The Applicant List Upload tool, also referred to as Candidate Analysis, allows you to upload a list of applicants from an external system to identify those who have interacted with you on Handshake.
Note: Handshake anonymises the information to preserve your data privacy.
Candidate accounts will only be displayed if the candidate has an active, public student or alumni account. Accounts that aren't activated or are set to private will not be included.
This feature is available to Premium partners only. For more information, check out this resource!
Topics:
- How to upload applicant lists
- How Handshake anonymises candidate data
- What happens to your hashed data after it is uploaded?
How to upload applicant lists
Step 1: Prepare your file
The headers noted below are mandatory and must be present in your file, even if you choose not to add data for the "Job Title" or "Status" fields.
Create a spreadsheet in a CSV format with the following headers:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Email Address
- Job Title (optional, to reference the job applied for; leave blank if not applicable)
-
Status (optional, to reference the applicant status; leave blank if not applicable)
- Note: the headers for Job Title and Status are required for the file to be processed.
|
First Name |
Last Name |
Email Address |
Job Title |
Status |
Tips:
- Before preparing your list, discuss with your Customer Success Manager which categories of candidate data to analyse:
- Interns, Full-Time Early Talent Roles
- Stage in the recruitment funnel:
- Candidate Leads
- Applicants
- Qualified Applicants
- Applicants who received Offers
- Hires
- We recommend uploading files based on the most recent hiring season, typically 4 months to a year. For example: All Summer 2024 Intern Applicants.
- Upload candidates that graduated from an academic institution in the past year or are currently enrolled in an academic institution.
- Be as descriptive in your file-naming as possible (e.g., ‘Handshake_2023_fulltime_offers.csv’).
Step 2: Upload your file
1. Click Analytics from the left navigation bar.
2. Click the External Applicants tab located under the Applicants section.
3. Click the blue button Get started.
4. A pop-up will appear with our Data Privacy Policy. Click the blue button I Understand in the lower-right corner to proceed.
Note: to stop receiving this message, check the box for Don't show this again.
5. Click Select file in the lower-right corner of the page to upload the anonymised .csv file to Handshake.
- To obtain a sample file, click the white button Get sample file.
6. The message "Anonymising your CSV data" will appear.
7. Once the data has been successfully hashed, click the blue button Import hashed data to import your data into Handshake for analysis.
8. Handshake will begin to search for candidates with matching hashed values.
-
- First, Handshake will search using the hashed candidate email against its own database of hashed user emails.
- Next, all remaining records not found by email are searched using hashed names.
9. Handshake will retrieve details on your historical interactions in the last 24 months with these matched candidates. Results will be shared with you through your Customer Success Manager.
- Handshake does not report on candidates that you have not interacted with in the last 24 months.
- Because of limitations inherent in the matching process, the results may be incomplete.
How Handshake anonymises candidate data
Once you have prepared a file with a list of applicants and have validated its format, Handshake will anonymise all fields in the file that could be used to identify the exact candidate. Specifically, Handshake will run an SHA-256 hashing algorithm on the First Name, Last Name, and Email fields in the file. This process will transform plaintext names and emails into 64-character hexadecimal values that are functionally impossible to decrypt.
As an example, “John Doe” would read as “6cea57c2fb6cbc2a40411135005760f241fffc3e5e67ab99882726431037f908” after hashing. You will be able to view a preview of these hashed values for verification before any data is transferred to Handshake.
File validation and hashing take place in your browser on your computer. Handshake does not receive any data from your local system until after hashing and you explicitly click the button to upload.
What happens to your hashed data after it is uploaded?
Handshake will start matching student accounts with the hashed fields. Handshake will identify the matching values produced by the hashing algorithm against its own set of hashed data, in the same way that web passwords are securely validated.
Handshake compiles an output report summarising your historical interactions with the matched Handshake accounts in the past 24 months. This output report is emailed to your Handshake success team.
Once the above process is complete, the original hashed file is deleted from Handshake’s system. Handshake keeps the original file for only as long as needed to match Handshake accounts. Unmatched records are never shared or stored.