Office Policies & Information for Students

The Center for Career and Professional Success serves undergraduate students within the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University. Below, you'll find policies and information that may be useful.

Career Success Office Policies

You are expected to act with integrity at all times during your job or internship search. To promote professionalism among College of Arts and Sciences students, the following policies have been developed to serve you, your Arts and Sciences peers, and Ohio State’s employer recruiting partners.

If you cannot keep a scheduled Career Coaching appointment, please login to Handshake to cancel and reschedule within a minimum of two business days.

If your cancelation is within 24 hours of your appointment you will still need to login to Handshake, at which time you will be prompted to request cancelation from your career coach.

Your promptness in canceling your appointment provides opportunities for your peers to meet with their career coach.

The term “on-campus interview” refers to any interview hosted by a career services office on the campus of The Ohio State University. Interviews can be arranged in a variety of ways: you may work directly with the employer to confirm a mutually agreeable time or you may be invited to sign up for an interview through Handshake for an opportunity for which you applied.

The following policies apply to all Arts and Sciences students invited for on-campus interviews, regardless of which career services office is hosting the schedule.

Think Before You Act
BEFORE you schedule an interview, double-check your calendar to ensure you do not have a scheduling conflict. Schoolwork (exams, group projects, papers, presentations, etc.) does not excuse you from honoring your commitment to interview, as you should be able to plan accordingly.

Declining or Cancelling an On-Campus Interview
You are permitted to decline an offered on-campus interview or cancel a scheduled on-campus interview only once per academic term. Additional cancellations will be treated as no-shows and result in revocation of Handshake on-campus interview privileges. See the following section "Appealing Handshake Account Deactivation" to learn how to petition for your interview privileges to be reinstated.

To decline or cancel an on-campus interview invitation, contact the Career Success office (email asccareer@osu.edu) a minimum of 24 hours in advance of the interview date. Please provide your name, phone number, the name of the employer, the title of the position for which you were invited/scheduled to interview, the time and date of the interview, and a reason for canceling. With enough notice, the office may be able to give your canceled interview slot to a candidate on the waitlist.

Interviews declined or canceled fewer than 24 hours ahead of time will be treated as no-shows, except in circumstances where interview invitations are extended 24 or fewer hours ahead of the scheduled interview date.

The following are UNACCEPTABLE reasons for canceling an on-campus interview:

“I don’t have time in my schedule”
“I changed my mind”
“I didn’t read or fully understand the job description when I applied”

Interviews declined or canceled due to one of these reasons will be classified as no-shows.

If you have already accepted an offer of employment and wish to withdraw yourself from consideration for further interviews, please contact asccareer@osu.edu. This is the only circumstance under which it is acceptable to decline more than one interview invitation per term.

In the case of an emergency (e.g. sudden illness, accident, or death in the family), you or your designee are still expected to contact the Career Success office (email asccareer@osu.edu). We will alert the employer to your inability to attend. Note that you will be asked to provide appropriate documentation to verify the emergency.

No-Showing for an On-Campus Interview
It is never appropriate to simply not show up for your scheduled on-campus interview. This reflects poorly on you and on The Ohio State University and wastes the valuable time set aside by recruiters who planned to meet with you. Failure to communicate with the Career Success office and/or the employer ahead of your interview will result in the immediate revocation of your Handshake on-campus interview privileges. See the following section "Appealing Handshake Account Deactivation" to learn how to petition for your interview privileges to be reinstated.

Interviews declined or canceled 24 or fewer hours in advance of the scheduled interview date (except in extraordinary circumstances) will be treated as a no-show.

Declining and/or canceling more than one interview per academic term will be also be classified as a no-show.

Using one of the above stated unacceptable reasons for declining or canceling your interview will be treated as a no-show.

The Center for Career and Professional Success maintains the right to deny services indefinitely to students and recent graduates if they engage in any of the following conduct:

Signing up for on campus interviews after the acceptance of employment
Misrepresenting information included in resumes or cover letters
Repeatedly arriving late for Career Coaching appointments or interviews
Abuse of the office’s staff, resources or equipment
Theft, defacement or destruction of the office’s resources or equipment
Any inappropriate and unprofessional behavior at Career Success events and Career Immersions & Treks

Questions regarding these policies should be directed to asccareer@osu.edu. Policies and rules are subject to change without notice.

Ohio State is excited to partner with Handshake, a modern platform for college recruiting. Handshake is a career-networking platform for Ohio State students and recent graduates to connect with employers and internship sites in the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors that are interested in recruiting Ohio State students.

All Ohio State Students and recent degree recipients are automatically granted an account; no registration is required. Click the link above to log in and start discovering the benefits the system offers you during your career development journey.

Handshake Policies

It’s Free and Convenient
This campus-based resource makes it easy to start the job or internship search. In addition, Career Success staff can assist you with questions and inquiries related to postings – no black hole of applications here. You can also stop by our office to get your questions answered.

Content customized for you
Build your profile; highlight your academic accomplishments, skills, and extracurricular activities and Handshake’s algorithms will display jobs, internships, upcoming events and other opportunities on your profile based on your listed experience, skills, and academic program.

It’s SAFE
Every employer account and job posting goes through filtering algorithms and is assigned a trust score based on employer activity on the platform, approval and declination at various schools, profile completeness, and more before review by Center staff before it is visible to students. We don’t think you should have to worry about money laundering scams and identity theft in addition to whether your resume looks good, your application is complete, or if you’re going to get an interview. While Handshake is safe we have recently seen an increase in email fraud, where individuals using OSU.edu email addresses pose as Handshake employees and offer fraudulent jobs to students. You must always use critical thinking skills when evaluating any outreach from employers. If you have questions about specific positons you may send them to asccareer@osu.edu or ask your Career Coach. More information about evaluating employment fraud can be found on the Buckeye Careers website.

It’s designed for college students and recent grads
Many job boards host a broad range of postings, but opportunities posted in Handshake target current students and recent graduates, generally with no more than 1 year of career experience.

Employers are specifically seeking Ohio State students
Employers recruit here for many of the same reasons you likely decided to attend Ohio State – the outstanding quality of our academic programs, the amazing co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students, and the caliber of talent Ohio State attracts.

Check out all Handshake has to offer by logging in today!

Accuracy is your responsibility. Please keep your personal and academic data on Handshake up to date. Each academic term, please at minimum update your career interests and the most current version of your resume.

The office reserves the right to deactivate a student's access to Handshake. Students and recent graduates who engage in the following forms of behavior, or other acts deemed to be unprofessional or irresponsible, will have their access to Handshake deactivated.

Applying to postings when you do not meet the minimum qualifications specified by the employer.
Engaging in unprofessional behavior as an intern (e.g., repeatedly arriving late to the site, abusing company property, not following through on assignments).
Not showing up for a scheduled interview at an employer's place of business
Not showing up for a scheduled on-campus interview (see further policies below)
Falsifying information on a resume or cover letter.
Allowing a non-OSU student to use your account to upload a resume and/or apply to positions.
Accepting an offer for full-time employment, either through verbal or written communication, and then declining the offer when a position with a different employer has been secured.

You MUST consider all job and internship offers seriously before accepting them. Please consult with one of the office’s Career Coaches if you need assistance evaluating an offer.

In order to use Handshake, you must meet one of the following bullet points below, in its entirety:

Be a student in good standing at Ohio State with all tuition and fees paid, taking classes on the Columbus campus during the current academic term, and enrolled in an undergraduate Arts and Sciences major program
Be a recent graduate (within the last four academic terms) of an undergraduate Arts and Sciences major program

Those who meet one of the two criteria above will have automatic access to Handshake once they authenticate using their OSU name.# and internet password (same credentials used to log into Carmen and Buckeyelink).

Exceptions to these two situations occasionally exist, such as when a student is studying abroad or is taking coursework at another institution for a semester prior to graduation. If you have questions about whether your specific situation warrants an eligibility exception, please contact ASC Career Success.

Don’t meet the eligibility requirements?

Here are some common referrals. If you are:

An Arts and Sciences alumnus who is more than four academic terms past your undergraduate graduation: The Bill and Susan Lhota Office of Alumni Career Management is available to assist you.
New to Ohio State (a campus changer, incoming first year student, or transfer student): a Handshake account will be generated for you no later than the first day of classes during the term you begin attending. Please check back then.
A student at another college or university: Be sure to check out your institution’s career services office – they will be glad to see you!

If a referral for your situation isn’t listed above, feel free to contact ASC Career Success for more information.

You are welcome to appeal the deactivation of your Handshake account. Please adhere to the timelines outlined below; failure to comply within the stated timeframe may result in permanent deactivation of your Handshake account. Account restoration is at the discretion of the director of the office.

On-Campus Interviews
You must draft an apology letter to the interviewer explaining why you were unable to attend and send it to the Director of Industry Connections at the Center for Career and Professional Success, Scott Kustis (kustis.1@osu.edu). Your letter must be received by the director no more than 48 hours after your missed interview. The office will share this with the recruiting team. Telling Career Success that you have already sent an email to the employer will not suffice. You may also be required to submit supporting documentation if your cancellation or no-show was due to an emergency beyond your control. To protect your privacy, supporting documentation will not be shared with the employer.

Inappropriate Use of Handshake
Contact the Director of Industry Connections for the Center for Career And Professional Success, Scott Kustis (kustis.1@osu.edu) to request an appointment to discuss your specific situation. Requests for appointments should be made no more than two weeks after you receive notification that your Handshake account has been deactivated.

As you search through available opportunities, please keep in mind that the posting of an opportunity does not indicate endorsement or recommendation of the employers or opportunities by the University. The University reviews employer requests to post jobs, but does not perform an in-depth review of every job posting or otherwise make any representations, warranties, or guarantees regarding the validity, accuracy, or legitimacy of any of the posted positions. This includes, but is not limited to information provided regarding wages, hours worked, working conditions, or safety. It is up to you to apply due diligence and exercise caution and common sense in your job search. For your privacy and protection when applying to a job online, it is advisable that you do not provide any unnecessary personal information to the prospective employer, provide credit card or bank information, or perform any type of monetary transaction. If you suspect a fraudulent posting or have any questions, please contact the Office of Student Life Buckeye Careers at careerquestions@osu.edu.

If you have a Disability and rely on a screen reader or the keyboard for access to your computer you will experience difficulty using the Handshake application. As the University works with Handshake to improve accessibility, please contact handshake@osu.edu for assistance in navigating and using this application. A member of our team will respond within 2 business days to assist you.