Tazio Trends: How the World Cup can Guide your Graduate Recruitment Campaign
As the world cup draws to a close another equally important competitive event is swinging into action.
Talent acquisition teams are putting their plans into place for the graduate recruitment season later this year. Which makes this a great opportunity to compare elite sport and recruitment (and for England to heal 50 years of hurt). We couldn’t let that go to waste.
We’ve been thinking about what organisations can learn from the World Cup, when it comes to identifying graduate talent and building high performing teams. Here are some of the crossover trends we’ve noticed:
Those who can adapt and adopt, thrive
The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report highlights that 44% of core business skills are projected to change within five years, which makes "curiosity and lifelong learning" among the fastest-growing priorities for global employers.
We’ve seen the importance of these traits in different ways at the World Cup. Cape Verde grew into the tournament, holding Spain to a 0-0 draw with a defiant defensive display before adding a counterattack to their game and almost beating Argentina in the knock-out stages.
On a player level, it’s hard to look beyond Lionel Messi for a talent that never stops evolving. He’s unlikely to scamper the length of the pitch these days, but he has reshaped himself into a player who operates in bursts of genius. One moment he is watching the game go by, the next he is playing 4D chess while everyone else is stuck on Snacks and Ladders.
Finding a once-in-a-generation talent among your graduate applicants is unlikely, but you might find a Vozinha. The Cape Verde goalkeeper whose commitment to continued development has seen him become a viral star at the age of 40 and led to the ultimate accolade – having a sea slug named in his honour.
Resilience is hard to beat
When England were down to 10 men against Mexico in the Estadio Azteca, the odds were stacked against them. Many fans expected the team to crumble – it’s happened before at World Cups after all (several times).
But Thomas Tuchel has picked a squad with the character to handle pressure and stick together when the heat is on, even if it’s not always been pretty. As the ISE’s 2025 student recruitment survey highlighted, resilience is an attribute all employers, not just England managers, are looking for. But it’s a hard one to measure on a CV.
A more valuable yardstick than qualifications is the ability to navigate setbacks, uncertainty and change, such as a red card. And a more effective way to measure these abilities are assessments such as situational judgement tests.
Teams are founded on team players
Great players can’t win without a great team. Diego Maradona is widely credited with securing the 1986 World Cup single-handedly (pun intended) but he was supported by some exceptional players – Valdano, Batista, Burruchaga and so on. And VAR hadn’t been invented yet.
Every successful team requires a multitude of talents and perspectives not just a lone star player. For example, England’s Dan Burn is not as good at football as Maradona, but as he demonstrated against Mexico and Norway if you need someone to head the ball away repeatedly, he is your man.
He is also happy to do it. Burn is the ultimate team player and every team needs those. That's why the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook Survey consistently ranks teamwork, collaboration and problem-solving as competencies employers value.
Potential’s more important than experience
Potential can be honed and shaped into the employee you need, but it’s not easy to spot. However, Tuchel clearly has a keen eye for it.
Take Djed Spence. He doesn’t have a CV to match some other contenders and was a controversial pick for many, but Tuchel saw something. That decision came good most obviously against Norway when his pace and direct running helped to shift momentum and win a penalty (replies in the comments if it should have remained a penalty).
At the graduate stage someone with potential and the ability to respond positively to feedback should be highly prized, but they’re often overlooked in favour of academically dazzling CVs.
Higher volumes make identifying talent hard work
Given the time differences, watching every single match of this World Cup was always going to be difficult. That challenge was made even harder when the number of participating teams went up to 48.
The group stage was essentially a long-winded sift. This involved regularly staying up to 4am and carefully watching hours and hours of football to catch break-out talent such as Yan Diomande of Ivory Coast and Ayyoub Bouaddi of Morocco. Or not, if you wanted to keep your job.
Numbers are also up when it comes to applicants, with 140 applications per graduate vacancy recorded in 2025. However, unlike at the World Cup, you can reduce the sifting workload using platforms that sort candidates into those that do and don’t meet essential requirements, such as minimum degree qualifications, and provide automated assessments designed to identify potential.
Putting the tools in place to do this early, is one way to get your graduate campaign off to a fast start says our Head of Sales and Solutions Justin Somerville-Cotton :
“Resilience, teamwork, collaboration and adaptability, these attributes are all there in the best teams. As TA teams look ahead to the next graduate recruitment season, embedding ways to identify these qualities effectively is essential and becoming more and more complex due to volume and advances in technology assistance. Also, come on England!”
We’ve got our fingers crossed for glory! Well some of us have – we are based in Wales.
As always, our mission is to empower you to make smarter, faster hiring decisions and create exceptional experiences for your candidates. Stay connected with us on LinkedIn for the latest news and resources.
If you have any thoughts on this edition of Tazio Trends or want to find out more about our platform, it would be great to hear from you.
