Webinar | 2025 Student Sentiments on Campus Recruiting | Parker Dewey

Gen Z's New Rules for Hiring: Student Sentiments on Campus Recruiting

Watch the Replay On-Demand

This webinar was recorded on May 29, 2025

The campus recruiting landscape is changing — fast. According to Parker Dewey’s newest research, students are calling for flexibility, paid experience, and real-world opportunities over traditional recruiting tactics like mailing lists and career fairs.

During the webinar, we shared the key findings from the Student Sentiments on Campus Recruiting 2025–2026 report.

From Career Fairs to Micro-Internships: How Students Want to Be Recruited in 2025

We covered:

Why 77% of students prefer Micro-Internships over traditional touchpoints
How early-career candidates are planning their futures (and why sophomore year may be too late to start engaging)
What’s keeping students from applying to internships (and how you can fix it)
The recruiting moves that actually resonate with today’s Gen Z talent

This is the data-driven roadmap you need to rethink your early talent strategy before fall recruiting.

After a pilot to explore how we could integrate Micro-Internships into our hiring process, we're now expanding the program and collaborating with managers to promote this skills-centered approach.

Karen Lutz,

Vice President Talent and Leadership Development,

Xylem

There’s no reason why any company should not be using Micro-Internships. It is the easiest way to add value to the organization by getting some projects completed, giving students the opportunity to learn, and being cost-effective.

Alison Keefe,

Global Director of Emerging Talent ,

Smith+Nephew

I knew I wanted to be mindful of costs without jeopardizing quality and through Parker Dewey, it was low-risk too!

Yvette Roman,

Founder & Owner,

Ellipsis Construction

I loved the philanthropic impact of giving someone real experience in a live production environment. It was a win-win to provide opportunities for professional development while getting on-demand support.

Paolo Sambrano,

Business Solutions Designer,

Common Sense Media

You can interview, but you don’t really know how you’ll work with a person until you actually work with them. With this, you get to try someone for 20 hours and make sure your working styles match!

Bhavana Singh,

Founder and CEO,

Three Moons Consulting