Declined by a School

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.

Learn how a decline is processed, how you are notified of the status of your connection with the school, and what to expect if your company is declined after it was initially approved. 

Topics: 

• Overview of declined requests
• Declined after approval 
• Decline notifications
• Following up with a school

Overview of declined requests

If a school declines your job posting or request to connect, or if your company is declined after approval, they are prompted to select a reason for the decline.

The reason provided is added as a comment to the school's overview page in Handshake, which allows you to learn specifically why the school declined either your job posting or company. 

Note: the reason is visible to both the school's team and your company's connected teammates.

Some schools to which you have posted your job 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.

Declined after approval 

A company that is initially approved and later denied by a school cannot post a new job, fair, or event there.

Additionally, the following is impacted: 

• Search  
  • Employers can no longer search for students from that specific school.
• Messaging
  • Employers cannot send any messages to ‌students from that specific school. 
  • Note: if you have any active messages with students at the time the school declines your company, you may continue to message them.
• Jobs
  • Jobs posted to the school that were either approved, or in a "pending" or "in progress" status, will be updated to declined.
  • Any jobs posted to the school that were closed remain closed. 
  • Existing jobs that were HS+, self-service subscription gets canceled or downgraded (if multi-job toggle is on)
• Fairs
  • Registrations for career fairs hosted by their school that are approved or pending will be canceled, and registrants and the associated contacts will be notified.
• Events
  • Event requests that are either approved or pending and have not yet taken place will be declined, and registrants and attendees will be notified.
• Interview Schedules
  • Interview schedules that have been approved or pending at the school will be declined and registrants will be notified.
• Applications 
  • When the school declines an employer, existing applications remain available to employers, and they can still view documents submitted by those applicants.
  • Note: students are not notified when employers or jobs they applied to are declined by schools.

Decline notifications

At the time of the declined request to connect, an automated email and Handshake notification is sent to the teammate who posted the job, depending on their notification preferences. Explore your Default Notification Preferences (Employers).

In Handshake

1. Click the globe icon in the upper-right corner of any page in Handshake, to the left of your name.

2. Select School from the left sidebar, then locate the notification by school name. 

The notification may either read:

• "A staff member at SCHOOL NAME has declined the job [JOB TITLE] at SCHOOL NAME", or 
• "A staff member at SCHOOL NAME has declined to show your jobs and events"

3. The school name is hyperlinked. Click directly on the school name to view additional details. 

Via email

Note: email notifications are only sent when the school declines your company, not when your 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]

Following up with a school

To learn more about the decline, we recommend contacting the Career Services department at the school that declined your request.

To locate a school's contact information in Handshake, refer to How to Contact a School.