Bending Spoons hired 286 people after 800,000 applications

Bending Spoons hired 286 people from 800,000 job applications last year, Fortune reported, giving the Milan-based technology company an acceptance rate of about 0.04%. The figures show how crowded some job searches have become as employers cut back hiring and applicants chase fewer openings.

The company, valued by Fortune at $21 billion, owns digital businesses including Eventbrite, Vimeo and AOL. Fortune reported that Bending Spoons has fewer than 1,000 employees and received more applications than the populations of Seattle, Boston or Las Vegas.

Luca Ferrari, the company’s chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal that Bending Spoons uses a hiring system that differs sharply from standard corporate interviews. “If people looked under the hood at how we do this, they would think we’re crazy,” Ferrari told the Journal, adding, “Hopefully in a good way.”

About 60,000 applicants cleared the company’s first screening stage, according to Fortune. Those candidates took tests designed to measure reasoning, judgment and speed of learning before moving to interviews.

After that, Fortune reported, Bending Spoons used hiring algorithms to compare candidates on numerical and qualitative measures. The company then reviewed scores, checked references and made final decisions. Fewer than 9% of candidates who reached the interview stage received offers, according to Fortune.

Ferrari told The Wall Street Journal that he views ordinary interviews as poor tools for choosing employees. “A run-of-the-mill interview is almost entirely non-predictive, like tossing a coin,” he said. “It’s basically completely useless.”

Selective hiring spreads beyond one company

Fortune reported that Bending Spoons’ 0.04% hiring rate was about 100 times more selective than Ivy League colleges, which typically admit around 4% of applicants. Fortune said it contacted Bending Spoons for comment.

The company’s figures fit a wider hiring slowdown described by Fortune. Job openings in the United States fell last year to 6.54 million, the lowest level since September 2020, when the economy was still under pressure from the pandemic. In June this year, employers added 57,000 jobs, less than half the prior month’s total, according to Fortune.

Fortune linked the tougher market to economic uncertainty, targeted company cuts and the use of artificial intelligence to automate some work. The strain has been clear for entry-level workers, especially recent Gen Z graduates, as companies reduce some junior roles and slow young-talent hiring pipelines.

Fortune reported that Meta, Microsoft and Google have slowed hiring for entry-level positions. Companies that still offer early-career roles have drawn large applicant pools.

Match Group received more than 30,000 applications for 27 slots when it brought back its “Tindership” internship program this year, Fortune reported. That left the program with an acceptance rate below 0.09%.

Goldman Sachs accepted under 1% of applicants to its summer internship program this year, according to Fortune, while still hiring 2,500 interns from more than 500 universities. Fortune reported that it was the third straight year the bank admitted fewer than one in 100 applicants to the program.

Gecko Robotics, based in Pittsburgh, received more than 40,000 applications for 32 internship jobs in 2024, Fortune reported. That put its internship hiring rate below 0.08%.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.