Job Search Toolkit

Set up LinkedIn Jobs and let openings find you

7 minutesLast verified July 2026Free

I

Why it matters

LinkedIn's job search is quiet infrastructure — once it knows what you want, openings start showing up in your feed and inbox instead of you having to go looking every day. For a first search, that shift matters: a search you have to remember to do gets skipped; a search that runs itself doesn't.

The tool only works as well as what you tell it. A few minutes tuning role, location, and visibility settings is what turns occasional browsing into hearing about the right roles regularly.

II

Turn on the job search tools

  1. 1From the Jobs section, save a search for the roles and locations you're targeting, then turn on alerts for it so new postings reach you instead of the other way around.
  2. 2Turn on “Open to work” under your profile's job-seeking preferences, and set its audience to recruiters only — it flags you to hiring teams without broadcasting a search to your current network.
  3. 3List two or three target job titles, not just one — postings use different words for similar roles, and narrowing too early hides real matches.
  4. 4Add the locations you'd actually take a job in, including “remote” if that's genuinely on the table.
III

Set it up right

  • Experience level filter: set it to entry-level or associate roles so senior postings you don't qualify for stop crowding the results.
  • Date posted filter: sort or filter to recent postings — older listings are more likely already filled or gone.
  • Easy Apply vs. the company's own application: Easy Apply is convenient, but reading the full posting on the employer's site first tells you what the role actually needs.
  • Save promising postings as you go, since a role you don't act on today is easy to lose track of tomorrow.

A posting with a real hiring manager or recruiter listed is worth a short, genuine connection note before you apply — it turns an application into a name they recognize.

IV

Best practices

  • Read the whole posting before applying, not just the title — the responsibilities and requirements sections tell you if it's actually the role you think it is.
  • Compare a handful of saved postings side by side before applying to any of them; patterns across postings tell you more than any single one.
  • Revisit your saved search every so often as your target roles sharpen — a search built in week one shouldn't be the same search you're still running in week six.
  • Check who else in your network is connected to a company before applying; a warm note to them can matter more than the application itself.
V

Mistakes to avoid

  • Applying to a posting from the title alone. A “Marketing Associate” at two different companies can be almost unrelated jobs — read past the title.
  • Leaving “Open to work” visible to everyone while enrolled or employed somewhere that matters — recruiter-only visibility gets you the same alerts without the exposure.
  • Setting the location filter too narrow before you've decided how far you'll actually go — widen it once, then narrow only once you know your real limit.

All toolkit guides

Set up LinkedIn Jobs and let openings find you · Knock