Peer Messaging in Handshake

You can find peers to message via the following ways in Handshake: 

• An active Job Posting
• The Handshake Home Feed
• The Explore People page 

An active Job Posting

To encourage students to learn about jobs and employers they're interested in, Handshake offers the ability for students to message peers directly from a job posting.

Note: message-able peers are only displayed if the job doesn't have a message-able job poster, and will be displayed as "Alumni at this company" or "Alumni in similar roles" — Not all jobs will have message-able peers displayed. 

Message-able peers are based on numerous factors in Handshake: recent activity, messaging volume, response rates, job role similarity with current job, etc.

Jobs with message-able peers can be identified directly on the Jobs overview page, located at the bottom.

• "Alumni at this company" is surfaced if there's alumni working at the company your viewing a job for.  
• "Alumni in similar roles" is surfaced if there's not enough alumni that work at the company. Thus, we display alumni in similar roles for you to connect with; they just don't work at the company.  

Click on the user's name to be directed to their profile, then click the button Message, located in the upper-right corner of the page. 

Within the pop-up, click in the text box to add your custom message, then click the button Send to send! 

The Handshake Home Feed

To message a user from the feed, click on their name to be directed to the profile. Alternatively, the feed may promote a section titled "Get advice from peers" — Click the button Message to be directed to the their profile. 

From the user's profile, click the button Message, located to the upper-right corner of the page. 

Within the pop-up, click in the text box to add your custom message, then click the button Send to send!

To learn more about the discovering content on the feed, refer to Handshake Feed: Overview & Interactions.

Explore People page

To explore peers on Handshake, click People in the left menu. A list of recommended students and alumni will appear in the center of the page, displaying the following information: name, school, school year, and major.

You can use the filters at the top of the page to search for specific students or alumni:

• Keyword
• School (all participating students and alumni will be listed by default, so you can use this filter if you'd like to only view peers connected to your current school.)
• Employer
• Job role
• Additional Filters
  • Degree
  • Grad year
  • Skill
  • Organization

To send a message, click on a peer's name to view their profile and send a message. Alternatively, click the Follow button to follow them.

When a student or alumni sends you a message, you'll be notified the following ways:

• A red notification bubble with a number will appear next to your Inbox in the left navigation menu.
• An email will be sent to your Handshake email address. 
  • Click View Request and Accept/Decline to access the message in Handshake. 

Once you open a message in your inbox, you’ll have the option to either Allow or Decline the message. Click the arrow icon on the far right side of the message request to expand it.

To respond to the message request, click one of the following buttons:

• Allow (black button): This will enable you to respond to the message.

• Decline (white button): You’ll be prompted to provide a reason for declining.

  • Note: the sender won't receive a notification that their message was declined.

If you receive a message that violates Handshake's guidelines, you can flag it for review.

Flagging a message will prevent the sender from messaging you further. The conversation will then be reviewed by Handshake's Trust and Safety team, and your school may also be looped in if necessary.

Note: when a message is flagged, the sender will not be notified. 

To report a message, click the three dots menu in the upper-right corner of the message, then click Flag Conversation from the dropdown.

Help us maintain a safe environment on Handshake by letting us know why you’re flagging this conversation. Please select one of the following options:

• Scam or spam
• Inappropriate content
• Abusive or threatening 
• Something else

Add any additional details about the action in the text box, then click the black button Submit in the lower-right corner of the pop-up to flag it.