Over the summer, the University of Arizona’s office of Student Engagement and Career Development released Handshake — a new portal to apply for on-campus jobs and internships.
“We moved from Wildcat Joblink to Handshake to take advantage of better software to connect students to jobs, internships, career events and opportunities,” said Susan Kaleita, UA’s senior employment director.
The move will save the UA money and has been positively received by students, according to Kaleita.
In August alone, more than 9,800 UA students, a quarter of the student population, logged into their customizable Handshake accounts with their Net ID according to the internal data recorded.
Once logged in, “there are jobs of all kinds on Handshake for students to apply for,” Kaleita said.
So far, students have taken advantage of these opportunities, sending in more than 6,800 applications.
According to Kaleita, more than 3,000 of student applications in August have been approved.
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One student who had an application approved was Rodrigo Silva Mendoza, a computer science and Spanish major.
After setting up his profile, Silva Mendoza successfully applied for an internship at the Planetary Science Institute.
“Handshake was extremely easy and intuitive to use,” Silva Mendoza said, “and there are some really useful, well-designed features.”
Silva Mendoza found the site much more useful and easy to navigate compared to Joblink.
“The job posting page did a very good job in sorting jobs by their relevance, in terms of age, experience and major requirements from the companies that posted to me,” Silva Mendoza said.
Silva Mendoza discovered an internship to develop web, mobile and desktop applications for PSI.
“I would encourage students to get into Handshake and try it,” Kaleita said. “More importantly, fill out your career interests because Handshake will use that information to suggest increasingly relevant jobs and events to you.”
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Another benefit of Handshake is companies recruiting on Handshake at other universities can ask and be vetted by the UA to recruit on campuses.
Just in August, UA added more than 800 companies to its Handshake, along with its already established partners from Joblink.
According to Kalieta, UA alumni have access to Handshake and can more easily access the program compared to Joblink because they can create their own custom login.
The UA continues to encourage students to log into their accounts by email and by touring table.
The Handshake Roadshow, a table staffed by faculty to inform students about the portal, will continue to tour campus through Sept. 18.
The university plans to aggregate the data obtained from student profiles to target companies in industries and cities UA students express an interest in.
Students can log into their Handshake account, fill out their profile and browse jobs at arizona.joinhandshake.com.
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