Most people spend their entire job search on Indeed. That's a mistake.
**Different places, different kinds of jobs:**
- **LinkedIn Jobs.** Where you'll probably spend most of your time. Best filtering, most legitimate listings, and you can see if you have any connections at the company.
- **Indeed.** High volume, lower quality. Worth checking but a lot of it is reposts or ghost jobs (more on those in the next chapter).
- **Company websites directly.** If there's a company you actually want to work for, check their careers page. Some roles never make it to the boards.
- **Industry-specific boards.** Every field has them. Google what yours are.
- **Handshake**, if you're a recent grad with university access. Still surprisingly useful.
- **AngelList / Wellfound** for startups.
- **Twitter/X.** A lot of small companies post roles here and nowhere else. Follow people in your field.
One rule that's saved me more time than anything else: when you see a posting you like, don't just apply through the job board. Go to the company's website and apply directly there too. The board is where applications go to die. A direct application at least lands in their own system where a human on their actual team might see it.
Here's the one most people miss. The best time to look for a job is when you have one. If you ever do land somewhere, don't stop. Keep your LinkedIn active, keep your network warm, keep half an eye on what's out there. Companies will drop you in a second if it serves them, and you should be willing to do the same when something better comes along. That's not disloyalty. That's just how work works now.
