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Create ResumeSEEK and Indeed Australia are both useful job sites, but they do not work in exactly the same way. In Australia, SEEK is usually stronger for active local job ads, employer paid listings, professional roles, and candidates who want to be seen by recruiters already hiring in the Australian market. Indeed is often stronger for broader job discovery, high search volume, entry level roles, casual work, international employers, company reviews, and finding jobs that may appear across multiple sources. The smarter move is not choosing one and ignoring the other. Use SEEK for targeted Australian applications and recruiter visibility, and use Indeed to widen your search, compare employers, and catch roles you may otherwise miss.
Most candidates compare SEEK and Indeed as if they are two identical job boards wearing different outfits. They are not.
SEEK is deeply embedded in the Australian employment market. Many Australian employers, recruiters, agencies, and internal talent teams use it as a serious hiring channel, especially when they are paying to advertise a role and expect applications from candidates already active in the local market.
Indeed works more like a large job search ecosystem. It can include jobs posted directly by employers, sponsored jobs, company career site roles, recruiter listings, and jobs pulled from other places online. That makes it broad, searchable, and useful, but it also means the quality and freshness of listings can vary more.
That difference matters because job seekers often mistake “more jobs” for “better chance”. More listings can help, but only if the listings are current, relevant, properly managed, and actually being reviewed by someone.
From a recruiter’s perspective, the better platform depends on what you are trying to do:
Use SEEK when you want to apply to roles that are actively being advertised in the Australian market
Use Indeed when you want broader discovery and want to compare opportunities across more sources
Use both when you want maximum coverage without relying on one algorithm, one job board, or one employer posting strategy
The mistake I see often is candidates treating both platforms like a lottery. They upload the same resume, hit apply, wait, hear nothing, and then assume the market is broken. Sometimes the market is difficult. Sometimes the application strategy is the problem. Usually, it is a bit of both. Annoying, but fixable.
For most Australian job seekers, SEEK is usually better for serious, targeted job applications in the local market. Indeed is usually better for broad job searching, comparing employers, and finding additional opportunities outside the obvious listings.
That does not mean SEEK is “better” in every situation. It means SEEK often carries stronger local hiring intent in Australia. When an employer pays to advertise properly on SEEK, there is usually a defined vacancy, a hiring process, and a person or team expecting applications.
Indeed can be excellent, but candidates need to be a little more careful with listing quality, duplicates, old roles, vague employer information, and jobs that may redirect to external career sites. That does not make Indeed bad. It means you need to use it with a sharper filter.
Here is the simple recruiter view:
Best for Australian professional job ads: SEEK
Best for broad job discovery: Indeed
Best for casual, entry level, hospitality, retail, labour, and high volume roles: Both, with Indeed often showing wider coverage
Best for recruiter visibility in Australia: SEEK
Best for company reviews and employer research: Indeed can be useful, but do not treat reviews as gospel
Best overall strategy: Use SEEK as your core Australian job search platform and Indeed as your expansion and research tool
The strongest candidates do not depend on one platform. They know each platform has blind spots and use both with intent.
SEEK is one of the main places Australian employers advertise jobs when they want applicants directly from the local market. That includes large employers, small businesses, government contractors, recruitment agencies, professional services firms, healthcare providers, education providers, construction companies, retail groups, and everything in between.
The important point is not just that SEEK has job ads. The important point is how employers use it.
Many hiring managers and recruiters treat SEEK applications as a serious candidate pipeline. They log into their employer dashboard, review applications, filter candidates, shortlist resumes, message people, and sometimes search candidate profiles directly. If your SEEK profile is complete and aligned with your resume, you may be more visible than a candidate who only applies and disappears into the pile.
That profile visibility matters more than candidates realise. Recruiters are not always waiting politely for the perfect application to arrive. Sometimes they search profiles, look for people with specific job titles, skills, certifications, locations, salary expectations, industry background, or availability. If your profile is vague, outdated, or too broad, you may not show up properly or you may look less relevant than you actually are.
What candidates often get wrong about SEEK is assuming that applying is the only action that matters. It is not. On SEEK, your job ad application and your profile can both affect how you are seen.
A strong SEEK presence usually includes:
A clear current or target job title
A resume that matches the type of roles you are applying for
Updated work history
Relevant skills and certifications
Accurate location and work rights information
Salary expectations that are realistic for the role level
A profile that does not contradict your resume
Recruiters notice contradictions. If your resume says you are targeting senior HR business partner roles but your profile screams “open to anything admin, retail, operations, HR, marketing, customer service”, you are not increasing your options. You are making your positioning messy.
Indeed is useful because it gives job seekers a wide view of the market. It can show jobs from many sources, including direct employer posts, sponsored listings, recruitment agencies, and roles connected to company career pages. That makes it a strong discovery platform, especially when you want to see what is out there without relying only on traditional Australian job boards.
For candidates, Indeed can be especially useful when searching for:
Casual jobs
Part time jobs
Entry level roles
Retail, hospitality, cleaning, warehouse, driving, and customer service jobs
Remote or hybrid roles
International companies hiring in Australia
Roles that may not be heavily promoted on SEEK
Company reviews and salary research
But the trade off is that you need to read listings carefully. Because Indeed can show jobs from multiple sources, not every listing has the same level of freshness, employer detail, or application quality. Some jobs redirect you elsewhere. Some may be duplicated. Some may be vague. Some may be perfectly legitimate but poorly written because, shockingly, employers are not always brilliant at describing the jobs they desperately want people to apply for.
This is where candidates need to stop assuming that every confusing job ad means they are unqualified. Sometimes the ad is just badly written.
On Indeed, I would pay close attention to:
The original source of the job ad
Whether the employer is clearly named
Whether the role appears current
Whether the job title matches the responsibilities
Whether the salary, location, work rights, and employment type are clear
Whether the application goes through Indeed or redirects elsewhere
Whether the same job appears multiple times under slightly different titles
Indeed can absolutely help you find opportunities. You just need to treat it like a wide net, not a perfectly curated shortlist.
The platform that gets better results depends on your role type, seniority, industry, and how disciplined your search strategy is. A strong candidate with a clear resume will usually perform better on both platforms than a vague candidate applying everywhere with one generic resume.
That sounds obvious, but most job search problems are not platform problems. They are positioning problems.
SEEK is often the stronger option when you are applying for roles where Australian employers expect a targeted resume and a clear match to the job requirements.
This includes many roles in:
Administration
Accounting and finance
Human resources
Sales
Marketing
Technology
Construction management
Engineering
Healthcare administration
Education support
Legal support
Operations
Professional services
Government adjacent and corporate roles
SEEK can also work well for mid level and senior candidates because many recruiters use it deliberately to advertise roles and search for candidates in the Australian market.
The key word is deliberately. When an employer spends proper budget advertising a role, they usually care about the candidate pipeline. That does not mean the process will be perfect. Hiring processes can still move at the speed of a sleepy koala in a meeting room. But the intent is usually there.
Indeed can be stronger when you want broader visibility across the market or when your target roles appear across many different sources.
This includes:
Casual work
Retail and hospitality
Labour hire
Warehouse and logistics
Cleaning and facilities
Customer service
Entry level roles
High volume hiring
Remote roles
Roles with multinational employers
Indeed is also useful if you are researching employers. Company reviews are not perfect, and some should be read with a very large grain of salt, but patterns can be useful. If multiple reviews mention poor rostering, high turnover, unpaid overtime, or chaotic management, I would not ignore that.
Do not let one angry review decide your future. But do not ignore twenty consistent warnings either. That is not research. That is you trying to negotiate with reality.
For employers in Australia, SEEK is often the safer choice when hiring for roles where local market reach, application volume, and candidate intent matter. Indeed can be a strong option when employers want broad reach, flexible posting options, sponsored visibility, and access to candidates searching across many job sources.
But the real question employers should ask is not “Which job board is better?” It is “Where does the right candidate for this specific role actually search?”
A software engineer, a payroll officer, a retail assistant, a forklift driver, a registered nurse, and a regional office administrator may behave very differently in a job search. Good hiring strategy starts there.
SEEK is often a strong choice for employers hiring roles where candidates actively search Australian job boards and expect a formal application process.
It can be especially useful when:
The role is clearly based in Australia
The employer wants candidates with local work rights or local market experience
The role is professional, technical, operational, administrative, or management level
The employer wants to manage applications through a structured hiring process
The job needs strong visibility in a competitive candidate market
Recruiters want to search candidate profiles and contact potential applicants
The downside is that a SEEK ad will not magically fix a weak job brief. If the salary is hidden, the title is vague, the requirements are unrealistic, and the ad reads like a committee wrote it during a fire drill, good candidates may scroll past it.
Candidates are judging employers too. Hiring teams forget this constantly.
Indeed can be useful for employers who want broad reach, especially for high volume, casual, entry level, or hard to fill roles. It can also help when employers want to test different job titles, sponsor visibility, or attract applicants who may be searching more generally.
Indeed can be effective when:
The employer needs quick applicant volume
The role suits broad search behaviour
The job is entry level, casual, part time, or high turnover
The employer wants flexible posting and sponsored reach
The company wants visibility beyond one job board
The role may attract candidates from different industries
The risk with high volume platforms is that application quantity can look impressive while quality quietly suffers. A hundred applicants is not useful if ninety five are nowhere near the brief and the five good ones are buried under noise.
That is not a candidate problem. That is a hiring design problem.
Both SEEK and Indeed work hard to manage job quality, but no job platform is immune to poor ads, vague employers, duplicate listings, outdated roles, suspicious offers, or low quality recruitment behaviour.
Candidates need to stay alert, especially when a role seems too easy, too vague, too urgent, or too generous for the responsibilities described.
Warning signs include:
The employer name is hidden with no clear reason
The salary is unusually high for the job type
The ad asks for money, training fees, equipment payments, or personal banking details
The communication moves quickly to messaging apps without professional context
The job description is copied, generic, or barely explains the work
The employer avoids answering basic questions about location, pay, hours, or contract type
You are offered the job without a proper conversation
The role title does not match the duties
The ad says “no experience required” but promises unrealistic earnings
A real employer may be slow, vague, or disorganised. That is unfortunately not rare. But a legitimate employer should still be able to explain the role, pay structure, location, employment arrangement, and hiring process.
Here is the recruiter test I would use: if you cannot explain the job to another adult after reading the ad, the ad has not done its job. That does not always mean the role is fake, but it does mean you need to ask sharper questions before investing time.
The worst way to use SEEK and Indeed is to apply for everything vaguely related to your background and hope volume saves you. It usually does not. It just creates more rejection, more silence, and more emotional damage from inbox refresh behaviour. Very glamorous.
A smarter strategy is to separate your search into three categories.
These are roles where you are a strong match. You meet most of the key requirements, the location works, the level is realistic, and the responsibilities align with your experience.
For these roles, do not rush. Tailor your resume, check your profile, adjust your summary if needed, and apply properly. These are the jobs worth your effort.
These are roles where you meet some requirements but not all. Maybe the title is a step up, the industry is new, or the employer is asking for more experience than you have.
Apply selectively. Your resume needs to make the transferable value very clear. Do not expect the recruiter to do mental gymnastics to understand why you fit. They are reviewing too many applications for that.
These are roles where you are applying because you are tired, frustrated, or hoping someone will “give you a chance” despite the role not matching your background.
Be honest. Some low fit applications are fine, especially if you are changing careers or entering the market. But if most of your applications are low fit, your problem is not SEEK or Indeed. Your search strategy needs tightening.
Recruiters do not read applications the way candidates imagine. Most candidates picture a thoughtful person slowly reading every line with tea and emotional generosity. Lovely image. Rarely true.
Recruiters usually scan first, then read deeper if the scan looks promising.
They look for:
Current or recent job title
Relevant industry or transferable environment
Years and level of experience
Location and work rights
Technical skills, licences, systems, or certifications
Evidence of stability or logical career movement
Resume clarity
Match between your resume and the role requirements
Whether your application looks intentional or random
On SEEK and Indeed, the first screening question is not “Is this person wonderful?” It is “Can I quickly see why this person fits this job?”
That is why generic resumes fail. Not because recruiters hate people. Because vague information slows down decision making.
A hiring manager does not want to decode your entire career history. They want to understand whether you can do this job, in this context, at this level, with this team, for this salary range, within their timeframe.
That is the real screening logic.
The biggest mistake is thinking the platform is the whole strategy. It is not. The platform gives you access. Your positioning gets you considered.
A general resume may feel efficient, but it often performs poorly because it does not reflect the job you are applying for. You do not need to rewrite your entire resume every time, but the top third of your resume should clearly match the role type.
If you are applying for project coordinator roles, your resume should not open like an admin generalist. If you are applying for customer success roles, do not bury client relationship achievements under operational tasks.
Your SEEK or Indeed profile can either support your application or quietly weaken it. If your profile is outdated, unclear, or inconsistent with your resume, recruiters may hesitate.
Consistency builds trust. Confusion creates doubt.
The number of applications you send is not the best measure. The better measure is how many applications are strong enough to deserve a recruiter conversation.
Thirty targeted applications are usually better than one hundred vague ones.
Some job ads attract strong applicants quickly. If the role has been live for weeks, it may still be open, but the employer may already have a shortlist.
That does not mean you should never apply late. It means you should prioritise fresh, relevant roles and avoid spending too much time on old listings unless you are a very strong match.
Job titles are messy. A “coordinator” in one company is an assistant. In another, it is a project manager with less money and more chaos. Read the duties, reporting line, salary, and expectations before deciding whether the role is right.
Use SEEK first if you are applying for professional, corporate, technical, administrative, management, healthcare, education, construction, finance, HR, operations, or Australian market roles where employers are likely to advertise locally.
Use Indeed alongside SEEK if you want broader coverage, casual or part time work, entry level jobs, employer reviews, salary comparisons, remote roles, or jobs that may appear through company career pages and other sources.
Use both if you are actively job searching. There is no prize for loyalty to one job board. The goal is employment, not brand devotion.
Here is my practical recommendation:
Check SEEK daily for targeted Australian roles in your field
Check Indeed for wider market coverage and employer research
Save searches on both platforms
Use specific job titles, not just broad keywords
Set location filters carefully
Check company career pages for priority employers
Keep your profile current
Track applications in a simple spreadsheet
Follow up directly when appropriate
Review your results every two weeks and adjust your strategy
If you are getting views but no interviews, your resume may not be converting. If you are getting interviews but no offers, the issue is likely interview performance, role fit, salary alignment, or competition. If you are getting no responses at all, check whether your applications are targeted enough and whether your resume makes the match obvious.
Do not just keep applying harder. Apply smarter. I know that sounds like something printed on a mug, but unfortunately it is true.
When deciding where to spend your time, use this framework.
Ask: where would an employer most likely advertise this role if they seriously needed someone in Australia?
For many professional Australian roles, SEEK will be a primary channel. For broader or high volume roles, Indeed may be equally useful or better.
Ask: where are candidates like me likely to search?
If you are a mid level accountant, HR advisor, site manager, or executive assistant, SEEK should be part of your core search. If you are looking for casual hospitality work, warehouse shifts, or entry level customer service, Indeed may show a wider mix.
Ask: is the employer clear, credible, and specific?
A good job ad should explain what the role does, what experience matters, what the working arrangement is, and what the hiring process roughly involves. Vague ads attract vague outcomes.
Ask: how easy is it to apply properly?
Easy apply can be useful, but it can also increase lazy applications from everyone else. If a role matters to you, do not rely only on speed. Make sure your resume is strong, relevant, and complete.
Ask: can recruiters find me?
On SEEK, profile visibility can matter. On Indeed, resume and profile tools can also support discoverability. But visibility only helps if your information is aligned with the roles you want.
Being visible for the wrong things is not helpful. It just invites irrelevant messages and wastes everyone’s time.
If I were actively job searching in Australia, I would not choose between SEEK and Indeed. I would use them differently.
I would use SEEK for my main targeted applications. I would build a clear profile, upload a strong resume, set up alerts for specific job titles, and apply quickly to relevant roles. I would pay attention to how the job ad is written, who the employer is, and whether the requirements make sense.
I would use Indeed to widen the search. I would look for similar roles under different titles, check company reviews, compare salary language, and identify employers advertising across multiple platforms. If I found a job on Indeed that looked important, I would also check the employer’s own careers page before applying.
I would not apply blindly. I would track:
Job title
Company
Platform
Date applied
Resume version used
Contact person if known
Response received
Interview outcome
Notes on salary, location, and requirements
This matters because after twenty applications, memory becomes fiction. Candidates often tell me, “I’ve applied everywhere,” but when we review it properly, they have applied to a random mix of roles with no pattern, no tracking, and no feedback loop.
A job search without tracking is just emotional admin.
SEEK and Indeed Australia both have a place in a serious job search, but they serve slightly different purposes.
SEEK is usually the stronger primary platform for targeted Australian job applications, especially for professional, skilled, corporate, technical, and locally advertised roles. It is also important for recruiter visibility because many Australian recruiters and employers use SEEK as a serious hiring channel.
Indeed is valuable as a broader discovery platform. It can help you find roles across more sources, compare employers, research company reviews, and uncover opportunities that may not appear in your SEEK searches.
The best answer is not “SEEK or Indeed”. The best answer is:
Use SEEK for focused Australian job applications. Use Indeed to widen your search and research the market. Use both with a clear resume, a consistent profile, and a strategy based on role fit rather than application volume.
That is how you stop treating job boards like slot machines and start using them like hiring tools.
Written by Simar Malhi, a recruiter and headhunter with international recruitment experience. I write about CVs, job applications, hiring decisions, and the reality behind recruitment processes. My goal is to help candidates understand more honestly how employers, recruiters, and hiring managers actually select candidates.
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