How to find a job in the USA: the job sites people actually use

Looking for work in the USA rarely comes down to a single job board any more. Employers post the same opening on several platforms at once, recruiters go looking for suitable candidates themselves, and many vacancies surface through professional social networks, university career centres and specialist services.

So it is better to use several sources at the same time. One service may be more convenient for ordinary office work, another for IT, a third for start-ups, and a fourth will help you check salaries and what employees say about a company.

Popular job search services in the USA Looking for work in the USA rarely comes down to a single job board any more. Employers post the same opening on several platforms at once, recruiters go looking for suitable candidates themselves, and many vacancies surface through professional social networks, university career centres and specialist services. So it is better to use several sources at the same time. One service may be more convenient for ordinary office work, another for IT, a third for start-ups, and a fourth will help you check salaries and what employees say about a company.

1. Indeed

Indeed is one of the best known and most general job search services in the USA. You will find vacancies in almost every field here: restaurants, warehouses and retail, but also accounting, marketing, engineering, medicine and IT. You can search by job title, by keyword and by location, and add filters for salary, schedule, experience level and work format. Indeed also lets you upload a resume, create a profile, save vacancies you like and set up alerts for new ones. For example, instead of a search as broad as manager, use something more specific:

• warehouse manager;
• office manager;
• restaurant manager;
• marketing manager;
• project manager.

The more precise the search, the fewer irrelevant listings you have to read through. Who it suits: almost every job seeker, and especially anyone just starting to look for work in the USA who wants the widest possible choice.

Go to Indeed [→ https://www.indeed.com/]

2. LinkedIn Jobs

In the USA LinkedIn is not only a professional social network but a full job search tool. Searching for vacancies here sits alongside networking: you can look at the staff of a company you are interested in, find a recruiter, study the career path of people in similar roles and sometimes contact someone at the employer directly.

LinkedIn lets you search by profession and location, apply various filters, save listings and turn on alerts for new ones. Some vacancies offer Easy Apply, which sends your application straight through LinkedIn.

The real advantage of LinkedIn, though, is the profile itself. Think of it as a professional calling card online, one a potential employer or recruiter may see before your resume ever reaches them.

It is worth filling in:

• a photograph and a professional headline;
• work experience;
• education;
• professional skills;
• certificates;
• projects and achievements;
• the About section.

For qualified specialists a good LinkedIn profile sometimes works without any applications at all: a recruiter can find the candidate through search and offer them a job.

Who it suits: specialists with professional experience, managers, IT workers, engineers, finance people, marketers, designers and other office professions.

Go to LinkedIn Jobs [→ https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/]

3. Glassdoor

Glassdoor is useful for more than finding vacancies. One of its main advantages is that it lets you gather extra information about a potential employer before the interview.

On the platform you can search for jobs, read employee reviews of companies and look at salary data. That is especially useful once you have found an interesting position but still know little about the organisation itself.

Before you apply you can look at:

• how employees rate the management;
• what they say about working conditions;
• how satisfied they are with pay and benefits;
• which strengths and weaknesses come up most often;
• what salaries employees report in similar roles.

Do not treat a single review as the whole truth. One employee may be deeply unhappy with a company and another perfectly content. It is far more useful to notice the problems, or the strengths, that repeat across many reviews.

Who it suits: anyone who wants not only to find a vacancy but to learn about the company, the working conditions and the rough level of pay in advance.

Go to Glassdoor [→ https://www.glassdoor.com/]

4. ZipRecruiter

ZipRecruiter is another large American job search platform. You can upload a resume, search by job title and location, receive matching offers and apply quickly.

The service leans heavily on automatic matching based on your profile and your searches. That helps during an active search, when you are going through a lot of listings every day and want to spot the suitable ones sooner.

ZipRecruiter is particularly useful for vacancies in fields such as:

• administrative work;
• sales;
• logistics;
• customer service;
• manufacturing;
• office roles;
• technical trades.

As on other large sites, it is worth building several versions of your search and setting up alerts for new vacancies.

Who it suits: job seekers in a wide range of professions who need plenty of choice and convenient automatic matching.

Go to ZipRecruiter [→ https://www.ziprecruiter.com/]

5. USAJOBS

If you are interested in working for the federal government of the USA, look at USAJOBS. It is the official job portal of the United States federal government.

Through it you can search by federal agency, occupation, location, salary and other criteria. In your profile you can save vacancies and searches and upload a resume and the documents you need.

Applying for a government post can be noticeably different from applying to a private company. Read the job description, the requirements for candidates and the list of documents carefully.

Some federal posts may carry restrictions on:

• citizenship;
• candidate status;
• education;
• professional experience;
• security clearance;
• other special requirements.

So before you prepare an application, always read the Who May Apply section and the other requirements of that particular vacancy.

Who it suits: anyone considering a career in federal government institutions who meets the requirements of the post they have chosen.

Go to USAJOBS [→ https://www.usajobs.gov/]

6. Dice

Dice specialises above all in technology and IT vacancies. You will find openings here for developers, system administrators, cybersecurity specialists, data analysts, DevOps engineers, technical managers and other technology professions.

If you are looking specifically for IT work, general sites like Indeed may not be enough on their own. Specialist boards let you reach employers and recruiters who are focused on technical people.

On Dice it is worth searching by specific technologies and skills, for example:

• Java Developer;
• Python Developer;
• Data Analyst;
• Cybersecurity Analyst;
• DevOps Engineer;
• Cloud Engineer;
• QA Engineer;
• System Administrator.

The more precisely you name the technologies, the experience and the specialisation, the more relevant the results.

Who it suits: programmers, engineers, analysts, and specialists in cybersecurity, DevOps, cloud, data and other IT fields.

Go to Dice [→ https://www.dice.com/]

7. Wellfound

Wellfound, formerly known as AngelList Talent, is aimed above all at vacancies in start-ups and technology companies. The service covers both local and remote work. Many listings show a salary range, and start-ups may also state equity — a share or option component of the package.

There are especially many vacancies here in fields such as:

• software development;
• AI and machine learning;
• product management;
• design;
• marketing;
• sales;
• operations.

Working at a start-up can be very different from working at a large corporation. Teams are usually smaller, processes change faster, and one person may be responsible for several areas at once. So these vacancies suit people who like a fast-moving environment and a high degree of independence.

Who it suits: specialists who want to work at start-ups, technology companies and fast-growing teams.

Go to Wellfound [→ https://wellfound.com/jobs]

8. Handshake

Handshake is especially useful for students, recent graduates and anyone at the start of a professional career in the USA. The platform works with many colleges and universities and gives access to vacancies, internships and career events. Some listings may be meant specifically for students or graduates of particular institutions.

Through Handshake you can look for:

• internships;
• entry-level positions;
• work on campus;
• graduate vacancies;
• career events;
• meetings with employers.

If you are studying at an American college or university, do check whether your institution gives you access to Handshake. Some of the openings posted there are hard to find on ordinary job sites.

Who it suits: students, graduates and candidates with little professional experience.

Go to Handshake [→ https://joinhandshake.com/]

Should you use only one site?

No. One of the common mistakes when looking for work in the USA is to pick one platform and use nothing else. The same company may post actively on LinkedIn and barely use Indeed. Another employer does the opposite and puts most of its openings on Indeed or ZipRecruiter. A start-up may post mainly on Wellfound, and an opening for students may appear through Handshake.

So it is better to use several channels at once:

• Indeed — for a broad search.
• LinkedIn — for professional positions and for talking to recruiters.
• Glassdoor — for checking an employer and salary levels.
• Dice or Wellfound — for a specialist search.
• Company career pages — for applying to the employer directly.

That way you widen the range of opportunities open to you and depend less on the algorithms of a single platform.

Look for vacancies directly on company websites

Job boards are far from the only source of openings. If you know the companies you would like to work for, check the Careers, Jobs or Join Our Team sections of their official sites regularly. Sometimes a new vacancy appears on a company site before it reaches the large aggregators.

It helps to draw up a list of 20 to 30 potential employers and check their career pages from time to time. If you want to work in logistics, for instance, you can list the large logistics and transport companies in your region. If IT interests you, look beyond technology companies to banks, insurers, medical networks, retail and other large businesses that regularly need technical staff.

Use the right keywords

American job titles do not always match the names of professions people are used to in other countries. So do not search for only one version of a title.

Someone with experience as an administrator, for example, might try these searches:

• Administrative Assistant;
• Office Assistant;
• Office Coordinator;
• Administrative Coordinator;
• Executive Assistant.

A customer-facing specialist might look for:

• Customer Service Representative;
• Customer Support Specialist;
• Client Services Specialist;
• Customer Success Specialist.

See which titles employers themselves use in the field you are interested in, and widen your list of searches gradually.

Set up alerts for new vacancies

There is no need to run the same search by hand several times a day. Most large services let you create job alerts — automatic notifications about new vacancies.

It is better to create several specific alerts than one that is too broad. For example:

• Accountant — Miami;
• Junior Accountant — Miami;
• Accounting Assistant — Miami;
• Remote Accountant.

That makes it easier to spot fresh openings that match your experience and your location. Alerts on Indeed, LinkedIn and other large platforms are particularly useful when you are searching actively.

Do not send the same resume to every vacancy

Sending one resume out in bulk looks like a fast way to find work, but the number of applications is not always more important than their quality. Before you apply, read the job description and compare it with your resume. If the employer mentions particular skills several times and you genuinely have them, those skills should be visible in your resume in a way anyone can see.

You should never, however, add experience or skills you do not have. Tailoring a resume is not about deceiving an employer or an automatic screening system; it is about showing clearly that your real experience matches what the job asks for.

Check the employer before the interview

If a company is unfamiliar, spend a few minutes checking it. Before the interview it is worth looking at:

• the company's official website;
• the employer's LinkedIn page;
• employee reviews;
• the office address;
• what the business actually does;
• information about the staff;
• whether the vacancy appears on the official site.

Be especially careful with offers that promise very high pay for minimal requirements, run the whole "interview" purely through text messages, or ask you to pay in advance for equipment, training, paperwork or other costs.

A legitimate job search does not begin with a demand to send money to an employer you do not know.

Where to look for work without much experience

If you have no American experience yet, do not limit yourself to vacancies that match your previous job exactly. You can use these words in your search:

• Entry Level;
• Junior;
• Assistant;
• Associate;
• Trainee;
• Internship.

And having no work experience in the USA does not mean having no professional experience at all. If you worked for several years as an accountant, a designer, an engineer, a manager or in another profession in your own country, that experience belongs on your resume. What matters is describing the duties, the professional skills and the concrete results clearly.

What to do if nobody answers your applications

Hearing nothing back after a few applications is normal. But if you have sent dozens and had almost no response, it is worth checking your approach.

Look at whether:

• your resume follows the American format;
• the first lines make your experience clear;
• you are using the right job titles and keywords;
• you are applying for vacancies whose requirements you genuinely meet;
• your phone number and email address are correct;
• your LinkedIn profile is filled in;
• you have limited your search to a single site.

Sometimes the problem is not a lack of professional experience but a resume that does not show the employer the skills you already have.

Which platform is best for finding work in the USA?

There is no universal answer. If you want the widest choice of vacancies, start with Indeed. For professional and office positions LinkedIn is essential. Glassdoor is useful for researching employers and salaries.

IT specialists should add Dice, and candidates interested in start-ups should add Wellfound. Students and recent graduates may find Handshake useful, and federal vacancies should be looked for through USAJOBS.

The best approach is to use several services at once, set up alerts and also check the career pages of the companies you are interested in.

The main rule of looking for work in the USA

Do not turn the search into nothing but pressing Apply every day. An effective search usually combines several things: reading new vacancies, tailoring your resume, developing your LinkedIn profile, applying directly on company sites, talking to recruiters and widening your professional contacts.

The more precisely you understand what work you are looking for, the easier it is to choose the right platforms, the right job titles and the right searches.

And do check anything that looks suspicious. If a vacancy looks too good to be true, asks for payment up front or expects you to hand confidential information to someone you have not verified, make sure the employer really exists first.

Important: whether a particular vacancy is open to you, and what it requires in terms of the right to work in the USA, depends on the employer, the post and your status. Read the requirements in the listing carefully before you apply.