Indeed vs Handshake

I've been doing interviews to hire a new person into a system admin position at one of my companies and thought I'd share some experience here.

TL;DR: Use Indeed.

Pros and Cons

Handshake

+ You get to talk to fresh college students
- Universities have to approve your job listing, and some will reject you
- Fixed pricing is expensive
- Automated outreach is broken
- Built-in web meeting is difficult to use (many candidates couldn't figure out how to use)
- Candidates are noticeably less qualified and eager than those on Indeed

Indeed

+ You get to talk to all types of candidates
+ Approval process is simple
+ You control how much you spend, if anything
+ Search features work great
+ Built-in web meeting is easy to use
+ Candidates more closely match their resume

Handshake Details

The position is for an entry-level person just out of college, or with a similar level of work experience. I really wanted to give this opportunity to a fresh college graduate, so I started out with Handshake.

I found that Handshake has a fixed price for doing a premium job posting, about $300/month. I tried their "automated outreach" and the results were abysmal. It sent e-mails asking people to apply who clearly did not meet the criteria I set in the job post. I spent more time cleaning up these false invites and rejecting people than it saved me; Overall, none of the decent candidates I found were through this automated outreach.

I ended up doing the outreach myself, and found that their search UI is pretty clunky. I could have stuck with the free version and got the same results.

All of this is after I had to jump through some hoops to get my job listed at colleges. Of the 6 colleges I requested to post to, 2 rejected me, and 1 requested changes to my listing before allowing it.

I'm not sure if it's the fault of today's colleges, or Handshake, but almost none of the candidates I interviewed were really ready to start in the workforce. 

Indeed Details

Simply put, Indeed was a breath of fresh air and I wish I started there. I don't have much more to say about it than the Pros I listed above.