Recruiting and job searching are multifaceted challenges—AI and automation impact hiring from creating job descriptions to signing offer letters. Sure, student job seekers grew up on social media, but career services professionals know scrolling doesn’t necessarily equate to getting hired, let alone comprehensive career development.
Being able to post a resume or research company culture online doesn’t mean students can, or even want to, navigate the nuances using their phone for career support. Despite our overwhelmingly automated world, human interactions will always be fundamental to successful career development. Whether writing traditional cover letters, researching corporate culture, or preparing for an interview with the help of an AI chatbot, career services professionals are there for their students.
Career services teams need technology to support–not replace—human engagement. Rather than building the technology solutions that career services are asking for, giant companies like Handshake are helping employers create more content for students to scroll past.
According to Forbes, “Handshake is creating a social media-style feed for its popular jobs platform for college students, adding video tools for employers to match less buzzy companies with young job seekers—and connect with a generation that lives by the medium.”
Single-focus job board software can’t facilitate today’s broad--and deep--career management activities. So, while Handshake prioritizes the “scroll world,” Career Forge facilitates human engagement. Instead of increasing dependence on discouraging and overwhelming digital transactions, we’re building reliable and relevant technology designed exclusively for the career services mission.
Career Forge is a robust career management platform that can be used as a single source or collaboratively with Handshake to refocus recruiters and students on the essential human elements of hiring and job searching.
While Handshake transforms into something resembling a TikTok experience, Career Forge delivers comprehensive career management software.
Sure, buzzy employer videos in a scrollable content channel get attention, but does getting noticed in a digital feed translate into career management support? Can this TikTok-like technology consider individual nuances and role-specific information to connect qualified students with the right recruiters? No, no, it cannot.
Students immediately or eventually realize that scrolling through a content channel won’t unilaterally produce job offers. They ultimately recognize the value of career services for:
And because students need these resources, you and your team need software that doesn’t limit you to collecting data about digital transactions.
Career Forge is a complementary solution for existing job search tools like Handshake or an alternative, depending on your team’s preferences or existing processes. The career management platform flexes to match your career services mission and
resources. The seven flexible modules exist to expand and deepen human interactions without ignoring the insights stakeholders demand in required reports.
Career services can finally accelerate their mission by augmenting or going beyond the presumed defaults of Handshake, 12Twenty, or Symplicity in a single platform for
Each module simplifies managing digital transactions and organizes, tracks, and reports on human interactions. Suddenly, career services staff spend more time engaging with students and employers than with their keyboards.
Introducing new software isn’t easy. The pros and cons of maintaining data integrity, integration, user adoption, compliance, and budget issues can keep decision-makers up at night.
Data migration is complex and prone to errors and inconsistencies. Relevant Career Forge models integrate with external email clients and campus platforms like student information systems. You minimize disruption and protect data integrity without settling for less helpful software.
Integrating new software is two-fold: technical and human. First, there’s uncertainty about performance levels within strict institutional data privacy, security, and
compliance policies, which raises concerns. Career Forge prioritizes compliance and undergoes regular rigorous quality reviews to ensure our software meets all necessary standards when integrated with your existing systems.
Everett Rogers explains the human challenges of changing enterprise technologies by naming the points in time when people will accept the software. Understanding the technology adoption curve reduces the predictable staff resistance to learning a different software platform. Distinguishing between users ready to jump in (i.e., innovators) and the most resistant to the new system (i.e., laggards) can speed up and destress department-wide integration.
Finally, existing multi-year contracts, licensing agreements, and budget constraints can make switching systems difficult and costly in the short term.
So, rather than replacing Handshake entirely, add the Career Forge platform. Keep the familiar job matching system, but close the gaps in student outcomes and career management.
Our customers told us how frustrating it is to give their all for students when they’re forcing sales-based or limited software systems to align with career services tasks.
Career Forge ends the dysfunctionality and disappointment. Former recruiters and expert software engineers built the platform on detailed industry feedback and our deep understanding of the career services landscape. Sure, Handshake has a big head start and is well-known; Career Forge offers a more focused, relationship-driven approach to career and employer relations management.
Career Forge emphasizes the importance of human interactions in career development. Our platform supports the kind of direct feedback and engagement students deserve—going beyond the superficial connections made through 90-second promo clips and endless scrolling.
Don't settle for a platform that views career services through the lens of social media; choose Career Forge and invest in a solution that truly understands and meets the needs of both students and career services professionals alike.