For many students, college is a busy time. Students walk near and far to their classes, making time to study whenever they have a chance.
After classes, in order to make ends meet amid skyrocketing rent spikes and hefty tuition fees, many students have no choice but to head to work.
But getting a job on campus is more difficult than it may seem, a recruiter told The Daily Cardinal.
“Out of the whole 300 applicants, we took about 20 total,” said Tim, a person on a hiring committee for a sought-after position at UW-Madison whom the Cardinal is identifying by a pseudonym due to privacy concerns.
Jackson, a junior at UW-Madison whom the Cardinal is identifying by a pseudonym due to privacy concerns, said he has had tough luck with the competitive nature of applying for student jobs on campus.
“It was a long process,” Jackson said. “I wound up applying for 20 jobs just over one summer.”
Only two of the jobs reached out to Jackson for an interview, and only one interview actually happened, he told the Cardinal.
“I had to wait for literal months to the point where it was basically irrelevant to me,” Jackson said. “The lack of responses is really frustrating.”
Avery Doemel, a junior at UW-Madison shared the same sentiment. She applied to positions specific to her research interests, but struggled to get results.
“I want to get more involved with the research,” Doemel said. “I’m seeing everyone else my age have research jobs.”
Doemel worried it could be harder to get a job after graduation without the same research experience her classmates have.
Behind the scenes: how applications are reviewed, and how to land the job
With the recruitment process taking around 43 days to complete, students are seeing the impacts of an ever-changing job market at the university level.
“I need some sort of student job or some sort of opportunity that bolsters my resume, but I would have liked it if student jobs were a more ideal way to do that,” Jackson said. “It felt like a very one-ended process. I didn’t feel like I sent a lackluster resume to these jobs. I felt qualified.”
But experience learned from a job in customer service could be the reason that a student stands out of the applicant pool. A student could be well-suited for a position based on experience, but their application may be the reason for a lack of interviews, Tim said.
“It depends on who reviews your application,” Tim said.
An applicant could have many qualifications that are suitable to the position they are applying for, but that doesn’t mean the reviewer will choose their application over one they deem more qualified, Tim said.
Having a cover letter makes an application stand out because committee members put a lot of value in the character presented in the cover letter, Tim said.
“I recommend visiting the job in person and asking a current employee what a day in the job looks like,” Tim said. “This shows real interest in the job.”
The applicant may better tailor their resume for the job, too, once they visit. Making sure the applicant has answers to open-ended questions that could be asked during the interview is important, as is looking professional, Tim said.
He also recommended interviewing in person.
“Zoom interviews can sometimes go badly,” Tim said. “In-person interviews give [the interviewer] a better sense of the applicant’s personality.”
Though it can be difficult getting a job in college that boosts a student’s resume, employers often appreciate time dedicated to jobs in the service industry, because it builds skills relevant to students' future careers, Tim said.
Both Jackson and Doemel now have jobs they’re interested in because of their continued applications, they said. Now part of a research team studying evolutionary biology, the major she’s studying, Doemel is hopeful the experience will help land her a career in the same field.
