How to Post a Job on LinkedIn
The free listing is real and limited in a specific way: it exists, it works, and it quietly stops being shown.
Here is how to post a job on LinkedIn: open the work menu and choose to post a job, or use the jobs tab on a company Page, then fill in the title, company, location, workplace type and description. One free listing at a time is allowed per Page.
One free job post at a time is allowed per company Page.
A free listing is shown less as it ages. Promotion is a daily budget that keeps it in front of candidates rather than a different kind of listing.
A role posted from a Page reaches that Page's followers first, which is why recruitment depends on a number most companies treat as marketing. Followers on a company presence acts on the size of that first audience.
The free posting is not a trial and not a trick, but its decay is the part that goes unsaid.
A new listing is distributed to candidates who match it. Over the following days that distribution falls off, and a free post ends up reachable mainly by people who search for it directly. Nothing tells you this is happening; the post is still live, applications simply stop arriving.
Promoted jobs hold their distribution for as long as the budget runs, which is what the money buys. Not better placement in a ranked list that candidates browse, but continued delivery to matching candidates.
Two practical consequences. First, a free post is at its most useful in its first days, so publish it when you are ready to screen rather than when the requisition opens. Second, reposting the same job to refresh it is a known tactic and a poor one — candidates see the repost date, and LinkedIn treats a re-created listing as a new post with the same decay ahead of it.
The third option people forget is the one with no cost at all: posting the role as an ordinary update from the company Page and from the hiring manager's own profile, where it reaches the network rather than the jobs index.
Posting the job
Use the post a job route from the work menu, or the jobs tab on the company Page.
The listing needs a title, the company, location, workplace type and a description. Selecting the company from the list attaches the Page, which is what gives the listing its logo and credibility.
Screening questions can be added, with some marked as must-have. Those filter the applicant list rather than blocking applications.
Choose where applications go. On-platform applications arrive in the jobs area; external ones send candidates to your site or to an email address.
Free against promoted
One free listing at a time per Page. Posting a second free job usually requires closing the first.
Promotion is a daily budget you set, which LinkedIn spends to keep the job in front of matching candidates.
There is no fixed price. The cost per applicant varies by role, seniority and location, and the estimate shown at setup is an estimate.
For a hard-to-fill role, promotion is the difference between a trickle and a flow. For an easy one, the free window is often enough.
Budget is set per day and can be changed or paused at any point, which makes a short, well-timed promotion more useful than a long, thin one. Two or three days of real budget at the start, while the listing is new and the matching is strongest, produces more applicants than the same money spread across three weeks.
Writing a description that gets applications
Put the practical facts early: location and workplace type, salary range if you can, and the shape of the team.
A description that opens with three paragraphs about the company culture is read as a description with nothing to say about the job.
Salary transparency changes volume more than any other single field, and in several places it is required by law.
Keep the title conventional. Nobody searches for ninja, wizard or rockstar, and the search index is literal.
Why good candidates do not apply
Most unanswered job posts fail for reasons that have nothing to do with LinkedIn's distribution.
No salary range. In several jurisdictions it is now required, and everywhere else it is the first filter candidates apply. A listing without one is read as a listing with something to hide.
A title nobody searches. Internal titles and invented ones do not appear in the searches candidates actually run.
A list of requirements written as a wish. Fifteen must-haves for a mid-level role reads as a company that does not know what it needs, and the strongest candidates self-select out first.
An application route that asks for the same information twice, once on LinkedIn and again on a careers site.
And silence. A listing that collects applications for three weeks without a reply produces candidates who tell other candidates, which is the slowest and most expensive way to learn this.
Managing applicants
On-platform applications land in the jobs management area, where they can be rated and messaged.
LinkedIn sends candidates an automatic acknowledgement. It does not reject anybody for you, and silence is the default unless you act.
Screening question answers are shown alongside the application, which is the fastest filter available on a free listing.
Closing the job stops applications and is reversible; deleting it removes the listing and its applicant history.
Candidates check the company before they apply, and a Page with no audience reads as a company nobody has heard of. Followers on a company presence acts on that number, alongside the rest of the LinkedIn services we carry.
Hiring without a job post
A post from the hiring manager's profile reaches people who already trust them, and it is often the fastest route for one role.
A post from the company Page reaches followers, which is why the Page's follower count matters to recruitment and not only to marketing.
Employees sharing the role multiply that reach at no cost, and candidates referred this way convert better than cold applicants.
The formal listing still has a job: it is where candidates go to check that the role is real.
Employees are the cheapest distribution a vacancy has, and connecting staff to the Page covers how that link is made. A role announced as an ordinary post follows the feed's rules, which how posts are distributed explains.
Questions people ask about posting jobs
Is posting a job on LinkedIn free?
One listing at a time per company Page is free. Additional or continuously promoted listings are paid, with a daily budget you set.
Why did applications stop arriving?
Free listings are distributed less as they age. The post stays live, but LinkedIn stops pushing it to matching candidates.
How much does promoting a job cost?
There is no fixed price. You set a daily budget, and the cost per applicant depends on the role, seniority and location.
Can I post a job without a company Page?
A listing can be created, but attaching the Page is what gives it the logo and the credibility candidates look for.
Should I repost the same job to refresh it?
It rarely helps. Candidates see the repost, and the new listing starts the same decay curve as the old one.
Where do applications go?
To the jobs management area if you chose on-platform applications, or to your site or email if you chose an external route.
Keep reading
- followers on a company presence — A role posted from a Page reaches that Page's followers first, and followers on a company presence acts on the size of that first audience.
- connecting staff to the Page — Employees are the cheapest distribution a job post has, and connecting staff to the Page covers how that link is made.
- how posts are distributed — A role announced as an ordinary post follows the feed's rules, and how posts are distributed explains them.