Guide

How to monitor company hiring signals

Monitor hiring signals by reading the public job boards target companies post on, counting postings by function over a rolling window, and treating a cluster in one function as the signal rather than any single role. Six public boards cover most software companies, every posting is dated, and the data is free.

Where the postings actually live

Most companies hire through an applicant tracking system whose listings are openly readable: Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable, SmartRecruiters and Recruitee between them cover a large share of software employers. A company appears on one of them, so five of six will correctly have nothing for any given company.

Reading the boards directly is better than reading an aggregator. The dates are the company own, the text is unedited, and nothing has been deduplicated away.

Counting, not reading

The signal is the shape of the hiring, not the content of one posting. Count postings by function over a rolling two-week window and look for clusters: four sales roles at once means a number was set and a team is being built to hit it.

A single role is usually a backfill and rarely worth acting on. Three or more in one function inside a fortnight is a project.

Separating growth from replacement

Three tells distinguish expansion from churn. New titles that did not exist at that company before indicate a new capability. Several roles at the same seniority posted together indicate a team build rather than a departure. A location that is new for that company indicates expansion.

Conversely, one senior role reposted after a few months usually means a failed search or a departure, and it is not a buying signal.

Reading the text, once the count says to

When a cluster fires, the postings themselves are the richest free document a company writes about its plans. They name the tools the team will use, the problems the hire is expected to solve, and often the manager the role reports to. That is your qualification and your angle, in the company own words.

Where QuikSignal fits

QuikSignal reads the six boards nightly for every company in a workspace, counts postings by function over a rolling window, and raises the clusters rather than the individual roles.

Each signal links to the postings behind it, so the count can be checked and the text can be read.

See it on your own market →

What it does not do
  • It reads public job boards only. Companies that post solely on their own site in a non-standard format may be partly invisible, and that is reported rather than filled in.
  • No candidate data, no LinkedIn scraping, nothing about individuals.
  • Headcount growth is inferred from postings, which is not the same as hires made. A posting is intent, not a person.
Questions

What people ask

How many roles make a cluster?
Three or more in the same function within two weeks, as a working threshold. Adjust by company size: three sales roles at a fifty-person company is a much stronger signal than three at a five-thousand-person one.
Do job postings expire in a useful way?
A posting disappearing means it was filled or cancelled and the boards rarely say which. The appearance is the reliable event; treat the disappearance as weak evidence.
Is this useful outside sales?
Yes. Recruiting firms use it to find clients about to need help, and competitive teams use it to see what a rival is building before it is announced.

Read your own market the same way.

Eleven agents, the companies you choose, every night, with the document behind every line.