If you’re looking for a job, you’d be crazy to miss setting up alerts on Google for Jobs.
How Does Google for Jobs Work?
I’ll walk you through an example:
Getting Started with Google for Jobs
- Go to your Google search bar.
- Enter your preferred job title, followed by the word “jobs” and your preferred location.
Like this:
The query will:
- Return company-specific job postings
- Let you see more jobs
Like this:
100+ More Jobs
Click the “100+ more jobs “arrow, and you will see a screen like this:
It lets you:
- See the posting for the first job on the list
- Scroll down to see more postings
- Turn on a job alert for your search
Expand or Modify Your Search
Google for Jobs also provides:
- Additional job titles that might interest you
- Posting dates
- Job types
- Locations
- Industries
- Employers for your search.
Just click the headings highlighted in blue to explore your curiosity.
Like this:
Title
Date Posted
Type
City
Company Type (Industry)
Employer
How to Do Company Research with Google for Jobs
Google for Jobs also puts basic company research at your fingertips.
At the bottom of each job posting, it links to:
- The company’s Glassdoor and other ratings
- The company’s website
- More of the company’s job postings
- Google search results for the company’s name
Like this:
What Jobs Are Listed on Google for Jobs?
I scrolled far down the Seattle Controller search in the example above.
Most of the listings come from recruiters and job boards (all the biggies except Indeed). There are also posts from company websites.
As of 2022, Indeed hasn’t provided its listings to Google.
Minimizes False Positives
One of my favorite things about Google for Jobs is that it minimizes false positives in its results.
When I searched for organization development jobs, I got OD and related jobs.
When I ran the exact search on 2 other well-known job listing aggregators, I got a lot of false positives.
Thus, Google for Jobs saves you time by giving you clean, actionable results.
Set Up Your Alerts Now
To the extent you search job postings, Google for Jobs would be my first stop.
Set up your alerts and see what hits your inbox. Or have your 10-year-old do it for you; it’s that easy.
The Dark Side
Note I said, “To the extent you search job postings…” just above because there is a dark side to responding to publicly posted jobs.
I had a question from a LinkedIn friend that went like this:
“Curious as to why you say it’s awesome. It looks to be just a consolidation of every site that is not Indeed. Given that 80% of jobs are found through networking, how does this help?”
My response:
“Great question! People know the positive statistics about networking, but they still look at job postings.
It’s uber easy to set up alerts on Google for Jobs, and it gives clean results.
Thus, using it will minimize the amount of time people spend looking for job postings. And that frees them up for networking.
Also, savvy job seekers will network their way into interviews for jobs they find via Google for Jobs. They won’t apply online.”
Sharing is Caring
What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Do you have a cool hack? What have I missed? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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Featured by Career Sherpa
Image: Fotolia/melpomene
Updated April 2022
© 2017 – 2022, Donna Svei. All rights reserved.
Donna Svei, an executive resume writer and former C-level executive, retained search consultant, and CPA, authors all of AvidCareerist’s posts.
She is a Fast Company Contributor and has written for and been quoted by 100+ business and general media outlets, including Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, CNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, Time, US News & World Report, CBS, the BBC, Lifehacker, Social Media Today, IT World, and Business News Daily.
Let her expertise inform your job search strategy and decision-making.
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Comments 6
Thanks Donna, this will be very helpful! Will it compete with LinkedIn?
Hi Phil,
I don’t know.
LinkedIn is feeding its job postings to Google for Jobs. Thus, they must wager that the offsite exposure will broaden their audience and drive more traffic to their postings than they can generate on their own.
In the longer run, I see two risks:
1. Google for Jobs starts offering a direct posting service for employers in addition to allowing employers to feed jobs from their employment websites.
2. Google for Jobs starts offering an “Apply with Your Google Profile” feature.
Both of those would compete with LinkedIn directly.
I’m curious what others think about this.
Thank you,
Donna
Its wonderfull
Abdul,
Thanks.
I just got off the phone with a client who agrees with you. It’s helping him in his job search. He’s pairing it with Indeed. I’ll be interested to hear how people think they compare as Google for Jobs gains traction.
Donna
I’ve been receiving unemployment payments for a few months, and I never knew about this until today. The unemployment department should teach those of us looking for a job this wonderful way of searching. They never mentioned this option during our training, so I take it they do not know about it. I am planning to share this article with them, so they can include it as part of their training. Wonderful!
Teresa
Teresa,
Thank you.
Donna