How to Read a Job Ad (And Decide If You Should Apply)

If you haven't looked for a job in a while - maybe you've been raising kids, serving in the military, building a career at one company, or just graduated - the job search landscape might feel foreign.

And if you've been laid off after years at the same place, the game has changed since you last played it.

Here's the thing nobody tells you: most job seekers read job postings wrong. They skim for keywords, check if they meet the requirements, and hit apply. That's backwards.

A job posting isn't just a list of requirements. It's a document that tells you a lot about the company, the role, and whether you should spend your time applying at all. Let me show you how to actually read one.

Read the Entire Thing (Yes, Really)

This sounds obvious. It's not.

You see a job title that sounds perfect. Or a salary range that makes your eyes widen. Your finger hovers over the apply button.

It's like getting an email with six paragraphs and hitting reply after reading the first one. You're missing context. You're missing important details. You might be about to waste your time - or theirs.

People skip this step constantly. They get excited by the title or the salary and apply without reading. Then they get an interview and realize the role is nothing like what they imagined. Or they never hear back because they missed something obvious in the posting.

The perfect job title might be attached to a nightmare role. The impressive salary might come with 80-hour weeks. The "senior" position might actually be entry-level with a fancy name. You're about to invest real time and emotional energy in this application. Make sure it's worth it first.

Start at the Bottom

Most people read job postings top to bottom. Requirements first, responsibilities second, company description if they have time.

The application instructions at the bottom tell you two critical things:

First, how to apply. Does it say "Apply through our careers portal"? Does it ask you to email a specific person? Does it request a cover letter, work samples, or answers to specific questions?

Second, whether most applicants will bother to follow them.

Here's the secret: many employers use these instructions as a filter. If the posting says "Include the word 'purple' in your cover letter subject line," a shocking number of applicants won't do it. They'll be auto-rejected before a human ever sees their application.

It's not because the instruction matters. It's because following instructions signals that you actually read the posting and care enough to do what was asked.

If there are specific instructions, follow them exactly. If there aren't, that tells you something too - they may be drowning in applications and not filtering carefully, or they haven't thought through their process.

The Employer-Candidate Tension

Here's something that took me years to understand:

As a job seeker, you want a role where you can grow. You want to stretch into new responsibilities, learn new skills, level up. You're selling your potential.

Employers want the opposite. Their ideal candidate has already done this exact job, at a bigger company, with better results. They want someone who can hit the ground running with minimal ramp-up time.

This creates a fundamental tension. The job posting asks for 5 years of experience because they want someone who's already proven. You have 3 years but you're confident you can do it.

Who's right? Both of you, depending on perspective.

Spotting the Chaos Factory

Some job postings are red flags dressed up in professional language.

Green Flags Worth Noticing

Not everything is a red flag. Some postings signal a company that has their act together:

Do Some Basic Research

Before you apply, spend 5-10 minutes looking into the company. Not deep research - that comes later if you get an interview. Just the basics:

You're not trying to become an expert on the company. You're trying to answer one question: does anything here suggest I shouldn't bother applying?

Where You Apply Matters

Here's something most job seekers don't realize:

Why?

• You're competing against a bigger pool. A job posted on LinkedIn might get 10x the applications of the same job on the company's website. More applicants means lower odds for you.
• You're adding a middleman. When you apply through a job board, your application goes through their system first. Sometimes it integrates cleanly with the company's ATS. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes there are extra screening questions on the job board that filter you out before the company ever sees you.
• Companies watch their own careers page differently. Direct applicants signal more intent. You found their website. You navigated to their careers page. You applied through their process. That's more effort than clicking "Easy Apply."

This doesn't mean you shouldn't use job boards to find opportunities. They're great for discovery. But when you're ready to apply, go to the source. (We wrote a whole post about this strategy if you want to go deeper.)

Be Honest With Yourself

The hardest part of reading job postings is being honest about your own fit.

It's tempting to apply for everything that sounds interesting. More applications equals more chances, right?

Not really.

Spray-and-pray applications are easy to spot. Generic cover letters, resumes that don't address the specific role, answers that feel copy-pasted. Hiring managers see hundreds of these.

Quick Fit Assessment

Reading job postings carefully takes time. And when you're job searching, time is scarce and emotional energy is scarcer.

This is exactly why we built FitCheck. It's a Chrome extension that gives you instant fit scores while you browse. Upload your resume once, then whenever you're on a job posting - Indeed, LinkedIn, company careers pages, anywhere - click the extension icon. In about 15 seconds, you get a fit score plus your top matching qualifications and biggest gaps.

It's free for your first 10 checks each month for FitCheck users (and unlimited for ReApply users with positive paid credits). It won't tell you whether to apply - that's your decision. But it gives you data to make that decision faster, without leaving the page you're already on.

What Comes Next

Once you've found a role worth applying for, applied strategically, and submitted your materials... what happens?

That's Part 2 of this series: After You Apply. We'll talk about what's actually happening on the other side, why screening calls aren't what you think they are, and how to manage the waiting without losing your mind.