Young workers are entering a very different job market than their parents — or even their predecessors looking for a job pre-pandemic. With the Great Resignation came a national discussion about how to identify a toxic workplace and red flags in job postings.
A new College Pulse survey of 1,500 undergraduates finds that typos and grammatical errors (51%), followed by not listing the position’s salary (44%), are the biggest red flags for students when looking at job postings. There is a gender gap, however. Female students are more likely than male students to say typos are the biggest red flag in their eyes (55% vs. 45%).
When it comes to specific phrases in job postings that set off alarm bells for students, “we’re looking for a unicorn” is top of the list. More than 6 in 10 (61%) say they see the phrase as a red flag, and a majority (58%) of students also say mention of employees needing to work weekends or holidays is a red flag for them.
Overall, one-third (35%) of students say the phrase “we’re a family” is a red flag. More than 4 in 10 (43%) Hispanic/Latinx students see the common phrase as a red flag in job postings, compared to roughly one-third of white (36%) and Black (30%) students and one-quarter (28%) of Asian students.
What phrases on job postings do you consider red flags? Select all that apply.
On the other end of the spectrum, more than 8 in 10 students say listing the salary in a job posting (85%) and listing clear and specific job responsibilities (86%) are green flags for a company. A majority (56%) of students also say a job posting specifying that remote work is possible is a green flag for them, and Black students are more likely to say so. Two-thirds (68%) of Black students say listing remote work as a possibility in a job posting is a green flag for a company, compared to about half of their Asian (56%), white (54%), and Hispanic/Latinx (53%) peers.
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Methodology: This survey was designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted in November among a sample of 1,500 full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
