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      Handshake

      Engaged Employer

      Handshake reviews

      3.1

      41% would recommend to a friend

      (289 total reviews)

      Garrett Lord

      41% approve of CEO

      35% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.2

      Compensation and benefits

      3.1

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.0

      Work/Life balance

      2.7

      Career opportunities

      2.6

      Culture & values

      2.3

      Senior management

      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).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      289 reviews
      1.0
      Oct 31, 2023

      Looking for a company with values? Keep looking. No culture/diversity, no vision, no leadership.

      Manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I only experienced two benefits. The first was the opportunity to meet many new people, but this could also be considered a downside since the turnover rate was so high. The second benefit was being able to work on a product that had an initial mission to help students and future generations. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, as evidenced by this and many other negative reviews.

      Cons

      The management seems to be unaware of what is going on in the company. There have been more than four reorganizations and multiple leaders have left within a span of just four months. The team culture and diversity are almost non-existent. The only employees who seemed to have job security were those who were brought on as "friends" of the C-level executives. Everyone else was disposable and given fake excuses to cover up the actual reasons for layoffs. The benefits, which were disguised as RSUs and options, turned out to be "fake money" for most employees due to the significant number of layoffs. Additionally, the retirement matching program is well below the industry average, approximately four times lower.

      avatar
      Handshake Response
      2y
      Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. We recognize that there has been a lot of change throughout the company this year, and that it is challenging to navigate any amount of change. We certainly have room for improvement in our change management practices, which will be a focus for the leadership team in 2024 and beyond. Our benefits offerings are determined in partnership with a third-party benefits team, who helps us assess the benefits benchmarks at similar companies. We always strive to ensure that our benefits are aligned with those of other companies, because we know how important these benefits are to our employees and their families. Again, we’re grateful for your feedback and appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
      1.0
      Jul 14, 2022

      Do your Due Dilligence

      Sales
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Great people. The team is very supportive.

      Cons

      Handshake is one of the most toxic places on the planet to work. Recruiters blatantly lie that “everyone is hitting their number” when it’s less than a handful. Most employees are getting fired within their first 9 months of joining the job with no prior warning. The product lacks basic functionality when it is significantly more expensive than any other HR technology on the market. The CEO has absolutely no idea what he’s doing and pretends to care about diversity only when the cameras are on. While they claim to be inclusive, management refuses to sell to blue collar jobs in industries that would dirty up their white collar job board. CRO is a rageaholic who consistently goes into profanity laden rants blaming employees about the fact that the product is unsellable. Do your due diligence before joining this organization.

      1.0
      Jan 27, 2024

      An honest review

      Software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      If you are stuck working with an old tech stack at some random non-tech company, handshake could be your way into modernizing. The engineering team is so small you’ll be able to get hands on with a lot of the stack. Some of the engineers are very talented and you can learn a lot from them. For now there is no RTO.

      Cons

      The previous reviews that are negative are not exaggerating. The recent positive ones are very misleading and are probably mandated. CEO is not inspiring. I get founded this company and gets emotional but he needs to move on. The new CTO probably wants RTO because he seems to dislike zoom and needs people around him. I have mixed feelings about the CTOs direct reports. Some managers are good. Current manager is the the type to throw you under the bus. Code quality standards are very low. Some senior engineers have never worked in proper large scale projects. I think a lot of people join with the intention to use Handshake as a proving ground to move on to something better. Documentation is confusing, you basically search Slack. The push to only hire in SF for the core teams is dumb and probably driven by fear. Who ever had that idea is probably trying to show the CEO “look we are here working hard”. Wild West when it comes to planning. Some teams do it well, others just do it by word of mouth and random Google docs (guess jira doesn’t exist). Since joining over a year ago I have never felt stability and worried about being laid off constantly.

      avatar
      Handshake Response
      2y
      Thank you for sharing your feedback; we appreciate all insights, whether positive or critical (and we promise: we’ve never mandated that anyone write a positive review!). Our new CTO joined Handshake a few months ago and is committed to making improvements across the organization – no one wants code quality to be low, or documentation to be confusing. Our Leadership Team takes internal surveys and data very seriously, which is why we encourage employees to be candid in their responses and comments. We appreciate the honest feedback that employees have provided through these mediums, and it’s helped us focus our efforts on key areas for our people.
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      ReviewsHandshake 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.