Applying through LinkedIn, Indeed and aggregators without losing track

Why the same job appears in six places

When an employer posts a vacancy, it usually goes to their own careers page first. From there it is syndicated — automatically or by a recruiter — to the large boards, to aggregators that index those boards, and to niche sites for the sector.

The result is that one vacancy can appear under slightly different titles across many sites. That is not deception; it is how the market distributes listings. But it does mean a job seeker can easily apply to the same role twice through different routes, which looks disorganised to the employer.

Apply once, through the shortest route

Wherever you find a role, check the employer's own careers page before applying. Applying directly is usually the shortest path to a human, and it avoids your application sitting in an inbox nobody has claimed.

Where the employer takes applications on a specific platform, use that platform. On CareerHub, listings sourced from partner boards say so plainly and send you to the employer's own application page there, so you always know where you are applying.

A tracking system that takes two minutes a day

1. Keep one list — a spreadsheet is fine — with: company, role, source, date applied, application route, contact name, status, and the date you will follow up.
2. Save the job advert text when you apply. Listings are removed, and you will want it before an interview.
3. Record which CV version you sent. Being asked about a bullet you cannot remember writing is avoidable.
4. Set the follow-up date at ten working days when you log the application, not later.
5. Review the whole list once a week and close out anything dead, so the list reflects reality.

Following up without being a nuisance

One follow-up after ten working days is professional and is not held against you. A second after a further two weeks is acceptable. Beyond that, treat silence as an answer and spend the energy on new applications.

Keep it to three sentences: the role and date you applied, one line of continued interest with a specific reason, and a question about the timeline.

Quality still beats volume

The temptation with one-click applications is to send a hundred. The data from every recruiter I have worked with points the same way: twenty tailored applications outperform two hundred generic ones, and they take less total time once you account for the interviews you actually convert.

A reasonable weekly target for someone searching seriously is eight to twelve applications, each with a CV reordered for the advert and a short, specific cover note.