Product Announcement—March 4, 2022

Recently Released

For all users…

Blurred Backgrounds

All users can now blur their video background when attending virtual appointments, virtual info chats, and virtual fairs. This was a highly requested feature and we’re excited to be improving the quality of all virtual connections. The initial version is compatible with Google Chrome and is not available on mobile devices.

• Learn how to blur your background here.

For Employers…

Job Overview Page

We’re launching a new summary page employers see after posting a job. The job overview page helps employers easily understand their job's performance and provides helpful recommendations to improve their job's performance. 

• Learn more about the job overview page here.

Coming Soon

For Career Services...

Signal Boosting

Signal boosting will allow your team to highlight employers with a special quality — like an alumni connection or DEI commitment — that's uniquely compelling to your students. Highlighted employers will be featured throughout the student experience, embedding your team’s expertise more deeply into Handshake. Signal boosting will launch in beta later this spring.

• Read more about signal boosting in our new whitepaper Open network, expert guidance.
• Join us for signal boosting office hours to learn about the feature and ask questions.
• If you’re interested in participating in the signal boosting beta, fill out this form. We’ll notify institutions selected to participate in the beta ahead of the launch.

Session Timeouts

Later this spring, Handshake will begin enforcing session timeout limits for all students and career services users — these limits dictate how long you can use Handshake before you’re asked to re-login for security purposes.

• Once we begin enforcing session timeout limits, your team will be able to use the User timeout field on the SSO preferences page to dictate how often career services users at your institution will be asked to re-login. If you leave the field blank, we’ll default to a 36 hour (2,160 minute) timeout window. We recommend checking this field and updating it to at least 2,160 minutes.
• All students will be subject to a 90 day session timeout window — a standard length for consumer applications.

Event Creation Form

We’re updating the user interface of the event creation form by splitting out “virtual” as an event medium, instead of an event type. Additionally, the option to invite employers to an event will be included directly within the event creation form itself for a more seamless experience.

For Students…

Student Relationships Experiment 

We'll be conducting a small scale experiment to help students get contextual information about working for a particular employer. For job postings with no messageable employer, we'll test displaying a messageable student who submitted a review of the employer or who listed the employer in the work experience section of their profile. The aim is to gain insight as to whether students will take advantage of messaging other students.