In recent years, graduate students have found themselves navigating a dynamic job market that can make exploring and preparing for careers challenging. Handshake is a key tool that graduate students can use to ease this process. This article shares information from a recent workshop on using Handshake effectively, which will be offered again this spring. As graduate students make use of this tool, they can contact Berkeley Career Engagement (BCE) or GradPro for additional support and guidance.
Handshake is more than just a job board; it’s a multifaceted professional development tool for finding career opportunities in academia, industry, or beyond, and gaining work experience outside of the university. With the right setup, it can connect you directly to employers, help you discover opportunities that suit your expertise, land internships, provide access to professional development events, offer networking opportunities, and set you up with career advisors.
What sets Handshake apart? The opportunities you’ll find on Berkeley’s Handshake site are specifically targeted to Berkeley students and alumni. Employers choose to post these positions to Berkeley’s Handshake site because they want to attract candidates from Berkeley, meaning you’re already in a smaller, more select applicant pool compared to general job boards. As Daniel Shaw from Berkeley Career Engagement points out, would you rather be in a big pile or a small pile when employers are reviewing applications?
Based on the advice from the career experts at BCE, this article breaks down 5 steps to make the most of Handshake as a graduate student, from setting up your profile and leveraging search filters to connecting with employers.
1. Update Your Profile
All registered students–graduate or undergrad–already have a Handshake profile. The first step is to update your profile, which you can do by navigating to “My profile” in the drop-down menu on the upper right side of the home page (see screenshot below).
After completing your profile, set your privacy preferences in “Settings,” with the Community option recommended, as it makes your profile visible to all employers, students, and alumni while enabling you to message others for informational interviews. You can adjust these settings anytime to meet your evolving career needs.
Setting up your profile entails 4 items:
- Main profile page – Similar to other job boards and networking sites, such as LinkedIn, the more information you add about your education, work experience, and professional interests, the easier it will be for employers to find you.
- My career interests – Specify the types of roles, industries, and locations that interest you to help employers match you with relevant opportunities. This information also helps Handshake’s algorithm display more relevant job postings and resources tailored to your interests. Additionally, you can sign up for CareerMail, a targeted and curated newsletter produced by BCE. You can choose between several different career fields, depending on your career interests.
- My documents – Upload your resume, cover letter, and other professional documents so you can easily apply to positions. Depending on your job search goals and strategy, you can also make these documents visible to employers.
- Settings – Customize your privacy preferences, notification settings, and other account details.
Taking the time to complete all four sections will maximize your visibility to employers and streamline your job search process.
2. Explore Jobs and Internships
Now that your profile and privacy settings are up to date, you can use Handshake to learn about possible career paths, even if you are not ready to start your job search. You can look through job postings to learn about the skills and qualifications you would need to succeed in various career paths. You can also use Handshake to search for and land an internship; internships are a key way that graduate students can gain hands-on work experience. Begin by using the search bar in the “Jobs” section of Handshake, entering keywords related to the roles you’re interested in. For example, if you’re exploring opportunities in User Research, try keywords like “user research,” “design research,” or “product research.” This approach can yield a high number of results—sometimes over a thousand!
To streamline your search, use the filter feature to refine your results by factors such as location, industry, or job type. For international students, Handshake also allows you to filter for employers who are open to U.S. visa sponsorship. You can also refine your search to roles specifically open to graduate students. To do this, go to the search filter and check the “School Year” box under the qualifications section. This will limit the results to roles open to students in your specific degree level (Master’s, Ph.D., etc.).
Additionally, BCE curates opportunities on a weekly basis into collections to highlight what is available but might be overlooked. These collections serve as a helpful starting point, though they are not an exhaustive grouping of all relevant opportunities. BCE is actively bringing together opportunities for graduate students through Handshake. Some of the UC Berkeley collections include “Events to Jumpstart your Recruiting!” “Opportunities for Master’s Students,”
“Opportunities for PhD Students: Humanities & Social Sciences,” and “Opportunities for PhD Students: STEM.”
3. Connect with Employers and Recruiters Directly
If you already have a strong sense of the industry you want to enter or specific companies you’re interested in, consider using the “Employers” section of Handshake. Here, you can search for your target companies, explore any current job openings, and follow their profiles to stay updated on new job postings and other activities. Following companies can also give you access to testimonials from students and alumni who have worked with them. Some company profiles also contain a “People” section that allows you to message recruiters about position openings and hiring timelines.
4. Stay Up to Date with Employer Events
Career fairs are a great way to gain exposure to a variety of employers and to practice your networking skills. If you would prefer a quieter atmosphere, you can also explore one of the many information sessions listed on Handshake. Under “Events” and then “Career center employer events” or “Events hosted by employers,” you can see a range of information sessions, workshops, and networking events targeted to Berkeley students. Keeping up to date with upcoming events is a significant way to explore what companies are hiring and what roles they are hiring for. In addition, it’s a proactive way to network with employers and learn information for the recruitment process. This is one of the key benefits of being on Handshake: direct access to employers who are actively seeking to hire from our graduate community.
5. Beyond Job Listings: Find Additional Resources for Career Development
Handshake’s value extends beyond job postings and career fairs, offering graduate students access to several key resources aimed at improving their career readiness. Big Interview, for example, is a platform integrated into Handshake that provides tools for practicing interview skills—an essential resource for students who may not have significant experience with professional interviews. Job Search Academy by Indeed helps match your skills to common job titles and industries based on Indeed’s database, making it easier to identify potential career paths that align with your background.
For international students, GoinGlobal provides information on job opportunities for those with limited work authorization in the U.S. Additionally, GoinGlobal offers lists of companies that have historically hired international students, making it easier to identify potential employers.
6. Check Out the Career Center for Upcoming Events and Consultations
Graduate students can access dedicated career support through the “Career Center” page on Handshake—a section run exclusively by Career Engagement at UC Berkeley. Here you’ll find upcoming events, including career fairs and recruitment events where employers specifically target Berkeley candidates (see above). The Career Center also offers professional development workshops for both academic and non-academic career paths, and you can register for these events on Handshake. As a graduate student, you can schedule one-on-one appointments with a Career Educator for personalized support with your career exploration, from resume review to interview preparation and beyond.
Conclusion
By fully optimizing your Handshake profile, using targeted job search tools, and connecting with career experts you can turn Handshake into a powerful asset at every step in your career exploration.
As a bonus, Handshake is available to Berkeley alumni up to 5 years after their graduation date (except for 1:1 appointments, which are only available up to 2 years after graduation).
For additional questions about Handshake, contact [email protected] or book an appointment with a Career Educator.
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Reuben Perez is a former Professional Development Liaison (AY 2024-2025) and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology.
Updated November 2025 by Jonathan Landeros-Cisneros, Professional Development Liaison and a Ph.D. candidate in the Berkeley School of Education.
Thank you to May Wilson, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Employer Engagement, for providing feedback and insight.