Messaging Applicants

You can contact your job applicants directly in Handshake or via external email in just a few steps. 

Message applicants in Handshake

1. Click Jobs or On-Campus Interviews from the left navigation bar, locate the relevant job or interview, then click the Applicants tab. 

2. On the Applicants page, check the box to the left of each applicant you'd like to connect with.

You may use the filters on the left sidebar to narrow and customize your search results. You can filter applicants by:

• Keyword Search
• Engagement
  • This filter returns any applicants who received a message with this job attached. 
• Status
• Labels
• Not Labels
• Schools
• Skills
• Majors
• Individual Majors
• Date 

Once the box for at least one applicant is checked, the applicant table column headers are replaced with bulk actions. Click Select all to message all applicants. 

3. Click on Message Students or Message Applicants to send the applicant(s) a message. A message popup box will appear on your screen and allow you the ability to create your message. 

While bulk messaging isn't counted against your messaging limits per recruiting season, there are limitations. For additional information, refer to Message Limits in Handshake.

4. Compose the desired message, then click Send in the lower-left corner of the pop-up.

• Click Insert Template to use an existing message template.

• To save the message as a template, click Save to Template at the bottom of the message popup box. This will allow you to reuse the message content quickly in other messages.

5. Once you click Send, a confirmation box will pop up. Review the message, then click Confirm in the lower-right corner to send.

The message is sent automatically and you will receive confirmation of the sent message (s) in the lower right corner of your screen. 

You can read more about the student experience in our student-facing article, Receiving Employer Messages in Handshake.

Message applicants via external email 

To email applicants outside of Handshake, you will need to export applicant data from Handshake. 

Jobs

• Once applicants are selected via checkbox, click the gray button Download all or More from the bulk actions, then select Download applicant data (CSV). 

Note: if no applicants are selected, the CSV file will contain the information for all applicants. 

On-Campus Interviews

• Once applicants are selected via checkbox, click the blue button Export CSV or More from the bulk actions, then select Download applicant data (CSV).

2. A pop-up will appear indicating the download is building. This process can take longer if there are many applicants. 

• The file will also be sent to your email address, so you can close the window if you prefer not to wait. 

3. Once the CSV file is ready, click directly on the hyperlinked text "Your download is ready. Click here to retrieve the file" to download and view the file.

• Tip: we recommend using Chrome or Firefox to have the best experience. If there are issues downloading the file, make sure you're using either browser. If you already are, close all Handshake tabs, clear the cache, open a new browser window, and try to download the file again. 

• If you close this notification, you can access the download from the email sent to you. Click on the Bulk Download link from your email to access.

The CSV file will contain the following applicant data:

• • Application ID
  • Application Date
  • Application Status 
  • Student ID
  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email 
  • Fully Qualified? (TRUE/FALSE)
  • School Year
  • School
  • Primary College
  • Graduation Date
  • Majors
  • Applied To ID (Job ID)
  • Applied To Type (Job Type)
  • Applied To Name (Job Name)
  • Job Applied For 
  • Employer ID
  • Employer Name
  • Employer Division
  • Document IDs

With this information, you can copy and paste the applicants email address into your own email client to reach out to the applicants directly outsideof Handshake. Check out our Messaging Best Practices.