Automating job search with OpenClaw

Hey guys, providing a quick guide on how to use OpenClaw to automate job search. Like most things with OpenClaw, there are many ways to accomplish this, but the process below should provide a fairly reliable starting point. 

Steps

1. Clearly define your job preferences

The quality of your job search heavily depends on the specificity and clarity of your preferences.

BAD example: 

I want a good job that pays well and uses AI

GOOD example: 

Summary

A senior software engineer seeking a fully-remote IC role with strong work-life balance and autonomy, at a stable, well-run mid-size company (ideally mission-driven in health or climate). Compensation must clear a firm floor; sustainable hours and async flexibility matter more than prestige or rapid promotion.

Must-haves

- Fully remote or hybrid requiring 1 day or fewer per week onsite within commuting distance of Oakland, CA
- Base salary greater than or equal to $185,000 (total comp considered separately, but base alone must clear this)
...

Recommendation: Have OpenClaw interview you and ask you questions about your preferences to help you flesh this out. I've provided an example prompt in the comments that you can copy and paste directly into an OpenClaw session to get started.

2. Create a cron job spec

The spec should include operational instructions (e.g., how OpenClaw should get job postings, how often it should run, which model(s) it should use, etc.), and instructions on how to analyze and filter a given job post (i.e., what we defined in step #1).

The operational guidance you give OpenClaw depends on the specific tools you use. Providing some example tools below and happy to discuss tool-specific guidance in the comments.

Tools for getting job postings

1. Browser automation: this includes tools like playwright-cli and agent-browser.

Pros: open source
Cons: slow, token-heavy, target websites may block your agent, workflow may break if the target webpage changes

2. Ad-hoc scraping: this includes tools like Tavily and Exa

Pros: more resilient to webpage changes
Cons: can't natively interact with webpages (e.g., to apply salary filters, location filters, etc.)

3. Structured API: this includes tools like agent-data

Pros: dedicated job postings endpoint
Cons: currently limited to LinkedIn Jobs

Full disclaimer, I’m one of the founders of agent-data – happy to answer any questions here

3. Validate the workflow

Have OpenClaw perform a manual run of the entire workflow to ensure everything works and that the results align with your expectations.

Note: you can use OpenClaw to iteratively refine your workflow during this step. For example, you may discover additional filters you want to add based on the initial batch of results.

4. Create the cron job

Have OpenClaw create the cron job

Note: I’d run at least one additional test here using the cron job OpenClaw setup, just to confirm everything works.