Make an Appointment

Take advantage of what we have to offer

Take advantage of workshops, Career Center resources, and the Career Squad before scheduling your appointment. These will help you better prepare for an appointment, articulate your needs, and achieve your goals much sooner.

Clearly outline your needs/goals when scheduling an appointment.

In Handshake, you can do this by utilizing the comment section when requesting the appointment.

During the appointment, focus on your goals for that meeting.

The Career Advisor will ask questions to help build context and may recommend a follow-up appointment as needed.

Put what you’ve learned and/or discussed into practice.

It can often seem like a lot, but small steps lead to progress. For example, update your cover letter or resume, practice interviewing or salary negotiation techniques with a friend, or find new professionals with which to network. These activities will all help you refine your skills and make your next appointment more productive.

If you schedule a follow-up appointment with the same Career Advisor, be prepared to show how you’ve put into practice what you learned during the previous appointment.

If you schedule time with a different Career Advisor, be prepared to share what you’ve already learned and how you’ve put that into practice.

If the Career Advisors feel that a student or alum is not making the desired progress or following through on their own after advising appointments, we may revoke their ability to schedule appointments for the remainder of the academic year. They may still attend Career Center programs and Events.

Handshake offers Eastern Washington University students and alumni access to job and internship postings, on-campus interviews, employer presentations and job/graduate school fairs. Ethical use of this system ensures fair use for all students and employers.

Your usage of the system implies your agreement to these policies and EWU Career Center practices.

Falsification of Information Policy

Students and alumni who deliberately falsify documents (e.g., resumes, cover letters, etc.) or misrepresent personal information (e.g., major/college/school, degree level, graduation date, employment eligibility, etc.) will be blocked from using services.

• First-time offence: We may revoke on-campus recruiting privileges rescinded for the remainder of the academic year.
• Repeat offence: We will revoke your on-campus recruiting privileges for the remainder of the academic year.

To regain your privileges, you must call the Career Center at (509) 359-6365 during business hours to meet with a Career Center staff member. EWU Career Center will only conduct these appointments in person. We will only offer telephone appointments when extenuating circumstances are present.

Resume and Cover Letter Policy

We reserve the right to remove documents that fail to meet baseline professional standards. To help students succeed and to ensure quality within the system, the Career Center may review resumes or cover letters uploaded to Handshake. Most applicants develop high quality documents, but we occasionally see documents that fail to meet basic employer expectations.

We will notify students whose resumes and/or cover letters do not meet expectations and refer them to appropriate the Career Center resources help them refine their documents. In extreme cases, we will prohibit those refusing to make necessary improvements from using Handshake.

The quality of student applications influences employer decisions to recruit in Handshake. It’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure the high quality reputation of Eastern Washington University.

This policy serves as a framework for professional behavior and personal responsibility. Policy terms may change at any time at the discretion of EWU Career Center.

If you fail to show up for a scheduled appointment, it negatively impacts other students’ access to Career Center appointments.  A limited number of appointments are available each week, and demand for those times is high. We will enforce the following consequences when a student fails to show up for a scheduled appointment.

First No-Show

You may receive an e-mail informing you that you have missed a scheduled appointment, and that if you miss a second appointment you will lose your ability to schedule appointments for the quarter.

Second No-Show

We will revoke your ability to schedule appointments for the remainder of the quarter in which your second no-show occurred.  We will also block your access to Handshake for that same quarter.

Third No-Show in same academic year:

We will revoke your ability to schedule appointments and use Handshake for the remainder of the academic year. You may still attend Career Center programs and Events.

Note: We will clear no-shows at the start of each academic year, and they will not carry over from year to year. To regain your ability to use these services, you must meet with our Associate Director to discuss your no-shows and request your access be reinstated.

There is a separate policy for no-show appointments with guest employers, organization representatives, and non-Career Center staff that have been scheduled by EWU Career Center.

This policy serves as a framework for professional behavior and personal responsibility. Policy terms may change at any time at the discretion of EWU Career Center.

These guidelines determine the consequences for late cancelations and no-shows to any events involving an employer or recruiter. These events include but are not limited to:

• On-campus interviews
• Networking and etiquette events
• Workshops
• Employer panels
• Hosted office hours

We encourage students to pursue only opportunities that genuinely interest them, and to make informed choices before scheduling an interview or committing to a time. If you cancel late or fail to attend a scheduled event, another student misses the chance to take that spot. The employer also misses the opportunity to have a full schedule and productive event. Late cancellations and no-shows reflect poorly on the student, the University, and negatively impact an employer’s commitment to recruiting at Eastern Washington University.

Canceling a Scheduled Interview Before the Schedule Freezes Online

Interview schedules will freeze two calendar days prior to the interview date. You can remove yourself from an interview schedule online up until the schedule freezes. Make responsible and courteous choices when canceling scheduled interviews. If you need to cancel an interview, do so as early as possible to allow alternate candidates time to sign up and prepare for an interview.

Canceling a Scheduled Interview After the Schedule Freezes Online

This is a late cancellation. You must call EWU Career Center at 509.359.6365 during business hours to cancel your interview.

If you have two late cancellations in one academic year, we may revoke your ability to schedule interviews via Handshake for the remainder of the same academic year. We will make this decision will after consideration of the circumstances leading to the late cancellation.

Avoid late cancellations for interviews whenever possible. If one does occur, we encourage you to give an employer as much time as possible to adjust their schedule accordingly.

No-Showing a Scheduled Event

First No-Show: If you no-show, we will place a block on your Handshake account. This means you cannot apply for jobs or sign-up for campus interviews.

To regain access, you must email or mail a written apology to the employer(s) and send a copy to our Associate Director prior to sending the apology to the employer. Apologies should address why you missed the interview/event and your sincere apology (e.g. wasting an employer’s/recruiter’s valuable time and preventing another student from participating, leaving a negative impression on EWU as a whole, etc.). You must use a professional tone and correct grammar. Typos are unacceptable.

We will remove the block on a student’s account within two business days of our receipt of a professional apology. We will reject Apologies that do not meet the above standards. The account block will remain until you submit an acceptable apology letter.

Additional No-Show: Students who experience more than one no-show in an academic year will be blocked from using Handshake and Career Services for the remainder of the academic year.

This policy serves as a framework for professional behavior and personal responsibility. Policy terms may change at any time at the discretion of EWU Career Center.

Formally accepting an offer for a job/internship is something you should only do if you fully intend to honor that commitment.

We strictly condemn declining an offer after accepting it. You should make every effort to avoid it. These actions negatively impact your future career and employer’s overall impression of Eastern Washington University. Fully evaluate presented or anticipated offers, gather additional information, and ask clarifying questions before making a commitment. Concerns about an offer’s timeline or competing offers should be addressed to Career Services staff prior to any deadlines.

Career Services refers employers to the NACE Reasonable Offer Guidelines and encourages both students and employers to find mutually acceptable time periods to thoughtfully consider offers made. Once an offer has been accepted, we expect that a student will not continue to actively job search or participate in on-campus recruiting.

When an employer informs Career Services that a student retracted a previously made commitment to a position, we reserve the right to take actions to address this. These may include blocking access to Handshake, discussing the implications of the decision with the student, and/or requesting that the student provides additional communication to the affected employer.

This policy serves as a framework for professional behavior and personal responsibility. Policy terms may change at any time at the discretion of EWU Career Center.