Career and Professional Development

1. Go to go.wlu.edu/handshake.
2. Enter your preferred email address and click "Next." NOTE: Alumni are not required to use a W&L email address to create an account.
3. Click on "I'm a Student or Alumni."
4. Complete the Sign Up form by selecting Student/Alumni, entering your first and last name, preferred email address, and password, and agreeing to the Handshake Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Click on "Create Account" to submit your request to the W&L Career and Professional Development Office for approval. 
5. Once approved, you will receive an email from Handshake to confirm your email address.
6. After confirming your email address, return to go.wlu.edu/handshake to complete your profile by selecting your interests, adding relevant experiences, and begin searching for jobs.

NOTE: The classes of 2016 - 2018 should try using their W&L credentials to log in before signing up for a new Alumni account.

1. If you already have a profile, log in to Handshake.
2. Enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Next."
3. Click on the "Alumni Login" button.
4. Click on the "Log In using Email and Password" link.
5. Enter your password and click "Log In."
6. You will be directed to your personalized Handshake dashboard.

NOTE: The classes of 2016 - 2018 should try using their W&L credentials to log in before signing up for a new Alumni account.

The Getting Started with Handshake article provides helpful information about completing your profile and whether to make your profile public or private. A private profile is only viewable to you and the W&L Career and Professional Development team, while a public profile is viewable by employers as well.

Watch this quick video tutorial to learn how to search for jobs, save favorites and apply.

Be sure to also review how to upload your resume and other documents before applying.

Learn how to save searches and set alerts for when new jobs that meet your criteria are posted.

In some cases, an alumnus or other employer will share a job opportunity with us that they do not want posted publicly within the Handshake platform, but would still like to invite W&L students or alumni to apply. In these cases, we share the opportunity from our W&L account, which makes it available for candidates to apply without linking the job directly to the company or organization publicly, thus keeping the opportunity private within the W&L Handshake network. Contact us at careers@wlu.edu with questions about this process.

If you are interested in posting an opportunity for fellow alumni or current students on Handshake, please visit our Recruit W&L Alumni for more information and to create an Employer account.

An Alumni account enables you to search and apply for jobs, as well as employers to search for you if your profile is public. An Employer account enables you to post jobs and other opportunities for fellow alumni or current students in connection with your company or organization. Unfortunately, these two types of accounts cannot be combined into one account at this time; however, you can create an Employer account that is linked to your Alumni account by using the same email address for both accounts. This will allow you to easily toggle between the two accounts by using the drop down menu under your name in your profile page.