Welcome to Handshake! The steps below have been carefully organized to make sure your onboarding experience is as smooth as possible. Set yourself up for success with Handshake by following the checklist in the order listed below.
1. Create a user account
To access Handshake, a user account is required. If you've been invited to a school or by a colleague, you can create an account by clicking the link that is included in the invitation email.
If you don't have an invitation, you can sign up at https://app.joinhandshake.com/employer_registrations/new. Learn how to Create an Employer User Account, Join a Company, and Connect with Schools.
2. Request to join your existing company profile on Handshake, or create a new one
After you confirm your email, you are prompted to search for your company and request to join their company profile or create a new company profile if your company is not already on Handshake.
If your company is already on Handshake, your company will populate as an option to select from. If it is not, you will have the option to create a new company profile. Learn How to Create a New Company Profile.
Tips:
- Use your corporate email address if you have one. This will not only ensure that your company profile displays as an option to connect with if the company is on Handshake, but it can expedite the approval process.
- Request to join your company rather than a school you want to recruit from. On-campus employers are the exception to this rule. Example: if you want to recruit from Stanford, don't select Stanford as your company. Instead, choose to post a job to Stanford once you have access to your account and can select schools to post your job to.
3. Validate your employer account, or connect with your existing company profile
Employers who create a new company profile are manually reviewed and validated by our Trust and Safety team. Learn more about our Employer Validation.
Users who are joining an existing company profile will either automatically connect with their company profile, or wait to be approved by the owner of their company's profile on Handshake. The approval process is dependent upon the company's profile settings.
4. Customize your profile
Once your new employer account is validated, or you connect with your existing company profile, you can customize your user profile.
A well-crafted user and company profile plays a vital role in shaping your brand and building rapport and trust with our students and school partners. Put your best foot forward with a complete user and company profile.
- Configure your Employer Account User Settings
- Learn How to Edit Your Company Profile Settings
5. Set notification preferences
While there are default notification settings enabled, you may customize how and when you receive communication from Handshake. Explore your Default Notification Preferences (Employers).
6. Connect with schools
To connect with schools, you must either post a job to the desired school(s) and receive job approval, or contact the desired school(s) and ask to be proactively approved if you do not have a job to post.
- Learn how to How to Post a Job
- Find How to Contact a School
7. Build your recruiting skills
Pathfinders arms you with the latest strategies and tools to achieve your recruitment goals, and provides you with the opportunity to earn professional development credits. Learn How to build your early talent recruiting skills with Pathfinders.
Note: Handshake Pathfinders requires a separate account with SkillJar. Sign up with your preferred email and password.
Additional resources
Premium partners have access to additional features through Handshake. Examples include:
For more information, please check out this resource.