2020–2021 Handshake Newsletter Archive

HOW TO COMPLETE/UPDATE STUDENT PROFILES

Students who fill out their Handshake profiles are more likely to find the career that best suits them. Why? To put it simply, they will get more relevant job recommendations and an increased likelihood of being messaged by a recruiter on Handshake.

It's recommended students update their resume and profile (GPA, Classification, etc) at least once per semester to ensure they are getting access to information that is most relevant for them.

FUN FACTS OF THE MONTH

What is the difference between total logins and unique logins? Total logins is the number of all logins over time. Unique logins account for the same user to login more than once; meaning it only counts the user as one login even if they login more than once in a given time period.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (major, school year, degree, etc.) is self-reported or not reported at all.

BEHIND THE SCENES 

Students are marketed to based on data in their completed profiles.
What does a completed profile on GoldPASS powered by Handshake look like? A completed profile has all the student's information filled in with a professional profile photo. You can refer to the “How to” section of this newsletter to see everything that must be filled in.

SEPTEMBER JOB COMPARISONS

In September 2019, there were a total of 2986 active opportunities posted and in September 2020, there were 1868 active opportunities posted on GoldPASS powered by Handshake. While the COVID-19 has impacted the job market, you can see that there are still professional opportunities being posted for our students.

HOW TO UPLOAD AND EDIT DOCUMENTS

Some employers recruit directly through GoldPASS and will reach out to students who make a good first impression. Uploading documents - such as resumes, cover letters, transcripts, and work samples - helps students stand out and showcase their current skills and accomplishments.

Updating and editing documents on Handshake is simple!

FUN FACT OF THE MONTH

What is a resume? A resume is a document created and used by a person to present their background, skills, and accomplishments.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. This data was recorded on November 2nd, 2020 and encompasses all resumes uploaded at the time.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Did you know students cannot apply to jobs through Handshake without having an approved resume on file? Some colleges review the student’s resume to ensure they make a good first impression with employers. This can take up to two business days. The colleges that review the first resumes are: CLA, CSE, CFANS, CDes, CCAPS, CEHD, CBS, and UMD.

OCTOBER JOB COMPARISONS

Job prospects aren't as bleak as you might think. Comparing the data for October 2019 to October 2020, there was only an 11% drop in the number of jobs posted on GoldPASS powered by Handshake.

    Step 1: Click their name in the top right corner, then click on Career Interests in the drop-down box.

    Step 2: Pick preferences for each category
    Step 3: Save the career interests by clicking the green button in the bottom right corner.

FUN FACTS OF THE MONTH

Students set personal goals to help not only guide themselves but also to let their career service office know what to help them with. 

Student industry interests are reported by the students themselves, giving career services a general view of where our students hope to work. (To see a full list of student industry interests click the graph below)

So we have more information to help students with their career exploration whenever possible encourage students to fill out their career interests.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. This data was recorded on December 3rd, 2020 and encompasses all interests recorded at the time.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Machine Learning (aka Artificial Intelligence or AI) is the technology that drives what shows up at the top of a student's Handshake home screen. Students completing their career interests aids the AI to learn what career opportunities the individual user is most interested in.
If you'd like to learn more about AI & Machine Learning here are a couple resources for you: z.umn.edu/machine-learning  z.umn.edu/what-is-machine-learning 

NOVEMBER JOB COMPARISONS

The number of jobs posted in November 2020 dropped slightly compared to November 2019. However, there were still over 4,500 jobs posted on Goldpass!

HOW TO UPDATE NOTIFICATIONS 

GoldPASS powered by Handshake allows students to receive notifications when various activities (e.g., jobs, events, fairs, interviews) occur that they are interested in knowing about.

FUN FACT OF THE MONTH

Employers approved by UMN can see and reach out to students with public profiles.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data was collected on December 16th, 2020.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Staff can invite students to fairs and events, but only if students have their notification preferences set to allow messages from Handshake.

DECEMBER JOB COMPARISONS

Wrapping up 2020 - December's job postings continue to show that there are many job postings on GoldPASS.

HOW TO CHANGE PROFILE VISIBILITY AND CONNECT WITH RECRUITERS

Students can change their profile’s privacy settings by going to settings and scrolling down to the privacy box. There they can change the visibility of their profile to community, employers or private. Once a student’s profile is set to employer or community, they can receive messages from recruiters about open opportunities, fairs, events, and more.

FUN FACTS OF THE MONTH

Employers are the organizations approved at the U of M that are able to post professional opportunities, sign up for on-campus interviews, register for fairs, and more.

Contacts are the recruiters who work at the organizations.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected on February 9th, 2021.

Data collected on February 16th, 2021.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Ensuring our students have access to bonafide organizations is a priority for Handshake and UMN Career Services.  Handshake has an Employer Trust Score built into their technology, and career services review the legitimacy of all organizations prior to making them visible to our students and alumni. 

It's helpful for students to create saved searches in GoldPASS so they can have a set of criteria to come back to when searching for opportunities. Creating a saved search allows students to set up alerts when a new position is posted that meets their needs. From there they can apply internally or externally on GoldPASS.

FUN FACTS OF THE MONTH

All opportunities on GoldPASS are professional in nature and align with the majors offered at the 5 U of M campus locations.

Cooperative Education: A combination of classroom-based education with practical work experience
Experiential Learning: “Learn by doing” method

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected on: March 3rd, 2021

BEHIND THE SCENES
 

Ensuring UMN students have access to opportunities that will set them up for success is very important to Career Services. This means that we review every posting on GoldPASS. We look to make sure postings are professional and align with our majors. We do our due diligence to check for potential phishing opportunities.

FEBRUARY JOB COMPARISONS

February 2021 took the cake for most job postings out of the past three years!
With a total of 8,189 jobs posted compared to 7,446 in 2020 and 5,468 in 2019.

Before a student applies to their first job on Handshake, they are prompted to fill out questions about work authorization. Each student chooses whether or not they want to disclose their international student status by selecting “prefer not to answer” or by answering yes to both of the work authorization status questions. Answering these questions and using the CPT/OPT and sponsorship filtering options when searching for a job is a great way to find international-friendly employers.

FUN FACTS OF THE MONTH
 

Curricular Practical Training (CPT): work authorization which allows a student to work in a job directly related to the student‘s major area of study before/until degree completion.

Optional Practical Training (OPT): work authorization which allows a student to work in a job directly related to the student‘s major area of study either before or after degree completion. 

International students are encouraged to connect with UMN ISSS to learn more about work authorization and receive support.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected on March 24th, 2021.

* Data collected on April 8th, 2021.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected on February 9th, 2021.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Employers that participate in the UMN Job and Internship Fair are sent out one of two emails, by Jane Sitter, if they have selected no to consideration of international student candidates using CPT/OPT. These emails offer a chance to connect with our staff to talk more about CPT/OPT.

Below are the condensed steps Jane takes around Career Fair events, mainly the UMJF and other fairs when requested, to do outreach to employers around international student hiring consideration. 

For additional context/explanation Jane can be contacted at [email protected].

MARCH JOB COMPARISONS

The job market is thriving on GoldPASS! In March 2021 the number of jobs created was double that of March 2019.

Students and Alumni can access resources specifically curated by their career centers on Handshake. These resources offer multiple angles and tips for students that are searching for careers.

FUN FACT OF THE MONTH

Currently, there are six universal resources for students to use. On top of these six resources there may be more resources specific to the student’s college.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected April 28th, 2021.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Did you know superusers can add resources for your college's students? These resources can be industry specific or general to all students. Adding resources to the resource library is a great way to reach many students with career content!

APRIL JOB COMPARISONS

April brought over 10,000 jobs to GoldPASS powered by Handshake; double the amount of jobs in 2020!

Handshake has made it possible for students to quick-apply to jobs! As long as a student meets the requirements and has an uploaded resume, they can go directly to the final submission form with a click. After students apply to an opportunity, they will be given the “submitted” status; this status will be changed by the employer as the applicant is reviewed.

Handshake makes applying to jobs so easy that in the past year, over 25,000 students have applied to various job opportunities! Application volume peaks at the beginning of both fall and spring semesters.

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected on May 12th, 2021.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Employer Relations (ER) staff use Handshake student job application data to reach out to new organizations of interest to U of M students. If these organizations are not actively engaging on campus, ER staff reach out to further deepen our connections.

*Actively engaging means: attending career fairs or events, hosting information sessions and more.

MAY JOB COMPARISONS

May’s job count this year shows an outstanding increase in job postings compared to the past two years.

INTRODUCING THE 
HANDSHAKE CAREER SERVICES STUDENT DATA DASHBOARD
Take a look at historical UMN-specific recruiting and job search data from Handshake since it's launch in May 2018. We tell the story of who posts at the U, and what they've posted, including:

• Maps of organizations - can be filtered by industry
• Lists of organizations - can be filtered by industry
• Postings by job role, type (job or internship), and location
• Historically, when positions have been posted

The dashboard can be found on the GoldPASS site, and on career.umn.edu. Share with your students to highlight the volume and variety of opportunities on Handshake, trends across industries/job functions, and recruiting timelines by industry/job function.

Peer Messaging gives students and alumni the ability to make their Handshake profiles visible to other students and alumni across the network of Handshake schools, and to message them! This feature is aimed at giving students even greater ability to connect with and learn from their peers.  

*In order to send and receive messages from other students and alumni in Handshake, profile privacy must be set to Community.

FUN FACTS OF THE MONTH

Peer messaging is a great way for our students to connect. With six templates that associate with different categories, it makes connecting even easier for students!

*Data Disclaimer: At this time, nearly all student information (school year and college) is self-reported or not reported at all. Data collected on July 14^th 2021, with a total of 897 messages.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Did you know that alumni have access indefinitely to messaging? Once a student graduates with a degree at any of our five campuses, they have access to Handshake as an alumni.

JUNE JOB COMPARISONS

More than half of the days in June set new highs for the number of jobs on GoldPASS compared to past years!

COMING SOON

August will bring a big change to the GoldPASS powered by Handshake Update newsletter. The newsletter will be getting a new name, Handshake at the University of Minnesota.