In Handshake, all new employer users must be approved by existing staff members if auto-approval is not enabled or if your email domain differs from the one associated with your company's profile.
What to expect
If the owner of your company profile has configured the profile settings to manually approve users who request to join, the message "Your request to join [COMPANY] has been sent. We'll send you an email as soon as you're approved" appears after you sign up.
You will also receive an email confirmation indicating that your request to connect has been submitted successfully. The owner of your company profile will be notified and can review your request.
The email will read:
From: Handshake <handshake@m.joinhandshake.com
Subject: "Your access request to [COMPANY]."
Body:
"You've requested access to [COMPANY].
Hi [NAME]
You have successfully requested access to [COMPANY] on Handshake. An alert has been sent to the schools you requested to connect with, as well as staff members at your company.
We’ll send you an email as soon as they approve you!"
Approval timeline
Typically, requests are reviewed and approved within 1–5 business days. If your request isn’t approved within that time frame — or if you're unsure whether the current Owner is still active on Handshake, contact our Support team.
Note: If the original Owner is no longer active and no one else is connected to the company profile, our team can help you gain access and establish a new Owner.
Canceling your request
If you no longer want to join the company or accidentally submitted a request to the wrong company, you can cancel your request before it is approved. Read more about Canceling a Request to Join the Wrong Company.