Recruit at GVSU


Why Recruit at GVSU?

Grand Valley State University enrolls nearly 25,000 students annually into 142 degree programs across seven academic colleges, assuring you have access to a wide variety of well-prepared and talented candidates. A strong liberal education serves as the foundation of all our programs, fostering critical thinking, creative problem solving, and cultural understanding you want and need from your employees.

Quick Facts About GVSU


Get Started

Effective recruiting is a year-round process. Successful organizations are the ones who are regularly on-campus, make a long-term commitment, and take the time to understand where their engagement can be most impactful. Here are some great steps to begin recruiting at GVSU today!

Step 1: Get on Handshake

The first step to becoming a GVSU employer partner is to create a Handshake account. Handshake offers employers the ability to post jobs, track applicants, schedule on-campus interviews, register for career fairs and events, and receive recruitment-related invitations and announcements from the Career Center.

Register on Handshake

Once you have a registered and approved account in Handshake, you are able to post opportunities which are then accessible by all GVSU students and alumni. Here's how:

  • Login to Handshake
  • Click Post a Job from your home dashboard, or click on Jobs in the left hand navigation bar and click Create Job in the top right hand corner. 
  • Input position details into 4 posting tabs: job Basics, Details, Preferences, and Schools you'd like to post the position to.
  • Best Practice: the more fields you complete, the more well defined your job posting will be (and the more likely you’ll be to attract well-qualified candidates).
  • Choose Create on the bottom navigation to create and review your job
  • Your position will be reviewed by a staff member and approved in 1-3 business days

Step 2: Attend Career Fairs & Events

  • Participating in career fairs and employer events is a great way to connect with GVSU’s talented undergraduate and graduate students. Keep your contact info current in Handshake in order to receive regular invitations.
  • Sponsor the career fair or other events for even greater brand awareness and access to well-qualified students. Select a sponsorship level in your event registration or contact Kristie Scanlon with questions about sponsorship.

Step 3: Build & Maintain your Campus Brand

Build a strong internship or co-op program and employ GVSU students. When you provide students with meaningful experiential learning and work experiences, they become your ambassadors on campus!

Conduct virtual or on-campus interviews for full-time jobs, internships, co-ops and summer/seasonal work.

Help learners develop and refine their job and internship search skills by providing resume advice or facilitating simulated interviews. Invest in the programs that are training and educating your future employees by making your organization available for presentations, speeches, and meetings with student organizations.

Tabling in a high traffic location on either the Allendale or the Pew downtown Campus is a great way to raise brand awareness and reach students.

At GVSU, we are always willing to work with our employer partners to think outside of the box. Because of our distributed campuses and increasing demands on learner time, we have found that traditional information sessions do not always attract attention. However, we are happy to work with you to develop and promote your own event.

Step 4: Enhance your Strategy

Need additional assistance with developing a winning strategy to increase your campus visibility and build your employment brand? Request a consultation with a member of the Employer Relations team.

Meet with Cindy Employer Engagement, Recruiting Strategies, Campus Branding & Events

Meet with Kristie  Recruiting Strategies, Internship Development, & Events


Employer Resources



Page last modified February 28, 2024