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

Click People on the left menu in Handshake.  

A list of messageable students will be displayed on the right side of the page with a summary of the profile, which includes the peers: name, school, school year, major, two most recent employers, and two most recent organizations.

Use the filters on the left of the page to search for students alumni based on attributes: 

• Name search (keyword)
• Your school only — 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.
• Alumni Only 
• School Years
• Majors
• Previous Employers
• Student Organizations

To send a message, click the white button Message to the left of the peers name — or click on the peers name to access their student profile, then click the blue button Message to send a message. 

Click on the expandable header below; Composing a Message for further instructions. 

Guidelines

If you have never sent a message before, you'll first need to agree to our content guidelines:

• Be professional and career-focused
• Use appropriate and respectful language
• Understand that messages may be moderated by your school and/or Handshake

Click the box to the left of each guideline to add a checkmark, then click the blue button OK to accept and proceed. 

Note: templates are only available if you message a peer from the Explore Students page, or the Reviews/QA sections of an employer's profile. 

Handshake Templates 

Choose a topic you'd like to inquire about: 

• Professional Experience
  • Ask what it's like to work for a particular company
• Education Recommendations
  • Ask about a grad school program you're interested in.
• Resume Advice
  • Ask about how you can best highlight your unique experiences when crafting your resume.
• Interview Advice
  • Ask about how you can best prepare for an upcoming Interview.
• Reviews or Q&A
  • Ask a follow up question about a Review or a Q&A question that was answered.
• Other career related topic
  • Ask something else related to your career search.

Once you've selected your topic, you'll be able to craft your message. Handshake provides you with a template to help get you started –– just fill in the "blanks" with your specific questions. 

If you'd prefer to customize the full message, click clear all and write your own message at the bottom of the prompt.

If you'd like to change the topic, click the X to the left of the topic within the blue bubble. 

Once you're happy with your message, click Send!

A confirmation will indicate your message has been sent successfully. You can go to Inbox to view the sent message. For more information on managing your messages, refer to How to Use Messages in Handshake.

Note: the person you sent a message to will have to accept your message to reply. You'll get a notification from Handshake when they write back!

When other students or alumni send a message to you, you'll receive a notification from Handshake:

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

You'll have the option to allow or decline the message. 

Click the: 

• Blue button Allow if you accept 
  • You'll be able to respond to the message. 
• White button Decline if you don't choose to accept 
  • You'll get a prompt to tell us why you're 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 have the option to flag the message.

Flagging a message will stop the other person from messaging you further, and the conversation will then be reviewed by Handshake's Trust and Safety team — your school may also be looped in if needed.

Note: when a message is flagged, Handshake doesn't notify the message sender. 

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

Help us keep Handshake safe by telling us why you’re flagging this conversation by clicking 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 blue button Submit in the lower-right corner of the pop-up to flag it.