Fake Job Posts & How To Avoid Them
Ghost jobs are exactly what they sound like. Unfortunately, these are job posts which haunt popular job-seeking sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. They tend to hold little to no hiring prospects and just as intangible as a real ghost, these job prospects often disappear as soon as they’ve arrived — the only difference is that these ghosts don’t say ‘Boo’.
Instead, they may say, ‘You have been invited to an interview!’
However, as quick as the fake opportunity arises, it dematerialises back again to whatever shadowy corporate abyss it crept from, leaving the job-seeker in confusion and an eerie feeling.
Whilst some job posts are entirely fake and used to investigate and capture live feed of the talent-stock market. Others are used as baited hooks to capture the attention and data of the innocent job seeker.
A study conducted by Clarify Capital discovered something sinister, only 38% of total employers were planning to fill their vacancies within 1–2 months. Approximately 62% of total employers that had an active job post weren’t actually planning to fill the role within 2 or more months of posting it, 20% of that 62% admitting that they weren’t looking to fill the role for at least another year.
What cultural shift occurred that would give life to these phantasmic job opportunities? You may ask…
The Great Resignation.
Covid-19 saw voluntary resignations from the labor market en masse, beginning in early 2021, as the virus struck. According to Pew Research Center , whilst this has seen an increase in more benefits in new jobs as well as the options of hybrid & remote work, it has also made employers more anxious about the reliability of their workforce.
Amongst childcare issues and lack of flexibility, the most cited reasons for resigning were cost of living & wage stagnation, little opportunity for advancement and lack of benefits. Individuals began looking for more value and satisfaction in their day-to-day lives. Parker, Kim; Horowitz, Juliana Menasce (March 9, 2022)
To back up their current stock of employees, some businesses have taken the approach of keeping a rolling recruitment process going in order to fill new vacancies immediately. The downside for the job-seeker is that they have no way of knowing if they will actually recieve a job or not.
50% of managers keep job postings open because they’re “always open to new people” Key Takeaways, Clarify Capital
The most frustrating thing about these ghost posts is that they waste our time and effort. Which is very valuable when you’re job-seeking. They are also highly discouraging, leading people to not only lose trust in the companies that have done this to them but also in themselves.
How do we avoid chasing these empty Ghost Jobs?
- Time — The first telling sign that a post is ghost is by the age of the job post. If a post is more than a month or two old or has no date at all, it is most likely void.
- Company Website — Check their company website to both verify and ensure that the vacancy is still open. Consider contacting the company directly.
- Connections — Check if you have any LinkedIn connections to the company, if you do, throw a hook of your own and find out if the position is still available.
- Platforms — Use other job searching platforms that indicate the job posting date. Here is my own list of Job-Seeking platforms that I’d recommend taking a look at.
Otherwise, job options seem rather promising, happy ghost busting!
This is all I have on the subject for the moment, if you have any new leads, please point them out to me in the comments or on my LinkedIn
Thank you for reading!
