A firm handshake isn’t the only thing that will help NSU students get jobs.
The Office of Career Development launched Handshake, a new career database to help students search for jobs and internships, on July 1.
Through Handshake, a career networking platform specifically designed for college students and recent graduates, students can apply for jobs and internships, RSVP for career events and network with potential employers. Handshake features thousands of job and internship opportunities from companies of all sizes, from local business to Fortune 500 companies.
Associate Director of Career Advisement and Pre-Professional Services Mignon Bissonnette said the office’s main goal for Handshake is to engage students and provide them with adequate resources to find jobs or internships.
“When students log on, they’ll see that the design of the platform is super smart and very engaging. It looks a lot like social media,” Bissonnette said.
According to Bissonnette, Handshake is quickly becoming one of the top career databases in the country, and is used at top universities like Stanford, Cornell and the University of Miami.
The more often students use Handshake, the more individualized the program gets. Handshake uses a unique algorithm to log student’s searches and predict which jobs and internships each individual student would find most relevant.
Students can log into Handshake using their NSU login. Once their account is registered, students can fill out a personal profile detailing their professional skills, qualifications and previous work experience. Completing the personal profile and uploading a resume allows employers to quickly evaluate a student’s qualifications and may help Career Development match students with a job or internship offer.
Any current NSU student or alumni will have complete access to Handshake. Once students are registered within the platform they can continue to use Handshake for as long as they would like, even after graduation.
Bissonnette said, “Both students and alumni are eligible to use the platform. It doesn’t matter if they graduated last year or ten years ago; we want to continue supporting both our current students and alums.”
The Office of Career Development decided to make the switch to Handshake after discovering that the previous platform, CareerShark, was difficult to navigate and did not efficiently aid students in their search for employment.
Bissonnette said, “We had done a survey during the winter semester, and we found that a lot of students just weren’t using the old system because it wasn’t engaging or user friendly. With Handshake, students have had a lot of great feedback so far. There haven’t been any issues, since the platform is so colorful and user friendly.”
In addition to offering employment resources, Handshake also houses an online document library. The document library will feature literature concerning topics such as graduate programs, potential career paths, interview procedure and networking etiquette.
For more information or to register for an account, visit nova.joinhandshake.com.
PHOTO CREDIT: M. BIGNON
