Focused job search tools for OSU students

Job searching can be time consuming – instead of spending hours scrolling, use these suggested tools to focus your search on specific industries, companies, and areas.

Find jobs just for college students & recent grads

Handshake is a national job board and search tool that focuses just on internships and early-career opportunities. When employers post jobs to Handshake, they are specifically looking for college students, so you won’t be stuck in a sea of jobs with 5 years of experience already required.

Handshake is already connected to your Oregon State account, so it loads basic information like your major, and will automatically surface jobs in your industry. Build your profile further by specifying your interests, activities, and work history.

Change your profile settings so that you are visible to employers (student profiles are set to private by default, and it’s up to you to choose who can view yours).

Use Handshake’s custom filters to save alerts for jobs in specific locations or types to find relevant job opportunities.

Search keywords, not job titles. If you’re interested in a job that’s somehow related to “marketing” or “sustainability” but aren’t picky about specific job titles, do a keyword search on your filtered jobs. Handshake will search all text in both job titles and descriptions to find matches.

Save jobs that catch your eye even if you’re not ready to apply. Handshake will then show you similar jobs the next time you log in. It will also send you reminders about deadlines for jobs you’ve saved.

Learn more about job search tools on Handshake.

Find employers close to you

The Buzzfile’s Employer by Major tool is an indexing service of top employers that sorts by size, location, and industry. If you know you will be spending the summer near your hometown, or you want to move to specific city after graduation, use Buzzfile to search for employers that hire people from your major. Then make a list of your top companies, check their websites for job postings, and begin networking with them.

If you’re a student at the Corvallis or Cascades campuses and you want to focus your job search on Oregon, try the site QualityInfo.org. It’s a tool created by the Oregon Employment Department with Oregon-focused job listing and industry data. Mac’s List is specific to the Northwest. Many other states also have state-specific job boards run by their employment department.

Find employers specific to your industry

While job tools like Handshake, Indeed and LinkedIn are great for broad searches, to narrow your search you can try more niche job boards that focus on specific industries.

USAJobs is the site for federal government jobs, so if you’re looking for positions with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, NASA, FBI, Department of Energy, or many others, look here.

State, county and local governments (State of California, for example) typically post jobs on their own websites.

Nonprofit jobs: Idealist and Work for Good are examples of places to look for nonprofit jobs. The Nonprofit Association of Oregon is a regional database for nonprofit work opportunities.

Faculty/academic jobs: Chronicle Vitae, a service of the Chronicle of Higher Education, is a hub for graduate level, faculty, research and other academic positions.

Many professional associations have college chapters at OSU, including the American Institute of Aeronautics, Associated General Contractors of America, The Forest Stewards Guild, the Society of Healthcare Executives, and more. Use the OSU Clubs database and sort by category “academic and professional” to find an association in an industry you’re interested in, then reach out to learn about networking and job possibilities.

Get jobs sent to you

You don’t have time to visit all these job boards every day, so make them work for you. Most job sites allow you to set up job alerts that will do the work for you, emailing you when a new job that fits your criteria pops up.

Setting up job alerts on LinkedIn

Setting up job alerts on Indeed

Setting up job alerts on Handshake