Create a Career Services account, also called a staff account, to give a staff member access to Handshake at your institution.
During account setup, select a permission group with preconfigured permissions or customize the staff member’s permissions based on their responsibilities.
What should I check before creating a staff account?
Staff members with an existing student account
If the staff member already has a student account at your institution, use the email address associated with their student account to link their student and Career Services accounts.
Using a different email address creates separate accounts and can cause sign-in problems:
- The staff member cannot use the Switch Users feature to switch between their student and Career Services accounts.
- If your institution uses single sign-on (SSO), SSO links to only one of the two accounts.
For example, using an email address with “sol.edu” for the student account and “schooloflife.edu” for the staff account creates separate accounts, even if both domains belong to your institution.
What if the email address is already connected to an existing user?
When creating a Career Services account, the error “This email address is already connected to an existing user in Handshake” means a Career Services account already exists with that email address.
If you receive this error:
1. Check Staff Management for an existing Career Services account with that email address.
2. If you cannot find the account, contact Support.
Open the staff account form
1. Click your name in the upper-right corner of Handshake, then click School settings.
2. From the menu on the left, click Staff Management, then click Add Staff Member.
3. On the Create Account for School Staff page, complete the three sections: Account Information, Personal Information, and Roles.
Enter account information
1. Complete the fields in Account Information:
- Username (required)
- Auth Identifier (optional)
- Email Address (required)
- Message to Include with New Account Details (optional)
2. Click Next: Personal Information.
Enter personal information
1. Complete the fields in Personal Information:
- First Name (required)
- Last Name (optional)
- Organizational Role (required): Select a role from the dropdown. Learn more about Organizational Roles.
- Title (optional)
- Mobile Phone Number (optional)
- Office Phone Number (optional)
- Office Location (optional): Select an option from the dropdown.
- Career Centers (optional): Select one or more options from the dropdown.
- Bio (optional)
2. Click Next: Roles.
Select staff permissions
In the Roles section, select a permission group to determine the staff member’s access in Handshake.
The available permission groups are:
- Career Counselor
- Employer Relations
- Administrative Assistant
- Student Employee
- Faculty/Campus Partner
- IT Specialist
- System Administrator
- Custom Permissions
Each group except Custom Permissions has preconfigured permissions. Click Show Permissions to review the selected permissions.
To choose permissions individually, select Custom Permissions. If you select another permission group and then check or uncheck a permission, the selection changes to Custom Permissions.
For details about the access each role provides, refer to Career Services Roles and Permissions.
Create the account and send the invitation
Once you have selected the staff member’s permissions, click Create Account to create the account and send the invitation email.
The staff member must click the link in the invitation email to finish setting up their account password and sign in.
Resend a staff account invitation
If the staff member needs the invitation email resent, contact Support.