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Set Up Automated Job Outreach

Jennifer
  • Updated

You can start automated outreach from the Source candidates tab on a job posting to have Handshake send personalized messages on your behalf to candidates who match your hiring criteria. 

Note: This feature is not available to on-campus employers. 

 

Open automated outreach

1. From the Source candidates tab on the job posting, click the Start automated outreach button at the top of the page.

This feature is currently in open beta. For employers with existing messaging limits, messages sent through Automated Outreach do not count toward those limits.



Start automated outreach.png

 

Review your hiring criteria 

2.  Review your Must-haves, Nice-to-haves, and Criteria to avoid. These are the hiring criteria Handshake uses to identify and message candidates, generated from your job description:

  • On the right, preview example candidate profiles Handshake will message under the current criteria.
  • To adjust the criteria, type your request into the Ask for changes box (e.g. "Add 2027 graduation year as a must have") instead of editing the lists directly. 

3. Click Continue. 

Refine target audience.png

Customize your outreach message 

4. On the Message to candidates page, review the default initial outreach message. The message includes AI personalization, which Handshake uses to generate candidate-specific content.

5. Edit the subject or message as needed:

  • Enter / in the message field to insert a candidate's First name, School, or Major, or to add another AI personalization block.
  • When adding AI personalization, enter instructions describing the candidate-specific content Handshake should generate.
  • To remove an AI personalization block, move your cursor to the end of the block, press delete to highlight it, then press delete again.
  • Click Restore default to replace your changes with the default message.
  • Click Add follow-up message to create a second message. 
Message to candidates .png

Review and launch 

6. Take a final look at your outreach before it goes live. The Review & launch page shows:

  • What happens next: Messages go out daily (excluding weekends), timed to when candidates are most likely to respond; replies land in your Handshake inbox; you can turn off automated outreach at any time from the job page, or it ends automatically when the job expires or candidates are exhausted.
  • Duration: Outreach runs for 30 days by default. Click Edit duration to shorten this if needed (30 days is the maximum).
  • Hiring criteria: A summary of your Must-haves and Nice-to-haves.
  • First message: A preview of your drafted message.

7. Click Start automated outreach to launch.

Review and launch your outreach.png

To make changes to your outreach after it's live, pause it, or restart it, refer to Manage Automated Job Outreach.