Tag: Handshake

Spring 2019 in Career Services Starts With YOU!

We hope that you had a wonderful, relaxing, and restorative winter break. There is nothing like a new semester and a new year to get one thinking of all the possibilities that lie ahead. We also hope that you will include Career Services in your plans as you think about your future. We have lots in store for the Spring 2019 semester including a variety of career fairs which start next week! Check out our Creative Career Fair, Common Good Fair, a new Research Fair, the Spring Career + Internship Fair which spans a variety of industries, our Startup, VC and Data Analytics Fair, or the Penn Design Career Connection Day. Penn students are also invited to participate in several off-campus collaborative career fairs including the All Ivy Environmental & Sustainable Development Career Fair at Columbia and the Greater Philadelphia Teacher Job Fair held in Oaks, PA. Of course, while the volume tends to be lighter in the spring than in the fall, we still welcome employers to schedule on campus interviews in the spring as well as hold employer information sessions, all of which are listed on Handshake.

Do you have questions about how to prepare for career fairs? Create a resume? Wondering how to find a job in the entertainment industry or apply for a faculty position at a university? Apply to medical school? These are just some of the many topics covered in the workshops Career Services advisors will offer over the course of the semester. Explore the events calendar on our website to learn about all of our workshops or RSVP for them by logging into Handshake and clicking on the Events tab at the top.  While you are in Handshake don’t forget to sign up for our specialized industry-based CareerMail e-newsletters so that you will be sure to stay updated about information and events throughout the semester. (To sign up for CareerMail, click on your name in the top right corner of your Handshake homepage and fill out the career interests section.)  With the thousands of job and internship listings in Handshake, you are sure to find something of interest to apply to if you are seeking opportunities!

Finally, if you are just not quite sure where to start, that’s okay! Start by making an appointment to meet with a Career Services advisor. You can request appointments in Handshake by clicking on the Career Center tab at the top of the page. Appointments tend to fill up quickly at the beginning of the semester, but appointment times are added weekly so if you don’t see anything available when you first log in check back in a few days or stop by during our walk-in hours.

Here’s to a great spring semester!

A Season of Opportunities

Tiffany Franklin, Associate Director

Welcome back to campus! We are excited to have you back as we start to see moving trucks lining Walnut and Spruce streets. As you savor the final days of summer before classes begin, this is a time to reflect on what you hope to accomplish this academic year. Preparing for success is more than purchasing all your supplies the bookstore, Target, Amazon, and Bed, Bath & Beyond; it’s also considering the lessons learned from last year and how you’ve grown during that time. During the summer months, many offices take the opportunity to have team retreats to review all they have accomplished in the past year, celebrate wins, evaluate areas for improvement, and formulate a strategy and concrete plan for the coming year. This is so helpful because it gives you a chance to reset, clearly understand what you hope to achieve and build upon past successes.

Such an exercise can be beneficial for you as an individual as well. Even though it’s been a while since my student days at Penn, I like to do this. For example, when I bought my 2018-2019 planner at the bookstore I considered new ways I could organize my projects this year to be as efficient as possible.

One thing I often hear students say is that they wish they had started their job or internship search a little earlier. At Penn Career Services, we are happy to meet with you whenever you are ready; of course depending upon your industry of interest, there optimal times to prepare. Connect with career advisors for your specific college and will be happy to share about timelines for the industries you are considering. In all the years I’ve been a career advisor, I’ve never heard anyone say that they wish they had waited longer to come see us. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. You don’t have to know what you want career wise to come to Career Services

 

When meeting with students, the first question I always ask is “How can I help you today?” There’s no right or wrong answer to this and it shows that we want to meet you where you’re at – whether that’s needing help with your resume, wanting to explore various career paths, requesting mock interview help, questions about specific jobs, how to connect with alumni, or asking for more information about all the resources we offer.

2. You can’t cram a job search

While some people thrive under the threat of a deadline, the job and internship search process is more of a marathon that cannot be crammed into one weekend. Ideally, it’s something that you will weave throughout the year and Career Services is here to help you every step of the way.

3. Don’t miss opportunities to connect with employers – Checkout out Handshake today!

 

 

There are a lot of events the first few weeks of school including workshops on every career topic you can think of, career fairs starting just after Labor Day, upcoming information sessions, and a host of job listings (and even some internship postings) in Handshake. Be sure to activate your Handshake account right away and check out all the great events coming up. Even if you are interested in an industry that does not recruit until later in the year, it’s still a good idea to explore an array of options and attend workshops now that can help you prepare.

Hope this is a wonderful academic year for you! Please be sure to check out https://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices//appointments for walk-in times and come see us!

New To Handshake This Fall

Natty Leach, Associate Director

As we approach the last month of Summer, I wanted to take the time to share some exciting new features that will go live to Handshake this Fall.

New Homepage:

The “For You” tab which offers tailored collections of jobs to explore will be clearer and more inviting. While there’s no sample to share right now, the mockups look more inviting and easier to browse.

Reviews:

During the Spring semester, we participated in a trial that allowed Penn students early access to the online Reviews submitted by both Penn students and others in the limited trial. In the fall, this will open up to all other Handshake schools (over 700 nationally) so you will benefit from the input of peers at schools like Princeton, Columbia, UChicago, UVA, Stanford, and many more. You can access these reviews by going to an employer’s profile in Handshake:


In total, you’ll now benefit from:

100,000+ reviews from students from

700+ schools nationwide, covering

300,000+ companies

Q&A:

Also on an employer’s profile will be question and answer responses between students and young alumni. Ask students and alumni questions about anything career related:

OCR – Interviewing on Campus Filter:

When looking at what employers are coming to campus this fall, you can now easily search for specific jobs by adding the “Interviewing on campus” filter to your search:

Android App:

Handshake has made a ton of improvements to their OS app and will be unrolling an Android specific app near the beginning of the Fall semester. The app includes the ability to apply to positions in just one click, register for events and fairs, sign up for appointments, or just browse what’s posted in the system:

Getting the Hang of Handshake – 5 Tips for optimizing your experience

Dr. Claire Klieger

In the first week of classes, many of the students coming in to see me have had the same question—can you just walk me through how to best use Handshake? While overall the system is pretty intuitive, there are some tricks and tips for how to best make Handshake work for you:

  • Fill out your Career Interests. The more information the platform has about your preferences and interests, the more tailored your experience becomes. Handshake will actually start recommending specific jobs or internships for your based upon these preferences.
  • Sign-up for CareerMail. When you fill out your “Career Interests” section referenced above you’ll have the option to opt-in to our new industry-specific newsletters. This allows us to let you know about upcoming events or jobs/internships in those fields of interest.
  • Upload your resume to auto-fill your profile. It’s always a good idea to fill in your profile as fully as you can but it will save you time to upload your resume to the system. When you do this, Handshake automatically adds things like your work experiences and activities to your profile.
  • Make your profile public to employers. If you are on the market anyway, why not make it easier for employers to find you?!
  • Created Saved Search Filters. As you may have noticed when you click on “jobs” it is very easy to filter Handshake by different search criteria. But it can save you time (and let Handshake know to highlight specific opportunities for you) if you save your search filters.

On-Campus Recruiting and Handshake

Natty Leach, Associate Director

As this summer is quickly evaporating, now is a great time to gear up for On-Campus Recruiting (OCR) next semester. Each year, OCR brings over 300 employers chomping at the bit to hire Penn students and soon-to-be graduates. Details on all of the employers and positions they’re recruiting for can be viewed in Handshake. Applications for full-time positions open tomorrow, August 23rd . Applications for summer 2018 internship recruiting opens September 28th .

Tips for viewing OCR positions:

1) Go to Jobs -> Job Search. This page has all of the jobs in Handshake but you can add a filter to see just active OCR positions by checking “Interviewing on Campus” under the “Categories” filter.

2) Sort by expiration date to help see what’s coming up sooner rather than later.

3) Find an overview of employers coming to campus by clicking on the “On-Campus Interviews” tab in blue at the top right.
While OCR is open to all undergraduate students, the types of employers that typically recruit during this time are mostly from industries with predictable hiring trends (often Finance and Consulting). On-Campus Recruiting is just one of many options to take advantage of here at Penn so stay in touch with Career Services so we can help you navigate whatever your future plans may be.

If you’re interested in learning more about Handshake, OCR, and ways to prepare for recruiting, take a look at our online presentation!