How to Connect with Handshake Open Network

The Handshake Open Network is setup for 4-year accredited schools and community colleges in the US that have not partnered directly with Handshake at this time. Students enrolled at these institutions can sign up for Handshake, where they will get access to some of the job search and community features we offer our Partner school students today.

To connect with students and alumni at Handshake-partnered schools, employers must request and be approved with the partner school. Permissions work a bit differently for Handshake Open, since we don’t have school partners to moderate our employer community. 

Right now there is a set list of employers who can message Open Students, based on their past interest and high Trust Score.

Jobs

We provide an option in the job form that will allow certain employers to post jobs to students from non-partner institutions, in addition to partner institutions.  

When posting a job, if "Add All Schools" is selected, a checkbox will appear for "Include students in the Handshake Open Network", as shown in the example below: 

All employers will have the option to post to students in the Handshake Open Network, but only employers that have been vetted by Handshake will be able to post their jobs to students in the Handshake Open Network. 

If an employer is not meeting the requirements now, but they eventually meet our requirements, their active job postings will become visible to Handshake Open Network students at that time.   

Note: Employers will only have the option to post to Handshake Open Network students if they've chosen to target all partner schools they're connected to.  If they are targeting their posting to a subset of schools they're connected to, they will not see the option.

Events

Only our Premium partners will be able to post a public event to the Handshake Open Network. In order to share an event with students in the Handshake Open Network, you’ll need to create the event as off-campus or virtual, then you can share that link with specific students. As long as the students are signed in, they’ll be able to see and register for the event using the link you shared! Learn more about this in the Premium Employer Guide to Handshake Events.

For our core users, learn more about Premium on our dedicated site!

Search and Message

Employers that are connected with the Open Network are able to search for and message students within the Handshake Open Network from the "Search Students" page. To do this, follow the steps outlined in How to Send a Student a Message.

FAQs:  

• Does the Open Network exclude students who are part of schools that are already partnered with Handshake?
  
  • Student accounts can only be connected to one institution within Handshake. If a student is connected to a Partner School, then that student will not be listed as part of the Open Network. If a school chooses to partner with us, then any current students in Handshake would transition from the Open Network to the Partner School, when the school launches Handshake. 
• Can "open" students see my full employer profile?
  • Yes! Students from Partner Schools and in the Open Network have the same view of employer profiles. 
• Can I post jobs to only specific schools within the Open Network? 
  • No, if you choose to post to the Open Network, you'll only be able to post jobs to all students within the Open Network. If you'd like to post to specific schools only, you'll need to select from our Partner Schools that have approved your connection.