UCSB Career Services plans to replace in June its online jobs database, Gaucholink, with a new website called Handshake.

Handshake is a website that connects over 170,000 schools with over 120,000 employers across the nation, including 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Students can expect to receive an email invitation to join Handshake around June 16.

Career Services suggests students download any important documents from Gaucholink before the end of Spring Quarter.  

Like Gaucholink, Handshake connects students to employers and provides potential internship opportunities by allowing students to share their resumes and search and apply for jobs.

Career Services counselor and coordinator Eric Wilder said Handshake allows students to create a “more in-depth profile,” which he said will allow them to more easily find jobs and internships as well as interact with employers.

Employers searching to recruit college students are able to access Handshake and view the resumes of applicants, which are directly displayed on the students’ profiles, and post employment or internship opportunities.

Handshake is designed to provide organizations with a “single login experience” in which they can find all the necessary information about a student on one interface. Career Services staffers believe this will encourage employers to interact more with the website and the students.

Career Services expects Handshake to provide an “easier” and more “user-friendly” interface that will increase communication between companies and students.

“UCSB students can access a much wider array of employment and internship opportunities [with Handshake],” Wilder said in an email.

The website also uses algorithms “similar to the ones on Netflix” to match students with jobs or internships that correspond to their interests and areas of study. It is for this reason that Handshake provides a more “fluid experience” for both students and employers, Wilder said.

Handshake additionally allows students to look for career fairs, establish interviews with prospective employers and search for other career-related events.

“We are looking into future rollouts that will allow students to easily identify career events and resources that match their interests,” Wilder said.