Students and alumni have the same access on Handshake with a Student account. However, some features may only be available to those who are attending the current year.
The features available to your account will depend on:
- your account's connection with an institution instance
- You may need to be approved by the institution to access all of their offerings.
- your institution's partnership status with Handshake
- An institution is considered a Handshake partner if the Career Services Centre has chosen to manage your institution's instance and use Handshake for additional features, such as managing Appointments, internships (via Experiences), First Destination Surveys, and more.
- Institutions that haven't yet partnered with us may still have an institution instance as part of the Handshake Open Network. Read more about our goals for Expanding Our Efforts to Help All Students Find Opportunity.
Note: to use Handshake as a current student or alum, you'll need a Student account. Refer to Getting Started with Handshake for more information!
Click on the expandable headers to learn more!
Not connected to an institution in Handshake?
If your account isn't connected to an institution instance yet, you can manage your profile and access public career fairs on Handshake. This is typical if you created a new account and your institution request is pending.
For more information on how to get connected with an institution, check out If You Can Only Access Profile and Fairs.
If you attend a Handshake-partner institution
Once you're connected to a Handshake-partner institution, your institution's Career Centre is linked on the homepage and on the left navigation bar.
Use these links to connect with your Career Services staff, schedule appointments, complete a First Destination Survey, take a survey, or check out additional resources your career centre has created for you!
If you attend an institution that hasn't yet partnered with Handshake
If you're connected to an institution that hasn't yet partnered with Handshake, you can:
- manage your profile
- access fairs and events hosted by Handshake-partner institutions that are public
- apply to jobs posted by a subset of trusted employers
The key way to identify if your institution is a Handshake partner or not is if there is no Career Centre link. The Career Centre link is displayed on the homepage and the left navigation menu. If there's no Career Centre available to you, and your request to connect isn't pending, this means your institution is not a Handshake partner yet.
If you're enjoying your experience on Handshake, feel free to encourage your career centre to formally partner with us and we can unlock additional benefits for you and your institution!