JobofinderUpdated 11 October 2026
The problem with "applications open soon"
Some jobs are known about long before they can be applied for. A recruitment round is announced, an employer says a role will be advertised next month, a friend tells you a post is about to come up. Then you wait, and refresh the page, and refresh it again. When the posting finally appears at nine on a Tuesday morning you are in a lecture, and by the time you see it a few hundred people have applied.
For some vacancies that matters a great deal: places are limited, applications are taken in order, or the advert closes once a set number has been received.
What a vacancy watch does
- You paste the page's address. The page where the vacancy will be listed when it opens.
- You name the vacancy. A few words that will be in its title, such as "junior engineer" or "apprentice electrician".
- It checks the page, as often as every 30 seconds, day and night.
- The posting appears. You are told at once: in the app, on your phone, by email, and on WhatsApp if you have switched that on.
- The application goes in, if you asked for that and the form is one Jobofinder can fill in. A captcha or a new question is handed to you.
Vacancies that were already on the page when you set the watch are left alone unless you tick "Also apply to matching vacancies that are already open".
A watch or a search?
Use a watch when you know where a particular vacancy will appear and want to act the moment it does. It looks at one page for one thing, very often.
Use a search when you want a kind of job from many employers. It looks across careers pages and job boards for your job titles, in your country and town. The ready-made searches for part-time, internship and graduate work are searches of this kind.
The Basic plan runs one search or one watch at a time; Pro runs up to 40 together.
Getting ready before it opens
- Complete your profile and upload your CV now, not on the day.
- Save answers to the usual questions. A question Jobofinder has no answer for pauses the application until you reply. See answering application questions.
- If the employer's site needs an account, create it beforehand. You can save that sign-in in Jobofinder, stored encrypted, so it can apply from your account.
- Switch on WhatsApp or phone alerts, so a captcha reaches you wherever you are.
Common questions
Which pages can it watch?
Any public page that lists vacancies and can be read without signing in: an employer's careers page, a council or government recruitment page, a university jobs page. If the page needs a sign-in to view, it cannot be watched.
How often does it check?
You choose, from every 30 seconds upwards. It runs on our servers, so it keeps checking when your phone is off and while you are asleep.
Does it apply for me when the vacancy appears?
If you ask it to, and the application form is one it can fill in. Otherwise you get an alert with the link within moments of the posting going up, and you apply yourself. With "Ask me first" it waits for your yes.
What if the form has a captcha?
The application pauses and the captcha comes to your phone. You solve it and the application continues. For a vacancy you are waiting for, keep your phone near you around the time you expect it to open.