Employer Policies & Recommendations

Iowa State University (ISU) Career Services and the Student Employment Center, herein after referred to as “we,” aim to provide professional and ethical service and support to our students, alumni, employers, and other constituents. Therefore, we require all representatives of employers and organizations that recruit at ISU to abide by the following policies. Reported violations of these policies will prompt a review and may lead to the termination of an employer’s access to recruiting privileges at ISU. It is an employer’s responsibility to ensure that they comply with all applicable state and federal laws. ISU in no way accepts responsibility for employers’ actions and decisions and may deny recruiting privileges to employers at ISU’s sole discretion.

Discrimination, Harassment, and Equal Employment Opportunity

We are committed to maintaining a fair and equitable recruiting environment that is free from unlawful discrimination and harassment. Recruiting privileges at ISU are only granted to organizations that agree to abide by university policies, including the Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and the Title IX Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, and Stalking Policy, and applicable state and federal laws through all aspects of the recruitment, hiring, and employment of students. Any alleged violations of these policies or legal standards will be reported to the ISU Office of Equal Opportunity for review. Employers and organizations are expected to cooperate with such reviews.

Ethical and Legal Standards

We adhere to and expect those we assist to adhere to the following ethical and legal employment standards:

Recruiting Privileges: Offerings and Limitations

Recruiting Services Offered

Recruiting services are the channels through which eligible employers and organizations connect with ISU students when they wish to promote or fill specific employment opportunities. Recruiting services offered by ISU Career Services and Student Employment include, but are not limited to: postings for jobs, internships, fellowships, or post-graduate service opportunities; career and/or internship fairs; on-campus interviews; information sessions, tables, or meetings; company presentations; and other methods of communicating opportunities to students (e.g., email, bulletin boards, posters, mail). See Recruiting Events and Campus Engagement policy for additional guidance on allowable practices for engaging with ISU.

CyHire Access

CyHire is ISU’s career services platform. Qualifying employers and organizations may be granted the privilege of utilizing CyHire to post positions and register for recruiting events. Registering employers must have a verifiable physical address, phone number, email address, and website that are all directly affiliated with the employer. Contacts must be reachable via the provided phone number and email address. We may grant exceptions to these criteria at our discretion.

CyHire accounts are for individuals directly affiliated with the employer. Users represent the employer and agree not to share login information. An individual may use a shared/team email address when setting up their account, but the first and last name of the individual who claims ownership and responsibility for the account’s activity in CyHire must be provided. If this individual leaves the organization, the employer is responsible for transferring the account ownership to a different individual and notifying ISU Career Services or Student Employment.

To help ensure all students have equal opportunity to learn about positions and apply if qualified, all positions (student employment, internships, co-ops, and post-graduation roles) and recruiting events associated with ISU must be posted in CyHire. Positions are/become associated with ISU when the employer uses university resources (including faculty and staff time) for the promotion of the position. See Recruiting Events and Campus Engagement policy for additional guidance on allowable practices for engaging with ISU via recruiting events. Once positions and events are posted and accepted in CyHire, employers may collaborate with members of the ISU community to promote them.

Employers may not use or disclose student information from CyHire for any reason other than recruiting purposes associated with the position to which the student applied.

CyHire: Student Job Board vs. Professional Job Board

CyHire includes both the Student Job Board for part-time, seasonal, and temporary jobs (operated by Student Employment) and a professional job board for internships, co-ops, and post-graduation opportunities (operated by ISU Career Services). Employer contacts will be granted access to one or both job boards at the time of registration, depending on which employment opportunities they indicate that they intend to advertise. Opportunities must be posted to the appropriate job board, not both; postings submitted to the incorrect job board will be rejected and instructed to resubmit on the correct job board.

Because the Student Job Board is a resource for students searching for work while enrolled in classes at ISU, the following requirements apply:

Positions shouldn’t require certain majors/degrees (preferred qualifications are permitted).
Positions must be within a 60-mile radius of Ames, Iowa.
- Virtual opportunities are only permitted if the employer has a local presence within a 60-mile radius.
- Summer opportunities may be exempt from this standard.
Positions that occur during the academic year must require an investment of time that is reasonable for a student to complete concurrently with their studies.

Disallowed Recruitment Activities

Recruiting privileges are not extended to employers offering the following opportunities:

Positions that ask students to make initial investments of money or resources, including but not limited to, fees for applications, placements, or trainings; purchases of materials or equipment; or usage of university-owned property or software licensed for educational use.
Positions through which individuals establish their own businesses to sell products or services, or recruit others to develop their businesses.
Positions that establish employees as independent contractors who file 1099 tax forms.
Positions that include door-to-door sales, mystery shopping, and/or operating a business out of the home.
Positions that are prohibited by law, raise safety concerns, or require the student to work with a product or service that is not legal.
Positions that involve adult entertainment (i.e., escort services, presentation modeling, similar services).
Positions that solicit the donation of organs or physiological substances (e.g., plasma, reproductive gamete).

Furthermore, all recruiting services may only be used for the recruitment of job seekers for legitimate positions. Any use of recruiting services to a) solicit, market, or sell goods or services or b) identify volunteers or supporters for a campaign or election is prohibited.

CyHire: Candidate Search

Candidate Search is an optional feature that allows employer contacts to browse profiles of students who have explicitly consented to be viewable. Employer contacts must meet the following eligibility criteria to utilize Candidate Search:

A job posting must be live or have been posted within the last 6 months on the CyHire platform.
Both the employer and contact must be eligible in CyHire.
The employer must not be a third-party recruiter.
The contact must be seeking candidates for professional employment opportunities only (Student Job Board contacts are not eligible for Candidate Search).

Employers are prohibited from sending mass emails (i.e., emails to more than 10 students at a time) using the contact information gathered through the Candidate Search feature. This ensures targeted, relevant communication and prevents spam.

Complaints from students regarding an employer contact’s utilization of the Candidate Search database will prompt a review and may lead to revocation of Candidate Search access. During the review, the contact’s access to the Candidate Search feature will be suspended.

Candidate Screening and Referrals

Employers will not ask or allow any ISU employee to identify candidates or screen applicant materials (e.g., resumes/cover letters, transcripts, references) for any purpose, including the giving of the university employee’s advice to the recruiter/employer on which applicants should be interviewed, recruited, or hired. Furthermore, employers will not ask any ISU employee to provide a reference, evaluation, or employment verification for a student without the student’s written permission to do so. This requirement is in alignment with the NACE Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Employment, which we share with our faculty and staff.

Recruiting Events and Campus Engagement

All recruiting-related events associated with ISU must be co-hosted or administratively operated by a career services office, open to all interested students, and promoted through CyHire to ensure fair and equal access. A recruiting event is any event where the focus is on promoting or filling the employment opportunities of one or more employers (e.g., talking about specific employment opportunities, collecting resumes). A recruiting event is/becomes associated with ISU when it uses university resources (including faculty and staff time) for the planning, implementation, or promotion of the event.

Classroom Engagement

We encourage and support interaction between employers and instructors following these guidelines. Any material presented in a classroom setting is required to complement and correspond with the course curriculum. Company “commercials,” where the bulk of the material covered is focused on marketing the employer and its job opportunities, are not allowed in the classroom. When reaching out to instructors, employers should outline how their proposed presentation connects to and augments the course’s student learning outcomes. Employers who wish to promote their company or specific opportunities should do so via the official recruiting services (e.g., information sessions, CyHire job postings, career fairs) provided by ISU Career Services and Student Employment.

Student Organization Engagement

Employers are free to engage with student organizations, but the focus should be on technical and professional development activities rather than recruiting. These interactions will increase name recognition and result in informal networking opportunities, which will have a positive impact on recruiting efforts.

Third-Party Recruiters

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines third-party recruiters as “agencies, organizations, or individuals recruiting candidates for temporary, part-time, or full-time employment opportunities other than for their own needs.” Third-party recruiters may also recruit for their own internal hiring needs.

ISU recruiting privileges are not extended to third-party recruiters who charge any placement fees to candidates. Third-party recruiters’ recruiting privileges are limited to posting job opportunities in CyHire and participating in career fairs. Individual career fairs can choose to set a more restrictive policy, including not allowing or limiting the number of third-party recruiters, at the sole discretion of the director(s) of the coordinating Career Service office(s). No additional recruiting services (e.g., Candidate Search, information sessions, on-campus interviewing) will be provided.

Third-party recruiters are expected to follow these additional policies beyond those that govern all employers’ recruiting at ISU:

Job Postings

Only submit postings tied directly to an individual employer and specific opportunity; no generic postings designed for the collection of resumes on behalf of a large number of employers will be permitted.
Provide complete job descriptions, clearly indicating that you are a third-party recruiter acting on behalf of an employer client.
Provide the name of the employer client for whom you are recruiting in the job description unless this information is confidential. Regardless of confidentiality, you must disclose the employer client’s name to ISU Career Services staff via the posting submission form; employer client names will be held in confidence by ISU Career Services and will not be released to students.
Do not use or store student information, including resumes, obtained for a specific job opening for any subsequent job openings or for soliciting employer clients, except where specifically agreed to in writing by the student.

Career Fairs

Disclose upon registration whether you are recruiting at the event for your internal hiring needs, for employer clients, or both. If you are recruiting for employer clients, disclose the names of the employer clients to Career Services in advance of the fair.
Do not collect student information, including resumes, at the fair without disclosing that you are a third-party recruiter and discussing for which positions the student would like to be considered. Do not use or store the collected information obtained for any subsequent job openings or for soliciting employer clients, except where specifically agreed to in writing by the student.
Do not solicit business from potential employer clients during the fair.

Start-Ups

We support the culture of innovation at ISU. Because CyHire is a career/recruitment platform, it may only be used to seek employees, not investors or partners. Start-ups that wish to post their opportunities to CyHire must meet the following eligibility criteria:

The company must have a FEIN (Tax ID), state registration, and licenses that are required for their industry. Exceptions for student ventures may be made to this standard only on the Student Job Board at the discretion of Student Employment.
The company must offer positions for pay, not just equity, and be transparent about benefits.
The positions posted must include detailed responsibilities, supervision structure, expected hours per week, and work modality.

Unpaid Internships

It is our goal that all internships be paid opportunities. It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that unpaid internships in the for-profit sector meet the primary beneficiary test outlined by the Department of Labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Internship pay rates vary by field of study, and ISU Career Services may be able to provide employers with major-specific information.

Unpaid or volunteer opportunities are not allowed on the Student Job Board; unpaid internships may be posted on the professional job board in CyHire. However, posting does not guarantee that the internship will be approved for registration as an internship course at the college or department level, since each academic unit maintains its own internship requirements and eligibility standards

Right to Make Exceptions

We reserve the right to make exceptions to these guidelines as warranted by special circumstances (i.e., in certain situations deemed acceptable and beneficial to our students, ISU Career Services and Student Employment, the University, or employers using our services) and in accordance with applicable laws. Such exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Any exception made does not constitute a change in policy, nor is there a guarantee that this same decision will apply in the future.

Right to Refuse Recruiting Privileges

We reserve the right to deny or suspend the recruiting privileges of any employer who violates these policies, university policies, state laws, or federal laws, or those not operating in the best interest of students or the university.

Principles of Community

According to ISU’s strategic plan, we strive to be a university that “cultivates a welcoming and respectful environment where all students, faculty and staff flourish.” The Principles of Community are the foundation for cultivating a welcoming and respectful environment at ISU. The six Principles of Community are: Respect, Purpose, Cooperation, Richness of Diversity, Freedom from Discrimination, and Honest and Respectful Expression of Ideas.

Our students each hold a unique combination of life experiences and social identities that influence the strengths and skills that they apply to their educational and professional goals. As our partners, we ask that you honor our Principles of Community as you interact with ISU students throughout the entire recruitment process.

Job Offers

We encourage employers to provide students with as much time as possible to evaluate job offers so they may make informed decisions. Equitable recruiting timelines and clear, upfront, and transparent communication about the recruiting process and the rationale or business purpose driving that process help to minimize student reneges and maximize the quality of hiring.

Employers should adhere to the guidelines outlined in the NACE Advisory Opinion: Setting Reasonable Deadlines for Job Offers. Additionally, we expect that:

Job offers are made in writing; verbal offers should be promptly followed up with written documentation of the offer’s terms.
Employers consider reasonable student requests for deadline extensions on a case-by-case basis.
Exploding offers are not used as a mechanism to pressure or influence students to prematurely accept an offer. We define exploding offers as any offer that links the terms of the offer to the speed of acceptance. This may include diminishing compensation, reduced options for location preferences, or non-guaranteed position availability (e.g., “10 offers have been made but only 8 spots are available”). Reports of exploding offers will prompt a review and may lead to the termination of recruiting privileges.

Rescinded and Reneged Job Offers

Extending a job offer (by employers) and accepting a job offer (by students) is a serious commitment that we expect both parties to honor. If there are extenuating circumstances that may impact the viability of an offer, we are available for proactive consultation prior to the offer being extended or accepted.

An employer’s rescission or deferment of a job offer should only happen in rare and unavoidable circumstances when there are no realistic alternatives. The NACE Advisory Option: Rescinded and Deferred Employment Offers outlines ethical and legal considerations for when these unavoidable circumstances arise. Students who have been impacted by a rescinded or deferred offer may consult with a) ISU Career Services or Student Employment to report their experience and receive support with restarting their job search and b) with Student Legal Services to explore if any legal recourse is available. Repeated reports from students of rescinded offers will prompt a review and may lead to termination of the recruiting relationship.

A student’s reneging of a job offer (i.e., declining an offer that was previously accepted) should likewise only happen in rare and unavoidable circumstances. Reneging may damage a student’s reputation and job prospects in both the short- and long-term; it may also jeopardize ISU’s recruiting relationship with affected employers and, thus, impact what opportunities are available to future ISU students. Once a student accepts an offer, we expect that they will not submit additional job applications and (as relevant) will remove themselves from outstanding job application and interview processes. If a student is unwilling to take those steps, they are encouraged to consult with an ISU Career Services or Student Employment advisor to evaluate the offer’s relevancy to their career goals and their options, which may include asking for an extension or professionally declining the offer. Reports from employers of reneged offers will prompt a review and may lead to restricted access to CyHire.

Recruiting International Students

We strongly encourage employers to include international students in their recruiting efforts. Student immigration statuses offer work authorization opportunities for international students and recent graduates to work in their field of study without much paperwork or any cost to the employer. Most international students come to the U.S. on an F-1 or J-1 nonimmigrant visa. Each status has a different set of regulatory requirements for employment. These requirements are outlined in the guide below, prepared by ISU’s International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO).

The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits citizenship status and national origin discrimination with respect to hiring. We expect employers to follow the Best Practices for Employers Recruiting and Hiring Workers established by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

Last Updated: September 12, 2025