Job Alerts Without Email or Phone Number: How Telegram Bots Connect

Almost every job site wants an account before it sends you anything: an email address, often a phone number, sometimes a full profile. If you'd rather get job alerts without email sign-ups or sharing your phone number, a Telegram bot is one way to do it. Here's how the connection actually works, what a bot can and can't see, and a few habits that keep a job search private.

How a bot connects without your number

Telegram bots don't find you. A bot can't message anyone who hasn't started a chat with it first, and Telegram doesn't hand it your phone number.

Connecting to Hot Jobs goes like this:

On the website you tap "Connect bot" and pay once on Stripe. There's no sign-up form: no name, email or password.
You get a personal link that opens the bot in Telegram. It carries a random code tied to your payment.
You press START. Telegram sends the bot a "/start" message with that code attached.
The bot matches the code to your payment, remembers which chat to send jobs to, and asks which roles you want and where you can work.

That's the whole handshake. You never type a number or an address, and the link works for one Telegram account only: if someone tries it from a different account, the bot refuses.

What a Telegram bot can see

This is how Telegram bots work in general, not something specific to one service. When you message a bot, it receives:

the messages you send it, including commands like /settings;
a chat ID, a number Telegram uses to deliver messages to you;
your basic public profile: the display name you've set, your username if you have one, and your app's language.

What a bot can't see:

your phone number, unless you deliberately tap a button to share your contact;
your other chats, groups or channels;
your contact list;
anything you write outside the chat with it.

If a bot asks you to share your phone number, you can refuse. Hot Jobs never asks.

What Hot Jobs actually keeps

Hot Jobs stores only what it needs to send you jobs:

your chat ID;
your roles, where you can work, any cities you typed, and whether you want junior roles;
the language you set up in, and whether alerts are on or paused.

It doesn't store your name, username or phone number, and it has no access to your contacts. The one-time €3 payment runs on Stripe's checkout page, so your card details go to Stripe, not to Hot Jobs.

One link to keep to yourself

The activation link connects one Telegram account. Once used, it won't work for anyone else, but there's still no reason to post it anywhere. Changing your settings later needs no link at all: /settings asks the same questions again, inside your chat with the bot.

How to leave

Send /stop and alerts pause; /resume turns them back on. If you block the bot in Telegram, the service notices the next time it tries to message you and pauses your alerts. There's nothing to cancel, because there's no subscription.

Privacy while job hunting, more broadly

A job bot is a small part of your footprint. These habits matter more:

Keep the search off work devices and accounts. Don't use your work laptop, email or phone for applications. Company IT may see more than you'd expect, and keeping things separate is simply cleaner. If you're currently employed, job searching while employed goes further.
Hide message previews. A job alert popping up on your screen during a meeting is a disclosure you didn't plan. Telegram lets you mute a chat or turn off message previews in its notification settings.
Share less on your CV. For most tech roles a city and country are enough. You don't need a full home address or date of birth.
Apply on the company's own page where you can. Your details go straight into the employer's hiring system rather than through extra sites. We explain those systems in What Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby are.
Check who can see "open to work". A public badge or post can be seen by your current employer. Some platforms let you signal only to recruiters; check the visibility setting before switching it on.
Be wary of odd requests. Anyone asking for ID scans, bank details or a fee before a real interview is a red flag, whether they found you through a job board, a group or a channel. We compare channels and bots in Telegram job channels vs a personal bot.

Is a bot right for you?

A bot fits if you already live in Telegram and want a narrow stream of new postings without creating another account. It's less useful if you want to browse many listings, save searches across several sites or message recruiters. For that, a job platform with a profile makes sense, and using both is fine. For how the matching itself works, see how a Telegram job bot works.

Hot Jobs connects with one link and one press of START, with no phone number and no sign-up. It keeps only your chat ID and your settings, and costs €3, paid once. Connect the bot