Best Handshake Alternative for University Career Services Teams

Summary

• The best software alternative for Handshake is Leapath, a platform built specifically for university career services teams.
• The blog compares both platforms across student tools, employer tools, career services tools, and track record.
• Leapath comes out ahead on student tools and career services tools, since it starts by identifying skill gaps and turning them into a plan, while Handshake wins on employer-side tooling and its longer track record
• Leapath builds a structured, personalised plan to make every student job ready, which solves the problem for all three stakeholders at once: students know exactly what to work on, career services teams know who needs help, and employers get candidates who are already verified. Book a free consultation call to see how Leapath can work for your students.

Introduction: Why career-readiness platforms exist?

Getting a first job is difficult for three specific reasons.

• Many graduates aren’t finding jobs in their actual field of study, even after completing a degree.
• A large number of them also feel unprepared to apply for entry-level roles in the first place, usually because they’re missing specific skills a job needs, not because they lack qualifications on paper.
• The number of entry-level jobs available has been shrinking as employers automate more of the work that used to go to new graduates, so there are simply fewer openings to compete for.

These three reasons create problems for everyone involved. For students, it starts with the degree itself, which doesn’t always give them the skills their dream job requires. Most students don’t know exactly which skills they are missing and they only find out the gap exists when their applications get rejected, and even then they rarely learn the reason.

Career services teams at colleges usually only have resumes to look at, with no real data on which students are actually ready for a job and which ones need more training. Employers get large numbers of applications for entry-level roles and have no quick way to check who can actually do the job before spending time on interviews.

Handshake and Leapath are both platforms built to fix these problems for students, employers and career services teams. In this article, we compare them feature by feature so you can see which one is the better fit for you.

Handshake vs Leapath: what are the main differences?

Both platforms help students get hired and help colleges and employers work with early-career talent. The difference is in how they do it. We compare them on various aspects: student tools, employer tools, career services tools, and support and track record. Each section ends with a short verdict on which platform does better.

1. Student tools

A degree does not always equip a student with the skills a specific job needs. The problem is that students rarely see this gap on their own, and most only learn about it when an employer rejects them. A good skill assessment platform shows them the gap before they apply. It also recommends each student how to close their skill gap.

Handshake

Handshake covers a student’s path from learning to getting hired in one platform. Below is a detailed breakdown of the tools offered for students on the platform.

• AI Skills Studio: A free tool that offers students project-based courses designed with top employers.
• AI work: Once students have some skills, the AI work tab lets them put those skills to use, earning up to $150 an hour on AI projects and gaining hands-on experience.
• Job recommendations: With that proof of work, students move to the jobs tab, where Handshake matches them to jobs using their profile, giving recommendations based on their academic background, their interests and the careers they say they want.
• Career events: The events tab helps students meet employers in person, listing career fairs and recruiting events from their college and nearby colleges, with the date, location and number of employers attending.

Leapath

Leapath starts a step earlier, by measuring where a student stands today and building a structured plan to close the skill gaps keeping them away from their dream jobs. Below is a detailed breakdown of how it does this.

• Readiness score: Students take assessments built for the job roles they are aiming for, and get a live score out of 100, with separate scores for technical ability, communication and problem solving, so they know which area needs the most work.
• Skill gaps: Leapath shows the skills holding the student back, comparing them with the exact skills employers want for their target job roles, so the gap is clear.
• Weekly roadmap: Once the skill gap is clear, Leapath turns it into a plan, breaking it into structured weekly steps and a tracker, so the student always knows what to do next. This is different from tools that only suggest courses or projects and leave the student to decide the order.
• Role fit scores: Leapath also shows how well the student fits each role, with match scores for a primary, a secondary and a tertiary target role that the student has set on their own, so they can see which roles they are closest to..
• Employer matches: As students improve and upskill, Leapath matches them with employers who are hiring for their target roles, so they can see where their skills already fit.
• Public profile: Students can also share their progress through a profile showing their readiness scores and verified skills, and they can see who has viewed it and which employers have shortlisted them.

Which has better student tools?

Leapath has the better student tools because it starts a step earlier. It first points out the gaps between a student’s skills and what employers want for their target role, then shows how to close them with a weekly plan and matched courses. From there it matches students with employers hiring for those roles and lets them share a verified profile.

Handshake goes straight to courses and projects. Students have to work out their own skill gaps first, then decide which courses and projects to choose based on them. That is hard to do without knowing what employers expect for a specific role.

2. Employer tools and candidate discovery

Employers need two things from a platform: a way to find the right candidates in minimum time and effort, and a way to contact and hire them.

Handshake

This is where Handshake is strongest, giving employers a full set of tools to find, message and meet candidates. Below is a detailed breakdown of what it offers.

• Matches: A tool that shows candidates who fit the qualifications in a job posting.
• Search and filter: Employers can search and filter candidates directly, and receive emails about new relevant students.
• Engagement visibility: On the premium plan, employers can see whether a student has followed the company, opened a message, applied or attended an event.
• Messaging: Messaging is a major focus, with employers who message students seeing two to four times more engagement than on other platforms. There is a limit though, as employers need a trust score of 80 or above to message new students first, and lower scoring employers can only message students who have already engaged with them.
• Virtual fairs and interviews: Employers can run virtual career fairs, with group sessions for up to 100 people and one-to-one recruiter slots, and schedule virtual interviews from the same login.

Leapath

Leapath focuses mainly on filtering before employers get involved, so they only see candidates who are already pre-vetted. Below is a detailed breakdown of how it does this.

• Skill verification: Students are assessed on their skills, and anything they add to their profile, such as resume details or certificates, is checked in a verification queue before it reaches an employer.
• Pre-vetted candidates: Employers only see candidates who have passed a readiness level and are free of false claims.
• Employer matching: Leapath matches students with employers who are hiring for their target roles, aiming for faster and more reliable hiring than going through a large pool of unverified applications

Which has the better employer tools?

Handshake wins on the tools themselves. Search, messaging, career fairs and interview scheduling make it a complete recruiting setup. Leapath’s approach is that pre-verified candidates reduce how much searching an employer needs to do, which is a fair point, but it is less proven.

3. Career Services Team tools

Career services teams have to run events, book appointments and help each student with the right next step. The tools they use decide how much of that work can be done well at scale.

Handshake

Universities use Handshake to manage on-campus interviews, career fairs and student appointments. Below is a detailed breakdown of what it offers.

• On-campus interviews: Staff can manage on-campus interview scheduling for students directly through Handshake.
• Career fairs: Fairs can be in person, virtual or a mix of both, with QR code check-in. After an event, staff can message attendees and view engagement and attendance reports through the platform
• Student appointments: The fairs module lets staff target specific groups of students through email campaigns, and add prep resources and appointment booking to a student’s Journey before an event.

Leapath

Leapath helps career services teams see how ready their students are and act on it. Below is a detailed breakdown of how it does this.

• Student profiles and scores: The team can see where each student stands individually.
• Cohort trends: Average scores and performance trends are shown for the whole cohort, so the team can see whether students are improving.
• Skill gaps: These are shown for the whole institute and for each department, so the team knows which skills to train and where.
• At risk panel: Students are grouped into low, medium and high risk, so the team knows who needs help first.
• Institute vs national average: This view shows how the college compares with others.
• Verification queue: The team checks what students claim before employers see it. When a student adds a resume detail or a certificate, it goes into the queue for review, so employers only see profiles that have been verified.
• Reports: The team can generate monthly updates to send to deans or principals of the institute.
• Hiring pipeline: Tracks each student’s stage from applied to interviewed to hired. The team can view this per student or across the whole cohort,

Which has the better career services tools?

Leapath has the better career services tools. Handshake helps teams run events and appointments, but it does not show which students need help or in which skills. Leapath shows who is at risk, where the gaps are and how the college compares nationally, so the team can decide where to spend its time. Handshake is still stronger for running large career fairs.

4. Support, reviews and track record

A platform’s track record tells you how much evidence you have to check its claims.

Handshake

Handshake has been around for over ten years. It has a visible review history on sites like G2 and documented data privacy practices in line with FERPA, which reflects years of scrutiny from universities and their buying teams.

Leapath

Leapath has far fewer reviews. This does not say anything negative about the product itself, but it does mean there is less outside proof to check its claims against.

Which has the better track record?

Handshake wins. It has more reviews, more integration history and more institutions you can ask for references. With Leapath, your own trial or demo matters more than outside validation.

Handshake vs Leapath: which is right for you?

Choose Handshake if your biggest need is more opportunities. It gives students a very large number of jobs and internships, gives colleges full tools for fairs and appointments, and gives employers a mature recruiting setup.

Choose Leapath if your biggest need is knowing whether students are ready. It measures real skills against real roles, shows each student what they are missing, and gives employers a smaller group of candidates who have already been verified.

Both platforms aim to help students get hired. The better one for you depends on whether your main problem is finding enough opportunities or making sure students are ready for them.