plus scheduling, note-taking and rejection admin on top. And that’s before you factor in the real risk and cost- that the best candidate could easily be sitting in the 90% you never got to. Close to four working days of work, with no guarantee you’d find the right person at the end of it
CV screening wasn’t going to help much either. At intern level they’re mostly noise with most candidates having similar academic backgrounds and limited work experience. They don’t help you figure out whether they’ll show up motivated, communicate well, or learn fast. Those are exactly the things that matter for an intern hire. It’s also prone to bias.
CVs also tell you nothing about availability and for intern hires, logistics alone can rule out 30-40% of candidates. Term dates, visa restrictions, holiday clashes mid-internship: all of it has to be gathered manually, before you’ve even started assessing whether someone’s right for the role.
The team wanted to give every applicant a proper shot. That meant finding something that could run at volume and still be fair.
The solution
Structured interviews at scale, without the admin
The team used Bright Apply to run AI-powered structured conversational interviews at the top of the funnel. Every applicant was invited to complete an interview in their own time.
Bright Apply assessed every response against the roles’ competencies and gave each candidate a score and a clear progress or reject recommendation.
Setup took a matter of hours. The team defined their competencies, configured the interview, and had it live the same day.
Everything integrated with their existing ATS, so no switching between systems or new workflows to get to grips with.
The outcome
A strong shortlist, fast
More than 200 candidates completed their interviews. The hiring manager went from 400+ applications to a scored shortlist, with clear recommendations on who to progress, without a single call.
The team avoided around 35 screening calls, saving an estimated 18-20 hours of recruiter time. Add in CV review time and the total comes to around 30 hours -reclaimed from a single hire. For any high-volume hire, Bright Apply is now the default.
” We had over 400 applications for a single intern role. Without Bright Apply I’d have spent 4 days just getting to a shortlist. Instead I had a scored list of candidates with clear recommendations on how to progress, ready to go. I’d use it again on any role where volume is a problem. “
HR Director, UK WorkTech scale-up
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