A good alert tells you about a job you’d apply to, soon after it goes up. A bad one sends 40 loosely related jobs once a day, and you stop opening them by Thursday.
The difference is almost always in the setup.
Make each alert narrow
- One role per alert. “Product designer” and “UX researcher” are different searches. Mixing them makes both noisy.
- Use the title words employers use. Search for “frontend engineer” and “front end developer” in separate alerts if both are common in your field.
- Exclude what you never want. Words such as “senior”, “intern”, “contract” or a technology you don’t use cut a lot of noise.
- Set location honestly. “Remote” listings are often limited to a country or time zone. Add your region if the site supports it.
Pick the right frequency
Daily digests are tidy but slow: a job posted at 9am might reach you the next morning. For roles where speed matters, choose instant or “as jobs are posted” alerts where the site offers them, and keep the number of alerts small so they stay meaningful.
Watch for what alerts don’t tell you
- Alerts from big job sites can include promoted or sponsored jobs.
- A reposted job can trigger an alert again, even though it isn’t new.
- Most job sites need an account and an email address before they’ll send alerts.
How alerts work in Jobly
Jobly was built so alerts stay useful:
- They come from your preferences. Pick your roles, experience levels, remote setting and keywords once.
- They’re only for new jobs. Your browser checks every 60 to 90 minutes and alerts you only to matches that appeared since the last check, never a backlog.
- No email, no account. Alerts are a badge on the toolbar icon and, if you turn it on, a desktop notification. Everything is worked out in your browser.
- No promoted listings, and nothing older than 60 days.
A simple routine
- Two or three narrow alerts on the big sites.
- Jobly for tech roles from company career pages.
- Once a day, open your alerts, apply to the best two or three, and save the rest for later.
Fewer, better alerts mean you actually read them.
Common questions
How many alerts should I have?
Usually three to five in total. If you stop opening them, you have too many or they’re too broad.
Why didn’t Jobly alert me about a job I saw elsewhere?
Jobly only covers tech roles from the career pages and job boards it reads, and only jobs that match your preferences. Check the list of companies and your role and keyword settings.
Can I get Jobly alerts on my phone?
Not yet. Jobly is a Chrome extension for desktop, and alerts appear in Chrome. See the roadmap for what’s planned.