Handshake Tips & Tricks You Must Know

The Best Job Hunt App For Students

Handshake is an incredible tool for getting a job as a domestic or international student. And you want to make sure you use it.

I thought we could go through a brief run-through of what's in Handshake, how you can use it, and how you can take advantage of it because I think this might be a great way to save some time in your job hunt. 

There are three things that you can find on Handshake:

• Jobs
• Events
• Employers

There are some important menu items there, and then “messages” and “career center.” 

If you have any messages - as you've successfully applied or been invited to an interview - you're going to get a message in the inbox and the career center link is right there. You can jump into your career center any time and use their resources.

Did you know that most people don't take advantage of this platform?

Use Your Interests To Find The Jobs You Want 

Now that you are at your university's Handshake center, you can jump in here and you can check out all of these events. You can have virtual time with employers - very cool and a great opportunity for you. 

The next steps are to do professional outreach and in the Career Accelerator Program that's what we focus on - we look at how to professionally follow up on opportunities like summits and career fair events so you hear back, you get the interviews, and get the offer. 

When in Handshake, you're going to find a whole bunch of opportunities, and depending on how you have set your settings and what you're interested in, you're going to get recommendations. 

For example, a job on Warner Media for Spring 2022 as a virtual intern technical business analyst. Perfect. Right? We can see this person is interested in the media and this has popped up on their Handshake screen.

Some schools, depending on their relationships with employers, are going to do their best to give you exactly what you're looking for and make it easier for you to apply. 

Case Study: Jumping into the PayPal Job Description Together

We will do a job offer to see how to do it, so let's jump right into it - a data analyst internship at PayPal. 

The first thing to note is that when you apply, you're always going to want to apply externally as well.

“Always apply on both locations - on Handshake and externally.”

You'll want to use that link - go through their process, go through their application process and enter in your information. 

Look at the full description - I went through an example with Blackstone in an earlier video about how we want to understand the job description. 

Always remember that things are presented in order of priority, highest priority first and least priority last.

Essential Cover Letter Advice

When you are applying for jobs and writing cover letters for these kinds of jobs, don't be tempted to jump down to the basic requirements and say, “oh, I've got that”. 

I want to encourage you to use the bullet points above and the very top role description, because recruiters are looking for you to reflect that back in your application. 

The one point to remember is that when you're applying online, you're writing a cover letter. It's best to reflect back to people the company's own language. I'm not saying copy and paste verbatim, but reflect back their language in how you write about yourself and the top section.

“Use key phrases from the job description text in your cover letter - this helps demonstrate the fit for what you are looking for.”

Try to talk about how you “thrive on innovation and collaboration and inclusion” for example.

In this role specifically, they're looking for people who will be delivering or contributing both technical skills and business acumen. When you're preparing your cover letter, speak to these bullet points at the top.

For example, an example where you made data visually appealing. So a visualization - if you did one of those visualization projects in school or in a previous internship - emphasize that in your cover letter.

Think about it. Have you done that before? Have you done something that might be described as a data pipeline then include that in your application?

Conclusion

Handshake is a great place to be looking for jobs and to find things that are interesting to you like events, and a platform that you can use simultaneously with others like LinkedIn.

“You might find roles through Indeed or LinkedIn, but Handshake should be a priority for you because that's where your school has a relationship with the firms.”

You're actually going to get more information here, like the name of the campus recruiter or the name of the responsible person. 

Start by applying and once you've applied, follow up with the sequence of professional messaging - I cover that in my training called Job Offer Messaging. 

This course teaches the type of messaging that you would want to do after you have applied to follow up because once you've applied on Handshake, the deal isn't done - that doesn't give you the interview, but the people that follow up will let the recruiter know that they have applied and would like to meet them.

My advice? Reach out to them and follow up. Those are the ways that you get your resume seen, by creating relationships. You are not getting the job just by finding it on Handshake, and logging in. 

If you have any questions, please comment below and let me know if you thought this was helpful.

Is there anything that you would like to learn more about? Let me know as well.