If you’re worried about staying on top of all the latest job postings – without constantly checking our site – fear not. You can easily and quickly be notified of the latest jobs with one great tool: job alerts. 

A job alert is an email notification that is sent to your inbox whenever jobs matching your search preferences are available on our site. Whether you’re searching for a specific job title, an industry, or company, job alerts will have you covered. Job alerts give you the chance to be an early applicant, which can help you gain an advantage. The early bird gets the worm, as the saying goes, and during the application process, being the first to apply increases the likelihood your resume gets noticed by a recruiter.

Here are six ways to optimize your job alerts.

  1. Daily alerts

When you create a job alert, you are given the opportunity to select how often you’d like to receive them. Although it may seem like you’d be doing your inbox a favour by selecting the less frequent options like weekly, biweekly, or monthly, receiving job alerts on a daily basis can help you find suitable jobs much quicker. Great jobs get snapped up quickly, and you would hate to miss out on an amazing opportunity simply because you were late.

  1. Be specific

Nothing is worse than getting a bunch of irrelevant jobs in your job alert, so the solution here is to include keywords in your search criteria, preferably keywords that are job titles. Try to avoid using keywords that are too broad or general; for example, while “Sales Manager” is a popular keyword, you might want to consider using “Inside Sales Manager,” “Retail Sales Manager,” or “Technical Sales Manager” if you prefer a certain type of sales position.

  1. But not too specific

Well, maybe getting zero jobs in your job alert is worse than getting too many. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by making your search criteria so specific that we end up finding nothing for you. Try to avoid stringing a bunch of relevant keywords together when inputting your preferences. For example, search criteria with the keywords “SQL web developer front-end UI programming” may result in very narrow results as we’ll be trying to look for job postings with all these keywords. If you have multiple keywords, try creating separate job alerts for them and using familiar job titles to maximize your search results.

It’s not necessary, however, to create multiple job alerts for keywords that are commonly used interchangeably (like “front-end developer” and “web developer” following the example above), since our search engine is capable of recognizing synonyms in searches.

  1. Leave out the symbols, AND, OR, and NOT

Unlike conducting a Google search, there’s no need to add in extra symbols such as quotations, minus signs and asterisks, or Boolean operators (i.e., AND, OR, and NOT) when setting up your job alert because they will not help narrow or broaden your search results. Instead, stick with using familiar job titles for your keywords and follow the tips above.

  1. Specify your preferred location

If you’re not planning on relocating for a new job, don’t forget to include your preferred city and the province in the “Location” section of the search criteria. This way we can help you find a job within reasonable commuting distance.

  1. Open your job alerts

When it comes to job searching, there’s no such thing as “set it and forget it.” Even if you’re not actively looking for a job, getting into the habit of checking your job alerts on a regular basis and viewing jobs you’re interested in will ensure you’re ready for your next big break. Staying informed on what employers are looking for will give you the added advantage of upgrading your own skills and experiences based on what’s in-demand. 

If you have commitment phobia, don’t worry. You can unsubscribe from job alerts at any time by simply clicking on the “unsubscribe” link within the job alert email. So what are you waiting for?

Power your job search with job alerts now!