You find a role you want. It is on four job sites, with three different apply buttons and two different dates. The employer wrote it once. Everything else is a copy. Apply through the employer's own system when you can reach it, which is nearly always. The copies are fine for finding the job. They are a poor place to apply from.
Key points
- One posting, many copies. The employer's hiring system is the source.
- Follow the apply button until it stops on the employer's own page. That is where you apply.
- A copy with its own form keeps your data and adds a step. Skip it when the source is reachable.
- Two dates means two copies. The earlier one is closer to the truth.
- Never apply to the same job twice through two copies. The employer sees both.
Find the source in three clicks
Every copy links somewhere. Follow the link.
- Click apply on the copy. If the page you land on belongs to the employer, with their name in the address, you are at the source.
- If you land on another job site, click apply again. Some chains are three hops long.
- If you cannot reach the employer's page, search the employer's own careers page for the title. If it is there, apply there. If it is not, the copy is stale or the role was posted by an agency.
The address tells you where you are. jobs.lever.co/company, boards.greenhouse.io/company, company.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com and jobs.ashbyhq.com/company are the employer's own hiring systems. The company's own domain is also the source. Anything else is a copy.
When a copy is fine
A copy is fine for finding the job, reading the description, and setting an alert. That is what copies are for, and this site is one of them. The board here reads from hiring systems, groups the duplicates, and sends you to the employer to apply.
A copy is also fine when the employer posted to it directly and it is the only place the job exists. Some small employers post on one board and nowhere else. The apply button on that board is the source.
When the copy hurts you
A copy with its own apply form. Some sites take your application themselves, store your resume, and forward it, or sometimes do not. The employer gets a resume with a job site's logo on it, often without the answers to their own screening questions. You get a confirmation email from the wrong company.
A copy that is stale. The job closed a week ago at the source. The copy still lists it. You apply into a closed posting and never hear why.
Easy Apply on a professional network. The button sends a profile, not an application. The employer's hiring system shows it as a partial record, and recruiters sort those after the full ones. For a role you want, do the full form at the source.
Two dates, two copies
A listing that says posted three days ago on one site and three weeks ago on another is one posting copied at two times. The older date is closer to the real one. A copy's date is the day the copy was made, not the day the employer posted.
On this site, the date is the day we first saw the posting at the source. That is also a copy date, by twelve hours at most, and the board orders by it, so a job that was old before we found it is not marked new.
Do not apply twice
An employer's hiring system matches applications by email address. Two applications for one role, one through a copy and one at the source, show as two records for one person. Nobody is impressed by that. Pick the source and apply once.
If you already applied through a copy and are not sure it arrived, wait a week. If there is no confirmation from the employer, apply at the source once and say in the cover letter that an earlier application went through a job site and did not confirm.
Questions
The copy has the job and the employer's page does not. Is the job real?
Check the date on the copy. If it is more than two weeks old, the job closed. If it is recent and the employer's page does not show it, the role went through an agency, or the employer removed it. Either way, the employer's page is the answer.
An agency lists the job with the employer hidden. Do I apply?
Yes, if the role fits. The agency earns a fee and the employer knows that. Ask the agency for the employer's name before an interview, and do not apply to the employer directly for the same role afterwards.
Does the employer know I came from a copy?
Usually. Hiring systems record the source of each application. It does not change the outcome. It tells the employer which boards work, which is their business and not yours.
Why does this site send me away to apply?
Because the application belongs in the employer's system, with their questions and their confirmation. We do not host applications, and the pledge says we will not.
What if the source form is broken?
They happen. Try another browser, then the copy, then an email to the recruiter named on the posting with the resume attached. The guides on each hiring system have the common fixes.