Skip to main content

Handshake Help Center

What can we help you find?

Receiving Employer Messages in Handshake

Tawnya
  • Updated

Employers may send you messages on Handshake, which may include event invitations, promotional campaigns, and recruiting messages.

  • If your school is a Handshake partner, employers must have at least one approved or expired job posting at your school before they can message you. 
  • If your school is not a Handshake partner and you are a part of the open network, employers will need to have at least one approved or expired job on the Handshake platform before they can message you. 
Employers can only send proactive messages to you if your profile's privacy is set to Employers or Community. For more information on privacy settings on Handshake, refer to Profile Privacy on Handshake. 

To help you identify which promotional campaigns and recruiting messages are most relevant to you, we display a "Top match" badge on the message preview.

Note: the "Top match" badge is only displayed if you're among the top 15% of potential candidates. This indicator can serve as a motivation for you to pursue job opportunities when employers reach out to you.

 

Premium Employer Partners

Some employers on Handshake are Premium Partners. These employers have paid for enhanced Handshake usage and have undergone additional vetting by our team. They also have access to exclusive tools that help them connect with students in a more targeted and meaningful way. 

Segments

Premium Partners can create Segments — subsets of students or alumni who may be a good fit for their open roles. These segments are based on specific criteria, such as qualifications, interests, or representation and diversity goals.

When Premium Partners use segment filters, they cannot view student names or profiles. However, they may be able to make general inferences about student associations based on the segment filters they apply.

Segment filters can include data from student profiles, such as:

  • Education details

  • Work experience

  • Involvement in organizations or extracurriculars

  • Gender and pronouns

  • Achievements and accolades

  • Interests, including Industry, Job Type, Role, or Location

For more information on gender identity and pronouns, check out our blog post Student Gender Identity and Pronouns on Handshake.

Premium Partners who filter by student organizations can also select Underrepresented Groups Organizations as an additional filter. However, this filter must be used alongside another filter and cannot be selected alone.

 

Additional Resources