Recruiting Policies

Clark University uses Handshake, a web-based platform for posting all full time, part-time, internship, research, and on-campus positions at Clark University.  All recruiting organizations or individuals are expected to accurately describe their organizations, positions, and position requirements when posting their information on Handshake. Our Career Centers will approve or decline your connection or postings within one week and will reply to you with any concerns or questions within the Handshake platform.  

To learn more about Handshake and for information on creating an account, please refer to the “off-campus employers’ section of our Handshake FAQs page.

To be approved to post in Handshake with Clark University, we require (at a minimum): 

• A completed employer profile, including a fully functioning website, and a brief description of the company. 
• A complete physical office address and telephone number. 
• All contacts’ email domains must match the website domain. 
• Postings must be actual, current openings for internships, research opportunities, volunteer work, and/or traditional, W-2 or 1099 full- or part-time employees.
• Postings must contain sufficient detail to convey clearly to the user the nature and basic requirements of the opportunity. 

Positions & practices that will not be posted or supported: 

• Positions or programs that charge a fee for participation or require an initial investment from students including but not limited to, donations, application fees, require participation in unpaid training, require the purchase of kits or other work–related materials, or offering items or services for sale cannot be advertised on Handshake.
  
• Opportunities that involve on-campus solicitation, posting of materials, or sale of products or services. 
• Organizations sponsoring an individual to establish their own business for the purpose of selling products or services, and/or recruiting other individuals to establish their own businesses.  
• Work in home–based businesses and private homes such as child care, tutoring, nanny, moving, maintenance, etc. 
• Positions that pay for work in cash or other informal work/pay arrangements. 
• Positions that require students to solicit money or sell items to students on campus as “campus ambassadors” or “student campus recruiters.” 

Commission sales positions may be advertised to students and alumni on Handshake provided that the compensation arrangement is clearly noted on job listings. Employers who compensate employees based solely on commissions (i.e. without a base salary as well) must clearly disclose this information in the job description. Employers who compensate employees based on partial commissions must disclose accurate estimates of expected earnings in their job descriptions. They must also present an accurate base salary/expected first-year salary at that time. 

Clark University is aware of the growing industry surrounding the sale of legal marijuana in Massachusetts and the industry’s interest in cultivating talent for this emerging field. While cannabis is legal in Massachusetts, it remains illegal on a federal level, and thus provides a conflict for the University when considering the employers recruiting on campus and the career-related opportunities off-campus within this industry. The federal Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act disallows the unlawful possession, use, and distribution of illicit drugs, including marijuana. If the university fails to comply, it could become ineligible for federal funding, including financial aid programs for students. For that reason, Clark University is unable to approve employers or job postings involved with the development, production, testing, distribution, or use of recreational or medical marijuana. 

• Clark prohibits employers from hiring students to solicit money or sell items to students on campus as “campus ambassadors” or “student campus recruiters.”
• Clark does not send resumes or give any employer passwords to “student ambassadors” or “student campus recruiters.” It is a violation of professional standards to provide a student’s resume to a fellow student for review and decision-making.

To participate in recruiting activities with Clark University, all third-party recruiting organizations must agree to the criteria outlined below. A third-party recruiter is defined as an individual, agency or organization that recruits candidates for temporary, part-time or full-time employment opportunities for another organization, in accordance with the NACE (National Association of Colleges & Employers) definition.  

Third-party recruiters may post their positions on Handshake. They will be required to verify in advance whether they are recruiting for their own organizations or for their clients.  Third-party firms who are recruiting for positions within their own organizations must clearly differentiate those opportunities from their client engagements.  

To source and identify recent graduates and alumni, third-party recruiters agree to:  

• Identify themselves as a third-party recruiter in their employer profile on Handshake and all client job announcements. 
• Provide accurate, “real-time” position descriptions and identify on all job announcements, including on Handshake, the name of the employer being represented, and the location of the position. The Career Centers reserve the right to investigate and ask for information regarding client organizations.  
• Verify that no fees of any kind will be charged to student or alumni applicants by the recruiting agency and by the client; 
• Not disclose to any employer, including the client-employer, any student information without obtaining prior written consent from the student. Under no circumstances can student information be disclosed other than for the original recruiting purposes nor can it be sold or provided to other entities  
• Not prohibit, restrict or penalize applicants from accepting a job directly with a client company. 

The Career Centers invite organizations who are actively recruiting for paid full-time or paid structured internship opportunities to participate in on-campus recruiting events. Third-party recruiters, graduate school programs, organizations offering unpaid internships and service/volunteer opportunities will be considered on a case by case basis provided the opportunities offered are structured and provide an experiential learning opportunity. Positions that are solely based on commission with no base pay will not be included in on-campus recruiting events. 

Employment professionals will maintain the confidentiality of student information, regardless of the source, including personal knowledge, written records/reports, and computer databases. There will be no disclosure of student information to another organization without the prior written consent of the student, unless necessitated by health and/or safety considerations.

Serving alcohol should not be part of the recruitment process on or off campus. This includes receptions, dinners, company tours, etc.

Employment professionals will refrain from any practice that improperly influences and affects acceptances. Such practices may include undue time pressure for acceptance of offers and encouragement of revocation of another offer. Employment professionals will strive to communicate decisions to candidates within the agreed-upon time frame.

When asking students to come back for second/final round interviews, employers must attempt to accommodate students’ schedules and allow reasonable time if their schedules need to be adjusted.

Employers are expected to keep students informed of their status in the hiring process and to communicate hiring decisions within a reasonable time frame.

Withdrawing job offers, whether verbal or written, violates professional standards and may put students in a difficult professional and financial position. If your organization is considering retracting an offer for any reason, please call our office immediately to discuss the situation.

The Career Centers of Clark University reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to deny any employer or recruiter access to the services offered by the Career Centers for any reason.  

Tips to get the most out of your opportunity posting experience are: 

• Be very specific with job details and requirements.
  
• Make sure to enter in as much information as you can (location, pay rate, etc.).
  
• Select the grade levels that are eligible for the position so that qualified applicants apply to the position. 
• Posting is for one position only, not multiple positions.
  
• All of the included links are functioning. 

• When setting job and applicant preferences on your postings, we encourage you to consider only selecting the essential qualifications. Students from non-traditional backgrounds might view a long list of qualifications unrelated to skills and traits, such as student minimum GPA or major specifications, as barriers to applying.  
• Indicate whether your organization is accepting OPT/CPT candidates for internships or is willing to sponsor candidates for full-time opportunities. Selecting work authorization specifications that align with your organization’s policies ensures that you are receiving applications from international student talent.  
• Use inclusive language in your postings that candidates from all backgrounds can identify with. For example, remove gender-coded words like “hackers” or “ninja” and avoid using unnecessary jargon, acronyms, or corporate-speak like “KPI’S” and “P&L” in entry-level opportunities to limit entry-level candidates from feeling unqualified.  

Unpaid internships posted in the Clark Recruiter must follow the “primary beneficiary test” established in The Fair Labor Standards Act.

According to the Department of Labor, an unpaid internship must meet all these criteria:

• Both the intern and the employer clearly understand it’s an unpaid position
• The internship provides training similar to that which would be given in an educational environment
• The internship is tied to the intern’s education via integrated coursework or academic internship credit
• The internship corresponds to the academic calendar
• The internship provides beneficial learning for the duration of the internship
• The intern doesn’t displace paid employees
• The intern isn’t promised a job at the conclusion of the internship

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) recognizes an exception to the above requirements for individuals who volunteer their time, freely and without anticipation of compensation for religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian purposes to non-profit organizations. Unpaid internships in the public sector and for non-profit charitable organizations, where the intern volunteers without expectation of compensation, are generally permissible. The wage and hour division (WHD) is reviewing the need for additional guidance on internships in the public and non-profit sectors.

To determine whether an individual is a true volunteer engaged in “ordinary volunteerism,” the Department of Labor considers a number of factors. No single factor is determinative. The factors include:

• Is the entity that will benefit/receive services from the volunteer a nonprofit organization?
• Is the activity less than a full-time occupation?
• Are the services offered freely and without pressure or coercion?
• Are the services of the kind typically associated with volunteer work?
• Have regular employees been displaced to accommodate the volunteer?
• Does the worker receive (or expect) any benefit from the entity to which it is providing services?

A volunteer position at your nonprofit is likely to be regarded as “ordinary volunteerism” and safely exempt from the minimum wage requirements of the FLSA if you can answer “yes” to the first four questions and “no” to the final two questions.

Many international students look for unpaid internships and volunteer opportunities. Here you can find a document that summarizes rules and regulations regarding international students and volunteering.