Breaking Into Your First Job: The Handshake Revolution | Garrett Lord’s Inspiring Journey to Democratize Career Opportunities
Embarking on a career journey is a nerve-wracking experience for many college graduates, especially those from non-elite schools or without a professional network to leverage. Recognizing this gap, Garrett Lord, an astute entrepreneur and a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum, turned his personal struggle into a groundbreaking solution: Handshake. This platform has swiftly risen to become the leading sanctuary for young professionals navigating the murky waters of entering the workforce. Delve into Garrett Lord’s inspiring story and explore how Handshake is pioneering a more equitable job market for millions.
Garrett Lord’s journey to founding Handshake stemmed from his own difficulties in securing a job from a lesser-known college, without the bridges built by affluent family ties. His initiative underscores a universal pain point for students: the intimidating quest of landing that first job or internship. Handshake was born from the ambition to smoothen this path for students irrespective of their college prestige or familial connections, aiming to equalize access to career opportunities.
Handshake’s model is elegantly simple yet profoundly impactful. By providing a platform that connects students with a wide array of employers, it dismantles the traditional barriers to entry in the job market. Students from over 1,400 institutions have the chance to explore job postings from 750,000 companies, expanding their horizons beyond the conventional recruitment channels. Remarkably, Handshake is not just a job board; it’s a comprehensive career development tool. It offers facilities for direct messaging with recruiters and alumni, virtual career fairs, and even video interviews, all designed to prepare and propel students into their desired career paths.
The genesis of Handshake was not without its challenges. Garnering the initial buy-in from universities and employers required relentless effort and a series of iterations based on feedback. Lord’s dedication, along with his team’s commitment, saw Handshake evolve into a robust platform that not only aids students in understanding and navigating the job market but also helps employers and universities in tapping into a diverse pool of talent and managing their engagement effectively.
From an employer’s perspective, Handshake has revolutionized recruitment by offering access to a vast, diverse pool of emerging talent across the country through a single platform. This simplification of the recruitment process is a game-changer, particularly for companies aiming to reach students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, thereby fostering a more inclusive workforce.
As we look towards the future, Handshake’s ambitions don’t stop at the borders of the United States. With a vision to extend its groundbreaking platform globally, the possibilities for democratizing access to career opportunities worldwide seem limitless.
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Come to India
1:54 Yo this guy is missing half of his glasses
What's the difference between handshake and LinkedIn?
So great idea. Some companies are looking for a totally fresh mind among the students, but they just can't reach them and, respectively, find the right ones. Same for students that are like a small boat in a big ocean and just have no idea what to do first and to be noticed.
Handshake got me my first mech e internship and helped me get my second one!
Handshake is garbage
It's satisfying seeing a co-founder of the next big upcoming tech company not coming from an ivy league-Esque school or wealthy parents and really building their company from the ground up.
Handshake helped me get an internship at a fortune 100! It is an amazing app and it makes sense that it was made from students because it is perfect!
God bless this guy, hand shake is really inovative and actually works
Triplebyte vs Handshake what's better?
Handshake just redirects to the generic application portal most of the time. I don't know how it used to be before, but that has been my experience recently.
Actually got my first job at my university from here 👍🏾
Handshake got me multiple jobs!
democratize
I wish I had this back when I was in college!
I'm a web dev. I'm gonna use handshake from today and I hope I can find a Job.
I guess it is not launched yet in India ?
LinkedIn got me all my best jobs….
I digress but that dude has the most powerful jawline in planet earth😂
Handshake has worked great for me in college. Can't recommend them enough. Pretty much all my internships and now my full-time job came from applying through there.
Because Handshake caters to recent college grads, the grads are getting only a curated list of jobs that they're eligible for, not a glut of jobs of which they only qualify for 5% of them. That's the problem with LinkedIn and places like Indeed. Their strategy is to be a one-stop shop, but with job searching being so messy and not easy to navigate (i.e. hard to find the right role), they instead are more like a one-size fits all.
I'm sure this will be the first of many companies that come about like this as it's not worthwhile or possible to effectively cater to everyone these days. More custom and catered solutions are needed. Any industry with mostly one-size fits all solutions is ripe for disruption.
Garret’s awesome, I’ve been using handshake at my school for all my 4 years.
Why almost every Forbes video has bad sound quality? good content tho.
Handshake is great! Used it when I was in college
I love handshake
Bro born Chad
"I found it hard to find where I fit". Then goes and makes a company based on giving people advice he doesn't have or the company would never have been an idea. Kind of reminds of of "Career Counselors" People giving advice on things they have no experience or knowledge in.
I have had career advisors tell me I can't get a job and then turn around and get that job within a week. Simply because they are useless and not qualified to say what jobs other people can or cannot get.
His platform is honestly a bad idea, you shouldn't be trying to "make job hiring more fair" you should be teaching people the skills they need to get a job. Like communication, cover letter/resume, portfolio if needed. Learn how to network outside of a mobile phone screen. When I was in high school I joined communities for Aviation because that's what I wanted to do and went to see real helicopters with real people and real advice. Harassing someone on social media is not the way to get jobs, it only makes you look more undesirable.
The number #1 issue that prevents students from getting jobs is confidence. Most people are not confident enough to talk good about themselves the way they should to get the job. Or they are not good at elaborating on simple things to make them seem more sophisticated. Either way confidence is key to getting a job. When you have confidence you don't look for jobs, you look for careers.
Handshake is a good platform! College's also post their own student job opportunities on there. Helped me get a part time flexible job while still in school.
Handshake is trash
I tried handshake. They got me in touch with KLA tencor for a sales engineering position but it was me with about 100 others. Idk if handshake is good or what I've used indeed
Turn the music up, i can still hear him
We need an app for career changers
Hello , how are you doing ? I hope that life is treating you fairly and that you are safe and healthy over there ? I was going through YouTube page and I saw your comment, if you will be interested in binary options trading I can teach you how to trade and earn profits👏👏