Yearly, I inform my college students in my enterprise analytics class the identical factor: “Don’t simply apply for a job. Audition for it.”
This recommendation appears notably related this 12 months. In immediately’s turbulent economy, companies are still hiring, however they’re doing it a bit extra rigorously. Extra locations are providing candidates short-term work experiences like internships and co-op programs as a way to consider them earlier than making them full-time affords.
That is simply one of many findings of the 2025 College Hiring Outlook Report. This annual report tracks traits within the job market and affords helpful insights for each job seekers and employers. It’s primarily based on a nationwide survey performed in September 2024, with responses from 1,322 employers spanning all main industries and firm sizes, from small companies to giant enterprises. The survey seems to be at employer views on entry-level hiring traits, expertise demand, and expertise improvement methods.
I’m a professor of information systems at Drexel College’s LeBow School of Enterprise in Philadelphia, and I coauthored this report together with a group of colleagues on the Center for Career Readiness.
Right here’s what we discovered:
Employers are rethinking expertise pipelines
Solely 21% of the 1,322 employers we surveyed rated the present faculty hiring market as “wonderful” or “superb,” which is a dramatic drop from 61% in 2023. This means that firms have gotten more and more cautious about how they recruit and choose new expertise.
Whereas confidence in full-time hiring has declined, employers aren’t stepping away from hiring altogether. As an alternative, they’re shifting to paid and unpaid internships, co-ops, and contract-to-hire roles as a much less dangerous path to establish expertise and “de-risk” full-time hiring.
Employers we surveyed described internships as a cheap expertise pipeline, and 70% informed us they plan to take care of or improve their co-op and intern hiring in 2025. At a time when many firms are tightening their belts, hiring somebody who’s already proved themselves saves on onboarding reduces turnover and minimizes potentially costly mishires.
For job seekers, this makes each internship or short-term function greater than a foot within the door. It’s an prolonged audition. Even with the general market looking unstable, curiosity in co-op and internship applications seems regular, particularly amongst latest graduates dealing with fewer full-time alternatives.
These applications aren’t nearly attempting out a job. They let employers see if a candidate exhibits initiative, common sense, and the flexibility to work effectively on a group, which we discovered are traits employers worth much more than technical expertise.
What employers need
We discovered that employers more and more prioritize self-management expertise like adaptability, moral reasoning, and communication over technical expertise similar to digital literacy and cybersecurity. Employers are taking note of how candidates behave throughout internships, how they take suggestions, and whether or not they convey the mindset wanted to develop with the corporate.
This displays what I’ve noticed in lecture rooms and in conversations with hiring managers: Credentials matter, however what actually units candidates aside is how they current themselves and what they contribute to an organization.
Primarily based on co-op and internship information we’ve collected at Drexel, nevertheless, many college students proceed to imagine that technical proficiency is the important thing to getting a job.
In my view, this disconnect reveals a important hole in expectations: Whereas college students concentrate on arduous expertise to distinguish themselves, employers are on the lookout for the human expertise that point out long-term potential, resilience, and professionalism. That is very true within the face of financial uncertainty and the ambiguous, fast-changing nature of immediately’s office.
Know-how is altering how hiring occurs
Employers additionally informed us that synthetic intelligence is now central to how each candidates and employers navigate the hiring course of.
Some firms are more and more utilizing AI-powered platforms to remodel their hiring processes. For instance, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia uses platforms like HireVue to conduct asynchronous video interviews. HR-focused companies like Phenom and JJ Staffing Services additionally leverage applied sciences similar to AI-based resume rating, automated interview scheduling, and one-way video assessments.
Not solely do these instruments pace up the hiring course of, however additionally they reshape how employers and candidates work together. In our survey, giant employers stated they’re more and more counting on AI instruments like resume screeners and one-way video interviews to handle giant numbers of job candidates. Because of this, the candidate’s presence, readability in communication, and authenticity are being evaluated even earlier than a human recruiter turns into concerned.
On the similar time, job seekers are utilizing generative AI tools to jot down cowl letters, apply interviews, or reformat résumés. These instruments will help with preparation, however overreliance on them can backfire. Employers need authenticity, and lots of employers we surveyed talked about they discover when purposes appear overly robotic.
In my expertise as a professor, the hot button is instructing college students to make use of AI to reinforce their effort, to not substitute it. I encourage them to leverage AI instruments however at all times emphasize that the ultimate output and the impression it makes ought to replicate their very own considering and professionalism. The underside line is that hiring remains to be a human choice, and the private impression you make issues.
This isn’t nearly new grads
Whereas our analysis focuses on early-career hiring, these findings apply to different audiences as effectively, similar to profession changers, returning professionals, and even mid-career employees. These employees are more and more being evaluated on their adaptability, conduct, and collaborative means—not simply their expertise.
Many firms now provide project-based assignments and trial roles that allow them consider efficiency earlier than making a everlasting rent.
On the similar time, employers are investing in inside reskilling and upskilling applications. Reskilling refers to coaching employees for fully new roles, typically in response to job adjustments or automation, whereas upskilling means serving to workers deepen their present expertise to remain efficient and advance of their present roles. Our report signifies that roughly 88% of enormous firms now provide structured upskilling and reskilling applications. For job seekers and employees alike, staying aggressive means taking the initiative and demonstrating a dedication to studying and progress.
Present up early, and present up effectively
So what can college students, or anybody coming into or reentering the workforce, do to organize?
- Begin early. Don’t wait till senior 12 months. First- and second-year internships are rising in significance.
- Sharpen delicate expertise. Communication, time administration, problem-solving, and moral conduct are high priorities for employers.
- Perceive the place work is occurring. Greater than 50% of entry-level jobs are totally in individual. Solely 4% are totally distant. Present up prepared to have interaction.
- Use AI strategically. It’s a great tool for analysis and apply, not a shortcut to connection or readability.
- Keep curious. Most giant employers now provide reskilling or upskilling alternatives, and so they anticipate workers to take initiative.
One of many clearest takeaways from this 12 months’s report is that hiring is now not a onetime choice. It’s a efficiency course of that usually begins earlier than an interview is even scheduled.
Whether or not you’re nonetheless in class, transitioning in your profession, or returning to the workforce after a break, the identical precept applies: Each alternative is an audition. Deal with it like one.
Murugan Anandarajan is a professor of choice sciences and administration data programs at Drexel University.
This text is republished from The Conversation below a Artistic Commons license. Learn the original article.
