Reviews and Summer Experiences FAQ's

There are three different ways students can submit reviews for employers in Handshake. 

1. Handshake's email campaign

Handshake sends an annual email campaign in the fall to activated students encouraging them to submit a review.

This survey starts by asking students, “What did you do this past summer?” and allows students to select non-work experiences like “Research” and “Taking Time Off”. If a student indicates they participated in an internship, they have the option to leave a review.

Here's an example of what this email may entail: 

Subject line	{{First Name}}, a chance to win £100 for sharing your summer experience
Header	Share your experience for a chance to win.
Body copy	Hi {{First Name}}, We want to hear about your summer internship experience. Take a 5 minute survey today and have a chance to win a £100 Amazon gift card. Your review will help other students on Handshake find the right internship. And when you complete your review by November 5th, you'll be entered to win! Simply respond by clicking the button below. [Share My Experience] Thank you, The Handshake team

 

2. Directly from their Handshake account

Students can submit a review directly from their account. 

Note: this option is only available if the student has not submitted a review yet. 

They'll need to click their account icon in the upper-right corner of the page, then click My Reviews from the dropdown. On the page that loads, they will click the blue button Write a review. 

 

If the student has already written a review, their reviews are listed on this page. 

 

For more information about the student's process of submitting a review, refer to Reviews in Handshake.

 

3. The company's profile in Handshake

Students can submit a review directly from the employer's company profile. They'll click the Reviews tab, then the blue button Write a review. 

 

 

For more information on the student's process of submitting a review in Handshake, refer to Reviews in Handshake.

 

 

Click Reviews from the left navigation bar - all Job Reviews will automatically load on the page. Use the filters on the left side of the page to narrow your results or find a particular review. 

Click Interview Reviews to access all reviews related to interviews. 

 

 

All reviews submitted in Handshake undergo a two-step moderation. To learn more about this process, refer to About Handshake Reviews Moderation Process.

 

 

There are 4 statuses in which a review can be in Handshake:

• Pending
  • Reviews that have been submitted, but have yet to be moderated by Handshake. This is the default status for all Reviews (that are not marked as private or not connected to a Handshake employer) until they have been through our moderation process.
    • Note: only Handshake moderators have the ability to change the status of a review, and it may take around 3 - 4 days for the review to be changed to “approved” or “declined.” 
• Unpublished
  • Reviews that have been marked as private, or isn't connected to a Handshake company.  
• Approved
  • Reviews that have passed the moderation process. 
• Declined
  • Reviews that did not pass the moderation process. 
    
    

To access reviews by their status, use the Status filter on the upper-middle section of the Reviews page. 

 

 

Students are asked to select attributes they feel best describe the employer in the reviews survey. These attributes were generated after extensive feedback from students about what they value in potential employers. If enough students select an attribute for an employer, that attribute is shown in the “Highlights” section of the reviews tab on the employer page. Many students have shared feedback that these attribute highlights are very helpful for them to get a quick understanding of what differentiates this employer from others

Star ratings are not shown students, and only viewable to career services users. In our pilot, we found them to be unhelpful to students, as originally constructed on a one-to-five-star scale. Ratings in the pilot were overwhelmingly positive - the average rating was 4.5 out of 5. They therefore provided very little signal to differentiate employers and provide value to students. We will instead show employer attributes (as described above), that provide a more nuanced and helpful signal about what makes an employer special.

 

Career Services Reviews Functionality

Can I report on the Summer Experience survey question? (Example: students who were doing research, volunteering, taking classes, studying abroad, taking time off or other).

• • At this time you can't report on this question in the application, but you can reach out to our support team and request a report with this information!

Can staff receive alerts when reviews are flagged?

• • We do not currently have this functionality, but will circle back with our plans in this regard.

For multi-office campuses, can we get the ability to filter by institutions?

• • We do not currently have this functionality, but will circle back with our plans in this regard.

Is there a way to view the Q&A’s posted by our students? 

• • Yes! You can pull these from the Q&A Insights Explore here. This view shows all questions and answers on Handshake, and you can filter by “Answerer Institution” or “Asker Institution” to get to your students’ questions and answers. If the institution is listed as null, the student chose to be anonymous.

 

Employers

Where can employers access their reviews in Handshake?

• • Employers can access their reviews on their company pages, exactly as students can view them. They will also be able to flag and reply to reviews on that same page.

Will all contacts at an employer be notified when they get a new review, or just one point of contact?

• • By default, all recruiters for a given employer will receive in-app (not email) notifications every time a new review is published.
  • They will have the option to opt-in to email notifications on an individual basis if they so choose. We will make this clear to them in our communications to employers and Help Centre resources.

What if reviews are left for employers not currently on Handshake?

• • If reviews are left for employers without a Handshake account, we currently have no way of displaying that review in product.
  • However, with 15k+ employers currently on Handshake, the majority of reviews are attached to Handshake employers.

What if reviews upset an employer?

• • We’ve found most submitted reviews to be thoughtful, constructive and high-quality. None of the employers we’ve spoken to have raised issues with example approved reviews we’ve shown them. On the contrary, they’re excited about the ability to engage with students in new ways.
  • If an employer believes a review does not meet our Content Guidelines, they are able to flag that review for secondary moderation. Employers also have the ability to reply to reviews, a great opportunity to proactively address feedback and show students they are engaged and listening.

 

Students

How will reviews be presented to students?

• • Reviews will be shown on an employer’s job profile and employer profile.

Is there any way for a student to write an anonymous review?

• • Yes, students are able to select how they would like their review to be shown in Handshake: 
    • Fully visible: Display full name, photo, institution, level of study and course
    • Semi-anonymous: Hide full name + photo, but display institution, level of study and course
    • Anonymous: keep it private to only their career centre
      
      • After talking to students, the overwhelming feedback was that totally anonymous reviews were significantly less valuable. This is because some context around the reviewer is important for understanding if a review is relevant to a student. For example, an English student at a small university may find a review from an engineering student at a large technical institution interesting, but less relevant to them personally.

Can students make their reviews visible only to other students and not employers

• • We are making it clear to students that if they choose to share their reviews publicly, they should expect that employers will be able to see it. Because even if Handshake limited access to “just students,” employers could well still see their review (for example, by asking one of their interns to show them reviews via the intern’s student account). We are optimising for ensuring we do not create a false expectation of privacy by a student.

Do students at my institution only have access reviews from other students at my institution?

• • Students will be able to view reviews from all institutions across the Handshake network. This is a core principle of our Reviews feature. We believe that harnessing the power of the network will provide a significantly more valuable experience, for students to be able to see reviews from a far broader set of employers and job functions. For example, if you are a student at a technical institution in Bristol, but are interested in working in design in London, you will likely benefit from reviews shared by design students at a university in the London region.