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:

  • Email
  • 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 BC Premier Events

Events that are specifically targeted towards BC students are labeled as 鈥淏C 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 BC 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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Sign-In Process for Alumni

Eligibility:

Boston College alumni (with the exception of BC 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 BC email account, we update your Handshake account with the most current personal email address we could find for your continued use.

How To:

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 BC 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 BC 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 鈥淏C collections鈥� filter right next to the search bar and choose the desired collection.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

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