For Career Coaches and Counselors

On This Page

Resources to Share with Students

 

Videos to Share with Students

Presentation Material

Printables for your Office (PDFs)

Tips for Helping Students

Tips for explaining Handshake

  1. Recruiters are specifically looking for early and transitioning talent
  2. Much more than a job board
  3. Be proactive and reach out to employers and other students
  4. Share analytics
  5. See the Handshake at UMN newsletter, which goes to the CDN and AAN listservs. In each issue, it includes a: 
    • Resource highlight: Resources to help staff, coaches, and advisors promote Handshake
    • Product feature: Information and tips for helping students strategically use the platform
    • Handshake by the numbers: A new data visualization each month with a how-to for accessing the data yourself

Top things employers search for

  • Job interests
  • Previous work experience
  • Skills
  • Clubs and organizations

Employers use a combination of these factors to find candidates. For students to show up in more searches and receive relevant outreach from employers, they should fill them out. 

Tips to help students find relevant jobs

  1. Encourage complete profiles, saving jobs, and favoriting employers - this will drive more relevant recommendations and search results 
  2. Search by job type and location, then job role and specific keyword
  3. Share the important keywords for your majors or career fields  
  4. Have students sign up for email digests to automate part of the job search
  5. Share jobs, job roles, and employer collections with your students via Targeted Emails

Using Handshake for career research

  • The Employers section of Handshake is a great tool for finding organizations of interest based on size, location, industry, and alumni employers.
  • Employer profiles can have information on their interviewing process from past candidates, reviews from students/alumni who have worked there, Q&A and tips from the company, recent company news, and upcoming events the employer is attending.
  • Use the major filter or 'Popular in your major' button in the jobs section to see how industries align with a given major.
  • Take a look at jobs in their field(s) of interest and look at the common qualifications. Does major matter? Which majors align? What other qualifications are important?

Help students build connections

  • Virtually chat with employers: Job postings show if the employer has made themselves available for questions. Share these messaging tips or your own to help students get comfortable with the idea.
  • Public staff lists and Students who have worked there: Company profiles allow students to message students who have worked there and current staff who have purposefully made themselves availabe for connecting.
  • On campus and virtual interviews through Handshake: Select the 'Interviewing on campus' filter in Jobs or go to 'My Meetings' in the profile drop-down and select the On-Campus Interviews tab at the top.
  • Use peer messaging to network with students from any of Handshake's schools based on majors, student organization affiliation, previous employers, or school year. 
  • Alumni hub: As a career coach, if you have a career services Handshake account, you can search the alumni hub to help students more easily connect them with alumni at a company of interest.
  • Access the Maroon and Gold Network from the Resources section of Handshake.

Pulling Handshake Data

Handshake provides access to data on student and employer activity. You are encouraged to use this information in your counseling! There are multiple ways you can access Handshake data:

1. Handshake dashboards: The easiest way to quickly access current and historical data is through Handshake’s curated dashboards. Go to Analytics in the left toolbar and select the Dashboards tab. If you do not have access to Analytics, request access from your Superuser.

2. UMN curated data dashboards: These dashboards have a lot more filtering options than Handshake's dashboards. Career Services Administration updates them each semester. They have data from 2018 through the most recent semester. 

  • Please note: These data dashboards are not currently accessible via screen readers. We are working to fix this issue as quickly as possible.

3. Custom reports: For full access to all available Handshake data, create custom reports by going to Analytics in the left toolbar and selecting the blue button Create Report in the upper right hand corner. We ask that you complete Handshake’s analytics training if you are going to build custom reports to ensure accurate data is being pulled.  

4. Talk to your Handshake Superuser!

Emailing students in Handshake

Under the Communicate heading in the left navigation select Emails to send targeted emails based on student characteristics such as major, year, etc. Send targeted emails to promote jobs, events, or career fairs to students in the majors you work with. 

Handshake Training for Counselors and Coaches

Canvas course: Career Services Administration provides a centralized training course, Handshake UMN Employee Onboarding, for staff members using Handshake at the University of Minnesota. Request access to the course from your Superuser or Jess Hoarn ([email protected]), Handshake Program Manager. 

The course is set up modularly depending on your role. We recommend the following modules for career counselors:

  • Account Setup
  • Handshake Orientation
  • Students & Alumni module
  • Events and Fairs

Depending on the counselor's responsibilities these modules may also be applicable:

  • Marketing to Students
  • Experiences

For peer advisor supervisors: Complete office specific training on your document review process (for approving resumes)