Employer Guidelines

Please review the following employer guidelines regarding posted student internship content:

1. Students are encouraged to share honest feedback

We encourage students to provide honest, constructive feedback in their own voice. Accordingly, not all reviews will be positive—though we’re proud to say that the overwhelming majority of reviews are! We believe honest feedback adds value to the platform, and to your presence on it. Students may edit, update, or delete their own reviews at any time. If a student leaves a negative review, please treat it as useful feedback for your internship program and consider making changes where appropriate. We strongly believe that not all press is bad press; in fact, a negative review may be an opportunity to make a highly positive public response.

2. You have the ability to flag inappropriate content for review

If a student leaves an inappropriate review, you have the ability to flag the post for Handshake to review. Our content moderators will review the post against our internal standards and determine whether to keep the post up, remove the post from public view, or replace the post with a notice stating that the post was removed and why. In the future, we may roll out a feature allowing employers to respond directly to reviews.

3. We will only remove posts in clear violation of our Terms of Service

At our sole discretion, we may choose to remove certain reviews from the website. In most cases, we will notify the student of the complaint and provide an opportunity for them to correct the issue. Additionally, if we choose to permanently delete or allow the post, we will notify the flagging party and inform them of our final decision and rationale for doing so. If you are concerned about a specific review or wish to contest a moderation decision by Handshake, you may contact us directly at moderators@joinhandshake.com.

4. Please flag responsibly

We believe students have the right to express themselves in their own voice, and we take a broad view on what constitutes appropriate content. While we recognize that some organizations are more protective of their internal practices and interactions, we will not automatically remove reviews because they are flagged as containing confidential information. For example, flags based on unusually broad NDAs, references to pay estimates or layoffs as “trade secrets,” or potential negative publicity will likely not be removed by Handshake unless the content falls outside of our acceptable content guidelines.

5. We will refer certain content to career services centers

In some situations, issues raised by a student regarding their internship are better addressed by the student’s university. In those cases, we will report certain content to university career centers and allow them to decide how to proceed. For example, if a student writes a review containing allegations of sexual harassment, we will refer the matter to university career services and allow our content moderation team to determine whether to remove the review from the website.