Virginia Tech® home

Handshake guide for VT advisors, faculty, and staff

For Virginia Tech employees — advisors, faculty and staff — who help or hire students:

  • Handshake has ACCOUNTS FOR STUDENTS (including alumni) and ACCOUNTS FOR EMPLOYERS.
  • There is no such thing as an advisor or faculty account, and there is no such thing as a demo or dummy account.
  • You do not need a student account to help students use Handshake.

Please carefully read instructions based on your role:

If you hire students in your VT department, create an EMPLOYER account to post those jobs in Handshake:

  • If your VT department hires students and you wish to post those jobs or internships in Handshake, then you are an employer and you need an EMPLOYER ACCOUNT. We encourage you to do so; see the quick guide for VT departments who wish to hire.
  • Be aware that EMPLOYER AND STUDENT ACCOUNTS CANNOT USE THE SAME EMAIL ADDRESS. This is entirely controlled by Handshake.
  • If you also have, or wish to have, a student account, you must use your real VT PID email address for your student account.
  • Therefore, use an alias email address for your employer account.
    (See Handshake quick guide for employers.)
    If you have already established an employer account using your real PID email address, you can change your employer account email address to an alias. (4help: How to create an alias for your Virginia Tech email account.)

How to assist students with internship or job search in Handshake:

You DO NOT need a Handshake account to assist students with using Handshake.

  • Advise your students to read Handshake information and encourage your student advisees to open and use their Handshake accounts.
  • Handshake student accounts display information and opportunities to each student based on their qualifications and their activity in their accounts.
  • You can have your students / advisees open their accounts on their laptops and you can view their accounts with them. You can ask them to show you the profile information they have entered for themselves.
  • The Handshake developers built it to be student-user friendly.

Cautions and responsibilities if you still wish to request a student account:

  • As stated above, there is no such thing as an advisor or faculty account, and there is no such thing as a dummy account.
  • BE AWARE: If you choose to request a student account, it is a real student account, and you are responsible for using the account in an appropriate manner.
  • For example, if you are not also a current student or alumnus/alumna, and you are not in an active job search, you should not make your profile public, and you should not apply for jobs.

How to request a VT student account:

VT student Handshake accounts can only be created using your real VT PID email address.  A VT student Handshake account CANNOT be created with an alias or non-VT email address.