Updated in 2023
Looking for jobs can be stressful, overwhelming, and even anxiety-inducing if you don’t know how to do it efficiently. Using the best job boards for software engineers can save you valuable time and energy that you can put towards acing your software engineering interviews.
We will be rating each job board for scale (number of opportunities available) and quality (average conversion rate for each opportunity).
Best job boards for software engineers
General job sites
1. LinkedIn
It’s probably safe to say that you have heard of LinkedIn. The professional networking site allows you to create a profile with your past experience, projects, and links to work. You should make your optimize your LinkedIn profile and then you can set your preference to “open to new opportunities.” Recruiters will likely reach out to you and you can also make use of their job board to find positions that match your interests. When you find a job that interests you, send in an application and then message the recruiter on LinkedIn. For more info on how to reach out to recruiters, check out our guide.
Scale: 3/3 | Quality: 1.5/3
Reminder: scale is number of jobs, quality is how successful people are in moving forward in the pipeline with these jobs
2. Google Jobs
Google brings together job postings from across the web, whether they are on websites run by small businesses or job sites with thousands of listings. This helps job-seekers easily find their next job by searching directly into Google. Just make sure you specify your role as much as you can. Otherwise, you will be combing through thousands of postings.
Scale: 2.5/3 | Quality: 2.5/3 (especially if you sort by recently posted)
3. Indeed
Indeed is one of the largest job sites out there, with tons of postings culled from around the internet. While it is not as specialized as GitHub, for example, it makes up for it with sheer numbers. You can also cull down your results by adding more specifics into your query or filtering by post date.
Scale: 2.5/3 | Quality: 1.5/3
Software engineering job boards
1. GitHub
For most engineers, including your GitHub profile in your applications is fairly standard practice, so it makes sense that you would look for jobs on the GitHub job board. Jobs posted on this board are full time only, but they also have remote positions. If you are looking for guidance on how to use GitHub, check out our article.
Scale: 2.5/3 | Quality: 2/3
Reminder: scale is number of jobs, quality is how successful people are in moving forward in the pipeline with these jobs
2. Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is one of the largest, most trusted online communities for people who love coding. If you are looking to learn more about programming, share your knowledge, and build your career, Stack Overflow is a good place to go. Plus, they have a job board! You can browse by company, salary, remote, international, sponsorship, or date of posting. They also include info about engineering culture, company benefits, and team projects.
Scale: 2/3 | Quality: 1.75/3
3. HackerLife
HackerLife is an advanced job search engine for software engineers. Their focus is on providing job-seekers with a better understanding of the culture and experience at the tech companies before applying. The site should be mainly used by software engineers before they begin actively looking to change jobs.
Scale: 2.5/3 | Quality: 1.5/3
4. A Happy Job
An interactive platform, A Happy Job allows candidates to filter engineering teams by their preferences, like location or remote, amount of people, technology, team culture, and industry. This should help engineers speed up their job search by pre-determining the teams that will lead them to success.
Scale: 2/3 | Quality: 3/3
Startups
1. AngelList
AngelList started as a tool for startup funding and has since grown to become a great job board for early stage startups. Candidates need to make a profile and then they can express interest in positions at companies based on their preferences. Companies can also reach out directly to candidates. Recently, they also launched A-List, which invites top engineers, designers, product managers, and salespeople to fast-track their AngelList profile to hundreds of top startups that are hiring in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater New York City area.
Scale: 1.5/3 | Quality: 1/3
Reminder: scale is number of jobs, quality is how successful people are in moving forward in the pipeline with these jobs
2. VentureLoop
VentureLoop is a leader in job postings focused on venture-backed companies. These companies are typically startups who have some funding and stability (compared to seed and early-stage startups). Many of the job postings found on VentureLoop cannot be found on any other job board.
Scale: 2/3 | Quality: 1/3
3. Hacker News
If you are only interested in startups that have been part of the incubator Y Combinator, this is the place for you! In fact, their job board only features companies who have been in the program. You can determine how far along the companies are based on their cohort year.
Scale: 2/3 | Quality: 2/3
4. Product Hunt
Product Hunt surfaces the best new products every day. It’s a place for product-loving enthusiasts to share and express their excitement about the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, and tech creations. They also have a great job board with really interesting opportunities for software engineers and other people looking to break into the tech industry.
Scale: 2/3 | Quality: 1.5/3
5. Crunchboard
CrunchBoard is the official job board of TechCrunch, the leading authority on startups & the rapidly expanding tech industry. For those looking to work in startups with some clout, who have been around for some time, or are growing quickly, Crunchboard is a good place to look. Their goal with the job board was to “build the ultimate web insider’s network.”
Scale: 1.5/3 | Quality: .75/3
Remote jobs
1. We Work Remotely
The largest community online for remote jobs (over 2,500,000 monthly visitors), We Work Remotely is a great place to search for a position that is not defined by commutes or offices. The people behind 37 Signals, creators of the book Remote, are responsible for the job board.
Scale: 1.25/3 | Quality: .75/3
Reminder: scale is number of jobs, quality is how successful people are in moving forward in the pipeline with these jobs
2. Working Nomads
Working Nomads is a job board with positions for many different tech roles, but their software engineering section is the most robust. They also have a newsletter that sends their openings directly to your inbox, if you want to avoid having to search each week.
Scale: 1.5/3 | Quality: 1/3
3. Remote.co
Remote.co is a resource for companies that see remote work as an opportunity. Their job board is hand curated to showcase the best remote job opportunities in the most recruited job categories. They also have a technology specific jobs newsletter so you can get new openings sent right to you.
Scale: 2/3 | Quality: 1.25/3
Language/Role specific job boards
1. RubyNow
RubyNow is a job board with only Ruby on Rails positions. This can be extremely helpful if you want to narrow your job search down and focus only on this one type of role. They also have a newsletter that you can receive when they add new jobs to their site.
Scale: 3/3 | Quality: 2/3
Reminder: scale is number of jobs, quality is how successful people are in moving forward in the pipeline with these jobs
2. WordPress Jobs
If you are only interested in WordPress jobs, the WordPress job board, hosted by WP, is your best bet. Jobs featured range from full-time to project based and include international and remote positions.
Scale: 1/3 | Quality: .5/3
With this list of the best job boards for software engineers, you should be on your way to finding a great software engineering job soon.
Pathrise is a career accelerator that works with students and professionals 1-on-1 so they can land their dream job in tech. With these tips and guidance, we’ve seen our fellows interview scores double.
If you want to work with any of our mentors 1-on-1 to get help with your software engineer interviews or with any other aspect of the job search, become a Pathrise fellow.
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Thanks for the step by step instructions. Really helpful guide.