Having issues creating job alerts on LinkedIn? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. LinkedIn job alerts are a useful tool for passively finding relevant job opportunities, but the feature doesn’t always work as expected. Here are some common reasons why you may be unable to create job alerts on LinkedIn and solutions to troubleshoot the problems.
You Haven’t Fully Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile
One of the most common reasons why LinkedIn job alerts may not be working is because you don’t have a complete profile set up. LinkedIn requires you to have certain information filled out in your profile before all features, including job alerts, are enabled. Here are some key sections you’ll want to complete:
- Profile photo
- Headline with keywords
- Current position and 2 past positions listed
- Skills section with at least 3 skills
- 50+ connections
- Education section completed
- Bio summary
Double check that you have all of these sections filled out. LinkedIn needs this info to understand your professional background and match you with relevant opportunities. Filling out as much info as possible signals to LinkedIn that your profile is credible and fully set up.
You Have Notifications Turned Off
Another simple reason you may not be receiving job alert emails from LinkedIn is because your notifications are turned off. To change this:
- Go to your LinkedIn account settings
- Select “Communications”
- Make sure “email frequency and notifications” is checked ON
- Under job alerts, make sure “Daily job suggestions” is turned ON
This ensures LinkedIn can actually send you emails when new job matches are found. Make sure to also check your spam folder if you’ve recently made this change, as old emails may have been filtered there incorrectly.
Too Many Filters on Your Job Alert
Job alerts work by notifying you when new postings match certain keywords, titles, companies, locations and other filters. But if you are too narrow with your criteria, LinkedIn may not be able to find any new matches. Try broadening your job alert filters:
- Use more general job titles like “project manager” instead of “senior IT project manager”
- Broaden locations from a specific city to an entire metro area
- Remove company filters if applied
- Use a wide date range like “posted anytime”
Giving LinkedIn more flexibility increases the chances it can find relevant jobs for you. You can always ignore job alerts that aren’t a great fit after the fact.
LinkedIn’s Job Matching Algorithm
LinkedIn uses predictive analytics behind the scenes to match candidates with open positions. However, some users report seemingly irrelevant results from their job alerts. There can be a few reasons for this:
- The algorithms make connections you may not see. For example, matching skills gained at past positions that relate to a new opportunity.
- You may be qualified for roles you hadn’t considered previously. The algorithm looks at your full profile to uncover these non-obvious job matches.
- AI models can make mistakes or work in unpredictable ways. Strange results may simply be a quirk in the recommendation system.
So before ignoring a job alert, take a closer look at the actual opportunity. There may be relevant skills, companies or job duties that weren’t immediately obvious based on the job title alone.
Try Refining Your LinkedIn Profile
One way to improve the relevance of your LinkedIn job matches is to refine your LinkedIn profile. This gives the algorithm more signals to better understand your professional background and interests. Try adding:
- More details on your past position responsibilities and achievements
- Technical skills that may not be obvious from your official job titles
- Coursework, volunteer work or other experiences to showcase a wider range of qualifications
- Specific industry keywords that are relevant to positions you want
Essentially, fleshing out the profile helps LinkedIn make smarter recommendations aligned with your goals. Spending 15-20 minutes improving your profile can significantly improve the relevance of future job matches.
Too High of a Location Preference
If you have your location preference set to only show opportunities within a 5 or 10 mile radius, this can severely limit the results LinkedIn can show you. Very few professional roles are restricted to such a tight geographical area. Instead, try widening your location settings when creating a job alert:
- Use the entire metro area for your city instead of city limits
- Open up preferences to “anywhere” or at least your state/region
- Be open to remote or hybrid work arrangements
Unless you absolutely cannot relocate, casting a wider geographic net significantly expands your options. You can always filter out results that would require too long of a commute after the fact. But leaving some flexibility here allows LinkedIn to pull from a larger pool of relevant positions.
Double Check Your Job Alert Frequency Settings
LinkedIn allows you to customize how often you receive job alert emails:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Every two weeks
- Monthly
If you have this set to monthly, it’s easy to forget you even have an alert set up! Switch to daily or weekly emails so positions get sent to you while they’re still fresh.
Similarly, check that you have notifications enabled on both desktop and your mobile app. This ensures you actually see the alerts when they are sent out.
Don’t Rely on Just LinkedIn for Your Job Search
While LinkedIn can be a valuable source of new job leads, it’s best used alongside other search strategies. Diversifying your job search efforts improves your chances of finding a great opportunity. Other job search tactics to incorporate:
- General job sites like Indeed, Monster, etc.
- Professional association job boards specific to your industry
- Following companies you’re interested in and looking for openings on their career sites
- Networking with colleagues about unposted opportunities
- Attending local career fairs and networking events
- Talking with recruiters and staffing agencies
- Applying for roles listed on social media networks like Twitter
This ensures you cast a wide net and catch opportunities that may not appear on LinkedIn. While job alerts are helpful, having a multi-pronged search approach is key for overall job seeking success.
Try Switching up Keywords and Titles
Reworking the keywords and job titles you use for your LinkedIn job alerts can deliver new results. For example, try variations like:
- “Data science” instead of just “data”
- “Frontend web developer” instead of only “developer”
- “Marketing specialist” instead of “marketing”
- Mixing in related or interchangeable terms: “security,” “infosec,” “cybersecurity”
Avoiding overly broad terms, while also including synonyms and variances of your target role, can help improve the precision of results. LinkedIn’s algorithm relies heavily on the keywords provided.
Wait for LinkedIn to Re-Index Your Profile
After making significant updates to your LinkedIn profile, the system needs time to reprocess all the new information. Changes like adding skills, new positions, and richer profile content won’t immediately filter into your job alerts.
Allow 1-2 weeks after fully updating your profile for LinkedIn to best optimize and match your new qualifications with relevant opportunities. The artificial intelligence powering recommendations needs sufficient new data to learn from.
Confirm Your Email and Notifications Settings
A simple technical issue can prevent your job alert emails from being delivered. Double check:
- Your primary email attached to your LinkedIn account is valid and able to receive messages.
- The email settings under “Communications” tab allow LinkedIn to send you messages.
- Your specific job alert notifications are enabled (under Job Alert Emails section).
- Emails from LinkedIn are not going to spam or another hidden folder.
Periodically confirming your profiles email and notification options are properly configured ensures alerts get delivered to your inbox consistently.
Try Sending Yourself a Test Job Alert
If your job alert settings seem properly configured but you’re still not receiving results, try sending yourself a test alert:
- Create a very broad job alert for a common role like “software engineer” or “project manager”
- Select a wide location such as your entire country
- Choose “Daily” email frequency
- Wait 1-2 days and see if test emails are delivered
This helps determine if the issue is with your specific alert filters or a wider technical problem. If the test alert goes through, refine or change your existing filters. If the test alert doesn’t send, contact LinkedIn customer support for troubleshooting assistance.
Wait for New Job Postings to Appear
Depending on the specificity of your filters, new job results matching your criteria may not appear frequently. Be patient and continue monitoring your alerts if the role, industry or location you want is very niche.
Consider widening your preferences temporarily if your current settings are producing sparse results. You can then narrow down once LinkedIn begins sending you a larger set of opportunities.
Contact LinkedIn Customer Service
If you’ve tried the troubleshooting tips above and are still unable to create or receive job alert emails from LinkedIn, reach out to their customer support for assistance. Be ready to provide:
- Details of the issue you’re encountering
- Screenshots displaying any error messages
- Examples of job alert emails you should have received but did not
LinkedIn’s customer service team can investigate issues on the back end that may not be visible to you as the user. Some common fixes they may try are:
- Reviewing your notification settings
- Checking for problems with your LinkedIn account
- Resetting your job alerts
- Manually resending recent job matches
- Initiating profile re-indexing if new data is not appearing
- Sending test job alerts from their end
With access to your account details and technical tools, LinkedIn support can typically get to the bottom of stubborn job alert problems. Be ready to patiently work with them through any troubleshooting steps.
Use Boolean Search in Your Job Alerts
LinkedIn allows the use of Boolean operators like AND, OR and NOT to create more targeted job alerts. Using Boolean search gives you more control to precisely filter opportunities. Some examples:
- product manager AND ecommerce
- engineer OR developer
- project manager NOT software
Experiment to see if using Boolean operators results in more relevant job matches. Just be cautious about overly narrowing your filters to the point where few results appear. But used judiciously, Boolean search provides another refinement tactic.
Check for Possible LinkedIn Account Restrictions
In some rare cases, restrictions on your LinkedIn account can prevent features like job alerts from working properly. This may happen if activity on your account appeared suspicious or potentially abusive to LinkedIn’s automated systems.
Restrictions can include:
- Limits on contacting other members
- Limits on your profile visibility
- Inability to join groups
- Inability to send messages
Check your account status under LinkedIn settings. If any restrictions are active, you’ll need to appeal to LinkedIn customer service to have your full account functionality restored before job alerts may work again.
Make Sure You Have Activated Email Notifications
LinkedIn allows you to fully customize what notifications you receive via email. This includes controlling job alert emails separately.
To check your notification settings:
- Go to your LinkedIn Settings
- Select “Notifications” from the left menu
- Confirm the toggle for “Job alerts emails” is switched ON
- Consider also enabling “Messages” and “Comments” to see LinkedIn notifications
Leaving job alerts notifications disabled means alerts won’t be delivered to your email, even if you set them up. Enable email notifications specifically for job matching emails.
Conclusion
LinkedIn job alerts can be a great asset when searching for your next opportunity. But technical glitches or user mistakes can sometimes prevent them from working as expected.
Review the troubleshooting suggestions above to identify what may be blocking your job alerts. Common fixes include updating your profile, adjusting alert criteria, confirming notification settings, or contacting customer support.
With a bit of optimization effort, LinkedIn’s job matching algorithms can deliver highly relevant openings conveniently to your inbox. Job alerts work best as part of a multi-pronged search strategy across networks and sites.
Stay persistent if your job alerts aren’t initial providing strong results. LinkedIn’s systems rely on sufficient and quality data about you as a candidate to improve matches over time.