Questions and answers

You Know Her is a free platform, based in Portland, Oregon, for women returning to paid work after time away, for any reason. Anyone can browse and search the jobs board, and apply to public job listings on companies’ own sites, without an account. People who know her work, her champions, write short notes about her in their own words; once she’s approved notes from three, approved employers can find her and she can apply to partner jobs with her profile. Partner employers agree to acknowledge every application within 7 days, update candidates at least every 14 days, and show the pay range on every job. Joining is free and open: make your account with your email, Google or Apple, no invite or approval needed.

No. You Know Her is free for members, for the champions who vouch for them, and for employers.

No. You Know Her was built for women returning to work, because career breaks fall hardest on women. Anyone who shares that mission is welcome to make a free account.

Yes. Plenty of women coming back take the first job they can get, because the paycheck can’t wait. If you’re working now and want something that fits what you can really do, you belong here. You can keep your profile hidden from employers and apply only to the jobs you choose, so no one finds you unless you go to them.

No. Employers here can’t search, filter, or rank anyone by the length of a career break, and they come to You Know Her to hire women returning from time away. Dates are always optional. For each job you decide what employers see: how long you were there, the dates, or neither. If you add dates, we show only how long unless you choose to show the dates. Graduation years stay hidden unless you choose to show them.

No invite is needed. Enter your email on the sign-in page and type the 6-digit code we send, or continue with Google or Apple, and your free account is made. No resume or approval is needed. You can browse and search jobs without an account; saving jobs, job alerts, tracking what you applied to and applying to partner jobs need one. Members can also invite friends, as many as they like.

There’s no password. Enter your email on the sign-in page and we’ll email you a 6-digit code that works for 10 minutes. Type it in and you’re in, on any device. You can also connect Google or Apple and sign in with those.

Your headline and bio, the fields you want to work in, your skills and tools, the projects and volunteer work from your career break, your past jobs, education and certifications, links and work samples, a letter to employers, and how and when you want to work. Only your first name is required. If you’d like, you can upload a resume at the start and we’ll fill in much of it for you to check. Your champions’ notes add the strengths other people see in you.

A champion is someone who knows you and vouches for you, like a former boss, a colleague, a client, a classmate, someone you volunteered with or a friend. Three approved notes let approved employers find you and let you apply to partner jobs with your profile. You don’t need any to browse jobs or to apply to public job listings on companies’ own sites, and there’s no limit after three. You approve every note before it shows, so ask as many people as you like.

Employers can’t find your profile until you’ve approved notes from three champions. There are two settings: “Employers can find me”, where only approved employers can search for you, and “Only employers I apply to”. There’s no public setting, so your profile is never open to anyone on the internet or to other members. If you apply to a partner job, that employer can see your profile. You can switch settings at any time, and “Preview as employer” shows exactly what they see.

Yes. Choose “Only employers I apply to” on your profile, any time, even before your champions are in. Employers can’t search for you or ask to meet you. When you apply to a partner job, that one employer sees your profile and your approved notes. Public job listings you apply to on the company’s own site, so nothing from your profile goes with them. You can switch back whenever you like.

Employers never see your email unless you choose to share it, the pay you’re looking for, or photos, since there are no photos of people on You Know Her. Your graduation year is hidden unless you turn it on, and your resume goes only to employers you apply to. Your champions’ contact details are shared only if you choose to share them as references.

Yes. Anyone can browse every job and apply to any public job listing, about 225,000 from companies’ own sites in the US and Canada, with no champions at all: you apply on the company’s site. Partner jobs, where you apply here with your profile and champion notes, open once three notes are approved. Partner jobs always show pay, and every partner replies within 7 days.

Two places. Partner jobs are posted by companies that hire through You Know Her and have agreed to reply within 7 days. Public job listings come from companies’ own career sites, from large employers to small ones, plus USAJobs, The Muse and hand-checked return-to-work programs. Search fixes typos for you, and filters cover remote and hybrid work, part-time hours, returnships, jobs that show pay, how recently they were posted, and the US or Canada. A “For you” sort matches listings to the roles you want and the jobs you’ve held.

Yes. Tap “Alert me” on any search, or “Email me new matches” on For you, and we’ll email you new jobs at 8am Pacific, daily or weekly, up to 10 at a time. You only get jobs that are new to you and posted in the last 14 days, never the same job twice, and nothing on days with nothing new. Every alert email has a link to turn that alert off.

When you come back from the company’s site, we ask whether you applied, so the job is kept with your other saved jobs, marked applied. You can also ask us to remind you tomorrow. About a week later, and again at two weeks and a month if you haven’t heard, we ask whether the employer replied. Those answers are only ever used combined with other members’, never with your name, to show which employers reply to women returning to work, and you can stop the check-ins from any of those emails.

Yes, please do. After you apply to a job or talk with an employer, tap “Share feedback” on that application or conversation. Choose Good, Mixed or Poor, and add a few words if you like. Only the You Know Her team reads it, and the employer never sees who said what. A person reads every response, and it helps us keep employers to the commitments they make here: replying on time, keeping you updated, and treating you with respect.

Open the link she sends you, choose how you know her, pick a few of her strengths and write about what she does well. Then confirm with a 6-digit code we email you. No account is needed, and it takes about a minute. You can add a link to your LinkedIn profile so employers know who you are professionally, and you can offer to be a reference for her. Your email is never shown publicly, and she reads your note before deciding whether to show it.

Employer access is free, and we approve each company by hand. Employers agree to acknowledge every application within 7 days and keep candidates updated at least every 14 days until there’s a decision. Every job they publish shows its pay range. When a deadline slips, we send a reminder and note it on the company’s response record, which candidates can see. If it keeps happening, we talk with them about it, and a company that repeatedly leaves candidates waiting may lose access.