Job hunting’s newest rules — and whether they actually work

• Struggling job seekers will try just about anything to stand out in a competitive market.
• Some swear by applying early in the morning or directly through the company’s website.
• Career experts from LinkedIn and Indeed shared which strategies are worth trying — and which are myths.

Karishma Mandal wanted to land an AI role at a big-name company, so she designed a job search strategy she hoped would help her stand out.

Throughout her search, she’d grown confident in the merits of two tactics: being among the first to apply for roles and submitting applications directly through company websites, not job boards.

“You have to be early, you have to go through the direct website, and you have to get a referral if you can,” said the 29-year-old.

Mandal’s strategies seemed to pay off. She landed interviews with Uber, Meta, and Amazon — and an offer from Salesforce, where she started full-time in January as an AI-focused product manager in San Francisco.

Mandal is among the job seekers who’ve embraced a growing number of job search hacks that have gained traction. Over the past year, Business Insider has spoken with dozens of job seekers who’ve relied not only on conventional approaches, such as crafting strong résumés and securing referrals, but also on less-proven tactics.

In a competitive hiring landscape, applicants are willing to try just about anything. While layoffs across the US economy remain low by historical standards, companies are now hiring at one of the slowest rates since 2013, largely due to tariff uncertainty and the early effects of AI adoption. In this environment, job seekers are throwing strategies at the wall and hoping they stick.

Job applicants rarely know exactly why they were passed over for one role or landed an interview for another. As a result, it’s just as hard to debunk some job search strategies as it is to prove they can actually work.

Business Insider asked career experts from LinkedIn and Indeed to weigh in on the effectiveness of some of the most commonly cited strategies — and whether they’re worth your time.

Being the first to apply

Mandal thinks it’s crucial to be among the first 20 or 30 applicants for a role to ensure hiring managers see her application.

Priya Rathod, workplace trends editor at Indeed, said it’s common for employers to review applications in the order they’re submitted, and that some may stop reviewing candidates or close a posting after reaching a certain number of applicants.

“I definitely think applying early can increase your visibility,” she said.

Catherine Fisher, a career expert at LinkedIn, said that applying to a job within 10 minutes of receiving a LinkedIn alert — notifications users can set up for specific types of roles — can increase a person’s chances of hearing back by up to four times. She said some recruiters may be working under tight timelines and begin contacting qualified applicants as soon as they find them.

Despite the benefits of applying early, both experts emphasized the importance of submitting a quality application — not just a quick one.

Applying early in the morning

After earning her master’s degree and struggling to land a job, Preeti Ladwa applied to roles between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. every weekday. Her rationale: Recruiters would review recent applications first when they logged on in the morning. Ladwa believes this strategy helped her land a job as a technical projects manager.

“I didn’t want my résumé to get buried under hundreds of others,” she said.

Rathod said she’s not aware of any data supporting the value of early-morning applications, but believes it’s smart to apply during business hours. Some recruiters receive alerts when new applications arrive, she said, and if those come in during the workday — while they’re actively reviewing candidates — they may be more likely to give them a closer look. By contrast, applications submitted after hours might get lost in a larger batch of overnight submissions.

However, Fisher said she’s skeptical that applying at a specific time of day makes much of a difference. She believes it’s more important for job seekers to pick a consistent time to submit applications — one that helps them establish a routine and stay committed to the process.

“I don’t think there’s a magic hour to apply,” she said.

Applying directly through a company website

When Ryan Hemenway began looking for a new field scientist job in 2023, he struggled to gain traction, so he decided to shift his approach. While he continued browsing job postings on ZipRecruiter and Indeed, he stopped applying through those platforms and instead submitted applications directly through company websites. He’d heard this might boost his chances of getting noticed, so he decided to give it a shot, in addition to his other search strategies. A few months later, he landed a new role.

Rathod said she believes it’s a common misconception that job seekers gain an edge by applying directly on a company’s website. She said it’s likely based on the belief that applications submitted through job platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed are placed in a separate “bucket” from those submitted directly — and that applications in this bucket are less likely to be prioritized.

In reality, she said, many employers have integrated their hiring systems with job platforms, so applications typically end up in the same pipeline.

“There’s not going to be a distinction to the recruiter on whether you applied on the website or on a job platform,” she said.

She added that as long as a job seeker is applying through a reputable platform, the method of submission is unlikely to affect their chances.

‘De-aging’ your résumé

Mike Kostersitz, 60, has been job hunting since being laid off by Microsoft in May. In an effort to gain traction, he’s worked with a career advisor that Microsoft provided as part of his layoff package. Kostersitz said the advisor recommended he “de-age” his résumé by removing roles from the 1980s and ’90s. His LinkedIn profile now begins with work experience dating back to 2003.

Fisher said she generally doesn’t think having extensive experience is a drawback for employers. However, she recommends focusing the bulk of an application on recent, relevant experience — and keeping descriptions of older roles brief, or potentially leaving them out if they don’t directly strengthen the application.

“It doesn’t mean cutting off half of your career,” she said. “I just think it means looking back at when your experience stops adding value.”

Using job description keywords

One of the most common strategies cited by job seekers is meticulously aligning their résumés and cover letters with keywords from the job description — often with the help of AI tools — in the hope of impressing applicant tracking systems (ATS), which are often the first to review applications.

Both experts agreed this is a strategy worth investing in.

“Matching your keywords to your résumé is really important,” Rathod said. “An ATS is going to scan for those keywords, and if it sees them, you’re more likely to move forward in the process.”

Fisher wouldn’t advise applicants to embellish their résumés just to align with job postings, but she recommends taking the time to ensure they include all of their experiences that match the role. She said that some applicants may check more boxes than they initially realize. When they do check those boxes, she said, it’s worth using the precise language from the job description to better align with what ATS are scanning for.

“It’s not about beating the system,” she said. “You’re just making sure that your skills and experience align with what the company is looking for.”

Prioritizing interview prep

While many of the strategies discussed above may be worth investing in, Rathod said one of her top pieces of advice is not to overlook the importance of interview preparation.

“People are probably putting a lot of effort into tailoring their résumés and getting those interviews, but the interview is when you really get to shine,” she said. “Job seekers need to approach interviews with that same sense of preparation.”