If you’re in sales, recruiting, or customer success, you know how often your accounts slip through the cracks just because someone key changed jobs—and you were the last to know. Most CRMs and tools don’t catch this stuff until it’s too late. This guide is for you: folks who want to keep tabs on people moving in and out of your target companies, without spending hours on LinkedIn or buying overpriced software.
Here’s how to track employee changes using Proxycurl—a data API that scours the web for fresh company and people info—without getting lost in the weeds, overspending, or making it your new part-time job.
Why Bother Tracking Employee Changes?
Honestly, not everyone needs this. But if you:
- Sell B2B and want to know when a champion leaves (or joins) a target
- Recruit and care about when key hires join/leave
- Do customer success and want to keep your relationships warm
...then knowing who’s coming and going is gold. It’s not about stalking, it’s about timing and avoiding nasty surprises.
Let’s break down how to actually do this, step by step.
Step 1: Get Clear on Who and What You Want to Track
Don’t just start pulling data “because you can.” That’s a fast way to burn money and time.
Decide: - Which companies really matter? (Your top accounts, ABM list, etc.) - Which roles are you watching? (Decision makers, execs, admins, whatever’s key for you) - How often do you really need updates? (Daily? Weekly? Monthly is usually plenty.)
Pro Tip: Start small. Tracking 10-20 companies is a good way to learn what’s useful and what’s just noise.
Step 2: Get Your Proxycurl API Key and Read the Docs
Go to Proxycurl and sign up for an account. They’ll give you an API key—don’t share it, obviously.
- Skim the docs. Focus on the “Company API” and “Employee Listing API.”
- Check your usage limits. Proxycurl isn’t free, and API calls can add up if you go wild.
Honest take: The docs are pretty clear, but not super hand-holdy. If you hate code, you might want to loop in someone who doesn’t.
Step 3: Pull the Initial List of Employees for Your Target Companies
Here’s the gist:
- For each company, get its LinkedIn URL (Proxycurl works off these, not just names).
- Use Proxycurl’s “Company Profile Endpoint” to double-check the company and pull its company ID.
- Use the “Employee Listing Endpoint” to fetch current employees.
Sample API call (curl): bash curl 'https://nubela.co/proxycurl/api/linkedin/company/employees/' \ -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \ -d 'url=https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-target-company/'
- The response is a list of people—names, roles, LinkedIn URLs.
- Save this list somewhere (CSV, your CRM, Google Sheet, whatever you’ll actually use).
What works: This gets you a snapshot of “who’s there now.”
What doesn’t: It doesn’t show you changes—yet.
Step 4: Set Up Regular Checks (and Don’t Overdo It)
You’ll need to check for changes on a schedule. Two real-world options:
A. Manual (good for under 20 companies): - Once a week, re-run your employee listing fetch for each company. - Compare the new list to your old list. Who’s new? Who’s missing? - Use Excel or Google Sheets for simple comparisons (VLOOKUP, etc.).
B. Automated (for more companies or if you’re technical): - Write a script (Python works well) to: - Pull current employees via Proxycurl. - Compare to last week’s data (store it in a file or database). - Send you a report: “3 new people joined, 2 left.” - Schedule the script to run weekly (cron job or cloud function).
Important: Don’t ping the API every five minutes. That’s expensive and unnecessary. Weekly is usually enough. Monthly is fine for most use cases unless you’re recruiting for fast-changing startups.
Step 5: Spot the Changes That Actually Matter
All employee changes are not created equal. Pay attention to:
- Champions leaving: If your main contact’s gone, jump on it. Find out who’s replaced them.
- Key hires joining: New VP of Sales at your target account? Good excuse to reach out.
- Mass departures: If half the engineering team’s gone, that’s a red flag (or an opportunity, if you’re recruiting).
Don’t waste time on: - Low-level titles that have nothing to do with your business. - Contractors or interns, unless they matter to your work.
Pro Tip: Set up simple filters. If you only care about “Director” and up, ignore everyone else.
Step 6: Act on the Data (Don’t Just Collect It)
The whole point is to do something when people change jobs.
- Reach out with a note (“Saw you just joined Acme Corp—congrats!”).
- Flag at-risk accounts in your CRM if your champion left.
- Update your prospect lists.
Don’t:
Blast everyone with a generic message. People can smell automated outreach a mile away.
Step 7: Keep Your Costs (and Sanity) in Check
Proxycurl charges by API call, so:
- Only pull the data you need. Don’t “just in case” yourself into a big bill.
- Store results, so you’re not repeating work.
- Start with a handful of target companies. Scale up if it’s actually valuable for you.
What to ignore:
- Don’t get distracted by every bell and whistle in the API. Most folks just need name, title, and LinkedIn URL.
- Don’t track hundreds of companies unless you have a real plan for acting on all those changes. More data isn’t better if you can’t use it.
Step 8: What Proxycurl Can’t (and Won’t) Do
Let’s be honest: Proxycurl is powerful, but it’s not magic.
- It won’t catch changes instantly. LinkedIn profiles aren’t always updated in real time.
- Sometimes it misses people, or picks up outdated profiles.
- You’ll need your own logic to decide what changes matter to you.
Bottom line: Use it as a source of truth, but double-check big changes before you act.
Pro Tips and Common Pitfalls
- Pro Tip: If you’re technical, tie Proxycurl to a CRM webhook or Slack alert for instant pings when someone key changes jobs.
- Pitfall: Don’t rely on job titles alone. People fudge their LinkedIn sometimes.
- Pro Tip: For privacy and compliance, don’t use this data in a creepy or spammy way. Always personalize your outreach.
Keep It Simple: Start Small, Iterate, and Don’t Overthink It
You don’t need a fancy system or a huge budget to track employee changes at target accounts. Start with a few companies, set up a basic process, and see if it actually helps your workflow. If it does, automate a little more. If it doesn’t, now you know—without burning months or thousands of dollars.
Keep it simple, stay focused on what actually helps you win business or build relationships, and don’t let the tech get in the way. The real value isn’t in tracking every tiny change—it’s in acting on the ones that actually move the needle.