Handshake reviews

3.1

41% would recommend to a friend

(289 total reviews)

Garrett Lord

41% approve of CEO

35% positive business outlook

Handshake has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 289 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Handshake employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

289 reviews
1.0
Feb 22, 2023

don't be fooled by the cool mission - avoid!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The mission attracts some really incredible, passionate, talented people. Remote friendly. The product is genuinely something that is serving a great purpose, but at this point just let someone else do it - it's not worth having to work here.

Cons

CEO and leadership decided to sacrifice everything good about the culture, values, mission (and just basic care and decency towards employees) in pursuit of a new "performance culture." But even though they seem obsessed with this new performance-driven culture, they don't actually have any measurable goals or standards for what that "performance" is supposed to look like, and so employees are just trying to make their best guess at what they need to do to not get laid off - all while being incredibly stressed, overworked, undersupported, and in many cases underpaid. And leadership knows that this shift isn't being received well, but they really just don't care. They are fine with losing all the amazing people drawn to their mission, whether through layoffs or people leaving, because they actually don't value the individuals that contributed to the success of the company thus far. Other issues: No transparency from leadership about strategy, goals, etc even though they preach transparency. Super lackluster commitment to DEI - lots of talk with no action to back it up. Leadership actively & publicly celebrates employees who are overworking and sacrificing their well being and work/life balance instead of offering any type of support to employees with too much on their plates - the "unlimited" PTO is completely meaningless. Really concerning lack of empathy from most of leadership, even though one of the alleged core values of the company is literally "act with empathy." Also, some really shady attempts to cut layoff numbers by doing "performance exits" for some folks, without *any* type of performance conversations or people being aware that there were any issues whatsoever. Really really disappointing to see such unfair and cruel treatment of employees. I can't touch on everything here - but between all the recent negative reviews I think you'll get the picture. And it's not good.

2.0
Jul 11, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- great mission (in theory) - better than other career fair solutions /competitors used by universities - best job platform for college grads - connections with schools so employers have to use Handshake whether they like it or not - Decent swag - simple product to learn to use (not technical at all, which makes showing it a bit dull)

Cons

- Diversity is preached but there is little representation across all levels of the org - only top students are finding jobs on the platform and employers only want the best students anyway - lack of support and training across the org - internal politics and favoritism - feels like there is only 1 or 2 adults at the leadership level - product hasn’t looked different in years besides the logo refresh a few years ago - culture is poor/ toxic - unrealistic expectations in the role

1.0
Nov 14, 2024

Impulsive CEO unprepared to lead

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

HQ is convenient to decent coffee shops. Can't think of much else to recommend the place.

Cons

- The CEO is a bully who dominates meetings; he.enjoys embarrassing his employees rather than empowering them. - Execs reporting to the CEO are fearful of him and cower in silence rather than challenge his bad behavior and impulsive decision making. - The RSUs are deeply, deeply underwater.

Viewing 37 - 39 of 289 Reviews

Glassdoor has 459 Handshake reviews submitted anonymously by Handshake employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Handshake is right for you.