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Are You Spooked By The Job Search?

Zombies, ghosts, and monsters aren't the only ones haunting job seekers this Halloween.

WayUp, the go-to career platform for over 3.5 million students and recent graduates, wanted to understand what aspects of job searching are most intimidating to early-career professionals. So, WayUp surveyed 570 students and recent graduates to determine what "spooks" them out the most, just in time for Halloween.

3 Questions Were Asked:

  1. What is the scariest interview question?
     

  2. What is your biggest fear when it comes to searching for a job?
     

  3. What is the most frightening part of the job search process?

Findings Include:

 

  1. Students are much more fearful of not standing out in the application process than recent grads are.

  2. Neither group is frightened that they won’t like the job they end up in since they are much more concerned with landing a job in the first place.

  3. In-person interviews remain the most frightening part of the job search process for both groups.

  4. Overall, neither cohort is confident talking about themselves and what would make them valuable hires.

 

 

Full survey results are below. Please reach out to Elana at elana@wayup.com for any further questions.

Question 1: What is the scariest interview question?

Results:

  • The scariest question for both groups (34.67% of recent grads and 40.95% of students) is “Out of all the other candidates, why should we hire you?” and not the typical “Tell me a little about yourself.”

 

  • Students and recent grads are much more comfortable referencing what others (mainly, peers) think of them then what they think of themselves. Only 8% of recent grads and 8.57% of students said that the scariest question was “Tell me how you think other people would describe you.”
     

  • Recent grads are much more intimidated by the future then students are: 27.3% of recent grads said the scariest question was “Where do you see yourself in five years” while only 18.3% of students said that was the scariest question.

Question 2: What is your biggest fear when it comes to searching for a job?

Results:

  • Students and recent grads seem to have a severe case of imposter syndrome when it comes to the job search: 40.67% of recent grads and 36.9% of student respondents said that their biggest fear when it comes to searching for a job is that they aren’t qualified for anything. 
     

  • Students are way more worried than recent grads about standing out in the process. 31.9% of student respondents said they are worried that they won’t stand out in the application process, while only 23.33% of recent grads said the same.
     

  • Only 2.9% of students believe they will have their part-time job forever. However, 8.7% of recent grads said that was their number one fear. Once they’ve graduated, it's clear that students start to fear that they won’t find full-time work...

Question 3: What is the most frightening part of the job search process?

Results:

  • Students and recent grads are terrified of interviewing. A combined 61.43% of all student respondents and 60% of all recent grads said that some sort of interviewing was the most frightening part of the job search process.
     

  • Recent grads are more comfortable than students interviewing in person, while students are more comfortable than recent grads interviewing on the phone or over video. 36.67% of recent grads said interviewing in person was the most frightening part, compared to 40% of students. When it comes to phone and video interviews, 23.33% of recent grads said this was their biggest fear vs. 21.43% of students.
     

  • Recent grads are slightly more confident than students when it comes to making a resume: 16.4% of students said that crafting a resume was the most frightening part of the job search process, and only 14.7% of recent grads said the same.
     

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