On Handshake, schools are responsible for approving or declining employer requests to connect, and each has different guidelines when choosing which jobs and employers to approve.
This article explains what happens when a school declines your connection request or job posting, how you are notified, and how to follow up.
Overview of declined requests
If a school declines your job posting, request to connect, or previously approved company, they are prompted to select a reason for the decline.
This reason is added as a comment to the school's profile in Handshake so you can learn specifically why your job posting or company was declined.
Note: The reason is visible to both the school's team and your company's connected teammates.
Some schools may invite you to resubmit a job that has been declined. If you've been invited to resubmit a job posting, refer to Resubmit your Job for Approval.
What happens after a school declines your company
If your company was initially approved and later declined by a school, the following is impacted:
-
Search
- You can no longer search for students from that school.
-
Messaging
- You cannot send new messages to students from that school. If you have active message threads at the time of the decline, you may continue those conversations.
-
Jobs
- Jobs posted to the school that were approved, pending, or in progress will be updated to declined. Any jobs that were closed remain closed. Existing jobs that were Handshake+ or self-service subscription will have that subscription canceled or downgraded.
-
Fairs
- Approved or pending registrations for career fairs hosted by that school will be canceled. Registrants and associated contacts will be notified.
-
Events
- Approved or pending event requests that have not yet taken place will be declined. Registrants and attendees will be notified.
-
Interview schedules
- Approved or pending interview schedules at that school will be declined. Registrants will be notified.
-
Applications
- Existing applications remain available to you, and you can still view documents submitted by those applicants.
- Note: Students are not notified when employers or jobs they applied to are declined by schools.
How you are notified of a decline
When a school declines your request, an automated Handshake notification and email are sent to the teammate who posted the job, based on their notification preferences. Review your Default Notification Preferences (Employers).
In Handshake
1. Click the globe icon in the upper-right corner of any page in Handshake.
2. Click the Notification type button and select Schools from the dropdown, then click Apply to filter notifications by school.
3. Locate the notification by school name. The notification will indicate either that a specific job was declined or that the school has declined to show your jobs and events.
4. Click the school name to view additional details.
Via email
Note: Email notifications are only sent when your company is declined, not when an individual job is declined.
1. Email notifications are sent to the requestor's email address (connected to the Handshake user account).
The email will read:
Sent from: "handshake@notifications.joinhandshake.com"
Subject: "[SCHOOL NAME] has declined to show your jobs and events"
Body:
SCHOOL NAME has declined to show your jobs and events
Hello NAME,
[SCHOOL NAME] has declined to show your jobs and events for the following reason(s)
[REASON]
Comment: VARIES–CUSTOM COMMENT TEXT FROM SCHOOL
[View Decline Details] button.
For more information about the school approval process, visit our help center."
2. Click the red View Decline Details button to login to Handshake and view the details.
Following up with a school
To learn more about the decline, contact the Career Services department at the school directly. This may also be referred to as being rejected, denied, or not approved by a school.
To locate a school's contact information in Handshake, refer to How to Contact a School.