If you’re still focused on LinkedIn alone for candidate outreach, you might be missing out. A new survey from Zety found that YouTube and Instagram are now the top platforms where Gen Z workers seek career advice, cited by 80% and 73% of respondents respectively, while LinkedIn lagged behind at just 26%. Even more striking, 74% of Gen Z workers surveyed used Instagram for professional networking, and 69% had actually landed a job or internship through the platform.
For the logistics and supply chain industry, this signals a structural shift in how the entry-level pipeline gets built.
Transforming the Ground Floor
Entry-level transportation and logistics roles — dispatch, coordinator, junior broker, warehouse management trainee — have historically been filled through job boards, campus recruiting, and LinkedIn outreach. But the workforce we’re recruiting into those jobs no longer treats LinkedIn as the default discovery tool.
Now, they’re searching for a more comprehensive, “real” feel for what a company is like. Instead of just looking at a job description, they’re vetting whether they can see themselves inside an organization before they ever apply.
That’s a real opportunity for logistics employers, an industry that has long struggled with a perception problem among young talent: seen as unglamorous, physically demanding, or opaque about career paths, at least on paper Showing the actual day-to-day of a distribution center, a brokerage floor, or a driver’s route can do more to attract entry-level candidates than another polished job posting ever will.
What This Means for Search Strategy
For entry-level logistics roles specifically, we expect the sourcing funnel to keep shifting away from resume databases and toward employer brand visibility on social platforms. Clients hiring for high-volume entry-level positions (think operations trainees, junior planners, and freight sales associates) should expect that their Instagram presence (or lack thereof) is increasingly doing the job of a career fair.
Practically, that means we’re advising clients to invest in authentic, employee-driven content: a day-in-the-life reel from a warehouse floor, an unscripted Q&A with a young operations manager, real photos of the team. Authenticity, credibility, work-life balance, flexibility, and organizational values will matter just as much as compensation for many younger workers. For entry-level logistics hiring, that’s the new front door, and GESG is here to help you find the best young talent who’s knocking on it.
Scott is one of the founders of GESG and achieved great success as an executive recruiter. He is currently responsible for all internal operations and for relationships with all Partners and Suppliers. His first-hand recruiting experience gives him a customer-focused perspective, enabling him to maintain a razor-sharp focus on our technology and system priorities. Scott works closely with other firms in our network as well as suppliers to ensure that everyone in our firm has the current technology and market research resources necessary to meet the needs and requirements of our clients, top talent, and associates.