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Junior and Intern IT Job Search: Titles and Filters That Work

· 4 min read

Searching for a first or second job in tech is mostly a filtering problem. Most postings on company career pages are for experienced people, and "junior" roles are posted under many names, some of which never use the word "junior". This guide covers the titles to look for, the filters that help, and the postings that are best skipped.

Titles that usually mean "early career"

Search for all of these, not just "junior":

  • Junior (Junior Developer, Junior Data Analyst, Junior QA Engineer)
  • Associate (Associate Software Engineer, Associate Product Manager)
  • Graduate or New Grad (common in the UK, Ireland and the US)
  • Entry-level
  • Engineer I or Software Engineer I; levels like "I" and "II" are often used instead of junior and mid
  • Intern, Internship, Summer Intern
  • Trainee and Apprentice
  • Working Student (Werkstudent in Germany), which is usually tied to university enrolment
  • Early Careers programmes, often a separate page on a company's careers site

Watch out for the word "Associate". At some companies it means entry level; at others, especially in consulting and finance, it can be a mid-level title. Read the experience requirements.

Roles that tend to be easier entry points

Some roles are more open to people early in their careers than others. From our reading of these boards, these are worth adding alongside your main target:

  • Technical Support / Support Engineer. In our September 2026 snapshot (one moment, only the boards we track, not the whole market), there were 12 such postings open to remote work from Europe and 24 remote in some region.
  • QA / Test Engineer. Fewer postings (4 open to remote work from Europe in the same snapshot), and for some people QA becomes a route into development.
  • Data / Product Analyst. 7 open to Europe, 11 remote in some region.
  • Solutions or Sales Engineer. 48 open to Europe in the snapshot. Many of these are senior, but some companies hire technical graduates into them.

These numbers include all seniority levels, so the junior share is smaller. The point is that these roles exist in reasonable numbers and some of them take less experienced candidates.

Filters that help

Turn junior roles on, then keep your role list focused

Most job alert tools let you include or exclude junior roles and internships. Include them, but don't pick every role available. Five well-chosen roles are better than twenty that fill your feed with postings you won't apply to.

Don't rely only on remote

Remote junior roles exist, but companies are often more willing to hire juniors on-site or hybrid, where mentoring is easier. Add the cities you live in or would move to. Internships in particular are often tied to a specific office, and sometimes to a university in that country.

Check the location string carefully

"Remote - US" or "USA Only" internships usually require US work authorisation or enrolment at a US university. See Finding remote IT jobs actually open to Europe for how to read these fields.

Postings to skip or treat with care

  • "Junior" with five years of experience required. It happens. If the requirements are clearly senior, don't count it as a junior opening, though a strong mid-level candidate might still apply.
  • Internships that charge you a fee for training, placement or a "certificate". Real employers don't charge applicants.
  • Unpaid internships with vague duties. Rules on unpaid work differ by country; if a posting is unclear about pay, ask before investing time.
  • "Junior" roles that are mostly sales under another name, such as a "junior consultant" paid only on commission.
  • Postings with no company name or careers page. Look up the company's own website before you send your details. For postings you find on aggregators, check that the same role is listed on the company's own careers page.

Make your application count

With few junior postings and many applicants, a clear, relevant application matters more than a long one:

  1. Put projects near the top of your CV. For juniors, a working project with a link beats a list of courses.
  2. Keep your GitHub or portfolio tidy. Two or three finished projects with a README are enough.
  3. Match the posting's keywords honestly. If it asks for SQL and you've used SQL, say so plainly, since recruiters and applicant-tracking systems both scan for it.
  4. Apply early. Junior postings sometimes close once enough applications arrive. See why applying in the first 24 hours matters.

Setting it up in Hot Jobs

Hot Jobs has a setting for whether junior roles and internships count, alongside 25 roles and your choice of remote regions or cities, including on-site and hybrid. New subscribers get up to 5 matching jobs that are open right now, which gives you a quick sense of whether your filters are too narrow. You can adjust everything later with /settings.

To get junior and internship postings from company career pages in Telegram as they appear, it's €3, paid once, with no subscription. Connect the bot