College students appreciate flexibility from online job interviews but worry they would connect better with potential employers in person.
Virtual recruiting is both a relief and a concern to college students, who feel mixed emotions as employers, colleges and universities have had to scramble to shift job fairs online amid the pandemic.
That leaves students, colleges and employers facing different versions of the same questions: How can they best use a relatively new medium, e-recruiting, in order to match talented graduates with open positions in a turbulent labor market? Do they have the skills and comfort level needed to thrive in this new world of remote recruiting?
According to new survey data published by job search platform Handshake, 48.7 percent of responding students said they felt less intimidated about online interviews for jobs and internships than in-person interviews. But 52.2 percent expressed concern about their ability to effectively communicate from behind a computer screen.
The survey of just over 1,000 U.S. students at four-year and two-year colleges, conducted in January, found that 44.5 percent of respondents appreciate the reduction in scheduling barriers that online interviews afford. But a slightly larger proportion of students, 52.8 percent, worried they wouldn’t be able to make as strong a connection with recruiters remotely as they would in person.