Student email notifications and reminders help ensure they attend the appointments scheduled through Handshake. As a career services user, it’s helpful to understand when these emails are sent and how to troubleshoot if students report missing messages.
Students can change how they receive updates about appointments and events in Notification Preferences, located in the User Settings area of their Handshake profile.
Email notifications and reminders
The behaviors below apply to emails sent to students about appointments.
Initial appointment notification
A student receives an initial appointment email when:
- The student requests an appointment with Career Services in Handshake and the appointment is approved.
- Your office creates an appointment in the future from a career services (admin) account on the student’s behalf.
A student does not receive the initial appointment email when:
- Your office creates an appointment on the student’s behalf that is already in the past, regardless of the appointment’s approval status.
This logic applies only to the initial appointment notification.
Reminder emails
If a student has appointment reminder notifications enabled in their Notification Preferences:
- They receive one reminder email 24 hours before the appointment start time.
- They receive a second reminder email 1 hour before the appointment start time.
- If the appointment is approved or confirmed within 24 hours of the start time, the 24-hour reminder email is sent immediately after approval (instead of waiting until 24 hours before).
Troubleshooting: students not receiving reminders
If students consistently are not receiving any appointment notifications or reminders:
- Go to School Settings.
- Select Appointment Preferences.
- Make sure Appointments Enabled is checked.
If Appointments Enabled is not checked, students will not receive any appointment notifications, even if their personal Notification Preferences are set to allow them.