Introducing Handshake, our new all-in-one career services platform!
Your Career and Professional Development Office has officially launched Handshake, a comprehensive career services platform designed to enhance your counseling, professional development, and job search experiences.
Handshake consolidates all your career services into one seamless platform where you can book counseling appointments, message your career counselor directly, register for professional development events, and explore employment opportunities.
Starting September 5th, you'll be able to:
- Book career counseling appointments
- Register for events
- Apply to employment opportunities
- Access our online career resources
Students and postdocs can log in to Handshake through MyAccess. Your profile will automatically populate with basic information from UCSF's student information system.
Activate your UCSF Handshake Account Today!
List of current UCSF student populations we serve:
School of Medicine including:
- 4-year medical students, including gap year students
- MD/PhD students
*Please note, our team doesn’t serve UCSF medical residents, or staff interested in pursuing a medical degree. If you fall within these categories, please visit the Learning and Organizational Development website, or consult your speciality Residency Program Director for professional development resources and support.
School of Dentistry including:
- 4-year dental students
- International dentistry students
- DDS/MBA students
- Interprofessional health post-bac certificate program students
- Dental residents enrolled in a Post-Graduate Master’s program:
- Endodontics
- Public Health
- OMFS
- Orthodontics
- Pediatrics
- Periodontics
School of Nursing including:
- MEPN and MSN APRN students completing their coursework through 2026
- BSN-DNP Entry students
- Post-Master’s Entry to DNP students
*Please note, our team doesn’t serve PhD Nursing and Sociology Doctoral program students. All PhD students are seen by OCPD’s research team, who specialize in working with PhD and Life Science students and postdoctoral scholars pursuing research, academic and non-clinical career paths. If you fall within these categories, please visit (R-team Link) more information and support.
School of Pharmacy including:
- 3-year PharmD students
* Please note, our team doesn’t serve research oriented Master of Science or PhD degree students. All MS and PhD students are seen by OCPD’s research team, who specialize in working with MS, PhD and Life Science students and postdoctoral scholars pursuing research, academic and non-clinical career paths. If you fall within these categories, please visit (R-team Link) more information and support.
UCSF/SFSU Department of Physical Therapy including:
- 3-year DPT students
- Rehabilitation Science PhD students
Clinically focused master’s students including:
- Genetic Counseling MS students
- Global Health MS students
- MS Hail students
- MS Health Policy and Law students
Please note that our team does not serve prospective students, UCSF staff, Life Science students, or Postdocs, unless they are currently enrolled in one of the UCSF Health Professional schools or clinically focused master’s programs.
Privacy Policy:
Are OCPD appointments private or confidential? Our appointments are private but NOT confidential.
Please review our privacy policy for more information.
Schedule a career counseling appointment with one of our health careers counselors using Handshake
In order to maximize appointment availability, our team offers two career counseling options for health professional students:
- 30-minute Career Counseling Appointment
- Topics addressed for this option are: Career exploration, decision-making and planning, mentorship and enhacing professional communication, navigating difficult conversations and self advocacy, identifying barriers to integrating your professional identity, building your professional brand and community, strategizing our postgraduate residency or employment search, interviews and salary negotiations
- 30-minute Application Materials Review Appointment
- Topics addressed for this option are limited to document reviews: CV, Resume, Cover Letter, Letter of Intent, SOM ERAS 10 Noteworthy Experiences, and Letter of Recomendation guidance
- Topics that will not be addressed for this option:
- Our office doesn’t review personal statements. Please see our Writing Resources page for statement writing guidance.
- Spring Quarter M4 MSPE Noteworthy Characteristic Reviews. These appointments should be booked under our 30-minute Career Counseling option, as they focus on helping students identify and articulate three themes for their Noteworthy Characteristics paragraph, in alignment with broader guidance for their ERAS application.