Recruitment in the Age of COVID-19: What College Students Want You to Know

• Students and employers alike are working through the logistics and nuances of a virtual recruiting environment
• Students hope employers are transparent how the pandemic was handled in 2020, as well as what back-up plans they are working on for 2021, should the situation worsen
• Employers should not be expected to give students a "free pass" from interviewing properly just because of the situation, but extra compassion by recruiters and hiring managers will not go unnoticed

If you’ve never been into Nebraska beyond Omaha, you need to add it to your bucket list. As much as it hurts this Iowa girl to admit it, our Cornhusker neighbor transitions from prairie to plains in the most beautiful way imaginable. It was on one of those 5-star, Husker summer days that I gave Ross Cady a call.

Of course, I mean a Zoom call. Cady, who is starting his senior year in agricultural business and international agriculture at Iowa State University, was about two weeks away from wrapping up his seed sales internship with a multi-national agribusiness company. Based in North Platte for the summer, he took a few moments out of his day to pull over to the side of the road, enjoy his lunch, and settle in for a chat about virtual recruitment. With cameos from Nebraska-nice folks pulling up to make sure he didn’t have a flat tire, Ross and I began our discussion on the unique challenges of digital job interviews.

Then, almost as if on cue, his perfectly strong Verizon LTE connection failed. Twice.

We had to finish our conversation over the phone, the old-fashioned way.

I commended Ross for his ability to adapt and we picked up our dialogue where we left off. The ability, or rather the necessity to be adaptable is one of things on students’ minds this school year. Career fair season can be stressful for a number of reasons on a normal year. Luckily, career services professionals have trained students for semesters on how to dress for interviews, advised what font to use on their resumes, and clued them in on which companies they could count on for a great career. But this year, it isn’t going to matter what paper they print their resume on; students and employers alike will need to quickly adapt to a new recruitment style in the age of COVID-19, and that adaptation is raising a crop of questions across college campuses.

For starters, students are working through new ways to stand out to employers. As Cady alluded to, there’s going to be a very important piece missing from the recruitment puzzle this year: the physical presences of candidates. That absence is motivating students to reimagine how they present themselves to employers. “When I am in person, I provide a presence and an impact that’s incredibly strong, and that’s what makes me stick out,” said Cady.

“No matter what tactics I try, I don’t feel like what I do [virtually] will be as impactful, and that’s a huge stressor for students."

This year, it may prove to be more difficult for students like Cady to channel their personalities into a format that’s effective in a virtual environment. Though factors like eye contact should still send a powerful message via webcam, the unique tactics and methods that candidates use to stand out when hunting for an internship or a full-time job will need to be reimaged for success in a digital setting. When employers are sorting through a computer folder full of files labeled “Resume.pdf” that were sent by students they’ve never met from a million “.edu” email addresses, students hope organizations are mindful of the nuances of an in-person meeting that are lost when transitioning to a virtual platform. Cady explained, “No matter what tactics I try, I don’t feel like what I do [virtually] will be as impactful, and that’s a huge stressor for students… The challenge, to me, is ‘How do I stick out?’ And, if [virtual career fairs] aren’t going to work the way I think they will, how do I adapt quickly enough to still attract attention?”

A fear of lack of excitement from companies that are hiring is something on the minds of students, too. Normally, career fair season is like Christmas for the folks working in talent acquisition and recruitment, and those professionals are often people with strong personalities who are able to make a memorable first impression. With a move to virtual career fairs and information sessions, students are worried that some of the enthusiasm that HR professionals bring to the recruitment process will be lost. Grace Christensen, a sophomore in animal science at Iowa State University, elaborated on this, “I’m concerned that recruiters aren’t going to be as excited to find people, because [doing so virtually] is going to be different. Companies usually choose employees that really like talking to people and having face to face interactions [to do their recruiting], and when they’re forced to do something they’re not comfortable with they may not perform as well.”

For students, that reduction in performance could ultimately sway their decision on which opportunities to pursue. This means that employers will need to be very cognizant of their excitement level when visiting with students. Internship and job hunters understand the financial and logistical challenges that companies are facing in this season; those challenges are not an excuse for recruiters to lose their passion for their craft. Talent acquisition professionals work for the students, and only giving a virtual interaction half effort because they aren’t excited by a Zoom interview is simply not fair. Students like Christensen encourage employers to avoid being preoccupied with other concerns and do their best to maintain the efficacy of a career fair interaction with a company representative.

A more competitive recruiting season is also on the short list of concerns. At first thought, it might be easy to assume this cycle will be less competitive; students could lose motivation to follow through with virtual career fairs and recruitment events, ultimately leaving more internship or job opportunities for each individual. While that could be the case, students like Jim Chism are not convinced yet. Chism, a sophomore in agricultural business at Iowa State University, cites a few specific challenges that could increase competition among students and employers alike, including the potential that organizations are hiring for fewer internships and entry-level roles overall, due to pandemic-related economic shifts. Another aspect of virtual recruiting? There’s no geographical barriers. Smaller and mid-sized companies who many have been hesitant to recruit beyond their nearest college campus now have access to hundreds of career fairs from the comfort of their offices. While this may be a benefit to students, this could mean more competition among companies for the best candidates.

The area where Chism predicts the most competition to occur is among those candidates who fall just below the top tier of applicants. No matter the circumstances, the most tenacious 1% of candidates will always find a way to stand out. The uniqueness of this recruiting cycle, however, may increase competition among the middle 80%. Students with respectable but relatively-average resumes may start to become part of the noise, making for a more competitive candidate pool. This will also make employers’ task of sorting applicants more difficult, as students will appear less unique from one another on paper. Chism encourages fellow students to avoid blending into the noise, as he noted, “Your top talent is going to find a way to use [virtual recruiting] to their advantage to standout, but everyone else is going to get lost in the shuffle. Students will need to be more intentional and direct in their efforts to stay competitive.”

Many students also expect employers to be transparent regarding their COVID-19 policies. Ashley Davis, a senior in biomedical engineering at the University of Iowa, feels that disclosing pandemic guidelines should be a priority when recruiting students this fall. Communicating the organization’s approach to COVID-19 may help students to feel more comfortable during a time of uncertainty. It also helps them select an internship or career with a company who is taking mitigation steps that falls within their comfort level. “I want to know what a company’s [COVID-19] policies are,” Davis explained, “’What are you doing to protect me? Do you have a mask requirement? Are you providing hand sanitizer and wipes?’ I want to know how you’re keeping me safe, because I don’t want to work in an unsafe environment.”

Being transparent about COVID-19 guidelines and policies for may be more important than what the policies actually are. That includes being upfront about how a company’s workforce was managed when the pandemic first became commonplace: Were job offers revoked? Were full-time employees laid off? Could employees have the option to work from home or were they required to come into the office? While these questions can be uncomfortable for employers to answer, candidates should have the answers so they are equipped to make informed decisions about which career opportunities to take. In Davis’s case, a competitor of the company where she completed her co-op this summer furloughed a large percentage of their workforce for an indefinite period of time. “[The company that furloughed employees is] very similar to [the company I co-op’ed at] in terms of careers and benefits. Now, my classmates and I are like, ‘We don’t want to work for a company like that’, because of how they chose to handle to pandemic.”

"I want to know how you’re keeping me safe, because I don’t want to work in an unsafe environment.”

Another area where students expect transparency? Discussions around internship programs that were cancelled in 2020. Ally Rigeisen, a senior at South Dakota State University studying agronomy and precision agriculture, can speak to this need firsthand- her original internship with a seed and crop protection company was cancelled just two weeks before it was set to start. While she was able to find an internship experience with a different organization in the 11th hour, Rigeisen wants companies to understand that some students are going to have voids on their resume that were out of their control, and those voids aren’t necessarily something that should be held against them. “It’s not like it was our fault [our internships were cancelled]… we can’t change what happened.”

Additionally, employers should also be transparent about how they are handling 2020 interns who did not get to complete their internship, especially if there’s opportunities for those with cancelled experiences to return next year- if a company has 120 internships in 2021 but half of those will be filled with interns carried over from 2020, it’s not hardly fair to students to advertise an internship program with “over 100 openings.” Students like Rigeisen expect companies who cancelled their internships to be open about why they made those decisions. Again, students don’t care nearly as much about what decisions were made as they do the reasons a company made the choice they did. Was is a financial decision? Logistics? Health? And, what is the plan if the pandemic is just as larger or larger in 2021? While no one can confidently predict what things will look like six months from now, students want to see that companies are putting effort into planning ahead. As Rigeisen explained, “I want to ask companies ‘What did you learn last summer (2020) so you’re better able to guide your interns and new hires if it happens again?’ I think asking that question is okay.”

Students looking for careers in seasonal businesses and industries deemed non-essential are feeling the pressure, too. Katie Konkler is a senior at the University of Northern Iowa majoring in recreation, tourism, and non-profit leadership. Working in the various departments of a waterpark over the summer opened Konkler’s eyes to the challenges sectors like hers are facing, which has brought its fair share of discomfort, “The tourism and recreation market is not good right now… [the park I was working at] took a huge hit and we didn’t even know if we were going to open. Now we’re at considerably reduced capacity and are just trying to maintain loyalty with the few customers we can serve at this point. The entire industry is this way right now. I had so many friends who had internships or full-time offers pulled back. It’s heartbreaking.”

“There’s nothing I can do but monitor the situation and understand there could be a point where I don’t have a full-time job."

Konkler and her peers are well aware that most companies could not have seen the COVID-19 pandemic coming and that the circumstances are out of anyone’s control. That doesn’t make the situation any less stressful for students who are scrambling to find an internship or full-time career. It’s going to be even more important for hiring companies in the industries that have been hit the hardest to show extra compassion during the recruitment process, as students already begin the process of developing contingency plans for themselves. “Right now, we’re all optimistic about going ‘back to normal’ soon, but I feel like everyone is just waiting to see if their plans are going to work out or not,” Konkler continued, “There’s nothing I can do but monitor the situation and understand there could be a point where I don’t have a full-time job, at least not the job I’m hoping for… I think we all have a Plan A, Plan B, and so on, but I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going to happen at this point.”

With so many concerns and questions regarding recruiting amid a pandemic, it leaves talent acquisition professionals asking the question, “What can we do to help students feel more comfortable during this season of change?” Jake Sterle, a senior in animal science and international agriculture at Iowa State University, is confident that the most important things students and employers can bring to the table is understanding, grace, and flexibility. College has been flipped upside down and turned inside out from what most students were used to before March. They are returning (in most cases) to a campus that is operated completely differently than it was 12 months ago. Whether they’re stressed about the changes or simply annoyed by them, students have a lot on their minds this school year. Recruiters allowing themselves to become overly-anxious about the adjustments they will need to make this recruiting cycle is a disservice to students. “Students can sense when employers are uncomfortable,” Sterle noted, “A company that is at ease with the changes that are happening will fare better than one that’s more tense.”

Students like Sterle are also hopeful that employers will be forgiving of technical and logistical issues when going virtual, as candidates are planning to do the same. As the workforce has waded through the Zoom and Webex waters for nearly five months, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t experienced a virtual meeting that didn’t go as planned. A little extra grace during interviews, coffee chats, and screenings is one of the most effortless things employers can do to put students at ease. Students don’t, however, expect a “free pass” to interview poorly. As Sterle points out, “Basic interview skills will be just as important… students should know to still log in on time, use eye contact, speak clearly- Those things are haven’t gone away and shouldn’t just because the format is different.”

Emily Campbell is a graduate of Iowa State University in agriculture and public relations and is the talent acquisition and communications specialist for MaxYield Cooperative, an agricultural cooperative in Northwest and North Central Iowa. Connect with her and learn more about her work on LinkedIn.