Handshake is the newest job searching software Career Services recently adopted for Charger Path that aims to help all UAH students and alumni find meaningful careers. Described as a mashup between Facebook and LinkedIn, Handshake has the best of both worlds by pairing the social with the professional. It is clean, easy to use, and incredibly user-friendly. The website and app allow students to track jobs and connect with their peers in a professional, encouraging setting. After spending some time jumping around on the website, it is easy to see why we made the transition. For students, there are four main tabs to employ and we are going to break them down below:
- For You - similar to your Facebook feed, the For You tab is a mashup of all the different aspects of Handshake. It shares different people from your university you may be interested in connecting with, upcoming events, potential job postings, internships, etc. The coolest thing about Handshake is how unique it is to each student. When you make your account, you answer a number of questions so that the software best caters to you and creates an individual experience for every student. This is reflected as you scroll through your feed and see specific jobs that the system believes are a good fit for you. It is amazing how well the system creates an atmosphere that fits exactly what you are looking for.
- Jobs - the jobs tab is specifically tailored to your major, minor, and any keywords associated with either of them. The page searches for jobs in your area for anything that aligns with anything from above. What is also awesome about this page is the ability to search for jobs with specific keywords and different locations. This allows a lot of freedom to search around the country specific to your major or minor. Even within that, there are more qualifiers to fit the job exactly as you want it - full-time, part-time, internship, and on-campus. The site truly puts the power into your hands and allows us to filter exactly what we are looking for in order to find the best fit.
- Events - the events page keeps everyone up to date about upcoming events that would be beneficial to the student. Along with that are the options to see more details about the event, RSVP, and see how many other students are going. Within this page too there is the option to request an appointment, making it much easier to access all of the aid Career Services has to offer. You can request mock interviews, resume help, career planning, and LinkedIn assistance, just to name a few. Again, there is this constant theme on Handshake of user accessibility. It has everything a student would need to plan for their future career.
- Students - the Students page allows all users to connect to other students within the system. Not only does it make specific suggestions for students to connect with, it also allows filtered searches so you can have control over who you want to find. You can filter using school year, major, previous employers, and student organizations so that you may be engaged with students who share similar backgrounds or experiences. This is such a phenomenal tool that will allow UAH students to connect quickly and easily to others within a similar community.
Overall, Handshake brings a fresh, clean look that is incredibly user-friendly and puts the power in the hands of the students. You have complete control over the jobs you want, people you connect with, and future events. This was a simple breakdown of the different areas of the software. If you have any other questions be sure to check out this link
here to learn more about optimizing your Handshake experience.
