Is Handshake a good company to work for?

Handshake has an overall rating of 3.1 out of 5, based on over 467 reviews left anonymously by employees. This rating has increased by 9% over the last 12 months. 43% of employees would recommend working at Handshake to a friend and 37% have a positive outlook for the business. The best reviews about Handshake have been left by employees working as Remote AI Trainer , Senior Software Engineer and AI Fellow .

Does Handshake pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Handshake employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.2 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Handshake. This rating has decreased by 3% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Handshake?

43% of Handshake employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Handshake 3.1 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.6 for culture and values and 2.8 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Handshake?

Software Engineer (38) , Remote AI Trainer (20) , AI Trainer (16) , AI Fellow (12) , Fellow (12) , Account Executive (11) , Senior Software Engineer (11) , Customer Success Manager (9) , Sales Development Representative (SDR) (9) , MOVE Fellowship (AI Annotator) (6) , Sales (6) , AI Data Annotator (5) , Enterprise Account Executive (5) , Consumer Support Specialist (4) , Customer Support Specialist (4)

What are the pros of working at Handshake according to real employee reviews?

"I've had the opportunity to work with some really great people over the years." ((in 40 reviews)); "Good pay and on time" ((in 34 reviews)); "Great team and product market fit" ((in 28 reviews)); "Benefits are good" ((in 16 reviews)); "great coworkers, there are no real dead weights or under performers here in my experience" ((in 12 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Handshake according to real employee reviews?

"suite and Senior Leadership are terrible (except for Christine and Marta)." ((in 18 reviews)); "Management is horrible." ((in 17 reviews)); "Disorganized, poor communication, unclear direction." ((in 12 reviews)); "Politics, favoritism, fake equity and diversity" ((in 8 reviews)); "The CEO is a bully who dominates meetings; he.enjoys embarrassing his employees rather than empowering them." ((in 6 reviews))

What are employees saying about Handshake layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Handshake layoffs and their outlook for job security at Handshake in 2026.

What are the top reviewed Handshake locations?

San Francisco , New York , Denver , Los Angeles , Atlanta , Washington , San Diego , Seattle , Austin , Dallas , Houston , California City , Boston , Greenville , Kansas City , Buffalo , Rochester , Madison , Milwaukee , Peoria , Tempe , Norway , Portland , Tulsa , Ruidoso , Charlotte , Raleigh , Texas City , Nashville , Bloomington

Handshake reviews

3.1

43% would recommend to a friend

(291 total reviews)

Garrett Lord

44% approve of CEO

37% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.2

Diversity & inclusion

3.2

Compensation and benefits

3.1

Work/Life balance

2.8

Career opportunities

2.6

Culture & values

2.4

Senior management

Handshake has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 291 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).

Ratings by demographic groups

Race / Ethnicity

Gender

Sexual orientation

Disability

Parent or family caregiver

Veteran status

Reviews by job title

291 reviews

5.0

Jan 19, 2017

Fulfilling Experience

Software engineer

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

- The team all really believes in trying to help people get jobs out of college, regardless of what school you went to. People really believe this here, the CEO got a little teary eyed at one of the all hands talking about it. - Team's are small enough that you can drive forward projects you find valuable. I've worked on many different high impact / visible initiatives and I haven't been here as long as most of the team. - The people that work here are very talented and hard working. They're also very modest and friendly, everyone checks their egos at the door.

Cons

- Product management is a bit on the light side, sometimes this is sold as a positive but realistically it means some things fall through the crack every now and then.

1.0

Mar 10, 2026

Terrible

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

There isn’t any. Their service is terrible. What company can’t tell you WHY you’ve been banned after you’ve provided the information requested.

Cons

Never worked on a project. I got banned for some unknown reason they couldn’t tell me. Was asked to provide my degree which I did and they decided to uphold the ban. Even sent them my prior certifications. It sounded like they were questioning my credentials but I had supporting documents. Again, I never even touched a job. I was in onboarding for one.

3.0

Sep 23, 2025

Handshake MOVE - Getting better, still meh

Fellow

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

The pay is good. The mission uses a lot of background knowledge from my PhD. It is mentally challenging. The admin part of the company has improved significantly in the past couple months. It's not flawless by any means, but at least there is consistent communication and active channels for support.

Cons

The admin/support team seems too small for the amount of problems reported in the support channel. LLM usage (which is prohibited) keeps happening from bad actors, making it harder for fellows and reviewers that follow the rules. Management keeps changing where communication comes from. Stumping the models correctly can be difficult, and take longer than 3 hours. And you are only able to bill 3 hours of work per successful prompt.

Viewing 121 - 123 of 291 Reviews

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Fulfilling Experience

Terrible

Handshake MOVE - Getting better, still meh

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