Lindsey Fiala | Reporter
Oct. 25, 2016; 7 a.m.

Lindenwood’s Career Center has a new way to help connect students to potential future job opportunities.

Handshake is a web-based career management tool that allows students to apply for jobs and internships, learn about career fairs and register for on-campus interviews, said director of Career and Student Development Dana Wehrli.

Handshake replaced the previous system, which wasn’t as user-friendly, Wehrli said. Handshake went live July 1 this year.

“There are new enhancements to Handshake almost every week,” Wehrli said.

According to career strategist Caitlyn Rhodes, Handshake has a social-media feel to it.

“It’s like Pinterest meets Facebook,” she said. “We can pin jobs to students in any particular major.”

Rhodes researches employers and does the “forensic work to make sure there are not fraudulent employers,” said Wehrli, who works closely with Rhodes in the Career Center office.

This job offering platform is “useful for all grade levels, including alumni,” said Wehrli. Many employers use Handshake to post jobs.

Rhodes said they currently have connected with more than 3,000 employers and posted a little over 2,300 jobs.

Jobs on Handshake range from “hospitality and server, bank teller, part-time data entry, all the way up to full-time professional career-oriented jobs,” Wehrli said. “There is literally something for everyone there.”

The Career Center is currently involved in a contest with Handshake called “Give Students a Hand.”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”Dana Wehrli” link=”” color=”#d5dd58″ class=”” size=”26″]“It’s really just up to you to log in and enter the finishing touches to your profile.”[/perfectpullquote]

The center was sent a large yellow chair shaped as a hand to wheel throughout the campus to take photos with, said Wehrli.

These photos can be found on the Lindenwood Career Center’s Instagram account. This contest is to help “promote and get the word out about Handshake.”

According to Wehrli, Handshake is an accurate representation of the current job market and the way that job searching exists in an online environment.

“Every full-time undergraduate student has already been preloaded into the system,” said Wehrli. “It’s really just up to you to log in and enter the finishing touches to your profile. It’s not too soon as a freshman.”

Students can access Handshake through the Lindenwood portal under the student services link.

To log in, students must use their same credentials that they use to log in to their portals.