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:
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What is the scariest interview question?
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What is your biggest fear when it comes to searching for a job?
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What is the most frightening part of the job search process?
Findings Include:
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Students are much more fearful of not standing out in the application process than recent grads are.
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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.
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In-person interviews remain the most frightening part of the job search process for both groups.
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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:
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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.”
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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.”
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.