The Student On-boarding Experience

Handshake has redesigned the on-boarding experience for new students to better set them up for success. This new experience not only looks brighter and cleaner, but will also help you showcase your skills and experience to employers.  

Claim your account

Some schools may choose to create an account for you prior to your start date. If this is the case, you'll need to finish setting up your account using your provided .edu email address.

1. Go to https://joinhandshake.com/ 

2. Click the blue button Sign up in the upper-right corner of the page. 

3. Enter your .edu email address, then click the blue button Next. 

4. If your school has created an account for you, your account will be displayed on the screen for you to claim. Click the blue button Get Started. 

If an account hasn't been created for you, you can start the process by following the steps outlined in Getting Started with Handshake.

Confirm your account

An email is sent to your inbox to verify the account. Click the link Confirm My Account within the email to confirm your account, and be directed back to Handshake where you're prompted to create a password. 

Confirm details & agree to Handshake's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Once logged in, you'll be required to confirm a few details about your education plans. We allow students to decide how they'd like to share their information on Handshake. If you plan to keep this information private, or share it on Handshake, the decision is entirely up to the student and it can easily be changed at any time.

• Education Level
  • High School
  • Associates
  • Certificates
  • Advanced Certificates
  • Bachelors
  • Masters
  • Doctorates
  • Postdoctoral Studies
  • Non-Degree Seeking
  • Technical Diploma
• Expected Graduation date 
  • Month
  • Year 

To receive marketing emails from Handshake, ensure the box is checked.

You'll need to agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to proceed with the on-boarding process to set up your account. 

Click the blue button Continue. 

Profile Visibility

Upon agreeing to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, students are presented with the profile visibility options. 

For more information on each of the options, refer to Profile Privacy Options in Handshake.

Note: when you click that you want employers to be able to find and view your profile, you're consenting to the section of our terms of service and claiming your own account. By doing so, you take ownership of the FERPA data and choose to share it. That information is no longer protected by your school's FERPA responsibility and is now owned by you. 

Account Information

We provide type ahead suggestions based on common answers, but this field will allow for other entries as well.

Pronouns 

Pronouns help everyone on Handshake address each other in an inclusive, respectful way. They may be shared with employers and other students, depending on the visibility settings you choose. To learn more about this, refer to Employer Interactions with Students.

If you choose to enter your pronouns, you'll be prompted to display your pronouns to employers or other students. You may choose either or both options. 

Demographic Information (optional)

Employment options

Location 

Industries

Company Qualities

Select what qualities you're looking for in a company. Your selection will help us give you better recommendations. For more information on this, refer to the last section of Employer Attributes in On-Boarding.

Types of jobs

Skills

Relevant Courses

For schools who have synced their coursework data with Handshake, students will be able to easily select from their courses they'd like to share with employers. Employers can then search for students who've taken certain courses.

• For certain majors, you will see a generic list of courses you can add. The courses there are the ones that if you've taken, employers are interested in reaching out. 

GPA 

Note: on mobile, students would need to uncheck the box for Make my GPA visible to employers to hide their GPA from employers. Once they've completed on-boarding, GPA visibility may only be changed via web browser.

Clubs or Organizations

Work/Volunteer history

Interesting Jobs

Select jobs as interesting or not interesting to help us better personalize their job recommendations.

FAQ's

How did you generate this list of attributes? We asked a diverse group of students from several different schools around the country what was important to them in an employer, and used their own words to generate this list. We then asked questions around what type of companies exist to further expand on the individual sections. We also did a text analysis of reviews that had been submitted by students about employers to pull out the words most used by students to describe those employers.

Who can view my responses? Employers will be able to search for students based on their responses. They can only search for students who have selected a certain attribute - they cannot filter out students who have selected a certain attribute.

Why are the choices capped at five? Having a cap, allows you to select the most important attributes that are the most meaningful. 

Can I change my answer?  You can change your information at any time! Refer to Update Your Career Interests and Update Personal Information on Your Profile. Additionally, every 6 months you'll be prompted to "re-onboard" and will have the opportunity to update your selections.

Will this information be on my profile? At this time the information won't be visible on the student profile.