Amidst a labor shortage, Chipotle’s Discord Career Fair was the first of its kind for a brand on the emerging platform–and an important way for Chipotle to strengthen its connection with Gen Z at a time where recruiting great talent was an increasing challenge all over the world.

The brand leveraged a social-first approach to making the virtual event engaging, substantive, and valuable. Alongside Chipotle’s broader recruiting initiatives, the Discord Career Fair helped lead to a 77% week over week increase in job applications.

In early 2021, the great resignation was in full swing around the world, and restaurants in particular were finding it tough to attract young talent.

Given these realities, attracting Gen Z was a top priority for Chipotle. Fortunately, the benefits the brand offers its employees are second to none among fast casual restaurants. But the old ways of getting the word out wouldn’t work anymore with a new generation during a global transformation in the labor market, and especially as career fairs and hiring events were put on pause. The brand needed an authentic way to break through for a real conversation with Gen Z and make its industry-leading benefits known.

Chipotle decided to try something never before done: holding a career fair on Discord.

Chipotle showed up in Discord for a day, with 30+ of its own HR professionals to staff the event and answer questions in real-time with prospective employees. To get everyone excited, the brand launched a collection of custom Discord emojis, hosted a live guacamole making class, and held chats with current and past crew members and managers.

It provided Chipotle with a unique chance to host a meaningful discussion with a younger generation, all while introducing bringing the first ever career fair to the platform in a way that allowed the brand to communicate some of its core strengths as an employer, including: debt-free degrees and tuition reimbursement programs, a $15 average hourly wage (nearly double the federal minimum wage), and a fast-tracked path to a six figure salary.

Gen Z, the target audience for joining Chipotle’s team, was increasingly turning to Discord as its favorite chat platform, to talk about everything from gaming to studying to music and much more. With over 140 million active users (more than Twitter and Snapchat), the platform was quickly becoming Gen Z’s go-to group messaging app.

So, for one day only, the brand innovated the job-hunting process and turned Discord into a place to foster real conversations and talk about working at Chipotle with a virtual career fair–the first of its kind on the platform. Having real, substantive conversations was an ideal fit for a platform like Discord–a place where, for a day, Gen Z was not just willing but excited to put down their memes and get real with Chipotle.

Chipotle started off in early May by getting the word out across its owned social channels and through press and influencer outreach.

On May 13th they opened a server on Discord and staffed the day-long event with 30+ Chipotle HR professionals to chat and answer questions in real time.

As thousands of curious job seekers logged into Chipotle's Discord Career Fair, the brand kept things exciting with a collection of custom Discord emojis, a live guacamole making class, and live audio talks from current and past crew members and managers. Prospective applicants were able to ask HR professionals about career paths, job benefits and much more.

Chipotle’s Discord Career Fair event helped drive 24k applications–a 77% week-over-week increase.

And it helped fuel a larger conversation about Chipotle as an innovative, workplace leader, especially as the initiative earned headlines in outlets such as HR Dive, Quartz, CNBC, Complex, Ad Age and more.

It was the first of its kind on Discord and established Chipotle as a brand who is taking the platform seriously, and leading the charge in hosting real conversations with the community.