From searching jobs and internships to making an appointment with a career coach, Handshake is your go-to tool for all things career at Boston College.听
Handshake How-to Guide
Complete Your Profile & Customize Your Preferences
The key to success on Handshake is completing your profile and customizing your preferences. Once you fill out your profile, Handshake will curate a feed of jobs, internships, and events that match your interests and skills.
Watch the below video for a step-by-step guide to setting up your profile and indicating your preferences. 听
How to:
- To begin, log in to your Handshake account.听If you鈥檝e never logged in before, activate your account by logging in to the , selecting Boston College as your school, and using your Agora Username and password. The activation process takes about 5 minutes.
- Customize your profile by clicking on the circle with your initials at the top right hand corner of your profile. Scroll down and click on 鈥渕y profile鈥�.
- Complete all sections of your profile, including work experience, courses, extracurricular activities, and more. Add a photo and summary to help your profile stand out.听
- Fill out your interests and skills sections. This is key to employers discovering your profile. If your interests change, you can update your profile at any time.听
- To receive cluster-specific newsletters, select individual industries that you are interested in under the interests section of your profile. To see which newsletters correspond to each industry, please refer to .听
- Like your resume and LinkedIn profile, make sure to keep your Handshake profile up to date and relevant.
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Privacy:
To adjust your privacy settings, click on the circle with your initials at the top right hand corner of your homepage. Then, click 鈥渟ettings鈥�. Once you arrive on the settings page, scroll down until you see the Privacy tab.
Students can choose between three privacy options for their profile:
- Community: Your profile will be visible to employers, students, and alumni across all Handshake, including other education institutions. You鈥檒l be able to message students and alumni who have similar interests or experiences.
- Employers: Your profile will be visible to employers. You may receive messages about potential job opportunities.
- Private: You鈥檒l be able to apply for jobs but won鈥檛 get contacted by any employers. When you check in with an employer at a career fair, they鈥檒l be able to see your basic information and message you.
To reap the most out of your Handshake profile, we recommend selecting the 鈥淐ommunity鈥� option. However, you鈥檙e free to select from the other privacy settings if you wish to further safeguard your personal information. Please keep in mind your intended audience and how you portray yourself on Handshake before choosing your privacy setting
Notification Preferences:
To adjust your notification preferences, click on the circle with your initials at the top right hand corner of your homepage. Then, click 鈥淣otification Preferences鈥�. You can also reach this page by clicking 鈥淪ettings鈥� in the same dropdown menu and by selecting 鈥淣otification Preferences鈥� under 鈥淎ccount Information鈥� on the left hand side.
Students can adjust if and how they receive notifications for upcoming events, job applications, interview schedules, and more. Under each category, students can select individual activities and the notification medium. These include:
- Notification
- Push (Mobile)
While some options are preselected, you may adjust your preferences to fit your needs. Notification media containing circles with lines through them are prohibited for certain activities. However, activities with checkmarks and empty boxes may be adjusted.
We recommend that you update your notification preferences periodically according to your career interests. Selecting too few or too many options may prevent you from seeing exciting job and internship opportunities.
Resources:
Find Jobs and Internships
All of the top employers, including 100% of the Fortune 500, tech start-ups, nonprofits, and more are hiring students like you on Handshake. Use your Handshake account to find and apply to job and internship opportunities.
How to:
- To find postings, log in to your Handshake account and click 鈥淛辞产蝉鈥� in the top left of your home page. Narrow down opportunities by using filters and keywords. For more filters, click on the 鈥淎ll Filters" option. From here, you can find postings linked to , specific job roles, industries, and much more. Make sure to click the 鈥渟how results鈥� button to apply these filters.
- Once you find opportunities you鈥檙e interested in, save the postings by clicking on the purple bookmark icon. Handshake will send you notifications and similar postings based on what you saved.
- You can save your resumes and cover letters in your profile to speed up the application process. To upload a document, click on account icon at the top right hand corner of your profile. Scroll down and click on 鈥淢y Documents.鈥� From here, click the 鈥淎dd new document鈥� button and follow the steps to upload your preferred documents.
- If you want to search for specific employers, click on the 鈥淓尘辫濒辞测别谤蝉鈥� link in the left menu. There you can type in the names of companies that you鈥檇 like to learn more about and see their open positions. You can also read reviews from students who previously worked there. To discover new employers, make use of the filters bar to the left to refine by location, company size, and/or industry.
- Additionally, you can follow employers you like and receive email alerts when these employers post new jobs and events on Handshake. Following employers also helps improve your job recommendations.
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Resources:
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Schedule Appointments With Career Coaches
Handshake is where you will schedule appointments with our career coaches.听
How to:
- To schedule an appointment, log in to your Handshake account and click 鈥淐areer Center鈥� in the left menu. This will bring you to the Boston College Career Center page. Click 鈥渁辫辫辞颈苍迟尘别苍迟蝉鈥� to access the appointment scheduler page where you can choose to meet with a career exploration coach or career cluster coach.听We recommend that you bookmark the link below for quick reference.
- Note:听If you're a CSOM student looking for a Consulting, Finance, Business appointment, please meet with the听.
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RSVP for Events
Handshake is where you will find all Boston College career events as well as relevant employer and local events.
How to:
- To find an event, log in to your Handshake account and click 鈥淓惫别苍迟蝉鈥� in the left menu.听
- This will bring you to a list of all upcoming events. Sort by relevance to find events suggested to you by Handshake. Sort by date to see all events in upcoming order. You can also refine the events by type and day using the filters at the top.
- Click on the event to find a description and register to attend.
- Handshake will create a schedule of events for you after you have registered, in addition to sending a confirmation email.
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Find 51茶馆 Premier Events
Events that are specifically targeted towards 51茶馆 students are labeled as 鈥�51茶馆 Premier Events鈥� in Handshake.听
How to:
- To find these events, click on听鈥淎ll filters鈥�, scroll down to听鈥淟补产别濒蝉鈥�听and enter "employer - bc premier event - fy24" label. You will be shown a list of events that are curated specifically for 51茶馆 students.
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Attend In Person Career Fairs
In Person Career Fairs are back! Handshake is where you will register for these fairs, as well as learn about the attending employers.听
How to:听
- Click on 鈥淓惫别苍迟蝉鈥� in the left menu
- Under the category filter, select 鈥淐areer fair.鈥� You will be shown a list of In-Person, Boston College Career Fairs.听
- Select the fair you wish to attend.听
- From here, select the blue 鈥淛oin Event鈥� button and fill out the registration form. Click 鈥淔inish鈥� and you are registered and ready to attend!听
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Attend Virtual Career Fairs
Handshake is also where you will register for and attend virtual career fairs.听
How to:
- To find an upcoming fair, log in to your Handshake account and click听鈥淓惫别苍迟蝉鈥�听in the left menu. Filter by听"Career Fairs."
- Click on the fair you want to learn more about. You will see a list of attending employers. Once registration opens, click on "Register."
- Once you register for the event, you will be able to schedule one-on-one and group sessions with employers. All schedules are booked on a first-come, first-served bases. We highly recommend you research employers on Handshake prior to the opening of registration so you are prepared to schedule your sessions.
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Discover Inclusive Employers
There are many strategies that you can use to identify and pursue opportunities with inclusive employers in Handshake. The Career Center has developed a label system to identify inclusive employers.
How to search for these employers in Handshake:
- Select听鈥淓尘辫濒辞测别谤蝉鈥�听in the left menu of the page.
- On the employers page, you will see a section called听鈥淔颈濒迟别谤蝉.鈥�听Scroll down on the page to the last part of that section, called 鈥淟补产别濒蝉.鈥�
- Click the box that says 鈥淎dd labels鈥� and a dropdown menu will appear. You will see that there are a number of different labels. From the options, select the label you鈥檇 like to filter for:听
- Inclusive workplace: BIPOC (AHANA)
- Inclusive workplace: LGBTQ+
- Inclusive workplace: People with Disabilities听
- Inclusive workplace: Women听
- Inclusive workplace: Forbes100
- Inclusive workplace: DiversityInc
- Once you select the label, the employers with the list label will appear alphabetically. You can then view their profiles and browse any open internships or jobs they are recruiting for.听You may also further filter by location, employer size, and industry.
- Also, you can find the Forbes 100 list under employer collections. To do this, select 鈥淐areer Center鈥� in the left menu.听 Under 鈥淐urated Employers鈥�, select the 鈥淚nvests in diversity鈥� collection. You can also filter by this collection under 鈥淛辞产蝉鈥� to find positions at companies listed in the Forbes 100.听听
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How did the Career Center decide which employers would receive labels?
All employers that have been labeled as in inclusive workplace appear on one or multiple of the following resources:听
- (Forbes)
- (Human Rights Campaign)
- (Fortune)
- (DiversityInc)
You can review the resources below to identify additional employers for diversity.
- (Forbes)
- (Forbes)听 听
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Please note this is by no means exhaustive, and there are many employers outside of this list who demonstrate an inclusive workplace.听By drawing from the above resources, the Career Center can ensure that our information about these inclusive workplaces is reliable and unbiased. For this reason, we do not add these labels to employers in Handshake at the suggestion of staff, employers or students. However, you may always contact us to provide feedback about an employer as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.听
Download Mobile App
Handshake currently provides an app for both iOS and Android, available for free in the respective app stores.听You can use it to explore events, fairs, and jobs. You can also receive notifications for applications deadlines and messages from employers.
How to:
- Search for "Handshake" on your app store.听The app is free and has a green icon.
- Search for "Boston College" in the blue search bar when you open the app.
- Select the "School Login" button and enter your Agora Username and Password to enter.听
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Resources:
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Sign-In Process for Alumni
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Eligibility
Boston College alumni (with the exception of 51茶馆 Law School听alumni and Graduate Carroll School听alumni starting with the class of 2020 and earlier) retain access to Handshake for 5-years post date of graduation.听
Alumni log-in is different from current students
Alumni log into Handshake using a personal email address on file with the University and use a Handshake specific password set by you.
Prior to the termination of your 51茶馆 email account, we update your Handshake account with the most current personal email address we could find for your continued use.
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How to:
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Step 1:
Agora log-in is no longer available for alumni use. If you hadn鈥檛 previously set a Handshake specific password or if you need to reset your Handshake specific password, use the link. If your personal email address is not found, email career.center@bc.edu for help. Please do not request a new Handshake account as this will only delay your access to Handshake.
Step 2:
Go to: to log-in. Alumni will always log-in from this page. We recommend that you bookmark it for future reference.
Step 3:
Click on the 鈥渟ign in with your email address鈥� hyperlink as shown in the image below. This will permit you to log-in using the personal email address associated with your 51茶馆 Handshake Alumni account and the password that you set.
Find Employer Collections
Use Employer Collections to find companies and organizations that have been specifically recommended to students by the 51茶馆 Career Center. These collections include: 鈥淗ires from our School,鈥� 鈥淕reat for Internships,鈥� and 鈥淚nvests in Diversity.鈥澨�
How to:听
- To filter by these collections, click on 鈥淐areer Center鈥� in the left menu of your homepage.听
- From here, a 鈥淐urated Employers鈥� section will appear. Click on these different collections depending on your interests to discover employers.听
- To filter jobs by employer collections, click on 鈥淛辞产蝉鈥� in the left menu. Then select the 鈥�51茶馆 collections鈥� filter right next to the search bar and choose the desired collection.听
How to Re-Subscribe to Handshake Emails
Are you missing a notification email? Missing job alerts or other expected Handshake emails? If these emails aren't being filtered out to a different folder (such as junk/spam), then it's likely your email has been unsubscribed from Handshake emails.
To resume receiving these emails, you'll need to reach out to our Support Team by submitting a听 to request that the suppression be removed from the account.听
80%
of students who share their interests receive a message from a recruiter on Handshake
16 million
messages were sent by employers to students last year on Handshake