How applicants find your job

Knowing where an applicant found your job posting and how they applied can help you fine-tune your hiring efforts, save time when sharing new jobs, and figure out the hiring strategies that work best for you in your market. CareerPlug has the tools you need to do just that.

How do applicants find my job?

Applicants will find your CareerPlug job postings through a variety of different sources.

With a Hire or Grow subscription, CareerPlug automatically shares your jobs with our partner job boards. These job boards typically provide reliable visibility for job postings, accounting for 60% of all applications to CareerPlug jobs, but a high quantity of applicants doesn't always mean high-quality applicants.

This is why we recommend targeting additional sources beyond traditional job boards and advertising your posting where job seekers are likely to encounter it.

For instance, an applicant might:

Discover the link to your careers page on your company website
Scan a QR code on a "We're Hiring" poster or other marketing collateral and get redirected to your careers page
Send your unique text-to-apply code to the designated phone number (which they found on your business card) and receive a text with a link to your careers page
Receive an email with your job posting and a referral code from a current employee
Find your job posting advertised on a social media website
Receive a direct link to your job posting (via text or email) from you or a member of your team after meeting at a conference or professional event

Can I see how an applicant found and applied to my job?

You can find the source of a specific applicant by opening the applicant's profile.

1. Navigate to your Applicants page.

2. Click an applicant's name to open their profile.

You'll find an applicant's source listed near the top of their profile.

How do I filter applicants who found my job through the same source?

To filter applicants by their source, you need to use the traditional applicant view. You can toggle between this view and the applicant board view using the toggle in the top-right corner of the Applicants page.

You can apply filters on your Applicants page to view applicants from only a specific source (or specific sources).

1. Click the Show Filters icon in the top-left corner of the page to open the Filters drawer.

2. Scroll down the Filters drawer, click the Source drop-down menu, and select the source(s) from which you want to see applicants. You can select as many sources as you want.

To remove any of filters, click the X icon on the right edge of the bubble. To clear all filters at once, click the Reset All link at the top of the Filters drawer.

How do I track the sources where most applicants are finding my jobs?

CareerPlug offers several ways to track which sources are generating the most applicants, both across your account and for individual jobs.

Learning which sources work best for your industry and community is key to continued hiring success. This allows you to stop wasting time on sources that don’t lead to meaningful hires, and spend more time on platforms that suit your needs. Tracking which sources perform well can also allow you to see trends over time and continually adjust your hiring efforts to what is working best. Stay on top of your hiring trends to make future hiring easier.

To see which sources produce the most applicants for your jobs, you can look at three different places in CareerPlug:

The Source Analysis charts on your Hiring Insights page
The Source Analysis charts in Classic Reports
The Source Conversion Performance chart on a job profile page

The Source Analysis charts on your Hiring Insights page

The Source Analysis charts show a breakdown of which sources your applicants are coming from, split across two groups: All Applicants and Hired Applicants. The Source Analysis chart can help you learn where you're finding quality applicants.

1. Navigate to Insights.

2. Scroll down to view the Source Analysis charts.

The Source Analysis charts in Classic Reports

The Source Analysis charts in Classic Reports show the same data as the Source Analysis charts in your Hiring Insights.

1. Navigate to Insights.

2. Click the View Classic Reports button in the top-right corner of the page.

3. Click the Source Analysis tab to view the Source Analysis charts.

The Source Conversion Performance chart on a job profile page

The Source Conversion Performance chart shows the number of applicants and job posting clicks per source, allowing you to see which of your sources are producing high numbers of clicks and/or applicants.

1. Navigate to your Jobs page.

2. Click the title of a job on your Jobs page.

3. Scroll down to view the Source Conversion Performance chart.

How can I reach applicants beyond traditional job boards?

In addition to the partner job boards where CareerPlug automatically posts your jobs, we recommend diversifying where you share your jobs to hire consistently and reliably.

CareerPlug can help you show up in more places and diversify your applicant sources. It's your always-on, multi-source applicant engine.

Here are some other sources you can focus on using CareerPlug:

Drive more applicants directly to your Careers Page using QR codes, text-to-apply, and other custom sourcing features – it’s one of the highest-quality sources of applicants.
Use QR codes on "We're Hiring" posters to advertise your jobs where your ideal candidates spend time and send interested candidates to your careers page, where they can apply for any of your open positions.
- Advertise throughout your local community by hanging your QR code posters at trade schools, community colleges, apprenticeship programs, workforce development programs, re-entry employment programs, veteran transition programs, local libraries, and even coffee shops.
Share your job postings on social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.
- Sharing your jobs on social media is more than just posting about an open position on your own company pages. When you use Facebook Groups to share open job posts, you are connecting with your community, building brand awareness, and even finding potential applicants that may already be invested in your company’s success.
- Facebook Groups are a great way to find passive job seekers who may not be actively looking for a new position, but could be interested in what you have to offer. These candidates are likely to never find your job on a traditional job board.

Share your job postings to custom sources where CareerPlug doesn't, such as Craigslist, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, and local and industry-specific job boards (like Handshake, ToolBelt, or myCNAjobs).
- Craiglist can be a great source of applicants for less traditional roles or local community members.
- Handshake is a job board for college students and recent graduates, and can be an excellent source of applicants for entry-level positions.
- NextDoor can be a fantastic source of applicants for local candidates, especially in home-centered industries with flexible hours.
- Use your unique tracking links to share job postings to your custom sources and track applicants from these sources; this way you can see how many applicants are coming from Instagram, Handshake, and local university boards, not just the job boards where CareerPlug automatically shares your jobs.