Johns Hopkins APL Again Named a Handshake Early Talent Award Winner

For the second year in a row, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, has won a Handshake Early Talent Award. Given to just 180 out of more than 750,000 companies that use the Handshake website, the award recognizes employers of choice for Generation Z job seekers.

Handshake, a top site for college students to find jobs, connects up-and-coming talent with hundreds of thousands of employers, including Fortune 500 companies such as Google, Nike and Target, as well as thousands of public school districts, health care systems, nonprofits and even sports teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers.

APL’s Talent Services Department (TSX) uses Handshake to proactively source and build relationships with more than 12 million students and early career alumni from 1,500 educational institutions, including four-year colleges, community colleges, boot camps and minority-serving institutions.

Unlike many other honors, the Early Talent Award is based on platform activity rather than on nominations. APL college recruiters use Handshake to engage with Gen Z talent throughout the entire year on their preferred social platform. In the first three months of 2023 alone, APL has engaged with more than 85,000 students at 1,300 universities, resulting in 6,500 applications and over 50 hires.

“Of course, APL actively recruits top talent from all generations,” said Joe Ames, who leads college recruiting for APL. “But reaching Gen Z is particularly important as we look to the future. Being a recent winner of a great workplace award is also something that resonates with Gen Z, and the Lab’s recent Glassdoor and Fast Company awards are another way to reach this important demographic.”

Ames added that winning the Early Talent Award helps establish APL’s employer brand, differentiates the Laboratory from peer organizations and strengthens relationships between APL College Recruiting and the universities that TSX targets.

“We’re thrilled to win this award for the second straight year,” said Denise Hockensmith, who manages the Laboratory’s talent acquisition programs. “Handshake is an important tool in our college recruiting strategy.”

Learn more about early career opportunities at jhuapl.edu/careers.