How to tell a real opening from a recycled job ad

"Posted 1 hour ago" is not proof the job is new. Boards refresh dates. Some listings stay up as a pipeline for resumes. A real opening is a role a team is trying to fill, described on the site they hire through, with enough detail that you could picture the work.

Signs the posting is a live role

• It lives on the company career page, and the apply path stays on their domain.
• You can name the team, the product, or the location without guessing.
• The description was written for this job, not a paragraph that could fit any title.
• Requirements match one level. They are not "1 year or 15 years."
• When you come back later, the page is still there or it is gone. It does not multiply.

Signs you are looking at an ad, not a hire

• The same title, city, and blurb on several boards, each with a fresh clock.
• No company name, or a recruiter standing in front of an unnamed client.
• A posting that has been "urgently hiring" for months.
• Almost no detail beyond soft skills and a request to send a resume.
• An applicant count that jumped overnight on a role that does not look newly written.

JobLookout will not catch every stale page. It starts from the career page, which removes a lot of the copies, and it still leaves the reading to you. If the source posting is thin, treat it as thin. Hide it. Your time is the scarce part.

A simple rule

If you cannot tell which company you would be joining, do not apply yet. Find the career page. If you cannot find the role there, assume the ad is the product, not the job. JobLookout is the list of those career-page roles. The longer piece on career pages versus boards is the reason that rule holds up.