How to spot a company hiring before they post the job

By the time a job lands on a public board, three to five recruitment agencies are already in the inbox. The difference between winning and losing the brief is who got there first.

There are five reliable indicators that a company is about to hire, often days or weeks before the posting goes live.

1. Funding announcements

A Series A typically expands headcount by 30 to 50 percent in the following nine months. Engineering, sales, and product leads come first.

2. Senior hires

When a VP of Engineering joins a 40 person company, they will build a team. Watch executive movements on LinkedIn and you will see the next wave of openings two to four weeks out.

3. ATS adoption or change

When a company adopts a new applicant tracking system or moves from one to another, they are scaling hiring. The technographic signal is visible in their careers page source.

4. Office moves

A larger lease or a new city office signals expansion. Local commercial property listings and press releases catch this early.

5. Posting language shifts

Phrases like "we are growing" or "join our journey" on a careers page that previously had two openings means a hiring wave is forming.

Cleyo's Discover module pulls all five signals into a single feed, scored by how predictive each one is for the roles you fill. Most of our customers reach out two to three weeks before a job becomes public, which usually means they are the only inbound the hiring manager sees that month.

The recruiters who win the brief are not the ones who write the best email. They are the ones who got there before there was a brief.