FAQs About Contacts

If you are interested in learning more about Contacts in Handshake, we've created this resource to help address many of the questions you may have!

• How do I make a user a contact at my institution?
  • Navigate to that user's account and click the blue Create Contact for User button, located under the Actions section. For additional information, refer to Add a Contact.

• Can I invite a contact to become a user? 
  • Yes! If you would like to invite a contact to create an employer profile, refer to Inviting Contacts to Become Users: Standard Employer Invite Process or Inviting Contacts to Become Users: Custom Employer Invite Process.
    
     
• Is a contact created for the employer that posts a job to our institution?
  • Yes, although, this depends on how the employer posts the job to your institution. If the employer selects your institution specifically to post the job to, a contact will be created for the person that posted the job, provided that there isn't a contact created for them already. However, if the employer posts the job to all institutions in their network, a contact will not be created for them. We want to keep information streamlined and easy to track, and this is a step towards that. You're more than welcome to create a contact for them if you'd wish to!
• How does the source field get populated?
  • Blank: This contact was imported with a CSV upload.
  • Requested Approval: These contacts have requested to be an approved employer at your institution. All of the contacts at an employer will not be created when that employer requests approval, only the specific user who requests connection.
  • Alum: This contact has identified themselves as an alum of your institution during creation of their user account.
  • Attended Career Fair: This contact was added to a career fair registration at your institution.
  • Posted Event: This contact has posted an event to which you were invited.
  • Posted Interview: This contact was listed as a requestor on an interview schedule at your institution.
  • Posted Job: This contact was listed as a contact on a job that was posted at your institution.
  • Attended Interview: This contact was listed as a contact on an interview schedule at your institution.
    
     
• Can I filter contacts by the source field? 
  • Yes you can! Click All Filters on the Contacts list page and use the Source section to filter based on how the contact was populated on Handshake.

• If the contact has completed more than one of the source actions, how will it be displayed?
  • The source will be the first way in which this contact has interacted with your institution within Handshake.
    
     
• What is the difference between Source = Alumni and filtering on Other "Alumni Contacts"? 
  • When an employer signs up for Handshake and selects your institution as their Alma Mater, they are automatically added to your contact list with the Source populated as Alumni. If your institution happens to create/import a contact for this individual prior to them creating an account, and you indicate that they are an Alum during that creation process, that is what populates the "Alumni contacts" filter, located in All Filters. 

• Can I filter contacts based on employer labels? 
  • Yes you can! Click All Filters on the Contacts list page and use the Employer labels section to filter based on labels applied to the employer's company profile. For more information, refer to Filter Contacts: Employer Labels.

• Can I email contacts in Handshake? 
  • Yes! Refer to How to Email Contacts in Handshake for more information. 

Additional Resources:

• Contacts vs Users 
• Connecting Employer Users With Their Company
• Filter Contacts: Third Party Recruiters
• Employer Contact User Status
• Managing Notes on Contacts