After Handshake
- 9%Founded something3
- 31%Joined a startup11
- 11%Joined a big company4
- 49%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Handshake most often go to a long tail of companies. Of them, 9% found something next and 31% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 9m
Not Handshake's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 107 people on a map of 67,181, No. 218 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1070.2% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 6359% of the people here
- Moved on
- 4441% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 9mmiddle half 5m to 1y 3m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Amazon.
35 recorded departures to 34 companies, none more than 2 to any one of them
6%4Amazon
6%4Cleanlab6%4Palantir12 of 70 recorded arrivals shown, 58 more from 55 other companies0 of 35 recorded departures shown, 35 more to 34 other companies
How long people stay
64%<1y
21%1-2y
10%2-4y
5%4-7y
0%7y+
92 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3<315
<3016
<3<317
0<318
5319
5<320
<3<321
7522
3323
<3<324
44725
361826
joined left2026 is a partial year
2015 to 2026: 108 joined, 45 left.
Caliber
78mediantop 10%88
0Eng Scorer caliber, 33 scored99
Titles held here
- Software Engineer13
- AI Trainer7
- AI Fellow4
- Senior Software Engineer4
- AI3
- AI Evaluation Engineer3
- Generative AI Engineer3
- Software Engineer Intern3
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 4% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 15%Exceptional or strong5 people
- 33%Solid11 people
- 39%Emerging13 people
- 12%Unproven4 people
33 of the 107 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
5 of the 33 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 15%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up. A tier holding fewer than 3 people is printed with the one next to it, because that few is a person rather than a pattern.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
29%Titles that rose9 of 31 classified people
- 29%Rose9 people
- 45%Stayed level14 people
- 26%Fell8 people
31 of the 107 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- Georgia Tech5.6%
- Stanford5.6%
- UC Berkeley4.7%
- University of Maryland4.7%
- MIT3.7%
- UIUC3.7%
- University at Buffalo3.7%
- Carnegie Mellon2.8%
The 8 most listed schools among the 107 people here with a school on file.
6 of the 107 people here with a school on file list Georgia Tech, 6 list Stanford and 5 list UC Berkeley. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
27%have a public GitHub account on their profile
29 of the 107 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
35% of the people who have worked at Handshake and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Handshake
Everyone on the map
- 35%SF Bay Area37 · map 41%
- 16%New York17 · map 18%
- 11%Washington DC12 · map 13%
- 7%Los Angeles8 · map 5%
- 3%Atlanta3 · map 1%
- 3%Seattle3 · map 5%
- 25%Somewhere else27
All 107 people who worked at Handshake list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Handshake: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Handshake, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 107 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Handshake: 63 are there now, 44 have moved on.
- Most arrive from Amazon: 4 people. Then Cleanlab and Palantir.
- Median tenure at Handshake: 9m, middle half 5m to 1y 3m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Handshake, 9% went to a founder title next, 31% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 11% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 78 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 33 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then AI Trainer.
- Top school: Georgia Tech, listed by 6 of the 107 people here with one on file (5.6%). Then Stanford (6).
- 35% of the 107 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 27% of the 107 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 9 rose, 14 stayed level, 8 fell, out of the 31 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at Handshake? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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