Handshake's onboarding experience is designed to be both effective and efficient, helping you get the most out of your platform experience.
After signing up, you'll answer a series of questions about your experience, interests, skills, and goals. This helps personalize your profile and ensures you see the most relevant opportunities.
Step 1 - Claim your account
Some schools may create an account for you before your start date. If this is the case for you, you’ll need to finish setting up your account using the school email address provided to you.
1. Go to https://joinhandshake.com/
2. Click the button Sign up, located in the upper-right corner or the bottom- center of the page.
3. Enter your .edu email address, then click the blue button Next.
4. If your school has already created an account for you, your account will be displayed on the screen, Click the blue button Get Started to claim it.
If an account hasn't been created for you, you can begin the sign-up process by following the steps in Getting Started with Handshake.
Step 2 - Confirm your account, create a password, and agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Once you claim your account/finish the sign-up process, you’ll receive a verification email in your inbox. To confirm your account, click the link Confirm My Account, located within the email.
You'll then be redirected back to Handshake, where you're prompted to create a password and agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy as part of the on-boarding process.
Enter your password in the provided fields, then check the box to agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Note: Passwords must be 8+ characters and contain 2+ of the following categories: letters, numbers, and special characters.
Click the blue button Create account to continue.
Step 3 - Confirm details
Once logged in, you'll need to confirm a few details about yourself and your education plans.
Note: Handshakes gives students full control over how their information is shared. Whether you choose to keep your details private or share them on the platform, the decision is completely up to you—and you can update your preferences at any time. For more information this, check out the section "Choose your profile visibility" below!
- First name (enter in the provided space)
- Last name (enter in the provided space)
- Major (Type in the box to search, then choose from the dropdown)
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Education Level (choose from the dropdown)
- High School
- Associates
- Certificates
- Advanced Certificates
- Bachelors
- Masters
- Doctorates
- Postdoctoral Studies
- Non-Degree Seeking
- Technical Diploma
- Graduation Month (choose from the dropdown)
- Graduation Year (choose from the dropdown)
- Required information by school (only presented if school has requested additional information)
Click the blue button Next to continue.
Step 4 - Choose your profile visibility
After agreeing to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, you'll be presented with options to set your profile visibility.
For more information on each of the options, refer to Profile Privacy Options in Handshake.
Note: If you choose the Community option, you'll have the option to make your profile shareable outside of Handshake. Check the box "I want my profile to be public and shareable outside of Handshake" if you'd like others who aren't on the platform to be able to discover your profile. To learn more about public profiles, check out How to Make Your Handshake Profile Public and Share Your Profile Link.
Important: When you select the option for employers 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.
Step 5 - Choose your employment preferences and fill out your account information
Answer a few short questions for the opportunity to view relevant job opportunities!
What are you looking for?
Choose from the following:
- Full-Time Job
- Internship
- Part-Time
- On-Campus Job
- I Don't Know
Which industries are on your radar?
Type or select an industry.
What types of jobs?
Type or choose the types of jobs you'll be searching for.
Location
Where would you like to work? Type or choose any city you're interested in.
Company Qualities
Select what qualities you're looking for in a company. Your selection will help us give you better recommendations. You may choose up to 5 options from the 3 categories.
For more information on this, refer to the last section of Employer Attributes in Student On-boarding.
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.
We provide type-ahead suggestions based on common answers, but this field will allow for other entries as well.
Demographic Information (optional)
Skills
Employers may reach out to students based on the information provided on their profile. To help employers find you, add the skills you'll bring to any future job!
GPA
Add your GPA to make it visible to employers.
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 a web browser.
Courses
What relevant courses have you taken?
Clubs or Organizations
Add any clubs or organizations you are a part of.
Work/Volunteer history
Add any places you've worked or volunteered.
FAQs
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 can't 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.
Will this information be on my profile? At this time, the information won't be visible on the student's profile.