6.18.25 Written by Jen Jones, ECO Director:
Employer Site Visit: I visited Five Below’s HQ in Philly, which had a fun, vibrant, open workspace and is housed within several floors of a restored century-old department store. I hadn’t considered FiveBelow as a first destination for our grads, until visiting. I was impressed by the physical plant and the employees I met. Read about FiveBelow’s story here. Five Below went public in 2012. The current CEO, Winnie Park, left Forever 21 in 2024 to run the company. We met the CFO and CMO and visited several work spaces: the buyers’ spaces, finance, marketing, social media, sourcing and supply chain, and some staff meeting areas (rooftop deck with food and drink available at all times!). The company has a hybrid workweek, 3 days in office and 2 days out. I was impressed with their HR team, office design and layout, and hiring practices. Check out FiveBelow’s BragBoard, which includes Forbes Best Employers for New Grads and Top 100 ESG firms. If you’d like to connect with the recruiter for their 2026 internship program, please let me know.
Conversations with JPMorgan and Fidelity: Both firms ascertained that they do not use AI in recruiting. They will continue to recruit in students’ second and third years. Fidelity may have positions for 4th years. HireVues and resumes are reviewed by real people. Their applicant tracking systems (ATS) seek strong matches between their job descriptions and applicants’ materials, and because many resumes are well-aligned due to AI, they are relying more on assessments and recorded interviews to identify strong candidates. Both firms ascertain that they will teach many of the necessary technical competencies, and that it is imperative for students to convey in conversation/interviews why they want to work for their firms and to have clear, logical responses to behavioral interview questions. Reddit is a good source of information for the HireVue questions.
