From online school to in-person work: pandemic-era students prepare to enter the workforce

As the COVID-19 pandemic drifts further into the distance, so do opportunities for remote work, as many employers are choosing to require their staff to return to the office.  

As 2025 college graduates begin their job search, they have many things to consider, including the modality of work they are looking for. As part of a generation that has been able to take advantage of remote school and work, will their desires meet their future employers’ needs?  

Across all industries, companies are making a shift toward a future modeled after the past.  

In September, Amazon announced in a memo to employees that in the new year, they will be required to return to the office outside of extenuating circumstances or pre-approved exceptions.  

In November, the Washington Post announced that all employees will be expected to be in-person full-time starting June 2, 2025.

Both companies cited the benefits of in-person collaboration, and both faced immediate backlash.  

At the federal level, President-elect Donald Trump has signaled his intentions to crack down on teleworking through his new Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” which will be headed by allies Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk.  

In an opinion piece by Ramaswamy and Musk published by the Wall Street Journal, the pair nodded to the “large-scale firings” that would result from the implementation of a full in-person work requirement, writing, “if federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.” 

Following the creation of DOGE, the Senate organized a Senate DOGE Caucus to work in tandem with the recently formed department. Last week, the group unveiled its 60-page report, obtained by Politico, which accuses bureaucrats working from home of playing “hide-and-seek” and claims that taxpayers are suffering from them “phoning it in.” 

American University junior Leehy Gertner sees return-to-work policies like those proposed by the incoming administration as “dismissive” of reasons people might be choosing to work hybrid or fully remote.  

Some, like Gertner, don’t see the choice to work from home as a “privilege” or as an act of “phoning it in,” but instead as employees taking advantage of opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.  

“I know that hybrid work started because of COVID, but it has become so much more for so many people, especially people who have children, or who can’t afford to live in the area where their work is done,” said Gertner.  

Fellow American University student Cristian Benavidez is a senior who benefits from a remote opportunity, as it allows him to build his resume while staying in school. 

Benavidez currently has a hybrid internship through the federal government’s Pathways Program, and he called his schedule “accommodating.” 

“I see the benefits of going in and meeting people, especially as I’m trying to grow with the company and get face time with people, but as a student, that’s not realistic for me,” said Benavidez.  

Benavidez plans to do another year of school in a combined graduate program, but when he thinks about his hierarchy of needs for a future career, the ability to be hybrid is one of his main three deciding factors.  

“I like the idea of hybrid work. I like the idea of being more productive,” he said. “I do like being able to go in every now and then, but I go in more to, like, socialize with the people I’m working with, and it doesn’t just feel like I’m talking to a computer all day.”  

Benavidez’s high school experience was tainted by the pandemic, and he said he got tired of virtual school quickly.   

“I think the older people I work with, they didn’t get tired of it because they got to spend time with their family, but as a kid, I didn’t get to spend time with my friends,” he said.  

Jennifer Halperin has been a career adviser at Columbia College Chicago for nearly 20 years and has heard similar things from her students in terms of their wants and needs.  

From the start of the pandemic to the end of 2023, Halperin observed an impatience from students when it came to roles that required some in-person work, as they had gotten comfortable with the flexibility virtual classes provided them.  

This past year, however, Halperin has seen less of that, and instead has heard an increased desire for in-person interaction.  

“I’m not sure if that’s sort of almost like a kickback or response to doing classes and spending a good chunk of their formative years online,” Halperin said. “I’m seeing a lot more, not only willingness to work in-person or hybrid, but even students expressing that they want that.”  

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) issues a survey every year to participating school career centers to be distributed to students that includes questions to identify the preferences of graduating students at four-year universities.  

Andrea Koncz, senior research manager at NACE, said that their most recent research, published in September 2024, shows that 51.3% of respondents want to work fully in-person, a 10% increase from their results in 2022.  

When asked about working a hybrid job, 42% of students indicated an interest in that modality. Koncz said the research questions did not specify how many days of in-person work were required for it to be considered hybrid nor did they touch on reasons respondents are interested in hybrid work.  

Employers, on the other hand, see the return to work as important for company culture and a way to ensure employees maintain a level of professionalism that may have been left behind during the pandemic.  

Kelsey Williams is the assistant director for employer engagement at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Over the last couple years, employers have shared with her their qualms with hybrid work and their reasoning for wanting to return to in-person.  

“We saw during COVID that a lot of folks that recently were coming into the industry, it was really hard for them to acclimate into the work environment just because nothing felt tangible,” Williams said.  

In conversations with partners of the career center at UNC, employers have expressed concerns about skill gaps they’ve identified in the application pools coming out of the pandemic.  

“I do see employers saying that communication is a skill that is lacking with this next generation,” she said. “A lot of them missed out on developing some of those skills of talking to people in person.”  

Jacki Banks, the associate director of employer relations and industry advising at Georgetown University, has heard similar things from employers regarding a lack of professionalism from recent graduates.    

“They don’t know how to write a professional email or show up on time,” Banks said, recounting what employers have told her. “General business etiquette seems to be a real challenge for a lot of the newer students.”  

Ultimately, Banks said the decision to move back to in-person work also depends on industry needs. While Banks’ students going into finance or consulting often are going straight into in-person work, those in more entrepreneurial or tech-focused fields might have more remote opportunities available to them.