Students are graduating later and working more between classes. In the face of these demographic shifts, is the same old internship system still viable?

According to pop culture, a college student is a late-teen, plaid-clad specimen, recently graduated from high school, spouting psych 101 interpretations of Freud between weekend dorm shenanigans and set to graduate in four years. The problem is, this is no longer true, or hasn’t been for a while, if it ever was.

The majority of today’s college students aren’t living care-free on campus, they’re independent (sometimes with dependents) part-time students, with full-time jobs on top of their course load. A completed bachelor’s degree is attained by only 33.8 percent of the US population, and for many of those, college is less an Animal House coming of age adventure, but more a load of debt that ends with an unpaid internship.

“I don’t think people have got their heads wrapped around that yet,” says Alexandria Walton Radford, head of postsecondary education research at the North Carolina think tank RTI International. According to their research, ”this isn’t a new phenomenon. We’ve been looking at this since 1996.”

A typical college student today is nontraditional, a term Radford and her team define as having one of the following characteristics, which 74 percent possess. An additional 30 percent count two or three.

• Financially independent from their parents (in the eyes of financial aid)
• Have a child or other dependent
• Are the sole single caregiver
• Lack a traditional high-school diploma
• Delay postsecondary enrollment
• Attend school part-time
• Are employed full-time

To give you an idea of what this new normal looks like, one in four students enrolled in higher education programs are caring for a child. Two in five of those students are attending community college, as opposed to a four-year institution. Of those matriculated at the latter, nearly a quarter are part-time, and about the same number are over 25.

That means the majority of graduates embark into post-collegiate life with a wealth of life and work experience, so treating them as ingenues away from home for the first time just seems like bad recruiting.

How to recruit for the new normal:

We talked with Melissa Weir, director of B2B Marketing for WayUP, a platform for college students and recent grads looking to break into the world of work. Here’s what Weir has found surveying their user base.

1. 1. Make opportunities accessible: “Since most students live off campus,” Weir reminds us, “it’s important to have internships and job opportunities available online. Career fairs are great, but with most students working at least part-time and/or caring for children, it’s not always feasible to be there in person.”
   2. Don’t wait ‘til graduation: “We see employers recruiting as early as sophomore year,” says Weir, “especially in the financial sector.” Why not take a cue from these titans of industry and look for students to fill internships and entry-level jobs? We know many of these students work full-time already, and a job in their industry would beat the retail/food service gigs usually available to pre-grads. Make this a viable option by offering flexible working hours or remote working alternatives.
   3. Learn what work-life balance means to them: “Thirty-eight percent of the students we surveyed last year defined work-life balance as ‘doing something you love’,” says Weir. “This definition was surprising at first, but if you think for a moment it actually makes a lot of sense. Many students are delaying their education, taking time to solidify their career goals and save up as they will be financing their education themselves. At the end of it, they want to find a job they really love that is worth the sacrifice.”
   4. Show off your values: “Ninety-one percent of students chose ‘values emphasized during recruiting and the reputation/culture’ when asked how they suss out the optimal fit for themselves at a company.” Says Weir. And authenticity is a big factor. For example, students overwhelmingly preferred the offer of 10 vacation days to that of unlimited because they felt the latter to be disingenuine. Takeaways here are: check your company’s online reviews, pick some positive traits of your work culture to emphasize, and be explicit about the benefits and perks of the job.

Recruiting’s digital revolution has been a boon for job seekers around the world, and now students and recent graduates have a tool designed to connect them with the best employers possible.

Your first job out of college probably felt like the most important event of your life, and for many, looking back, it was as pivotal as if felt back them. Imagine there’d been tech to tailor-match your skills to prospective employers looking for students and recent grads just like you? Well, let Melissa Weir, Head of B2B Marketing at WayUp tell you a few things about what WayUp can do to help you with that.

Check out WayUp and others on the SmartRecruiters marketplace!

What was the inspiration behind WayUp?

When Liz Wessel, co-founder and CEO of WayUp, was a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, she was a campus ambassador for Anheuser-Busch, where the company asked if she could help recruit mechanical engineering candidates. Liz was floored that such a big company would reach out to a sophomore, and she realized there was a huge opportunity to help companies recruit straight from college campuses.

What were some issues in the hiring process you thought needed changing?

The college campus recruiting model wasn’t efficient. There were only a handful of people in career services, tasked with supporting thousands of students ready to find an internship, or their first job after graduation. This unbalanced system doesn’t provide students with resources to find jobs suited to their interests, or to discover new opportunities.

Companies can’t visit every college every year, and when they get the chance, it’s usually for career fairs attended by a small portion of the student population, which makes it difficult to target and source for specific roles, especially in STEM and Finance. There had to be a better way to reach, recruit, engage and hire quality early-career candidates.

Why is WayUp a necessary tool for SmartRecruiters customers?

For over 5 million early-career professionals, WayUp is the go-to platform to explore job and internship opportunities, receive advice, and be discovered by employers. Top companies from startups to Fortune 500s use WayUp’s platform to reach, recruit, and engage early-career talent. WayUp students and recent graduates represent over 6,600 campuses in the US, and WayUp’s candidates are currently growing at 35,000 new students and recent graduates per week.

So how does it actually work?

Employers post targeted job listings, invite candidates to apply, and directly message them, all on one platform. We also offer industry-leading employment branding, to help employers build awareness among Gen Z and Millennials.

What does WayUp do that can’t be done through normal job boards?

Where traditional recruiting platforms may focus on years of experience, certifications, and professional networks, WayUp allows students to showcase their personal and professional experience, interests, and areas of study.

For employers, traditional job boards and recruiting marketplaces lead with quantity over quality. They simply don’t satisfy the recruiting funnel for students and recent graduates. WayUp bridges that gap, leading to the highest hiring rate among all early-career recruiting platforms.

How does WayUp make the hiring process as easy as possible?

For every job you post on WayUp, you can apply filters to guarantee only the most appropriate candidates can see the job and apply for it. Employers can directly message and invite individuals to apply.

What do you see as the future of Talent Acquisition?

We feel strongly that opportunity belongs to all. People should never be limited by their economic status, race, sexual orientation, gender, who they know, where they went to school, or where they’re from.