Where do you actually look for jobs while already employed?
Posted by fsou1@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 29 comments
I’m currently employed and casually keeping an eye on the market. Curious where experienced devs are finding real openings lately, especially roles that aren’t heavily promoted/reposted and still have relatively low applicant counts.
Are you mostly using LinkedIn, niche job boards, company sites, recruiters, referrals, or something else? And has anyone found good tools, alerts, filters, or automations that make this easier without drowning you in junk listings?
newnimprovedk@reddit
People manager here. LinkedIn, posted within the last 5-15 hours, with less than 200 applicants (I have premium). This is what I also tell anyone that reports up to me, as I’m an advocate for keeping your eye on the market and opportunity
oldwhiteoak@reddit
why not 0-5 hrs?
nsxwolf@reddit
I have never landed an interview doing this. Not one. LinkedIn only has value because sometimes a recruiter will message me directly on it.
druidgaymer@reddit
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've only landed one interview that wasn't from LinkedIn. The rest have been LinkedIn.
superide@reddit
Wow, the variety of experiences on LI have been wide so far. I can't get any jobs from that website. I get some interviews, but the competition is too hard.
newnimprovedk@reddit
Well that’s a bummer. A majority of my hires have sourced from LinkedIn.
What has worked best for you? I can add it to my process + share with other folks
nsxwolf@reddit
Knowing about jobs through old coworkers, that’s really about it.
Bstochastic@reddit
LinkedIn has been fantastic, honestly. I hate the cringy community but the inbound recruiter messages has worked very much in my favor.
magichronx@reddit
I just set myself as "looking for employment" on linkedin and casually look over the recruiter spam when I get bored
throwaway_0x90@reddit
I only use LinkedIn and Craigslist(yes, they're still around)
superide@reddit
I 2nd Craigslist. Although I have stopped using it a long time ago, it did find me some work unlike LinkedIn. The difficulty on LI is on another level.
superide@reddit
LinkedIn and recruiters have not worked out for me. All of my jobs came from Craigslist and word of mouth.
Abadabadon@reddit
I keep my linkedin open and I use an auto apply bot. If I am accepted for an interview then I'll see if I like the job or not.
RomanAbbasid@reddit
From personal experience (just landed a new position while employed elsewhere) the two most important parts of getting interviews are being first, and/or being vetted. Being first means staying on top of new job postings. I specially used hiring cafe but I'm sure there are others. Just set up alerts for jobs you're interested in and keep an eye out to apply right away when they're posted. If you're eyeing a specific company, they may also have a way for you to get notified about new job listings directly.
Being vetted usually comes from having a network and getting referrals. You can also use a job board like underdog.io that requires you to apply to even be listed. Huge disclaimer, I'm only working from personal experience, but that's how I got my current role. I'd avoid any similar platforms that require you to pay money to be listed, but it's one way to get 'vetted' if you don't have any referrals to fall back on. Imo referrals are a much better method.
I never had much success with LinkedIn besides recruiter inmail, but browsing the most newly posted jobs can sometimes help if you go right to the company's website and apply there.
AchillesDev@reddit
My network, or recruiter inbound (but I'm avoiding FT employment as long as possible with my solo consultancy)
kevin_whitley@reddit
welcometothejungle.com (dumb name, moderately useful site)
Found my last two through that. It's highly imperfect like they all are, but LinkedIn is an absolute unsearchable joke in my experience. I at least found much better fits pretty easily through this site.
Now the bigger issue is that cold-applying like this (or anywhere) is going to typically boil down to a numbers game, even if you're an absolute rockstar...
ramblewizard@reddit
LinkedIn and direct company websites
FX2000@reddit
I don’t think I’ve ever found a job outside of LinkedIn. I know it gets a bad rap, but as long as you treat it as a job board and not a social network I think it’s great.
Reddit_is_fascist69@reddit
I recently read that LinkedIn or Indeed or something has the option for your employer to be notified if you apply to other jobs.
Be careful out there people. You're being watched. These apps use you more than you use them.
ultraDross@reddit
You need to back this up with a source. Seems unlikely. Ar you confusing this with changing your LinkedIn profile to open to work for recruiters only? That way your company recruiter could be notified.
shozzlez@reddit
In some cases that might be a good thing. “Maybe you should consider giving that raise or promo this cycle. “
snotreallyme@reddit
Most recruiting right now is outbound, i.e. recruiters come to you via LinkedIn. Cold applications are deprioritized and will probably never get read.
local_eclectic@reddit
I don't apply. I let recruiters reach out to me. Applications just don't really work most of the time. Also, companies tend to prefer candidates that they reached out to as opposed to inbounds.
Relative_Walrus_5496@reddit
Mostly referrals from directly asking former colleagues. LinkedIn is fine for research and the rare relevant recruiter.
jmaventador@reddit
LinkedIn is mostly useless for job searching only good for having recruiters contact you. I would recommend looking at local job boards or sites like Builtin
roodammy44@reddit
I did a job search recently in Norway. LinkedIn was pretty much useless here. There’s a local classified ads website that was useful, and then personal referrals were even better.
ThirdWaveCat@reddit
Thinking like a software engineer that understands the data markets and laws around scraping. There are ways to get the organization chart data from linkedin to see (1) what technologies they use, (2) compare new employees to old job description to measure ghost job posting rates and relative enforcement of those standards, (3) analyze organization chart data for other information like PM/dev ratio.
TheRealJesus2@reddit
LinkedIn/ your network of people for most part.
Internal job boards to your company is my very specific answer to your question though. Don’t overlook that as it’s likely the easiest path to a new job if your company is large enough.
DocLego@reddit
I did LinkedIn a lot but I can’t say it helped much. The majority of my interviews came from referrals.