Handshake's onboarding experience for new students is easy to use and efficient!
After signing up, students are asked a series of questions to help personalise their experience — these questions cover topics such as interests and skills.
Step 1 - Claim your account
Some institutions may choose to create an account for you prior to your start date. If this is the case, you'll need to finish setting up your account using your provided .ac.uk email address.
1. Go to https://joinhandshake.co.uk
2. Click the button Sign up located in the upper-right corner, or the bottom-centre of the page.
3. Enter your .ac.uk email address, then click the blue button Next.
4. If your institution has created an account for you, your account will be displayed on the screen for you to claim. Click the blue button Get Started.
If an account hasn't been created for you, you can start the process by following the steps outlined in Getting Started with Handshake.
Step 2 - Confirm your account
An email is sent to your inbox to verify the account. Click the link Confirm My Account within the email to confirm your account, and be directed back to Handshake where you're prompted to create a password.
Step 3 - Confirm details & agree to Handshake's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Once logged in, you'll be required to confirm a few details about your education plans. We allow students to decide how they'd like to share their information on Handshake. If you plan to keep this information private, or share it on Handshake, the decision is entirely up to the student and it can easily be changed at any time.
- Education Level
- Secondary Education
- Further Education
- Certificate
- Undergraduate
- Postgraduate
- Doctorate
- Postdoctorate Researcher
- Non-Degree Seeking
- Expected Graduation date
- Month
- Year
To receive marketing emails from Handshake, ensure the box is checked.
You'll need to agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to proceed with the on-boarding process to set up your account.
Click the blue button Continue.
Step 4 - Choose your profile visibility
Upon agreeing to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, students are presented with the profile visibility options.
For more information on each of the options, refer to Profile Privacy Options in Handshake.
Note: when you click that you want employers to be able to find and view your profile, you're consenting to the section of our terms of service and claiming your own account.
Step 5 - Fill out your account information
We provide type ahead suggestions based on common answers, but this field will allow for other entries as well.
Pronouns
Pronouns help everyone on Handshake address each other in an inclusive, respectful way. They may be shared with employers and other students, depending on the visibility settings you choose. To learn more about this, refer to Employer Interactions with Students.
If you choose to enter your pronouns, you'll be prompted to display your pronouns to employers or other students. You may choose either or both options.
Demographic Information (optional)
- Gender (type answer)
- Race and ethnicity (select an option from the dropdown)
- Socio-economic background (select an option from the dropdown)
Handshake promotes a representative workforce for all. Gender identification is just one aspect of a student's profile that employers consider when building relationships with students. Other considerations include, but aren't limited to skills, coursework, and interests.
For more information, refer to Employer Interactions with Students.
Note: demographic information is not shared on your profile.
Step 6 - Choose your employment preferences
Answer a few short questions for the opportunity to view relevant job opportunities!
What are you looking for?
Location
Industries
Company Qualities
Select what qualities you're looking for in a company. Your selection will help us give you better recommendations. For more information on this, refer to the last section of Employer Attributes in Student On-boarding.
Types of jobs
Skills
Relevant Courses
For institutions who have synced their coursework data with Handshake, students will be able to easily select from their courses they'd like to share with employers. Employers can then search for students who've taken certain courses.
- For certain courses, you'll have access to a generic list of courses you can add. Some employers may reach out to you if you've taken a particular course.
Clubs or Organisations
Work/Volunteer history
Interesting Jobs
Select jobs as interesting or not interesting to help us better personalise their job recommendations.
FAQ's
How did you generate this list of attributes? We asked a diverse group of students from several different institutions around the country what was important to them in an employer, and used their own words to generate this list. We then asked questions around what type of companies exist to further expand on the individual sections. We also did a text analysis of reviews that had been submitted by students about employers to pull out the words most used by students to describe those employers.
Who can view my responses? Employers will be able to search for students based on their responses. They can only search for students who have selected a certain attribute — they can't filter out students who have selected a certain attribute.
Why are the choices capped at five? Having a cap, allows you to select the most important attributes that are the most meaningful.
Will this information be on my profile? At this time the information won't be visible on the student's profile.