To ensure your application documents are job-search ready, your institution may offer Document Feedback through Handshake. This feature allows your institution’s career centre to review the documents you upload and provide valuable suggestions and feedback. With their guidance and support, you’ll feel more confident when applying for jobs through Handshake!
There are five possible statuses for your documents if your institution offers Document Feedback through Handshake. These statuses are located to the right of your documents on the My Documents page under the Status column.
- Pending review
- Approved
- Reviewed
- Changes Suggested
- Changes Required
Click on the expandable headers to learn more about each of the Document Feedback statuses.
To upload a new document to your account, refer to How to Upload a New Document.
To edit or delete an existing document, check out How to Edit or Delete a Document.
Pending review
This indicates that your career centre hasn't reviewed your document.
You can still apply for jobs with a pending document, but depending on your institution's preferences, your application may not be fully submitted until the document is reviewed or approved.
- If your institution requires the document be reviewed or approved first, this means the employer won't have access to your application until the document is approved.
- If the document isn't reviewed or approved by the application close deadline, the application is withdrawn, and you will be notified. For additional information, we recommend you reach out to your career centre.
Document feedback and review preferences are customisable per institution. Documents with the "Review" status have a yellow banner displayed above your document stating "Your career centre is reviewing this document." If you have any questions about the status of your document, we recommend connecting with your career centre for more information. Click the black button Reach Out, located within the banner for your career centre's contact information.
Approved
This status indicates your career centre requires documents to be approved before they can be attached to an application, and they have approved your document for normal usage!
Reviewed
This indicates your career centre has reviewed your document and confirmed it "as is", without any suggested changes or feedback.
Note: if you've previously had a document reviewed, your career services centre may choose to automatically approve all future documents uploaded to the system. If this is the case, your document will be "Reviewed" upon upload.
Changes Suggested
This status means your career centre suggests suggestions, but usually they are not needed to use your document in Handshake.
Click on the document name, then scroll to the bottom of the page to review any comments added by your career centre.
Note: some institutions have a setting enabled that prevents unapproved documents from being submitted with an application. If your institution uses this workflow, then an application with "Changes Suggested" will not be visible to the recruiter until the application deadline closes. When the application period closes, your application will be fully submitted.
Changes Required
This indicates that your career centre requires changes to be made to the document for it to be used in Handshake.
Click on the document name, then scroll to the bottom of the page to review activity and comments left by the Career Centre.
Once changes are reviewed and made to your document, click the button Upload a New Document, located in the red banner at the top of the page.
Use the below image as a resource to determine the impact of each status on your job application process.
- Pending review documents that haven't been reviewed by your career centre may be submitted on the job applications end date, or withdrawn completely if not the document wasn't reviewed/approved.
- Documents with Changes Suggested may be used to apply for jobs as usual. *Suggestions are optional and not required.
- Documents that have been marked as Reviewed, have been approved "as is" by your career centre, and there's no changes needed to the Document. The application is submitted at the time of review.
- Documents that must be marked as Approved, will stay in Pending status until approval. Once Approved, the application is submitted.