What You Need to Know: Shifting Student Attitudes and Wants

Nearly half of seniors used AI in their job search this year, but only 13% say their classes are preparing them for it — and significant gaps exist by gender and race. That's just one of the stories in this year's Student Survey of 17,000+ students at 258 institutions.

In this webinar, NACE's CEO and the lead researcher on the study walk through the full findings — internships, offer rates, career readiness, the affordability squeeze reshaping student preferences, and the AI divide — and will close with practical implications for career centers and employers alike.

Following this program, you will be able to:

• Inform your strategy around AI readiness and messaging around compensation and benefits, using findings on the gap between students' AI behavior and their belief in its importance, as well as findings around the affordability-driven shift in what students want from employers.
• Gain insight into how students are actually searching for jobs, where they turn for career advice, and what's driving the disconnect between rising self-rated competencies and declining confidence that their institution prepared them well.
• Explore the rise in student awareness of skills-based hiring — now recognized by nearly half of seniors, up eight points in a single year — and consider how career centers and employers can leverage that growing familiarity to reframe advising, job postings, and candidate evaluation around demonstrated competencies.