How to build a target company list (with a free template)
· RoleFinder Team
Most job searches fail as systems before they fail as applications. There’s no list, no routine, no record — just an anxious daily scroll through the same job board, applying to whatever appears, hoping something sticks.
A target company list fixes that. It’s the least glamorous item in this entire blog and the one that makes everything else work.
What it is and why it works
A target company list is 50–150 employers you’d genuinely want to work for, with their careers page URLs recorded so you never have to find them twice.
Four things change once you have one:
Searching becomes a routine, not a mood. Fifteen minutes down the list beats two hours of scrolling, and you can do it on a bad day.
Your networking gets specific. “Let me know if you hear of anything” is unanswerable. “Do you know anyone at Pleo, Paddle or Ashby?” gets an answer in thirty seconds. This is the mechanism that makes the people route actually function.
You reach the source. Once each company’s careers page or ATS URL is recorded, you’re checking where roles are born instead of where they’re eventually copied.
You stop re-deciding. Deciding whether a company is worth your time is expensive. Do it once, write it down, and every future check is mechanical.
Step 1: Define your filters first
Before naming a single company, write down what actually disqualifies one. Four to six criteria, honestly held:
- Sector or product type — what you want to spend your days on
- Size — a 40-person company and a 40,000-person company are different jobs with the same title
- Location policy — office, hybrid, remote-in-country, remote-anywhere. Be precise; “remote” on a listing usually means remote within one country
- Stage or stability — early startup, funded scale-up, established company, public sector
- Deal-breakers — industries you won’t work in, commute limits, contract types
Write these at the top of the sheet. When you’re 60 companies deep and tempted to add anything with a pulse, they’re what keeps the list useful.
Step 2: Find the companies
Six sources, roughly in order of yield:
1. The ones you already know. Start writing. Most people can name 15–25 relevant companies before doing any research. That’s a third of the list already.
2. Competitors of those companies. For each name you wrote, ask who else does that. Search “[company] alternatives” or “[company] competitors” — it’s a fast way to turn 20 companies into 60.
3. Funding and growth announcements. Companies that just raised money are hiring, usually urgently, and often before they get organised enough to advertise widely. Follow funding newsletters for your sector.
4. The tools your industry uses. Every tool in your daily stack is a company that hires people who understand your discipline. Look at the vendors on your own invoice list.
5. Job boards, used for discovery only. Search broadly, ignore the individual listings, and collect employer names you’d never have thought of. Then go apply at the source instead of through the board.
6. Where people like you went. Look at where former colleagues and people with your job title have moved. Their employers are, by definition, companies that hire your profile.
Step 3: What to track
Keep it small enough that maintaining it isn’t a second job. Seven columns:
| Column | Why |
|---|---|
| Company | Obvious |
| Careers URL | The ATS board if there is one — it’s more complete than the marketing page |
| Why it fits | One line. Prevents re-deciding, and becomes cover letter material |
| Size / location | Filters at a glance |
| Contact | Anyone you know there, however tenuously |
| Last checked | The column that keeps the routine honest |
| Status | Blank → applied → interviewing → closed |
For the careers URL, record the ATS board rather than the pretty marketing page wherever possible — it lists every open role in one place and updates instantly. The methods for finding it are in how to find any company’s careers page in 10 seconds and searching ATS job boards directly.
Step 4: Tier the list
Not every company deserves equal effort. Split into three tiers:
Tier 1 — Dream (10–15 companies). Check weekly. Research properly. Find a human at each. Apply to anything remotely relevant, and tailor properly when you do.
Tier 2 — Strong fit (30–50). Check fortnightly. Apply when a role matches. Standard tailoring.
Tier 3 — Would consider (40–80). Rely on alerts rather than checking. Apply when something good appears.
The tiers stop you from spending your best energy evenly across companies you don’t care about equally.
Step 5: Work the list
The routine, about 20 minutes twice a week:
- Open your Tier 1 and Tier 2 careers pages. A browser bookmark folder with “open all tabs” makes this one click.
- Scan for anything new. Update the “last checked” date as you go.
- Apply the same day to anything that fits. The whole advantage of source-checking is timing — sitting on it for a week throws it away.
- Note companies that have gone quiet. Six months of no new roles usually means a hiring freeze; drop them to Tier 3.
- Add anything new you discovered while doing the above.
Then once a month, prune. Remove poor fits, promote companies you’ve learned more about, and top the list back up. A list you don’t maintain becomes a list you don’t trust, and a list you don’t trust is one you stop opening.
The free template
Four ways to build it, in order of how likely you are to keep using it:
A spreadsheet. Google Sheets or Excel, seven columns as above, one row per company, conditional formatting on “last checked” so stale rows go red. Boring, portable, and the one most people actually maintain.
A Notion or Airtable database. Nicer filters and views, tier as a select field, status as a kanban board. Good if you already live in these tools.
A browser bookmark folder. Not a real list — no notes, no tracking — but the “open all tabs” trick is genuinely the fastest way to run the check. Best used alongside a spreadsheet.
A notebook. Genuinely fine for 30 companies. Fails past that.
Whichever you pick, the columns matter more than the tool. Build it once in whatever you’ll actually open.
What this pairs with
The target list is the spine. Three things attach to it:
- Alerts so Tier 3 watches itself
- X-ray searches to discover companies that belong on the list
- Networking made specific by having named companies to ask about
Where RoleFinder fits
RoleFinder is a target list you didn’t have to build. We scan thousands of company careers pages daily, so instead of maintaining URLs for 80 employers and checking them twice a week, you search all of them at once — with dead listings removed automatically.
Your own list still matters for the companies you care most about, and for making your networking specific. But for the discovery half — finding the roles you’d never have known to look for — browse titles free at /search.
Frequently asked questions
How many companies should be on a target list?
Between 50 and 150. Fewer than 50 and you will run out of live openings to apply to; more than 150 and you cannot maintain it or research any of them properly. Around 80 is a comfortable working number for most searches.
What should I track for each company?
At minimum: company name, careers page or ATS URL, why it fits you, and the date you last checked. Useful additions are headcount, location policy, a contact you know there, and the status of any application you've made.
How do I find companies to put on the list?
Start from companies you already know, then expand using competitors of those companies, funding announcement lists, tools your industry uses, job board searches used purely for discovery, and the companies your former colleagues have moved to.
How often should I review my target list?
Check for new roles once or twice a week, and review the list itself monthly — removing companies that have gone quiet or turned out to be a poor fit, and adding new ones you've discovered.