Declined by an Institution

On Handshake, institutions ‌are responsible for approving or declining employer requests to connect, and each has different guidelines when choosing which jobs and employers to approve.

Learn how a decline is processed, how you are notified of the status of your connection with the institution, and what to expect if your company is declined after it was initially approved. 

Topics: 

• Overview of declined requests
• Declined after approval 
• Decline notifications
• Following up with an institution

Overview of declined requests

If an institution declines your job posting or request to connect, or if your company is declined after approval, they are prompted to select a reason for the decline.

The reason provided is added as a comment to the institution's overview page in Handshake, which allows you to learn specifically why the institution declined either your job posting or company. 

Note: the reason is visible to both the institution's team and your company's connected teammates.

Some institutions to which you have posted your job may invite you to resubmit a job that has been declined. If you've been invited to resubmit a job posting, refer to Resubmit your Job for Approval.

Declined after approval 

A company that is initially approved and later denied by an institution cannot post a new job, fair, or event there.

Additionally, the following is impacted: 

• Search  
  • Employers can no longer search for students from that specific institution.
• Messaging
  • Employers cannot send any messages to ‌students from that specific institution. 
  • Note: if you have any active messages with students at the time the institution declines your company, you may continue to message them.
• Jobs
  • Jobs posted to the institution that were either approved, or in a "pending" or "in progress" status, will be updated to declined.
  • Any jobs posted to the institution that were closed remain closed. 
  • Existing jobs that were HS+ (self-service subscription) get cancelled or downgraded (if multi-job toggle is on)
• Fairs
  • Registrations for career fairs hosted by their institution that are approved or pending will be cancelled, and registrants and the associated contacts will be notified.
• Events
  • Event requests that are either approved or pending and have not yet taken place will be declined, and registrants and attendees will be notified.
• Interview Schedules
  • Interview schedules that have been approved or pending at the institution will be declined and registrants will be notified.
• Applications 
  • When the institution declines an employer, existing applications remain available to employers, and they can still view documents submitted by those applicants.
  • Note: students are not notified when employers or jobs they applied to are declined by institutions.

Decline notifications

At the time of the declined request to connect, an automated email and Handshake notification is sent to the teammate who posted the job, depending on their notification preferences. Explore your Default Notification Preferences (Employers).

In Handshake

1. Click the globe icon in the upper-right corner of any page in Handshake, to the left of your name.

2. Select Institution from the left sidebar, then locate the notification by institution name. 

The notification may either read:

• "A staff member at INSTITUTION NAME has declined the job [JOB TITLE] at INSTITUTION NAME", or 
• "A staff member at INSTITUTION NAME has declined to show your jobs and events"

3. The institution name is hyperlinked. Click directly on the institution name to view additional details. 

Via email

Note: email notifications are only sent when the institution declines your company, not when your job is declined. 

1. Email notifications are sent to the requester's email address (connected to the Handshake user account). 

The email will read: 

Sent from: "handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.co.uk"

Subject: "[INSTITUTION NAME] has declined to show your jobs and events"

Body: 

INSTITUTION NAME has declined to show your jobs and events

Hello NAME,

[INSTITUTION NAME] has declined to show your jobs and events for the following reason(s)

[REASON]

Following up with an institution

To learn more about the decline, we recommend contacting the Career Services department at the institution that declined your request.

To locate a institution's contact information in Handshake, refer to How to Contact an Institution.