Handshake’s flagging system allows Career Services users to alert the Trust and Safety team to suspected fraud or abuse involving a company, user, or job posting.
After you submit a flag, it remains pending while the Trust and Safety team reviews it. Employers found to violate Handshake’s Terms of Service may have their company profile, individual users, or specific jobs suspended. The team notifies the user who submitted the flag and other impacted users as described below.
Note: If an employer or job is not a fit for your institution for moral, ethical, or state-specific legal reasons, use employer or job decline reasons instead.
Flagging an employer or job
1. Open the company profile or job posting, then follow the applicable instructions:
- Company profile: Click the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner, then click Flag employer.
- Job posting: In the Actions menu, click Flag this Employer.
2. In the Flag employer pop-up, select all reasons that apply:
- Fake or fraudulent employer: The employer or job is fake or misrepresents itself.
- Scam, phishing, or malware: The employer or job is a scam, asks for private information, or posts suspicious links.
- Promotional or advertising: The content promotes something other than a legitimate employment opportunity.
- Exploitative, unethical, or illegal practices: The employer takes advantage of a person or group, or operates in an illegal or unethical manner.
- Discriminatory practices: The employer discriminates against certain students.
- Adult content: The employer or job post mentions or promotes nudity, sexual scenes, or adult language.
- Offensive, abusive, or harmful conduct: The employer suggests or presents a negative hiring experience or abusive work environment, or has harassed students.
You can also provide additional information using these fields:
- Flag specific job: Select the job associated with your concern.
- Flag specific user: Select the user associated with your concern.
- Share more details: Add details about the situation.
If the employer is approved at your institution, you can select Revoke employer's approval at my school right away.
3. Click Submit to send the flag to the Trust and Safety team for review.
4. A confirmation email is sent to the email address associated with your Handshake account, confirming that your flag was submitted.
For student-facing instructions, refer to Safety: Flagging an Employer on Handshake.
How flags are reviewed
After a flag is submitted, the Trust and Safety team reviews it, contacts any necessary parties, and takes appropriate action under Handshake’s policies and Terms of Service.
The review timeframe varies depending on the severity of the allegations and whether the flag was submitted during business hours, 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST.
Outcome notifications
Notification recipients depend on the review outcome and the account or content suspended.
Career Services users
If a flag is not confirmed, Trust and Safety follows up with the staff member who submitted it.
All active staff receive suspension notifications in Handshake. In Notification Preferences within your user settings, you can also enable email notifications or disable in-app notifications.
Students
Students receive no notifications for user or company suspensions. When a job is removed for Terms of Service violations, applicants receive in-app and email notifications.
For related student guidance, refer to Safety: Protecting Your Personal Information and How to Spot and Report Scams on Handshake.
Employers
Employers receive no notification when a flag is submitted. If a job or user is suspended, the company profile’s Owner receives an email identifying the suspension and violation.
Visibility following a suspension
A suspension can affect which profiles and jobs Career Services users can access:
- User suspension: Career Services users may still be able to access the suspended user’s profile. Suspension revokes the user’s access to Handshake but does not remove the account. This preserves information for reporting and documentation.
- Company suspension: Career Services users may encounter a 404 or “page not found” error when opening a user profile associated with a suspended company. This can occur when the company is permanently suspended or currently suspended during a flag review.
- Job suspension: Jobs removed due to suspension display a 404 or “page not found” error.