How to Use the Best Job Boards to Find a Software Engineering Job
With so many job boards out there, it can be terribly confusing to know where to start when you’re looking for a programming job — especially if you’re looking for your first programming job. I’ve found that where you search for jobs is just as important as other key preparation steps you should take in your job search, like building a great resume and GitHub profile.
Below you won’t find a crazy-huge list of 50 different sites — that’s useless. Instead, I’ve compiled just a few of the best places for you to look for new job openings. Take a look, and use the ones that are most useful to you.
Top 10 Traditional Job Boards
1. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is probably the best place to start your search. Even if you don’t like the jobs you’re seeing on there, it’s worth taking the time to set up a kick-ass profile because people will be looking you up on LinkedIn. Make sure you have a great profile picture, a solid bio, and have entered the majority of the information from your resume onto LinkedIn. Think of your LinkedIn profile as the marketing landing page for your personal career.
Aside from the benefits of a great profile looking good on your resume when you apply to jobs, it has a couple other benefits. First, assuming you’ve added the proper keywords to your account (things like “backend”, “golang”, or “AWS”), you will be contacted by recruiters. Second, it makes applying to many jobs seamless with the “Easy Apply” button. Because your LinkedIn profile is essentially a copy of your resume, you can apply to many jobs without spending hours and hours copy and pasting on application forms.
2. WeWorkRemotely
I like this for a few reasons, namely:
- The companies that advertise on there tend to be higher quality
- The jobs are all remote friendly
- The search is powerful and easy to use
3. KeyValues
KeyValues is another favorite of mine because it allows you to filter by companies that share your values. Do you want to work for carbon-neutral companies? Do you want companies that value workplace equity? KeyValues makes it easy to find great companies that think like you do.
4. AngelList
AngelList is a bit unique in that you’ll primarily use it to apply at smaller companies. Similar to LinkedIn, if you’re going to use AngelList you might want to take some time to setup your profile, because oftentimes companies will actually reach out through AngelList directly to candidates who haven’t even applied yet if they look like they might be a good fit.
5. Ladders
Ladders is a good place to search if you’re interested (and think you’re ready) to earn over 100k/year in salary. The jobs on the site might be less entry-level, but they tend to be well put-together.
6. HackerNews
HackerNews is an amazing forum and community, and they keep a dedicated list of all the posts about job openings. Don’t be scared of the old-timey interface, these are modern tech companies that tend to advertise here, and they all have good funding.
7. Crunchboard
We’re now getting towards the end of the list, so these are job boards that I don’t like as much, but are still worth checking out if you need more resources. Crunchboard, RemoteTechJobs, and Remote.co don’t need much explanation to be honest. Check them out if you have exhausted your other resources.
8. RemoteTechJobs
9. Remote.co
10. Indeed
Last, and probably least to be honest, Indeed has an insane amount of jobs on their board. Again, they aren’t necessarily the best jobs, and they aren’t targeted at any specific niche, but if you just need to find more places to apply to, Indeed has limitless openings.
Top 3 sites to apply to many jobs at once
1. TripleByte
TripleByte is different than any other job board — they’re more like a recruiting service. You’ll sign up, create a profile, and take a quiz. Depending on how you do, you’ll be matched with potential employers. Honestly, I think it’s worth doing, even if it’s just for the interview practice.
2. WhiteTruffle
Both WhiteTruffle and Underdog.io are places where you can submit your resume once and apply to many jobs in one fell swoop — while it may or may not work, at least it doesn’t take a lot of time.
3. Underdog.io
Language-specific job boards
1. Golang Cafe
If you’re a Go developer, this is one of the best places to look for work. The best Gopher-employers tend to advertise here.
2. Reddit “Who’s Hiring?” threads
- /r/golang always has a thread pinned at the top with openings.
- /r/python has a “job board” link in the sidebar
You can always use Reddit for job search, but to be honest this should probably be a last resort. It will be a very manual process.
Some final tips for how you should find and apply to these jobs
Apply directly on your favorite companies career pages
You don’t need to use job boards at all! Check out some of your local tech companies career pages, or the career pages on the sites of your favorite companies that hire remotely.
Don’t spam your resume to every corner of the public internet
We’ve had lots of people joining our Discord server and spamming a giant text-only-version of their resume. I’ve literally never seen this work for anyone. It’s a waste of your time and it just makes people angry at you. Good companies usually aren’t hiring through those channels.
Start networking and making friends
Start getting to know people in the industry. Go to local meetups, join community Slack and Discord groups, and find developers to hang out with. Don’t go in with intentions of exploiting the community to find a job. Spend some time getting to know people, make some friends, and there is a good chance that in the future you’ll be able to leverage your network to find work. This is a long-term strategy that’s worth the time, but it won’t get you a job tomorrow.
Ask for feedback in every step of the process
If you ever get the chance to talk to a human about a rejection, take it! Ask what you could have done better, and what made it so you weren’t the best fit. Then take that feedback to heart, and spend some time learning and improving.
Never stop learning
Too many developers start their job search because they feel like they’re “ready”, and they stop studying and building. DO NOT STOP STUDYING AND BUILDING. You will be learning for the rest of your life as a developer, there is no “done” state. Keep learning and improving while you’re hunting for a job, and your hunting efforts will continuously get easier and easier.
