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I am working on getting my first job that uses my degree. I've had some related experience but it was short term contracts. Most of my searches start on Indeed. After finding a suitable job opening I try to find the company's website and apply directly through it (not sure if it increases my chances but someone gave me this tip). Often times I notice that the job posting dates do not match: Indeed could say it's 5 days old and another website with the identical posting could have 5 weeks.

  1. Is it worth applying to job postings that are more than a month old, especially for entry level jobs? Or is the time better spent applying for another?
  2. Is the logic correct, that if the exact same job opening is posted on another website (either the company's own or another job bank) then the older of the two posting dates is the right one?
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    1. Recruiting processes can take months and job-postings sometimes exist even for years, so I would apply if the position suits you and you believe you are a good fit.. 2. Can you clarify what you mean with right one? There could be postings out there that relate to the same position that might be even older..
    – iLuvLogix
    Jan 4, 2022 at 13:14
  • May differ between locales, but companies do use agents/recruiters (sometimes multiple agencies) which start their processes at different times. I've seen postings/been contacted by recruiters for jobs that had been posted month(s) before, some that I've already interviewed for, and once even for one I was already working at. So the employer itself should be the final authority (not that things are always up to date there either). Good answers below, just pointing out that things often move sloooowly between HR and the web admin, and HR and the recruiter(s).
    – frIT
    Jan 5, 2022 at 7:23
  • Keep in mind that larger companies may be continuously recruiting for certain types of roles.
    – Mark Rotteveel
    Jan 5, 2022 at 10:33
  • For some jobs, there is always a vacancy. Hospitals always need more nurses, supermarkets need more delivery drivers, hotel chains need more chefs. For other jobs, e.g. journalism, employers might consider a job application on its merits regardless whether there is a formal vacancy. A lot depends on the role you are looking for.
    – Michael Kay
    Jan 5, 2022 at 11:51
  • @iLuvLogix by right one I mean sometimes I see a job posted for one job site, then on another job site I see the exact same posting. One of them says it was posted a few days ago, the other was from several months ago. In these situations I normally assume the older one is the original and the newer was just automatically copied from the database of the other job site.
    – Pelgriminal
    Jan 7, 2022 at 20:26

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Is it worth applying to job postings that are more than a month old, especially for entry level jobs? Or is the time better spent applying for another?

This is not an either/or situation. Do both. Applying doesn't take much time.

Apply for the "old" job opportunity, while continuing your search for others.

Is the logic correct, that if the exact same job opening is posted on another website (either the company's own or another job bank) then the older of the two posting dates is the right one?

Unless there is some sort of job number (or other identifier), then there's no way to know which one is "right" or if the company is actually trying to hire two people in similar roles.

Don't worry about identifying the "right" posting. Just apply.

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  • ... And if you want to be hired, reach out to someone and make a connection, rather than leaving a resume on their doorstep and moving on :)
    – Luke Sawczak
    Jan 4, 2022 at 14:24
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    The "right" posting is the legitimate one. The others are often some bottom-feeding recruiter scraping and spamming and possibly even phishing.
    – Tech Inquisitor
    Jan 4, 2022 at 23:14
  • @TechInquisitor this is what I was trying to describe
    – Pelgriminal
    Jan 7, 2022 at 20:27
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There are many reasons why a job-posting might be "reposted" at a later date. (Maybe the original post did not yield any answers so the company tries on a different platform. Maybe some headhunter re-posts it regularly on as many platforms as possible to improve their chances. Maybe a second, identical position became available at the company in question.)

Job-offers being old sometimes means that your chances are better (since they are desperate at this point). Sometimes it may mean that you do not have any chance at all (they simply forgot to remove this posting).

I suggest simply doing a short(!) call or e-mail. "Good morning! My name is X, I saw your job-offer for Y in Z. Since it has been posted back in May, may I ask if the position is still open?"

You may use this to ask about the "original" date as well, if you are really interested (although there might not be a point in doing so).

Sometimes you will get easy information, sometimes you will be "stonewalled". But even the later case can be helpful: it certainly tells you something about how this company deals with people, and you may not want a job in such a company anyway.

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Simple, apply to job postings for which you are a good fit.

If you're not a good fit for any job postings then you can contrive some sort of effort/reward algorithm. Do note that a position which has been open for several months may increase your chances of better pay since they could be desperate at that point; this also means that they would gloss over any negatives during the interview process in an effort to hire you.

Tangentially, if you're worried about wasting time applying for an old job then you're probably applying to too many jobs and are not crafting your resume/cover letter accordingly.

If there are truly so many jobs for which you are a good fit then proceed to be selective and apply for industries which interest you. I'm a web developer and all of my jobs have been in totally different industries.

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  • "if you're worried about wasting time applying for an old job then you're probably applying to too many jobs and are not crafting your resume/cover letter accordingly" - I would've said if you're worried about wasting time applying, then you're probably spending too much (rather than too little) time on each application. If you're applying to 100 jobs a day, another one isn't going to make a difference. Although it might be that they're applying to too many jobs they're a bad fit for, or they haven't learnt to craft their resume well, so they get rejected more often than they should.
    – Bernhard Barker
    Jan 4, 2022 at 22:21

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