How to get notified when a specific company posts a job
You know where you want to work. The hard part is catching the opening before a few hundred other applicants do. Here are five ways to get notified when a company posts a job, what each one misses, and how to combine them.
First, find out where the company posts its jobs
Click any job on the company's careers page and look at the web address. Most companies post through a hiring system, and the address tells you which one.
| If the address contains | The company uses |
|---|---|
| boards.greenhouse.io or job-boards.greenhouse.io | Greenhouse |
| jobs.lever.co | Lever |
| jobs.ashbyhq.com | Ashby |
| something.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com | Workday |
This matters because each system offers different ways to follow new jobs.
1. Sign up for alerts on the company's careers site
Some careers sites let you subscribe directly. Greenhouse companies can turn on job alerts through MyGreenhouse: a daily or weekly email matched on job titles, but only if the company has switched the feature on. Workday careers sites usually have a Create Job Alert option, which needs an account on that employer's site and sends a daily or weekly email. Other companies offer a “talent community” or mailing-list form instead.
What it misses: you sign up company by company. Ten target companies means ten signups, ten accounts, and ten streams of email, and many companies offer nothing at all.
2. Set a LinkedIn job alert filtered to the company
Search jobs on LinkedIn, filter by company, and turn on the alert. LinkedIn emails you when new matching jobs appear.
What it misses: LinkedIn only knows about jobs posted to LinkedIn, sometimes days after they go up on the company's own site, and its matching is keyword-based, so broad searches bring near-misses.
3. Use a page-monitoring tool
Tools like Visualping or Distill watch a web page and email you when it changes. Point one at a company's careers page.
What it misses: they report every change, not just new jobs, and careers pages that load their listings with JavaScript or spread them across many pages are hard to monitor reliably.
4. Ask someone who works there
A contact inside the company often hears about a role before it's posted, and a referral beats a cold application.
What it misses: it depends on who you know, and it's hard to keep up across a whole list without tracking who you've asked and when.
5. Let a job tracker watch your whole list
An automated tracker like LaunchPad follows your target companies for you. Each new opening is screened against the career tracks you chose, and the ones that fit land on your Jobs page, next to your applications and contacts.
What it misses: it doesn't send email alerts today. You check one page instead of many inboxes.
Which should you use?
| Effort per company | Covers jobs not on LinkedIn | Filters out near-misses | Free | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Careers-site alerts | Sign up at each | Yes | Title match only | Yes |
| LinkedIn alerts | One search each | No | Keywords only | Yes |
| Page monitors | One monitor each | Yes | No | Free to paid |
| Your network | Ongoing | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| LaunchPad | Add the name once | Yes | Yes, by career track | $10/month, 7-day trial |
For one or two companies, careers-site alerts and a LinkedIn alert are enough. Past five or so, the signups and inboxes stop scaling. That's the point where a tracker that follows the whole list, plus a contact at each company, is worth it.