Ready to start using Handshake? Great! Here are five quick steps you can take to jump-start your Handshake experience!
1. Login to Handshake. You should have a link from the email your Career Services Center sent you. If you don't have that email, try finding your school's Handshake page using this URL convention: SCHOOLNAME.joinhandshake.com. Once you're on your school's page, see if you can locate your school in the drop down menu. If not, select Sign Up Here in the upper right corner of the page to create a new account.
2. Upload a document. You'll likely want to have a public resume available in Handshake for employers (and your school's Career Development Services team) to see. To learn more about how to upload a document, refer to How to Upload a New Document.
3. Fill out your profile.
- If your school has partnered with Handshake, some of your information may already be in your Handshake profile (this information would have been provided by your Career Services Center, usually with support from the school registrar). Check to be sure all pre-loaded information is correct, especially your major and GPA (if included). If you find any errors, contact your school's Career Services Center to correct it.
- Note: Handshake is unable to change any of your profile data, so working with your school is best!
- You'll need to decide on your profile privacy level: Community, Employers, or Private. You can read more about these options here.
- If you choose Employers or Community privacy level, keep in mind the more information you add to your profile, the easier it will be for employers to find you and make more thorough decisions about whether or not you might be a good fit for their job opportunities.
4. Take Handshake for a spin. Use the landing page, top search bar, and filters to look for companies and jobs you're interested in learning more about or applying to. Remember, you can always save your searches in Handshake, so finding relevant employers and jobs will be easy.
5. Follow some jobs and employers you're interested in. When you follow an employer or a job, you can begin filtering based on companies you follow. You'll also receive alerts when the job application window is closing or when an employer is attending an event or fair at your school.
Once you've taken these five steps, you'll be on your way to using Handshake to help you efficiently and effectively launch your career.
