Following a record number of applications, CX agency Lavender has selected six bright and ambitious individuals to join the agency’s Genus Graduate Program in 2017.

This year’s selection process was even more rigorous than last year, with a focus on CX and an objective to find bright young grads with an interest and insight in this area. Genus applicants were required to submit a video with their written application and the first round of interviews required them to respond to a CX challenge.

From the initial applications, CX agency Lavender chose 20 finalists to present to CEO Roy Capon, head of the Grad program Tess Lavender and other key individuals from across all areas of the agency, including some of last year’s Genus grads. A final group of candidates worked as a team on a client brief and presented their response to management before the successful six were selected.

Joining the agency in January 2017 will be Nicole Zhou, Alice Mercer, George Marchant, Katherine Farquhar, Scott McKinnon and Hailie Le Bas. Their degrees span communications, digital design, behavioural economics and business.

They will be placed in roles that suit their strengths across business management, creative, experience design and strategy, and will start working on client business from day one.

The Genus Graduate Program stands apart from other industry programs by employing the successful applicants in full-time roles with a full-time salary. Genus Grads are nurtured by their teams and are also partnered with a mentor outside of their team, to guide them through everyday agency life.

Tess Lavender said, “We are thrilled with the success of the program so far and the calibre of talent we have unearthed. This year we refined the application and interview process to further improve the quality of candidates and to ensure they are the right fit for our business and our clients.

“We don’t think of Genus participants simply as graduates but rather as valuable members of the team. We put them in the right position, provide them with support and training, and help them grow quickly to establish their career and actually make a meaningful contribution to our business and our clients’ businesses.

“Our Lavender Genus Graduate Program is an integral part of Lavender’s commitment to investing in our industry’s future leaders.”

Last year’s Grads ran the Genus program this year along with Tess Lavender, which helped ensure successful targetting and selection.