What students want

Employers

Tips and trends for modern recruiting

Find the talent you’re looking for

A job description is often a candidate’s first impression of your organization—and one of your most impactful opportunities to stand out from the crowd. So how do you write a job description that attracts the entry level talent you're trying to reach?

Some of the things that students and recent grads look for in a job description include:

What type of position is this?

Will this role help me gain experience?

What is the salary?

What are the perks and benefits?

Do I meet the qualifications?

Where is the position located, or is it remote?

Does this job require work authorization?

What is this employer’s reputation?

What are the employer’s values?

What makes this employer and this job special?

From writing with inclusive language to highlighting the skills that can be learned on the job, use the following five tips to uplevel your job descriptions and attract entry level job seekers.

Best practices for writing job descriptions for early talent

1. Use a relevant job title for entry level talent

Consider how students might search for your role and treat potential job titles like keywords. Be literal—new job seekers want and need consistency. Ensure the title in the job description is the same everywhere you post and promote your role. For example, if you're hiring for a position your industry commonly refers to as a “Business Development Specialist,” but you title it “B2B Corporate Sales” on your job post, you could miss out on potential pipeline.

2. Focus on skills, not experience

For your job description to resonate with early talent, you may need to rethink what’s required to be successful in your entry level roles. Of course, most recent grads have 0-5 years of experience, so you don’t want to put in a job description that 5 years of experience is required.

Shift to skills-based hiring by sourcing for skills, coursework, and certifications so that the job description is relevant to someone just starting out in their career. Highlight skills that a student can learn on the job to excite them about the opportunity to grow professionally. In addition to technical or hard skills, help students and job seekers easily identify which soft skills you’re looking for, too.

3. Write with inclusive language

As the most diverse generation yet, it’s no surprise that Gen Z uses diversity as a criteria for their evaluation of a job. In fact, more than 60% of Gen Zers indicated that they either always or usually research company leadership diversity, according to a Handshake Network Trends report.

Gen Z job seekers factor values alignment into decisions about where to buy and where to work. Your job description should highlight your mission, your values, and your culture, and be written using inclusive language. Job descriptions are an important part of your overall DEI strategy, too; for example, the term "hacker" can be perceived as gendered, so use "engineer" or "developer" instead.

4. Remove or loosen requirements

One way to help your role stand out to Gen Z is to be upfront about the application process. Clearly outline the steps, estimated timelines, and any required materials so they can plan accordingly. Transparency not only helps candidates feel more prepared but also builds trust in your organization from the start. By addressing their potential concerns early, you demonstrate empathy and respect for their time, which can make your company stand out in a competitive hiring landscape.

Keep in mind that many students are open to a range of industries regardless of their major; for example, last year, computer science students submitted only around half their applications to tech companies, with the remainder going to industries like manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, and government.

5. State compensation and benefits

Gen Z values clear expectations for potential earnings alongside competitive benefits like flexible work schedules, tuition assistance, and learning stipends.  For example, if you’re not currently including in your job description that the role offers learning and development benefits, you could be missing out on talent: almost 9 in 10 undergrads say learning and development benefits are either important or essential when evaluating a job opportunity.

You can also showcase opportunities for building social connection and community, such as through ERGs or volunteering. As early career professionals explore where to live, how to start paying off student loans, and the type of culture they are drawn to, these are important details for marketing your open roles.

Many states now require pay transparency to comply with evolving legislation, making it critical for employers to stand out. By meeting these requirements and offering meaningful benefits, you can attract top talent and stay ahead in the competitive hiring landscape.

Reach the candidates you want with improved job descriptions

Writing engaging, inclusive, and clear job descriptions takes practice and patience—but the payoff is worth it. Once you update your job descriptions, you can better attract early career candidates excited to apply—and see a future with your employer.

Get detailed instructions on how to post a job on Handshake.

5 tips to improve your job description and attract early talent

You've had a job rec open for a month and candidates are falling out of the funnel. Your business unit's VP is asking you about pipeline, and you don't have an update. Well, you had a couple strong candidates, but now...nothing. They ghosted you.

Was it you? Or was it your interview process?

We surveyed students and recent grads about how they think employers could improve their interview processes. The results?

Read on for 5 factors that can improve the interview process for early talent job seekers.

1. Involve a variety of interviewers

75% of Gen Z survey respondents said they value the opportunity to meet directly with employees from the team they’ll work with

According to Handshake data, Gen Zers prefer to speak with hiring managers, employees, or alumni in the same role they’re interested in. This also benefits you and your team, as you’ll get a better sense of how candidates interact in different situations.

Involve a mix of people on the team or throughout the organization to expose early talent to day-to-day culture and collaboration. For example, early talent job seekers of color are 2.1x more likely to reach out to an alumni they didn’t previously know for career advice or support. By helping to forge those connections, you’re increasing access to opportunity for underrepresented groups.

2. Create a 2 weeks-or-less interview process

Over 70% of respondents ranked a quick interview process (2 weeks or less) as a factor that could improve their experience

One way for you to show that your brand is agile and attractive to early talent is to stand out with speed. This is particularly true if you’re recruiting tech talent—who, as you know, are highly sought after by every industry.

One reason that ghosting sometimes happens is a candidate will accept another offer because they don’t know when to expect a decision. Set expectations up front about how long it typically takes to move through the interview process, and try to keep it to 2 weeks or less to attract Gen Zers. If the candidate is a really strong one (who you think will have competing offers), stay in tight communication and try to speed things up.

Ensuring that candidate follow up is a step in your short interview process can help you seal the deal with top candidates. In addition, you’ll have a more predictable timeline to proactively update your team on where you are in the hiring process and what actions you need to take to close the role.

3. Ask team leadership to participate

63% of respondents said they’d like the opportunity to meet with a team leader while interviewing

Gen Z is looking for leadership that is accessible, transparent, and representative. Handshake Network Trends found that 65% of women early talent job seekers are looking for women in leadership roles. A team leader can be a huge champion for both the candidate and for your employer! Plus, it’ll be easier for you and the hiring manager to secure leadership buy-in from the start, rather than have to chase it down at the end.

Leverage your leaders to show how your company invests in the career progression of early talent, showcase how your brand lives your vision and values, and answer questions about their own career trajectories.

4. Clearly communicate throughout the process

Nearly 60% said clear communication from the recruiter or coordinator would improve their interview experience

We all know that interviews are mutual, and clear communication is at the core of all relationship building. Although early talent is new to internship and job searching, they’re looking for red flags as well as “green flags” that will make them want to see the interview process through.

While students will appreciate transparency into next steps, encourage Gen Zers to ask questions of you, too—like how to best prepare for interviews at each step of the process. Take it as a sign that they’re interested in your company and role. Megan Malcolm, an Early Career Recruiter at Handshake, says, “I love when I see this type of engagement from candidates!”

5. Provide feedback from the hiring manager

46% of respondents said that receiving feedback from the direct hiring manager is a factor

Stand apart from other companies that Gen Zers are interviewing with by providing feedback. Feedback as a touchpoint is so impactful for early talent to learn, grow, and land a job—hopefully at your company!

You can let candidates know that you’ve set aside a few minutes at the end of interviews to give live feedback. This approach creates a consistent, and more equitable, candidate experience. For example, feedback that can be very helpful as early talent polishes their interview skills is that they should tighten up their responses, and confirm if they’ve fully answered the question.

Incorporating feedback into each interview also gives you an idea of a candidate’s growth mindset and communication style, and if they implement the feedback during next steps—you’ll get a stronger signal on the candidate. If they move forward, they have better expectations for next steps or the role itself. If they don’t, then your team helped set them up for success in their search—and that is absolutely part of democratizing access to opportunity.

Be known for your 🔥 interview process

Create an interview process where hiring managers, team members and leaders all feel responsible for supporting early talent’s transition into their careers.

In fact, 86% of Gen Z survey respondents want to remain engaged leading up to their start date. Three in 4 said they want to stay in touch with their hiring manager over email, 2 in 3 say they want to form connections with current employees, and over half say they want attend new hire events.

So go the extra mile by extending the interview process seamlessly into the onboarding experience, and help students and recent grads get ready and excited that they picked you!

Are you looking for additional ways you can engage early talent candidates throughout the recruiting process? Get tips for crafting an interview process that's empathetic to early talent—including questions to anticipate, how to be transparent about requirements, and more.

5 ways Gen Z thinks you can improve your interview process

Hiring events are one of the most impactful ways for students to engage with your brand. Handshake student survey data has found that 66% of students prefer to go to a career event before applying to a job, and 65% of students who have participated in career events say they have discovered an employer they were interested in working for.

And as for event format: hybrid is here to stay. Students value the opportunity to engage with employers through both in-person and virtual events on the schedule. According to Handshake platform data, 43% of events were virtual during the 2023 fall recruiting season.

As you plan your college recruiting strategy this year, consider these 4 creative event ideas to engage students across either in-person or virtual formats.

Recruiting event idea #1: Hands-on learning workshop

Not only do skill-building events set students up for success as candidates, they also show your company's long-term investment in their professional development. According to Handshake Network Trends data, nearly 90% of students say it’s important that their future employer provide support for learning and development. Need some help zeroing in on a meaningful learning opportunity for early talent? Try these.

Interviewing tips: 

Set up a mock interview and take note of the candidate's body language and communication skills. Are they making eye contact? Are they answering your questions? Then, walk them through your feedback and offer suggestions to help them improve.

Resume workshops: 

Resume workshops are a great way to start building relationships with candidates. Help them identify and highlight their best skills, and explain how those skills map to your open roles. Ask students to send their resumes in advance so you can come prepared with feedback and make your virtual session more productive.

Recruiting event idea #2: Friendly competition

Friendly competitions can attract and engage students, provide a glimpse into the problems your company works on, and give your team a chance to assess candidates’ skills. Consider these ideas:

Hackathons for engineering students: 

Give early talent the opportunity to showcase their skills publicly by hosting a hackathon, a challenge-style event specifically designed to help aspiring programmers make a splash in their future industry. Gain additional insight into your top candidates while improving your brand recognition among early career programmers.

Sales pitches for business students: 

Sales pitches give students a unique opportunity to step outside their comfort zones, think on their feet, and gain real world experience—all while getting to know your team and product. Invite senior leaders to serve as a panel of judges and consider a prize for a more competitive edge.

Recruiting event idea #3: Value-oriented session

If values-driven Gen Z doesn’t feel connected to your mission or your commitment to social issues, they won't consider joining your team. Handshake Network Trends data has found that 65% of college students would not apply to a job if the employer's values didn't align with their own. Stand out from the rest of the pack and reach qualified candidates in a meaningful way with these ideas:

DEI panels: 

DEI panels give candidates from underrepresented backgrounds additional insight into what their experience at your company might look like. Invite junior employees and senior leaders from similar backgrounds to discuss their career paths—and what led them to your company in the first place. Ask candidates to submit their questions in advance for a more personal and productive conversation.

Mental health information sessions: 

According to Handshake survey data, 78% of students say the job search sometimes or often feels overwhelming. Creating a safe space to talk about mental health in the context of the job search meets students where they are and validates their experience. Invite candidates into breakout groups to discuss how they’re feeling, showcase the mental health and wellness benefits your employer offers, or even provide group activities like mindfulness exercises.

Recruiting event idea #4: Informal activity

As valuable as more formal events may be, don’t forget to bring the enthusiasm with fun, casual activities as well. Inspire a sense of camaraderie between employees and candidates while encouraging everyone to bring their whole selves to work at your company.

Trivia: 

Consider in-person or virtual trivia to help candidates to get to know your company values, product offerings, and even senior leadership in a fun, interactive way. When was your company founded? What is your CEO’s favorite ice cream flavor? A range of questions can keep candidates on their toes while giving them a chance to learn more about your company in an informal setting.

Party time: 

Create a space for candidates to get to know your team on a more personal level. Consider company-themed beverages, appetizers, and swag to make your event—and brand—even more memorable.

Creative campus recruiting events can uplevel your recruiting strategy

In addition to engaging content, consider who represents your company at your events: 68% of students said they were very interested in speaking to employees in their field at career events, and 58% said they were very interested in speaking to recent graduates in roles they are interested in. With events being a meaningful opportunity for students to create connections, you can kick creativity up a notch with thoughtful staffing.



4 creative recruiting event ideas to attract Gen Z

Navigating the college-to-career transition isn’t just about finding a job. It’s a massive transition in a graduate’s life, requiring new professional norms to learn, a shift in social dynamics, and maybe even a big move far away from home or school. According to a recent TimelyMD survey, 2 in 3 college students feel anxious about starting their careers. One San Francisco State University student recently summed up her career anxiety as a sense of "constant stress I feel" about finding success after graduation.

In school there are services and programs available to students, such as counseling for addiction, health awareness, or stress reduction, that may not seem as accessible or available once they graduate. According to Handshake Network Trends, Gen Z wants to work for employers that offer mental health and wellness benefits—and seek out these workplaces at a higher rate than others.

Here’s what we found:

Job posts mentioning wellness and mental health have doubled since 2019

Jobs for roles in high stress or in competitive sectors that are more upfront about discussing mental health and wellbeing are seeing up to 2x more applications

In a survey conducted by mental health provider, Ginger, 85% of CEOs said they care about the mental health of their employees, but don’t know what to do about it. So, how can you help Gen Z feel career ready with a recruiting process that’s conscious of their mental health and wellness?

Mental health and wellness benefits are becoming a must-have

With increasingly blurred lines between work and home, Gen Z is speaking up about being seen as a whole person, particularly as they enter the workforce. To embrace a shift in workforce attitudes toward mental health support, employers are making mental health and wellness benefits more accessible to candidates by proactively communicating their competitive offerings.

According to PwC’s 2021 Health and Well-being Touchstone Survey, 53% of respondents added or increased mental health benefits due to the pandemic, and 44% added or increased wellness programs. Some mental health and wellness benefits that have gained popularity include:

Employee Assistance Programs

Paid subscriptions to apps like Calm, Headspace, or BetterUp

Free access to wellness coaching or support groups

Flexible work schedules

Gym memberships

Unlimited paid time off including mental health days

Employee resource groups or affinity groups

Activities like cooking, yoga, and meditation

Company-wide office closures to avoid burnout

Being up front about wellness benefits signals to job seekers that talking openly about mental health isn’t stigmatized in your culture, so make sure you clearly list these competitive benefits across your recruitment marketing materials. Associating employee testimonials with your employer brand goes a long way in demonstrating how you encourage employees to actually take advantage of these benefits.

How to show your commitment to mental health and wellness during the recruiting process

In addition to amplifying your brand, a recruiting process that is empathetic, transparent, and provides a psychologically safe candidate experience will help illustrate how your culture encourages mental health and wellness.

1. Audit your messaging for inclusive language

Inclusive language empowers individuals and groups to feel respected, engaged, motivated, and valued. Using inclusive language in your job descriptions, marketing materials, recruiting messages, and throughout the candidate experience is an effective way to contribute toward a culture that is caring of a candidates’ overall wellbeing. In addition to updating your vocabulary, you can also personalize your messaging to support candidates in their transition from college—where they likely have a more established support system—to career.

2. Clearly explain each step of the recruitment process

Job searching and interviewing is an unfamiliar process for early career professionals. Calm Gen Z’s uncertainty by communicating the steps of your recruitment process up front and throughout the candidate journey. If something stressful comes up for the candidate, give them the benefit of the doubt and maintain an open line of communication.

3. Humanize your interviews

Experienced professionals know that interviews can be imperfect yet successful, but it’s important to put early career candidates at ease. Let them know it’s OK to ask for some time before answering a question, provide guidance about whether to be on or off-camera for a virtual call, and help them feel supported with their technical setup.

4. Train teams on the importance of empathy and mental health

Looking for a job can be a very stressful experience and can cause burn out. Everyone involved in the recruiting process influences the candidate experience and should be trained on the value of empathy to ensure candidates feel heard and respected throughout the interview process. The correlation between mental health and the candidate experience is critical so that qualified talent isn't inadvertently screened out.

5. Offer curated mental health & wellness recruitment events

Employer-hosted events that are tailored to the early career job search process are another way to demonstrate your commitment to employee wellbeing. Think “Your Job Search & Mental Health” or “Avoiding Burnout” featuring experts from your leadership or people team (or, if you’re in healthcare, medical practitioners) that can shed insight into how Gen Z can take care of themselves throughout the job search.

Content ideas include discussing the application process, inviting candidates into breakout groups to discuss how they’re feeling, exposing the mental health and wellness benefits your employer offers, or even having an expert guest therapist or speaker who can offer job search tips or group activities like mindfulness exercises. You can also provide an option for anonymous questions during “Ask Me Anything” sessions so that students aren’t reluctant to vocalize mental health concerns in a group forum.

6. Maintain open lines of communication within your community

Offering candidates multiple ways to get in touch with you and your team is another avenue to demonstrate care for your candidates’ mental wellness during the recruitment process. A candidate who is anxious about the recruitment process could benefit from talking it out with a current employee like alumni, ERG members, or other folks involved in the recruiting process who can address any questions about mental health and wellness benefits and programming, technical difficulties with remote interviews, questions the candidate didn’t get to ask during the interview, etc.

7. Demonstrate inclusivity and foster belonging

Gen Z has been referred to as “the loneliest generation” but consider, too, the intersectionality of being a Gen Zer in an underrepresented group for whom feeling a sense of belonging can be mentally draining. Some ways that you can demonstrate inclusivity are surveying candidates for feedback on the recruiting process, and involving a diverse slate of senior leaders from underrepresented backgrounds in recruiting events to show your employer’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

8. Be transparent about salary

Financial stress is a root cause of anxiety for young people. So it’s logical that salary factors into how candidates make decisions about their overall wellbeing. Students surveyed for the Handshake Network Trends “Gender, Equity, and Gen Z Report” overwhelmingly chose “salary ranges in job postings” as the greatest motivator for applying to a position, as well as the greatest motivator for staying in a position.

9. Describe your accommodating facilities & equipment

If work is done at an office location, your candidate tours can include any soundproof rooms, rooms that can be made extra dark, or even nap rooms. If your company is remote-first, inform candidates of available stipends for home office equipment that helps employees do their work comfortably—such as ergonomic chairs, noise canceling headphones, or standing desk treadmills.

10. Embrace flexible work

In 2021, remote jobs were almost 3x more popular than non-remote jobs among job seekers on Handshake. While many early talent candidates crave in-person experiences, they see the benefits to flexibility, like the ability to set their own schedule, increase their focus, avoid hectic commutes, take breaks to exercise, and improve their quality of life.

These are all contributing factors toward overall mental wellbeing. Since not all industries can offer remote work, see if your employer can show Gen Zers your commitment to mental health by offering more options for scheduling, more company-wide days off to fully unplug, etc.

Next steps

Gen Z has faced immense stress given the global and local events that this generation has had to contend with at a young age. Searching for a job can be challenging at any stage of one’s career but for early talent, their job search muscle is still developing. They haven’t yet experienced one rejection after another, and they may not have experienced the joy of an offer, either.

Try to empathize with the state of their mental health at an ambiguous time in their lives and intentionally approach early career professionals with their mental health and wellness at the core of your process.

For additional information about how Gen Z prioritizes mental health and wellness in the job search, check out Handshake Network Trends.

What students want

5 tips to improve your job description and attract early talent

5 ways Gen Z thinks you can improve your interview process

4 creative recruiting event ideas to attract Gen Z

10 Ways to show Gen Z how you prioritize mental health & wellness