How to Actually Find a Tech Job (Without Losing Your Mind)

I built findatechjob because I was tired of watching friends waste weeks applying to jobs they'd never get.

The problem isn't a lack of jobs. There are thousands of tech positions open right now. The problem is that most people search for them like it's 2015.

They open LinkedIn, type "software engineer", scroll through 847 irrelevant listings, apply to 5 of them with the same generic resume, then repeat this process daily until they burn out or get lucky.

There's a better way.

The Core Problem

Job searching has a signal-to-noise problem.

Generic job boards optimize for quantity (more listings = more ads = more money). You want quality. These are fundamentally incompatible goals, yet everyone acts surprised when it doesn't work.

Use Filters Like Your Time Matters

If you're searching for "software engineer" without any filters, you're doing it wrong.

Think about what you actually want:

Location: Remote is great until you realize the company is in a timezone 8 hours away. Or they say "remote" but mean "remote in Texas only". Filter by real locations.
Tech stack: If you write Rust, why are you looking at Java jobs? (Unless you want to write Java, in which case, sorry.)
Seniority: Junior and Senior are not interchangeable. Applying to the wrong level wastes everyone's time.
Company stage: A 10-person startup and a 10,000-person enterprise are completely different jobs with the same title. Pick one.

Every filter you skip means more noise in your results. More noise means more time wasted. More time wasted means you burn out before finding anything good.

Go to the Source

LinkedIn and Indeed are aggregators. They scrape job listings from other places, often days or weeks late. By the time you see a job there, 200 other people have already applied.

Better sources:

Company career pages (obviously)
ATS platforms like Greenhouse and Lever that host jobs directly
Specialized boards that pull from these sources in real-time

Timing matters more than most people think. Applying in the first 48 hours of a posting gives you a massive advantage. Hiring managers actually look at applications when they're fresh. After a week, your resume goes into a pile of 300 others.

This is why I built findatechjob to aggregate directly from Greenhouse and Lever. The jobs show up here the same day they're posted. (This is also why the site exists - I was tired of being late to everything.)

Stop Spraying and Praying

Applying to 100 jobs with the same resume is a waste of time. I know it feels productive, but it isn't.

Hiring managers can smell a generic application from a mile away. "I'm excited to join your team" and "I'm passionate about technology" mean nothing. Everyone writes that.

Instead:

Apply to 20 jobs you actually want
Customize each application to mention something specific about the company
Make it obvious you read the job description

Yes, this takes longer per application. But 20 good applications beats 100 garbage ones.

Job Titles Are Meaningless

The tech industry has no standards for job titles. One company's "Software Engineer II" is another's "Senior Developer" is another's "Technical Lead".

Ignore the title. Read the actual job description:

What will you be building?
What's the tech stack?
How big is the team?
What experience level are they actually looking for? (Hint: "5+ years experience" often means "3 years if you're good".)

I've seen "Junior" roles that wanted 5 years of experience and "Senior" roles that would've been perfect for someone with 2 years. The title is just a label. The description is the spec.

Track Your Applications

If you're not tracking what you apply to, you will:

Accidentally apply to the same job twice (embarrassing)
Forget to follow up (you should, after 1-2 weeks)
Lose track of where you are in various interview processes
Have no idea what's working and what isn't

Make a spreadsheet. It doesn't need to be fancy. Just track:

Company and role
Date you applied
Current status
Any follow-up dates

This takes 30 seconds per application and saves you from looking like an idiot later.

When This Works / Doesn't

This approach works great if you:

Actually know what kind of job you want
Have skills that match real job requirements
Are willing to spend time on quality over quantity

It won't help if:

You're trying to break into tech with no experience (that's a different problem - build projects, contribute to open source, get your first role through connections)
You apply to 50 jobs without customizing anything and wonder why no one responds
You refuse to use filters because you "don't want to limit your options" (you're limiting your sanity instead)

The Takeaway

Job searching isn't hard, but most people do it wrong.

Use filters. Go to the source. Apply early. Customize your applications. Ignore job titles. Track everything.

Do this and you'll spend less time searching and more time interviewing. Which is the whole point.

If you want to try this approach, findatechjob has 13,000+ tech jobs with actual filtering that works. No spam, no outdated listings, no BS. Check it out.