Advancing technology is leading to the need for students to adjust to applying for jobs and internships online.

Kathy Wieland, program coordinator for ISU Career Services, said this trend is becoming more and more common.

“We’ve started to see more companies adapt to these technologies more and more over the last couple of years. They’ve had the technology before, but now it is becoming much more common,” Wieland said.

Anthony Townsend, associate professor of logistics operations and management information systems, said although submitting a r‚sum‚ on paper feels more official, applying online is exactly the same step, and in many cases, better.

“It’s a perfectly appropriate way to gather preliminary information from the candidate pool,” he said. “It actually is a more equitable way to gather data. The fields tend to be more standardized. This way the company can make an accurate decision about the relevancy of candidates.”

A company can directly compare two candidates because they will have filled out the same fields, instead of trying to compare r‚sum‚s, he said.

Shelly Cole, staffing manager at Maytag, said her company has made the shift to online applications in the past two years. If an applicant submits a hard copy of a r‚sum‚, Maytag will transfer the information to the computer.

Townsend said some of the advantages of online applications are that the company can reach a broader applicant pool and avoid pitfalls of prejudices and stereotyping.

“The computer doesn’t care what or who you are,” he said. Although they may not do it deliberately, this can help companies avoid making decisions based on a person’s appearance, he said. As long as the program is properly set up, the computer makes an unbiased decision.

Wieland said some students are struggling with this adjustment.

One of the problems Wieland has been dealing with is students who are beginning to wonder why they should attend a career fair if a company is going to refer them to its Web site.

After discussing this issue with several companies, Wieland found companies like to meet students at career fairs first. Since many of the companies will make a note of a student’s name after talking with them at a fair, they will pay close attention in watching for their r‚sum‚.

Cole said Maytag attends career fairs and remembers names of students they meet.

“We’ll write down the name of a student who is qualified and highlight their application when it comes through,” Cole said.

If a student gives Maytag a r‚sum‚ at the career fair, a company representative discusses it with them and gives their resume back, she said. The student would then be asked to apply through career services. When the student does this, they are taking an extra step to tell the company they’re interested in the job, she said.

She said there are requirements about information that must be supplied to the government and when people fill out the application online, it makes it easier to gather this information.

Townsend said online applications are more efficient, fair and reduce the cost to the applicant. This way the applicant doesn’t have to go to the company to fill out the application, he said.

“For many companies, it is the only way they can function. A lot of companies are trying to become paperless,” Wieland said.

She said many are also doing it for legal reasons.

At Maytag, they don’t take unsolicited r‚sum‚s and only want applications for positions currently available, Cole said.

Directing people to the company’s Web site is a good way to ensure the company is only getting applications for relevant and available positions.

“[Online applications are] something that we have to get used to and I would encourage students to view it as something that will work and realize it’s not a brush-off,” Wieland said.