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.
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, and 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 career.
Aside from the benefits of a great profile looking good on your resume when you apply to jobs, it has a couple of 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 copying and pasting on application forms.
I like this for a few reasons, namely:
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 as you do.
AngelList is a bit unique in that you’ll primarily use it to apply to smaller companies. Similar to LinkedIn, if you’re going to use AngelList you might want to take some time to set up your profile because oftentimes companies will reach out through AngelList directly to candidates who haven’t even applied yet if they look like they might be a good fit.
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.
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.
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.
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, Indeed has limitless openings.
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 interview practice.
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.
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.
You can always use Reddit for job search, but to be honest this should probably be the last resort. It will be a very manual process.
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.
We’ve had lots of people joining our Discord server and spamming a giant text-only version of their resume. I’ve 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 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 intention of exploiting the community to find a job. Spend some time getting to know people, and 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.
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.
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.
Also published here.