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Career Services Sandbox: Building a Handshake Profile

Handshake is CCV’s career management platform. It allows you to create a professional profile and post your resume, search for jobs, learn more about local and national companies, attend career events, connect with CCV Career Services resources, and more. Building a professional profile makes it easier for employers to get to know you when you attend an event or apply for jobs, and it allows Handshake to highlight the postings you find most relevant. You will need to access Handshake via the website and not the app to complete your profile.

UPLOADING A RESUME

The easiest way to build your profile is by uploading a Career Services-approved resume:

  • Once logged in, click on your icon in the upper right corner. Choose “My Documents.”
  • Click “Add Document” and choose your file.
  • On the file preview, click “Build Profile from Resume.”
  • Review and add the imported information.

COMPLETING YOUR PROFILE PAGE

After uploading your resume, or if building your profile from scratch, click on your icon in the upper right corner and click “My Profile.”

  • Photo: If you decide to include a photo on your profile, use a professional-looking headshot free of background clutter and distractions.
  • Privacy: This shows your profile privacy setting. For more options, see “Settings.”
  • Your Interests: Here, you can enter information about the types of positions you’re seeking. For more comprehensive options, see “My Career Interests.”
  • Personal Information: This is where you can add pronouns and demographic information. Pronouns may be shared, but demographics are hidden from employers.
  • Skills: Include all technical and transferable/soft skills that make you a good candidate in your field. If you’re not sure what to add, search job postings to see what employers are looking for. Recruiters can filter potential candidates by skill, so don’t skip this section!
  • My Journey: This is the first section employers see if they click to view more about you and is a great place to include a professional summary or “elevator pitch.” What do you want employers to know about you in a few sentences?
  • Education: If you imported information in this section, click the name of the school you want to edit. You may choose to show or hide your GPA.
  • Work & Volunteer Experience: This section should look like a resume. Include all recent work and internship experience and any relevant volunteer work. For help crafting a stand-out experience section, please visit the CCV Resume Workshop. Tip: To use bullet marks, copy and paste from a word processing program.
  • Organizations & Extracurriculars: Add any clubs or honors societies you’ve taken part in at the college level. This is also a good place to add any volunteer work that’s not directly relevant to your field.
  • Courses: Help employers understand your training by including relevant coursework. Be sure to use the exact course name and number so that employers can find details in the CCV catalog if needed.
  • Projects: This is a good place to add any relevant information that didn’t fit in other sections, like projects completed for class, competitions you took part in, etc.

MY DOCUMENTS

Store documents here to apply for jobs faster. You can have multiple resumes, cover letters, transcripts, and other documents (such as writing samples, images of work, diversity statements, etc.), but they must be PDF or Word files.

MY CAREER INTERESTS 

To get job and event recommendations specific to your interests, complete the survey on the “My Career Interests” page.

SETTINGS

To change some of your account basics, visit the “Settings” page.

  • Account Information: Add an alternate email address so that you can access your Handshake account after you’ve graduated or get notifications to your personal email.
  • Privacy: If your account is set to “Private,” recruiters won’t be able to contact you unless you contact them first, and you won’t be able to attend events through Handshake. If set to “Employers,” you may attend events and get messages from recruiters, but you won’t be able to message other students.
  • Calendar Export: You can automatically sync your Handshake events like career fairs, interviews, and Career Services appointments to your personal or school calendar with the URL provided.

For more step-by-step directions, visit Handshake’s Profile articles.