SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Handshake, the leading career community for college students in the U.S., announced today it has opened access to its platform to every undergraduate student attending a four-year university nationwide.

Previously accessible to students at one of Handshake’s over 800 partner universities, the move to welcome all college students across the country using their .edu email address advances the company’s mission to democratize job opportunity regardless of the college attended. Students can sign up for a free Handshake account by visiting joinhandshake.com.

Today’s announcement evens the playing field for college students of all backgrounds seeking successful careers, and enables employers to use Handshake for all early talent recruiting needs. Students who attend less well-known schools, or universities that aren’t near metropolitan areas or economic hubs, often struggle to get the attention they deserve in the job market. At the same time, employers recognize the need to recruit across the nation to build a skilled and diverse future workforce. Handshake’s community provides an answer to these challenges by bringing together students, employers and universities in a tech-savvy, data-driven way to best match talent from across the country with internships and jobs.

“Access is the most direct path to opportunity, and we’re enabling students to build successful careers regardless of where they’re from, the school they attend or the personal connections they may or may not have,” said Garrett Lord, Handshake CEO and Co-founder. “We’re excited to have more students easily discover opportunities across the nation in every industry and help employers push their internal boundaries around diversity, and early talent recruiting.”

Handshake is opening access while continuing to build its official university partner network, which will grow to 800+ schools this fall. University partners see a 300 percent increase in opportunities for their students after joining the Handshake network. “Universities have been at the center of Handshake since the company was founded and that’s not changing,” said Christine Cruzveraga, VP of Higher Education and Student Success at Handshake. “Opening up access is a critical next step in contributing to educational equity and realizing our mission of democratizing opportunity for every student – including those that may attend an institution without the resources to offer career services. We’re all part of this larger ecosystem.”

Some of the nation’s most innovative and well-known companies including Raymond James, Box, Under Armour, and IBM are also reinventing the way they approach early talent recruiting with the help of Handshake and seeing up to a 150 percent increase in quality early talent applicants. Leveraging the community, these companies are able to connect with students from the schools they are most interested in while also surfacing the best-fit talent from the entire Handshake community.

“With so much overlooked talent graduating from universities around this country, Handshake’s platform allows Box to engage with students nationwide, whom we may not have previously reached,” said Tiffany Stevenson, Head of Global Talent and Belonging at Box. “We’re excited to continue leveraging Handshake as it opens to all undergraduate students.”

In addition to today’s landmark news, Handshake is adding new features and functionality for students, employers, and universities, including:

• Open peer-to-peer communication: Students can identify and reach fellow students and recent alumni on Handshake to get advice on career paths, landing an internship or job, and navigating the job search process.
• Enhanced student profiles: Students can now describe exactly what they’re looking for in a role, why they’re a fit for a position, allowing them to be discovered by the right potential employers and receive more accurate job suggestions from Handshake.
• Seamless candidate engagement: Employers can reach, engage and analyze talent segments within a single view, even if students are not on the Handshake platform.
• Comprehensive outcomes collection: Handshake is enhancing the quality of critical career outcome data, helping universities to improve response rates through targeted emails and better understand student activity.
• New look and feel: A new look across Handshake, creating a simpler user experience for students, employers, and universities.

More information on the announcement can be found here, joinhandshake.com/press. To learn more about how Handshake is democratizing opportunities for students and connecting employers to up-and-coming talent across the U.S., visit joinhandshake.com.