How do I manage LinkedIn job alerts?

LinkedIn job alerts are an excellent way to stay on top of new job postings that match your interests and qualifications. With job alerts, you can specify criteria like job title, company, location and more to ensure you receive notifications for positions well-suited to you. Managing your alerts effectively helps you focus your job search so you don’t miss great opportunities.

What are LinkedIn job alerts and why are they useful?

LinkedIn job alerts allow you to save search criteria and receive email notifications whenever new jobs matching those criteria are posted. For example, you could set an alert for “product manager” positions in the San Francisco Bay Area. You would then receive an email notification each time a new relevant job is listed on LinkedIn.

Job alerts are useful for the following reasons:

• Stay up-to-date on the latest postings without having to search manually every day
• Focus your search by setting precise criteria (job title, location, company, etc.)
• Get a head start on applying before positions get flooded with applicants
• Easily keep track of opportunities by having notifications sent to your inbox

In a competitive job market, job alerts help ensure you don’t miss out on potential opportunities that would be a great fit. You get notified as soon as new jobs match what you’re looking for, enabling you to apply early before spots fill up.

How to create a LinkedIn job alert

Setting up a job alert on LinkedIn is simple and only takes a few minutes. Here are the steps:

1. Go to the LinkedIn Jobs homepage. You can access this by clicking the “Jobs” icon along the top toolbar.
2. Click the “Create Alert” button in the upper right hand corner of the page.
3. Enter your desired job search criteria:
   • Title – The job titles you want alerts for (e.g. project manager, sales associate)
   • Location – The geographic area for your job search (e.g. New York City metropolitan area)
   • Company – Specific companies you want to track openings for
   • Experience level – Entry level, intermediate, director, etc.
   • Job type – Full-time, part-time, contract, etc.
   • Remote – Toggle on/off depending on if you want remote positions
4. Scroll down and select the frequency for receiving notifications – daily or weekly are common choices
5. Click “Create alert” to complete setup

And that’s it! Your job alert is now active and will send notifications according to the frequency you selected. Now you can sit back and let opportunities come to you.

Customizing your LinkedIn job alerts for precision

One of the best practices for managing job alerts is to customize the criteria so your results are highly targeted. Generic alerts with broad criteria often result in irrelevant notifications. Here are some tips to fine tune your settings:

• Use specific job titles like “Senior Product Marketing Manager” rather than just “Marketing.”
• Enter multiple titles separated by commas to cover several roles.
• Add keywords like “remote” or skills like “CRM systems” to focus on positions requiring those.
• Select “Easy Apply” under preferences to focus on one-click apply postings.
• Choose a small geographic radius such as 20 miles rather than an entire state.
• Follow companies you’re interested in and get alerts when they post new jobs.

Test out different criteria and combinations to see what yields the most relevant results for you. Refine as needed until your alerts consistently capture ideal opportunities.

Tips for managing multiple LinkedIn job alerts

It’s common to have several active job alerts running at once focused on different positions, locations or other criteria. Here are some tips for managing multiple alerts:

• Name your alerts for easy identification. For example, “Project Manager – San Francisco”
• Edit the notification email address for each alert to route to different inboxes or folders.
• Set alerts to weekly instead of daily frequency to manage notification volume.
• Use alert status toggles to temporarily deactivate alerts you want to pause.
• Review alerts frequently and remove ones no longer generating useful results.
• Track your alert performance to see which provide the best opportunities.

Curate your alerts regularly like you would any search feed. Eliminate obsolete or low-performing alerts and create new ones to fill gaps or expand your search.

Leveraging LinkedIn job alerts in your search

While automated alerts are convenient, you should incorporate them as just one piece of an integrated job search approach. Additional strategies include:

• Proactively searching for jobs yourself weekly beyond relying purely on alerts.
• Using advanced LinkedIn search operators to target specific companies, experience levels and more.
• Looking for jobs on multiple sites like company career pages and general job boards.
• Tapping your professional network for personal referrals and insider opportunities.

This ensures you cast a wide net and position yourself to uncover ideal roles through multiple channels. Use alerts to bring opportunities to you, but don’t become complacent in your own search efforts.

Sample workflow integrating job alerts:

• Set up 5-10 highly targeted, name-based job alerts to run weekly
• Check and review new job alert emails 3 times per week
• Search LinkedIn manually yourself at least once per week using advanced operators
• Browse general job boards like Indeed 2 times per week by title and location
• Perform targeted outreach to contacts at companies of interest monthly asking about openings

Reviewing and managing notifications from your LinkedIn job alerts

To gain maximum value from your job alerts, you need to review notifications promptly and on a regular schedule. Here are some best practices:

• Schedule 15-30 minutes 2-3 times per week to review new alert emails
• Create a folder or label for your alerts to easily separate them from other messages
• Quickly skim through each new posting and flag roles you’re interested in
• Discard notifications that aren’t relevant so future emails are more focused
• Mark dismiss roles you’ve already seen previously to avoid duplication
• Follow up promptly on desirable postings and apply within 24-48 hours before slots fill

Staying on top of your alerts helps you capitalize on timely opportunities. If certain positions seem too good to be true, they may no longer be available if you delay following up.

Tracking LinkedIn job alert performance

Pay attention to the results delivered by each of your alerts over time. An alert that consistently produces irrelevant postings or seldom generates any matches should be re-evaluated. Use these criteria to monitor your job alert ROI:

• Number of new job notification emails received per month
• Percentage of notifications relevant to your search criteria
• Number of jobs applied to sourced directly from the alert
• Number of interviews scheduled from alert applied jobs

Keep metrics on what leads and opportunities your alerts directly generate. Eliminate or refine underperforming alerts as needed to maximize their yield.

Turning off LinkedIn job alerts

It’s easy to turn off or delete a LinkedIn job alert when you no longer need it. Here are a few common cases when you may wish to do so:

• You’ve changed roles or accepted a new position
• You’re pausing or switching your job search focus
• An alert consistently produces irrelevant or low quality results
• You need to reduce the number of notifications you’re receiving

To turn off an alert:

1. Go to the LinkedIn Jobs homepage and click “Job Alerts” in top right
2. Locate the desired alert and click the toggle switch to off position
3. Alternatively click the 3 dots to the right of alert for option to delete
4. Deleted alerts can be recreated from scratch if desired later on

Be diligent about pruning alerts you no longer need. Leaving too many inactive alerts just creates unnecessary noise and distraction.

Customizing LinkedIn job alert frequency

When setting up a LinkedIn job alert, you can choose notification frequency of:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly

Daily alerts provide maximum immediacy when new jobs are posted. However, this can also mean a higher volume of emails to process. Weekly is a commonly preferred frequency, providing regular updates without becoming overbearing.

To adjust the frequency of an existing alert:

1. Go to the LinkedIn Jobs page and click “Job Alerts”
2. Select the 3 dots icon next to the desired alert
3. Choose “Edit” to access alert settings
4. Under frequency, update to preferred email period
5. Click “Save” to confirm changes

Consider reducing frequency for alerts generating a high volume of notifications or ramping up for high priority ones. Find a cadence that fits your needs.

Copying existing job alerts to create new ones

When setting up multiple job alerts, it can be tedious reinventing the wheel each time. To save effort, existing alerts can be easily copied as templates when adding new ones. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to the LinkedIn Jobs homepage and click “Job Alerts”
2. Locate the desired alert and select the 3 dots icon to right of it
3. Choose “Copy” from the dropdown menu
4. You will be taken to the Create job alert page with settings prepopulated
5. Customize criteria like title, location, company as needed
6. Click “Create Alert” to save the new version

Now you have a separate, modified alert without needing to build from scratch. Copy alerts when desiring similar settings across multiple roles or locations.

Using Boolean search strings to target alerts

Advanced users can further refine LinkedIn job alerts using Boolean search operators. Boolean searches use keywords like AND, OR and NOT to combine criteria.

For example, you could set an alert for:

“product manager AND San Francisco NOT contract”

This would return product manager roles in San Francisco excluding contract positions. Common Boolean operators include:

• AND – Results must match both criteria joined by AND
• OR – Results can match either criteria joined by OR
• NOT – Results must exclude the criteria after NOT

Boolean strings allow combining distinct search criteria in powerful ways. Just be careful not to create overly complex alerts that yield few or zero results.

Troubleshooting LinkedIn job alerts not working

In some cases, LinkedIn job alerts may stop delivering notifications properly. Typical causes can include:

• Alert email notifications going to spam folder
• Too narrow criteria filtering out all matching jobs
• LinkedIn account problem preventing alerts from running
• Alerts tuned off or deleted accidentally

Here are some troubleshooting tips if your LinkedIn alerts encounter issues:

• Check alert status on Jobs page to see if still active
• Review spam folder to see if notification emails were blocked
• Try broadening alert criteria to confirm if too restrictive
• Recreate the alert from scratch in case of glitch
• Contact LinkedIn customer support if problem persists

Act promptly if your job alerts stop working so you don’t miss opportunities. Determine if the problem lies with LinkedIn or your own settings and correct accordingly.

Conclusion

LinkedIn job alerts are a powerful asset for your job search toolkit. By setting up targeted alerts, you can get immediate notification when promising new openings are posted that match your qualifications and interests. Be sure to customize your alerts for precision, integrate them into your overall search strategy, and review notifications diligently.

With the right alerts in place, you can gain that vital head start submitting your application to increase the chances you’ll be considered. Don’t just wait and hope the right job will find you – use LinkedIn alerts to have choice opportunities delivered straight to your inbox.