If you're pending approval to join your company profile on Handshake, this article explains who approves your request, what to expect, and what to do if no one is available to approve you.
If you haven't created an employer account yet, refer to Create an Employer User Account, Join a Company, and Connect with Institutions.
Who approves my request?
When you request to join a company profile, your request must be approved by an existing Owner or Admin on the profile.
In Handshake, this approval step is required if:
- Auto-approval is disabled, or
- Your email domain doesn’t match the one associated with your company’s profile.
Even if you're the head of the organisation, you won’t be automatically approved unless you’re the first person to create the company profile.
If you're unsure who can approve your request or believe no one is currently managing the company profile, contact our Support team.
Waiting for approval
If the owner of your company profile has configured the profile settings to manually approve users who request to join, the message "Your request to join the [COMPANY] is under review. Your request to join [COMPANY] has been sent. We'll send you an email as soon as you're approved" is displayed after you sign up.
You will also receive an email confirmation indicating that your request to connect has been submitted successfully. The owner of your company profile will be notified and can review your request.
The email will read:
From: Handshake <handshake@m.joinhandshake.co.uk
Subject: "Your access request to [COMPANY]."
Body:
"You've requested access to [COMPANY].
Hi [NAME]
You have successfully requested access to [COMPANY] on Handshake. An alert has been sent to the institutions you requested to connect with, as well as staff members at your company.
We’ll send you an email as soon as they approve you!"
Approval timeline
Typically, requests are reviewed and approved within 1–5 business days. If your request isn’t approved within that time frame, contact our Support team.
Canceling your request
If you no longer want to join the company or accidentally submitted a request to the wrong one, you can cancel it at any time before approval. Read more about Cancelling a Request to Join the Wrong Company.