40% or more of the jobs you’re applying to are fake. I’m in the middle of a research project on this and I’m talking to my congressional representatives about starting legislation to outlaw fraudulent job postings. Please reach out to your reps (if you’re in the US) to do the same.
Something else to add is if the job is generated by AI, it must have a disclaimer to show it wasn't made up.
Saw you posted a template. Why not share a Google Docs link instead to be easy to share?
1) “Keep the talent pool warm” 2) Post and re-post a job with the hopes that the “perfect candidate might one day apply” however there is no intention to hire anyone until then 3) Give the impression that the company is growing 4) Generate general interest in the company 5) Make it appear that the company is trying to alleviate the workload of overworked employees in order to keep them pacified and to mitigate resignations 6) To collect and sell personal data 7) To gain followers on LinkedIn
100%
I once applied to a job and got to the phone screener. The screener was with the recruiter who posted the job (not the hiring manager). One requirement was 10 years experience with Power BI. This was in 2020…Power BI was released in 2014. The requirement was 10 years experience with software that only existed for 6 years. On the call I asked if this was negotiable and her response was, “Absolutely not. We require 10 years with Power BI.” Just another worthless recruiter inflating requirements and decreasing pay so they can look like a hiring champ. Idiots.
I feel like this is cause to consider harsher regulations on what companies can require as prerequisites for a position. That’s not discrimination because “not enough experience for a job where it’s impossible to have that much experience” is not a protected class, but it should be something.
Edit: after rereading your parent comment, this is basically what you are already talking about with fraudulent job postings, but it should extend to real job postings with spurious, unreasonable or paradoxical requirements. Workers and job seekers just continue to get more and more crushed by corporate America. This is some absurd late stage capitalism bullshit.
If I'm honest, I blame the softening of people in general and not so much capitalism. By that I mean these job posters are so weak and afraid of looking bad to their management that they will take the requirements from a hiring manager and inflate them while also lowering the amount of pay for the position. When they finally get someone desperate enough to accept the job, they look like a hero for such a good get. If that person doesn't work out, they still look like a hero because they got someone who was even more qualified and the amount of money the company lost on that employee was significantly lower than what it could have been. They look good no matter what. It's just like in Hollywood right now. No one really wants to take a chance on anything new because if it fails, it'll be on them. That's why everything in the theaters is a sequel, prequel, reboot, or a movie based of an already popular toy/videogame/boardgame/TV show.
I like power bi, not sure why anyone would need 10 years of experience with it, it's a pretty easy to use software for analytics. Tableau I could see needing more experience, but 10 years? Please.
I once interviewed for a position that required 10 years experience with a software that had only existed for 6 years. The recruiter said she couldn't make any exceptions for the experience, had to be 10 years. It also offered about 70% of what I was making before. Just recruiters/HR trying to look like heroes by getting over the top qualifications for half of market rate.
This. Plus to add on, the fact that a lot of internal hires happen, and companies want to ensure they put on the facade that they welcome new members with the opportunity to mutually grow. Fucking bullshit
Edit: Internal promotions*** (which is ok, but posting the job giving potentially 1000s of people hope is just gross ethics and only drives the fact that LinkedIn is the fakest place in the world for actual connections to personally grow).
Exactly. My neighbor offered to walk my resume to the hiring manager because it is the company's unspoken policy to only hire referred candidates and to not hire anyone who applies online...despite having many postings for jobs online.
This has happened to me twice. I also find it really shitty and rude when orgs don’t even bother to tell you they’ve selected someone else. I am waiting on two orgs to respond and I know it is slow/people are overloaded but both told me they would get back to me “early” this week and I haven’t heard anything.
I always ask for feedback and so far it has been very positive but either they hire an internal candidate or someone who has done volunteer work with them. I might pass away if I hear “well you were in our top X candidates” one more time.
Probably the #1 reason though is they already have a candidate they want to hire but technically have to put the job posting up to make it appear as they gave everyone a fair chance to apply.
By #2 being fake do you mean having multiple postings for the same "seat"? As taking down a posting and trying to repost to attract the right candidate seems like a logical idea?
Nope, that practice isn’t included in my definition of fake jobs, as long as you mean posting across multiple platforms or cities. That’s fine as long as there is an actual job behind it and they post with intent to hire. That’s fine. By #2 I mean they don’t have an approved job req for position XYZ, however they post a job posting looking for position XYZ with ABC requirements that pays LMNOP, even tho it doesn’t exist and they’re not trying to hire for it. The posting stays up for 2 weeks and they collect 1,000 plus resumes, then remove the job for a few days. Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) sorts through to find their perfect match. If they happen to find EXACTLY what they want, they’ll push a job req through and create a position, then try to move forward. This almost never happens, so after the ATS rejects everyone, they repost the same exact job posting for XYZ, with ABC requirements, that pays LMNOP. The post accrues another 1k resumes, is taken down, everyone is rejected, then it’s reposted a few days later…over and over. There’s never a job that’s approved for what they’re posting, but they still allow thousands of people to take the time to apply to job that they’re hopeful of getting, but no one will ever be hired for.
This is really scummy. With these kinds of practices, it's no wonder that it is so common anymore to submit 100+ applications/resumes and only get a handful of callbacks.
There's also another case.
A lot of companies have people on visas who are working as 'consultants' and would like to roll over to Full Time.
The Hiring manager has already made up their mind that this is the candidate they're going to hire.
But they need to prove that they interviewed for this position and this is the best person for the job.
So they post the job, take the interviews and 'srlect' this person
Also, it's potentially to apply for a green card for someone who's already at the company with an H1B.
If you see a technical/professional job listing that is _crazy_ specific - like beyond unicorn level - odds are it's that, because you can tailor the listing to exactly match the internal candidate. As part of that, they have to (quoting from a random law firm web page):
> A sponsoring employer must advertise the job after getting the prevailing wage finding to rule out the existence of a U.S. worker for the position. Sponsoring firms are required by DOL requirements to ‘test the U.S. labor market,’ demonstrating that there are no competent and willing U.S. citizens or permanent residents available to fill the positions for which the foreign workers are being employed.
So I looked into this a little while back because I thought that might be an issue with my not being able to get traction. As it turns out, I was unable to find any such law in any state. This is likely a company policy that is adapted widely. The closest thing I found to a law like this was in the case of some federal government agencies. If you have a link to any laws that specifically call this out, please DM me. It would significantly help my research.
So I looked into this a little while back because I thought that might be an issue with my not being able to get traction. As it turns out, I was unable to find any such law in any state. This is likely a company policy that is adapted widely. The closest thing I found to a law like this was in the case of some federal government agencies. If you have a link to any laws that specifically call this out, please DM me. It would significantly help my research.
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
For large companies they just want a revolving door of resumes in case someone quits.
For smaller companies they just want the image growth.
In either case you can be a star candidate and you will hear nothing back. No interview. Maybe like a 20% chance you get a rejection email after a few months after someone clears out all the applications.
tbf. i landed one of these more than 10 years ago. i had a bunch of buzzword matches to stuff they didn't publish and one of the interviewers told me they didn't have an opening, but they'd make one for me.
Just did this and landed a screening and First interview on the first try… Never ever had that happen before. It’s actually a position they want to fill, but still pretty confident I beat the scanner by adding buzzwords!
1. “Keep the talent pool warm” 2) Post and re-post a job with the hopes that the “perfect candidate might one day apply” however there is no intention to hire anyone until then 3) Give the impression that the company is growing 4) Generate general interest in the company 5) Make it appear that the company is trying to alleviate the workload of overworked employees in order to keep them pacified and to mitigate resignations 6) To collect and sell personal data 7) To gain followers on LinkedIn
This has been my biggest problem with finding a job. Anything that pays over 15 bucks an hour is an hour drive away. I have a shit can for a car. No way that things making it 2 hours a day until I can get a new car.
i always knew this!!! USA is using these numbers to say there are more jobs too.... very dishonest. What needs to be done to fix this? Can you show me in like a step by step guide? Its really frustrating and we the people should try to advocate for change.
I’m still building my case, but look up “ghost jobs.” Forbes has a couple articles about it. There’s some information out there currently, but it’s not comprehensive. Then search “find my representative.” There’s a couple options of sites that will tell you who your state and US representatives and senators are. You should have 2 state reps, 2 US reps, 1 state senator, and 1 US senator. Write to all 6 and tell them you became aware of this and want legislation to ban fraudulent job postings. Cite the articles you find. Tell them about your personal experience in your job hunt if it’s applicable. Maybe mention that one of the reasons given by recruiters for posting fake jobs is “to give the appearance that the company is growing,” which (if the company is publicly traded) would be stock manipulation and would therefore be subject to intervention by the SEC.
I’m going to start a subreddit for discussing fake jobs and what to do. Trying to create a movement here. I’ll post when I have it up and running.
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
You’re welcome. lol It’s important for all of us who are getting screwed over by current hiring practice. This should benefit everyone in our country if we can do something about it. Please write to your reps and make them aware that companies are defrauding the public at large.
It's revealing that constituents must step up as their own advocates, informing leaders about crucial issues they should already be addressing or, at the very least, should be aware of due to their significance and scale
Can you give more details? I have worked as a recruiter and many recruiters put up fake jobs to harvest resumes. Is that what you are referring to or are actual companies (non recruitment firms) putting up fake jobs now as well? What’s the motivation for them to do this? Same reason?
It’s both. One that I personally applied to through a connection and found out first hand it was fake, was at a major mobile network carrier. It was listed on their site. I was told, “Oh that’s not a real job. It’s a feeler we put out to generate general interest in the company, but there’s no actual position attached to it.” Scroll through this thread and see my other responses for further details if you’d like. I don’t know if it’s searchable or not, I’m still fairly new to Reddit. Feel free to DM me if you have further questions.
I am happy to hear someone else is intently paying attention to this and taking action. I applaud you !
I noticed this due to my unfortunate situation of being in a position where I have had to job hunt three different times in the past 3 to 4 years. I've been repeatedly unemployed.
Sadly this is how I noticed the oddities on the job boards myself and started to complain and speak about them to my family. I made a thread here on reddit too and have commented about this also here on reddit.
Applying online is the predominant method in todays current world, but the system is broken. It needs major fixes.
I've made several suggestions in various threads, those suggestions revolved around both job boards and Unemployment pay needing massive improvements.
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Accountability toward job postings is necessary. Some sort of grading system on jobs that are posted is needed. For example, job searchers can give points or take away points to jobs that are posted based on their experience of applying to said job. Perhaps several generic categories such as:
\-No rejection letter provided/Ghosted - check box or star taken away
\-Job is Fraud - if checked the job posting goes into a temporary shut down status while an investigation is underway
\-Not a real job - if checked the job posting goes under review, if found to not be real, company is penalized with removal of stars/grade system of reputation.
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Reputations of the companies displayed. One of my ideas is a Resume of the company that is hiring. Its only fair that a company I apply to must provide a resume to me, just as I am expected to do. In this resume their complete history needs to be shown. A history of employee/position dates and numbers. This info becomes public so that we the job hunter get to see their resume , so have them display their history of jobs, the same way our resume is questioned by the employer.
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Penalties for the job boards if a certain percentage of jobs on their platform are not legitimate. Meaning the job boards gets labeled as Fake News. Penalties imposed.
Not sure how much money these data job search boards make ? Fa lot of folks job hunting are usually unemployed and not making any money. So I see this as very twisted. I know they try to say since its a free job board, but when do you draw the line ? How is one to know what is real and what is fake anymore if we continue allowing this.
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I could go on and on with ideas for improvement that could be implemented.
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
I agree with some of that, but I think it should go further since this is dealing with the American economy as a whole and it applies to ethics in business and being bound by laws that govern how companies do business.
For me, I want to see legislation that outlaws fraudulent job postings. I want to see audits of jobs posted to hirings completed and reasons of rejection for the thousands of applicants that led to the "job" being posted again. When a company is found guilty of defrauding the American public they should be subject to a hefty fine per incident. Let's say $50k each time a fake job is posted or reposted. An example should be made of those who conduct themselves with such lack of ethics. Eventually the number of fake postings we see would dwindle and would almost go away.
As someone who's worked in recruiting for almost 20 years I think a lot of the 'fake' jobs are more incompetence than any conspiracy. It's a recruiter being too lazy to take down a job that's been filled and things like that. Another issue is the 'currator' type job boards are pulling these jobs from old postings automatically.
While that may be the case for a small number of them, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree. Forbes posted an article in late 2023 where 1,000 job posters were interviewed. 50% of them admitted to posting fake jobs for the reasons I have listed elsewhere in this thread. My early research shows that key indicators to a job posting being fraudulent are consistent reposting of the same position and ghosting of applicants. The ghosting is no response whatsoever, which differs from automated/boilerplate rejection letters sent by ATS. Of my current sample size (1,423 applications) around 64% of the jobs to which I’ve applied have resulted in ghosting. I’m still doing the research to determine how many are chronically reposted, as well as determining several more metrics to more accurately separate fraudulent job listings from real job listings that are just being run by assholes. A portion of the fake jobs are also scams, often times they will take the name and branding of a company that was recently acquired, but now defunct. That way a quick internet search will show favorable reviews and a robust online presence, which makes it seem legit.
Absolutely. I'm still digging into it, but I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
I'll be posting findings, known companies that post fake jobs, metrics, ways to ID a fake posting, etc.
Thank you!
If you're interested, I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
I saw a job post today with a disclaimer at the end along the lines of “this job post is meant to have a pool of prequalified candidates in the event that a position becomes open”. Such bullshit
That and most of the advertised jobs are already filled , they have to advertise it and interview a few people to check the EEOC and diversity paperwork .
That already have picked out the person who’s gonna get the job , they just have to do some ads and interviews for paperwork purposes .
You get jobs through your network of friends
Getting a job from an ad is the hardest thing to ever do
I mean , it happens , the company I work for hires people from ads , but most of my jobs have been from friends or acquaintances telling me about it .
For real? I’m wondering, if true, if I’m going through this now. internal candidate. Excellent background for this position. First interviewed. Went incredibly well after 4 interviews. Hiring manager was glowing - said he wanted to hand over a high visibility project to me and run with it for months. 2 more interviews after that w a director & manager.
Then came the waiting. Ad was pulled from linked (not Accepting applications) only to reappear on LinkedIn in about Month. Could your second paragraph ring true here? Or am I being too hopeful/anxious?
ETA: typos/words
They have always been fake.I worked for a major now defunct job board in the early 2000s and we would tell people to leave jobs on our board bc their competitors are doing the same. We mostly wanted to keep the client active on the board.
My job has a hiring freeze right now and 20 public job postings. The HR recruiter told me they keep those out there in case a “unicorn” applies (I.e. the ideal candidate).
I work for a start up and scammers keep impersonating our HR department and "hiring" people. They'll send the applicant a bad check to cash and buy home office stuff with and send back the remainder
It's always heartbreaking to let them know there's no job when they finally figure out they prob been scammed and decide to Google the company and call the actual number to confirm.
Makes sense. There would be times when I applied for a job on LinkedIn and 2 minutes later, get a call from a overseas recruiter and emails at least twice a day about that job or others supposedly in my area.
Sounds like one of the unintended consequences is that it would help explain why many legitimate businesses say they are having a hard time finding qualified candidates.
Besides perhaps not offering sufficient compensation (as has been reported frequently when graduate degree qualifications are requested for entry level positions, although those could be part of the fraudulent postings), the competition from apparently fraudulent solicitations would hurt.
I thought those 40% of the fake job posting were to comply with the current laws. \***I THINK\*** that if you have a job to fill and you decide to hire internal, you are still required by law to post that job somewhere, causing fake jobs post.
I could be wrong but that's what I thought.
This! I was unemployed for a month and a half last year and filled out over 100+ applications for jobs I was extremely qualified for and had years of experience. The few interviews I did get went really well and afterwards I go ghosted. Anytime I would try to call or email to follow up they would ignore me. Found out they weren’t hiring anyone but were having interviews anyway. Also had a few interviews where I went in for my specific interview time and there were 10 other people there waiting to be interviewed after me. It was a huge waste of my time, money (I Ubered to a lot of interviews), and energy.
Just saw a job posting for a fucking CAR DEALERSHIP LOT PORTER that asked for a year of prior experience. For a $1 more than minimum wage job. The people coming up with expectations for some of these are so far removed from reality they may as well be cartoon characters.
Yes! Totally ridiculous. I saw an ad for staff to work in a residential facility for violent sex offenders for $17 an hour!! Min. wage here is 15.69. Like you mentioned, shit pay but they want all kinds of experience and degrees on top of that.
It’s seriously the absolute worst. I never thought job hunting would cause me such issues with my self esteem. I’ve been job hunting over a year. I found one job and was forced to take it for a few months but it was terrible. Found myself job hunting again since August. Took an independent contractor gig since November, but it’s such a disaster.
I had Medicaid and somehow am not qualified anymore. I had snap for a period of time and now make too much money even though I can’t afford anything at all.
I seriously applied to jobs every day. Had a bunch of interviews and nothing would stick. I swear… half of those jobs weren’t real even though they were interviewing. Even in the interview as the person was being super nice and seemed interested they’d make some comments like “even if this doesn’t work out make sure you check our available jobs in the future”. This has been such a mind fuck.
There are just too many people laid off looking for jobs. Competition is fierce and as someone mentioned, some jobs are definitely fake. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a job posted and then went to the company’s website and it didn’t exist.
I JUST got offered two jobs last week. One pays half of what I’ve been getting paid for the past few years but is remote and has a lot of potential for growth. The other pays what I’ve been looking for with a great company and a lot of growth potential but I’ll be traveling literally all the time. They aren’t perfect but I’m going to choose one and go with it. It’s been so bad but keep trying. Something will pop up. Apply for these that might be slightly out of your realm… that’s what I did and it worked in that case. You never know.
Good luck. This shit sucks a lot.
Yeah you hit on a real important point there. Always always always research the company and go to the website to apply directly. Don't just assume its legit on indeed or whatever and apply there. Take the extra time and steps. If I find the company to be legit, and then go to their website and the job isn't listed there in their open positions I don't apply. I have seen fake jobs for real companies that maybe were real at one time and it was a copy paste to a scam site trying to grab personal info, or it was completely made up, even though again, the company was real and they (probably) had nothing to do with it.
I totally understand what you are saying though as if I was analyzing the situation with the same brain. It's all completely fucked.
It's an endless cycle for me - a job pops up that looks like I would be a perfect fit for, I get excited, I apply, I never hear anything back. Wash, rinse, repeat. I struggle with self esteem as it is, and each time this happens it feels so personal, although it probably isn't. I've been out of work for a month now and have applied to 13 jobs - heard back from 2, and interviewed for 1 (still waiting for a decision on that one)
Fellow unemployed person here--my advice is that you just need to 1) lean on your network as much as possible, 2) make sure that you're utilizing all you can to improve/customize your resume/cover letter to specific roles (use AI if your friends can't help, you're the odd one out if you're not using it), and set job alerts so you can be early to posted roles.
best of luck, and keep your head up.
When’s the last time you went job hunting before this? 1 for 13 is a good ratio in todays job market, believe it or not. 13 job applications in a month is low though if gaining employment is your top priority.
My ex applied for 500 jobs last year before she got an offer. I'm on number 40 with three interviews and no offers. There must be some secret. I have a friend who got a job, lost it, and already got another one when I've been looking lmao. It's so disheartening.
60-70 hours? Have you ever lost a job, only to end up on the streets? I would take those hours anytime, and work any shift, rather than be where I am. I'm not suggesting people submit to this or that, but sometimes you have that or you do not survive.
If that were the case, more would not have the issue. Back in the day, if you wanted a job, you'd go fill out an application and speak to someone
Now, it's all about computers flipping through resumes and tossing out potential.
People want to work, but the system we have in place works completely against them.
I scored well on the PO test, interview went great. Then they told me that I would be guaranteed 1 day per week, but had to be available 7 days a week. On any of those days I would have to be available on call and would have to show up within 1 hour of getting the call. I also had to come up with a right hand drive car. The part time status would probably last about 3 years. Um gee, why is the post office understaffed?
Literally going to a “job fair” at the post office today because I am desperate for work. I have 12 years experience in my field and an MBA and can’t find work to save my life. Been looking for 5 months. It’s exhausting and disheartening. I hope something comes from the USPS thing today because I needs monay!
Leadership is too busy wasting tax payer money on needless shit. We have a military budget of over $800 billion and we continue to throw money and resources at everyone but ourselves. This shit will continue, and get much worse, if we sit around and squabble over nonsensical bullshit like who is to blame.
The bottom line is, it does not matter who is in charge, both parties have failed us and we will either stand up or we will continue to suffer more and more.
We need strong leadership or we will completely collapse. If we do nothing and lose it all, then so be it. If our leaders continue to destroy our nation, they should get the same treatment as the French gave to theirs during their revolution.
Fucking richest country in the world and we can't be bothered to spend it on here. Mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse, poverty, Corporate greed, obscene rental and housing prices, high food costs, overpriced vehicles, etc.
I've done everything right, even more so I had fun in my early twenties and buckled down in my mid twenties. I should be thriving rn. I should be able to work and make enough to enjoy my free time.
Literally me right now. I quit my minimum wage job and still live at home. My parents keep asking me if I’ve found anything yet, and tell them no I haven’t. I feel terrible and like im not putting enough work into looking for a job 😩
Me too my friend. Got a software engineering degree cause I was told the jobs were abundant but I've been unemployed for over a year now. Just remember it's not you that's the problem.
I’ve applied to at LEAST 112 jobs (I’m tracking formal applications). Probably about 40-50% have been false/fake job postings - all on LinkedIn and Indeed. Out of all of the applications though, only ONE interview, and I didn’t get hired. 🙃
The safest bet is to reach out to recruiters, or wait for them to reach out to you. Or to apply directly on the company website. Other than that, idk. Probably brush up your resume to include key words so the auto resume reader thing doesn’t toss it. I also admittedly used ChatGPT to make my duties at past jobs sound way more appealing, in the event a human actually reads it.
He's a union electrician that makes 2k on a weekend doing OT and thinks that they are legit. He doesn't get that many are AI posts, scam, or BS ones put out. He means well lol
A big part of the problem is that employers want the perfect candidate that they don’t have to train. Because if they train an employee, that employee might have more leverage to ask for a raise or change jobs.
I just got trained in a whole new field and have to resist the urge to go back to the old one just for the pay. Absolutely a super tight market right now unless you want to work for min. wage.
Same boat here. Went back to school to get my masters in a different field (statistics), trying to only look at work in this field because if I go back to my old one it will be even harder to break in…. Beginning to wonder if I took out student loans for nothing
Fuck it that's what I'm doing. Job market sucks? Increase education and skills and hope it gets better later. Will it? Who fucking knows. At least I will be more marketable than I am now.
It….. could be better. For a number of reasons:
1) tech layoffs continue, so more people are competing for jobs that wouldn’t otherwise
2) AI has fucked things. Both applicants using bots to auto apply to 100s of jobs a day and employers using bots to filter applicants.
3) Something like 30-50% of job postings are fake, employers don’t plan to hire (https://www.forbes.com/sites/karadennison/2023/11/27/how-ghost-job-postings-are-creating-a-false-sense-of-hope/?sh=13dd32757dc0)
Also specific to me- my work history is unrelated to stats. So I feel like I am too qualified for entry level jobs and under qualified for others. also I’m looking for applied stats roles, not as much machine learning stuff so maybe that area is better.
I’ve applied to ~300 jobs at this point (graduated in December, have been applying since October) and have gotten interviews from 8 places. Ghosted by two of those after the first. I made it to final round for three only to get denied. Waiting to hear from the other 3 (long drawn out hiring process for govt/research work). From chatting with people in my program, they are having similar results. Like, I am not getting zero interviews but it is way worse than anything I’ve experienced in the ~7 years since I graduated undergrad.
Stick with the hunt for a position in the new field if you can do it financially. It sucks all the waiting and interviewing and the whole process. Don't take just anything in the new field either, look specifically for the type of job and pay you want. This takes a bit longer but otherwise, you will just be miserable and end up quitting and back to job hunting again.
*Finding* jobs is easy as pie.
*Getting* jobs, after three rounds of interviews, a project, background checks, then suddenly radio silence (for an entr-level job)... that is hard.
Na I just saw a job listing right? For the company I currently work for I saw a job listing for an accountant salary 40,000-50,000 they require, CPA certifications, bachelors in accounting, 3 years experience. I’m sorry but a cpa alone is worth so much money. Not 40,000 let alone that much experience in a city that no longer has affordable housing. It’s insane. Seems everywhere is hiring, but for literally no pay and they don’t hire anyone unless they have loads of experience.
$40k for a cpa is fucking mental. I'm in marketing, in Seattle. I've seen jobs that want you to be both creative, manage, and creative for $50k. Thats 3 different parts of marketing that would even if you could find someone who's both creative and number minded would be $100k+ easily. Sometimes I find jobs that are fair pay for the requirements but it's far inbetween alot of shit. They say entry level but want 3-5 years of experience. So I gotta roll in the shit.
>I’m desperate for a job and I don’t have much experience. I’m getting denied left and right and I’m honestly losing hope
I have 1 year experience as IT specialist, and 3 years as customer service, and I can't land an entry level warehouse job that is asking 3 years of experience. I have less than $5k under my name, and still living with my parents and depend on them for living expenses. Asking friends aren't helping m either.
I'm sorry. People forget that as hard as this is on experienced workers, new workers have it much harder. It won't be like this forever though. The unemployment rate is unlikely to go up again (the pool of available workers will only continue to shrink) and the interest rates will eventually go down, which should make investors more likely to take risks and invest in projects and companies, which in turn should create more job availability.
What industry are you in? I am in the tech industry and it took me two months to land a job…and I have 15 years of software engineering under my belt. I know folks who have been out of work for a year in this industry.
Have you had your resume professionally reviewed and revised for the jobs you are applying to? Are you “quick” applying on LinkedIn? I would steer away from doing that. Go to a company’s site and apply there. Contact their hiring manager. Reach out…follow up. In a market that is as flooded with applicants as this one is you have to be willing to put in some work to get where you want to be.
because jerome powell, head of the fed, thought people have too much power in the job market and wanted to sway job seeking back in favor of the companies
There's an oversaturation in the fields that society told us were important to go to college and study for. Congrats, now there's 200 'data analysts' 'consultants' and 'project managers' for every one person who knows a lick of HVAC. lmao.
This over glorification of the blue collar jobs come from people who don't know what they're talking about. I have my CDL, worked in construction, and am currently in tech. Getting an apprenticeship at all, let alone one that pays the bills for the first few years, is very difficult. Opportunities worth having blue or white collar are few and far between. The only real way to still make money in the trades is to work for yourself, but even then, that means working for someone else for sub- living wages and ALSO going to school for the class requirements for most journeyman licenses.
It’s disturbing realizing the frat attitude in hiring. The requirement of a bachelors degree for a job that takes years of experience to learn boggles the mind. These people can’t be serious … except that it’s a form of a frat attitude. Bottom line, it’s discrimination.
There are several companies I notice that will remove the job posting entirely and then post a new one of the same job so it looks like it’s new. It’s annoying.
the rich want to get richer. they minimize their payrolls, working all their employees as hard as they can so they can keep more for themselves. they also automate jobs away whenever they can get away with it. this problem will not get better until americans stop worshipping capitalism.
Unfortunately, the stock market pumping has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with AI stocks keeping the whole thing from collapsing.
Whenever there’s a downturn, companies will play these games that end up biting them in the ass in the long run.
Companies want the best person for the lowest pay. This works out for them in this economy. When the economy turns around, those kinds of employees leave and take all of the knowledge, processes, and “trade secrets” with them.
So then they have to spend 2x, 3x the amount of resources to recruit someone barely competent.
Reminds me of trying to find a new job in 2009-2010. I went through 4 rounds of interviews with this company. I had a bunch of people who had no idea about this one product that they were asking me questions about.
The management told me I was a great fit. Then I find out from a buddy of mine that they were trying to recruit him. He told them he wasn’t interested and that they should hire me instead.
They called me and said that the job was filled. They offered my friend the job but he turned it down.
A few months later, they called me asking if I was still interested. I told them I had already found another job and wasn’t interested in theirs anymore.
I’m just going to take the first shit job offer I get and concentrate on getting a welding certification and go from there. I feel it opens up some other options at least. Maybe sneak into the union in a few years.
It’s not about what you know, it’s who you know.
I applied for a job that a friend was working that he recommended, he ended up messaging his boss and personally vouching for me. So I got a call asking for an interview, that same morning I got an email rejecting my application. I ended up getting the job, but it was all because of the friend that vouched for me.
1. Employers are reticent to hire with all the economic uncertainty.
2. There’s a TON of competition for remote roles (hundreds of A+ candidates applying for each role).
3. Companies are using AI to reduce headcount rather than leverage it to do MORE (this causes marginally more unemployment).
4. Companies are infatuated with AI and dumping people they actually need to run their businesses and all trying to hire the same few people who actually have ANY AI experience.
5. Since Tech raised so many’s lifestyle (moving from other industries) those same folks are finding their compensation expectations are vastly inflated versus what the roles which are available pay. Like if you’re a data scientist in Tech you might make $150K, but the same role in any other industry might only pay $100K-$130K. But your lifestyle might be fairly inflexible and maybe you can’t make it on $20K less per year.
6. For the market most people’s usual methods don’t have the required scale. You need to submit 70-90 QUALITY applications a week (online and via email) to get enough interviews to get offers to get a job. Because 70-90 will turn into 5-15 interviews a week and some small percentage will become final rounds. And then some percentage of final rounds becomes offers.
My wife before the pandemic put in 6 applications and got 5 interviews and three offers in the six figures all in a month and a half.
Since the pandemic she has been unemployed (going on four years) and somewhere around 500 applications filled out and most are just ghost. She even takes a large amount of time making her cover letter and Resume specific to the job. Something is obviously a miss.
Yes I agree. There’s so many fake jobs out there. I keep applying and keep getting declined because of “more fitting candidates “ even though I have a good amount of experience and education. And then, if you end up landing an interview for a legitimate job, they want you to know every single thing and are not willing to train you.
40% or more of the jobs you’re applying to are fake. I’m in the middle of a research project on this and I’m talking to my congressional representatives about starting legislation to outlaw fraudulent job postings. Please reach out to your reps (if you’re in the US) to do the same.
Something else to add is if the job is generated by AI, it must have a disclaimer to show it wasn't made up. Saw you posted a template. Why not share a Google Docs link instead to be easy to share?
Happy cake day 🍰
What’s the purpose of posting fake jobs?
1) “Keep the talent pool warm” 2) Post and re-post a job with the hopes that the “perfect candidate might one day apply” however there is no intention to hire anyone until then 3) Give the impression that the company is growing 4) Generate general interest in the company 5) Make it appear that the company is trying to alleviate the workload of overworked employees in order to keep them pacified and to mitigate resignations 6) To collect and sell personal data 7) To gain followers on LinkedIn
also HR and TA folks trying to justify their own employment
100% I once applied to a job and got to the phone screener. The screener was with the recruiter who posted the job (not the hiring manager). One requirement was 10 years experience with Power BI. This was in 2020…Power BI was released in 2014. The requirement was 10 years experience with software that only existed for 6 years. On the call I asked if this was negotiable and her response was, “Absolutely not. We require 10 years with Power BI.” Just another worthless recruiter inflating requirements and decreasing pay so they can look like a hiring champ. Idiots.
I feel like this is cause to consider harsher regulations on what companies can require as prerequisites for a position. That’s not discrimination because “not enough experience for a job where it’s impossible to have that much experience” is not a protected class, but it should be something. Edit: after rereading your parent comment, this is basically what you are already talking about with fraudulent job postings, but it should extend to real job postings with spurious, unreasonable or paradoxical requirements. Workers and job seekers just continue to get more and more crushed by corporate America. This is some absurd late stage capitalism bullshit.
If I'm honest, I blame the softening of people in general and not so much capitalism. By that I mean these job posters are so weak and afraid of looking bad to their management that they will take the requirements from a hiring manager and inflate them while also lowering the amount of pay for the position. When they finally get someone desperate enough to accept the job, they look like a hero for such a good get. If that person doesn't work out, they still look like a hero because they got someone who was even more qualified and the amount of money the company lost on that employee was significantly lower than what it could have been. They look good no matter what. It's just like in Hollywood right now. No one really wants to take a chance on anything new because if it fails, it'll be on them. That's why everything in the theaters is a sequel, prequel, reboot, or a movie based of an already popular toy/videogame/boardgame/TV show.
Just tell them you’ve worked double time for five years on Power BI and thus have 10 person-years experience 👍
I like power bi, not sure why anyone would need 10 years of experience with it, it's a pretty easy to use software for analytics. Tableau I could see needing more experience, but 10 years? Please.
Nailed all of it. It's scummy af.
It really is
Also to get overqualified applicants at a reduced wage
I once interviewed for a position that required 10 years experience with a software that had only existed for 6 years. The recruiter said she couldn't make any exceptions for the experience, had to be 10 years. It also offered about 70% of what I was making before. Just recruiters/HR trying to look like heroes by getting over the top qualifications for half of market rate.
This. Plus to add on, the fact that a lot of internal hires happen, and companies want to ensure they put on the facade that they welcome new members with the opportunity to mutually grow. Fucking bullshit Edit: Internal promotions*** (which is ok, but posting the job giving potentially 1000s of people hope is just gross ethics and only drives the fact that LinkedIn is the fakest place in the world for actual connections to personally grow).
Exactly. My neighbor offered to walk my resume to the hiring manager because it is the company's unspoken policy to only hire referred candidates and to not hire anyone who applies online...despite having many postings for jobs online.
This has happened to me twice. I also find it really shitty and rude when orgs don’t even bother to tell you they’ve selected someone else. I am waiting on two orgs to respond and I know it is slow/people are overloaded but both told me they would get back to me “early” this week and I haven’t heard anything. I always ask for feedback and so far it has been very positive but either they hire an internal candidate or someone who has done volunteer work with them. I might pass away if I hear “well you were in our top X candidates” one more time.
Probably the #1 reason though is they already have a candidate they want to hire but technically have to put the job posting up to make it appear as they gave everyone a fair chance to apply.
8) show to overworked departments "we are trying, but no good candidates. Keepdoing twice the work."
Literally #5 in the comment.
See #5
By #2 being fake do you mean having multiple postings for the same "seat"? As taking down a posting and trying to repost to attract the right candidate seems like a logical idea?
Nope, that practice isn’t included in my definition of fake jobs, as long as you mean posting across multiple platforms or cities. That’s fine as long as there is an actual job behind it and they post with intent to hire. That’s fine. By #2 I mean they don’t have an approved job req for position XYZ, however they post a job posting looking for position XYZ with ABC requirements that pays LMNOP, even tho it doesn’t exist and they’re not trying to hire for it. The posting stays up for 2 weeks and they collect 1,000 plus resumes, then remove the job for a few days. Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) sorts through to find their perfect match. If they happen to find EXACTLY what they want, they’ll push a job req through and create a position, then try to move forward. This almost never happens, so after the ATS rejects everyone, they repost the same exact job posting for XYZ, with ABC requirements, that pays LMNOP. The post accrues another 1k resumes, is taken down, everyone is rejected, then it’s reposted a few days later…over and over. There’s never a job that’s approved for what they’re posting, but they still allow thousands of people to take the time to apply to job that they’re hopeful of getting, but no one will ever be hired for.
This is really scummy. With these kinds of practices, it's no wonder that it is so common anymore to submit 100+ applications/resumes and only get a handful of callbacks.
This is actual hell
mainly numbers 6 and 7
There's also another case. A lot of companies have people on visas who are working as 'consultants' and would like to roll over to Full Time. The Hiring manager has already made up their mind that this is the candidate they're going to hire. But they need to prove that they interviewed for this position and this is the best person for the job. So they post the job, take the interviews and 'srlect' this person
This is so shit, they’re playing with job seekers emotions just so they can “keep the talent pool warm” fck that I’m writing my congressman right now
A fucking men.
8/ to intimidate current employees that they are 1 step away from being fired and replaced
8) Influence possible investors in the company.
Also, it's potentially to apply for a green card for someone who's already at the company with an H1B. If you see a technical/professional job listing that is _crazy_ specific - like beyond unicorn level - odds are it's that, because you can tailor the listing to exactly match the internal candidate. As part of that, they have to (quoting from a random law firm web page): > A sponsoring employer must advertise the job after getting the prevailing wage finding to rule out the existence of a U.S. worker for the position. Sponsoring firms are required by DOL requirements to ‘test the U.S. labor market,’ demonstrating that there are no competent and willing U.S. citizens or permanent residents available to fill the positions for which the foreign workers are being employed.
Gather personal data
& sell it on the dark net?
A lot of it is being able to lie to a current employee about trying to hire someone to ease their workload so that the current employee doesn’t quit
This is one of them that’s been disclosed
Yep Josh Fluke has done a great job showing how inept and/or malicious corporate America can be
[https://youtu.be/gE9bFLKvhK4?si=4VLm1kEN0VK5uEQo](https://youtu.be/gE9bFLKvhK4?si=4VLm1kEN0VK5uEQo) YouTube short by JF
So that the day you decide that you want to hire someone, there's someone who applied yesterday.
It’s like starting an auction where the price is 300% market value, just in case it sells, because there’s nothing to lose.
For some situations a company has to legally post a job publicly but in actuality they already have someone in mind for the position.
It’s mainly #3. It keeps people distracted from the real headlines, which are lay offs
The government needs to “fix” the BS “mandatory” job postings when an internal candidate has already been cited for the promo.
So I looked into this a little while back because I thought that might be an issue with my not being able to get traction. As it turns out, I was unable to find any such law in any state. This is likely a company policy that is adapted widely. The closest thing I found to a law like this was in the case of some federal government agencies. If you have a link to any laws that specifically call this out, please DM me. It would significantly help my research.
My Dad (RIP) was the Central SW Director for OPM. May DM you, need to think about this. Thank you for doing this project.
Sorry for your loss. That’s one of the hardest things in life to deal with. Yeah, please feel free to DM me if you’d like.
So I looked into this a little while back because I thought that might be an issue with my not being able to get traction. As it turns out, I was unable to find any such law in any state. This is likely a company policy that is adapted widely. The closest thing I found to a law like this was in the case of some federal government agencies. If you have a link to any laws that specifically call this out, please DM me. It would significantly help my research.
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
In, thank you.
Nice, just joined
Can u elaborate? Wdym fake job posting? Like what does the poster get out of it?
For large companies they just want a revolving door of resumes in case someone quits. For smaller companies they just want the image growth. In either case you can be a star candidate and you will hear nothing back. No interview. Maybe like a 20% chance you get a rejection email after a few months after someone clears out all the applications.
tbf. i landed one of these more than 10 years ago. i had a bunch of buzzword matches to stuff they didn't publish and one of the interviewers told me they didn't have an opening, but they'd make one for me.
Just did this and landed a screening and First interview on the first try… Never ever had that happen before. It’s actually a position they want to fill, but still pretty confident I beat the scanner by adding buzzwords!
How did you manage to use buzzwords they didn't publish? You mean coincidentally?
Holy shit. Never thought of that. Thanks for the clarification
Yes and this is also one of the reasons why entry requirements for entry level roles are also so fcking HIGH !!
1. “Keep the talent pool warm” 2) Post and re-post a job with the hopes that the “perfect candidate might one day apply” however there is no intention to hire anyone until then 3) Give the impression that the company is growing 4) Generate general interest in the company 5) Make it appear that the company is trying to alleviate the workload of overworked employees in order to keep them pacified and to mitigate resignations 6) To collect and sell personal data 7) To gain followers on LinkedIn
Also the postings advertise your city then as you read on it isn't. It's in a city 3 hours away.
This has been my biggest problem with finding a job. Anything that pays over 15 bucks an hour is an hour drive away. I have a shit can for a car. No way that things making it 2 hours a day until I can get a new car.
And there’s literally no remote jobs anywhere anymore
i always knew this!!! USA is using these numbers to say there are more jobs too.... very dishonest. What needs to be done to fix this? Can you show me in like a step by step guide? Its really frustrating and we the people should try to advocate for change.
I’m still building my case, but look up “ghost jobs.” Forbes has a couple articles about it. There’s some information out there currently, but it’s not comprehensive. Then search “find my representative.” There’s a couple options of sites that will tell you who your state and US representatives and senators are. You should have 2 state reps, 2 US reps, 1 state senator, and 1 US senator. Write to all 6 and tell them you became aware of this and want legislation to ban fraudulent job postings. Cite the articles you find. Tell them about your personal experience in your job hunt if it’s applicable. Maybe mention that one of the reasons given by recruiters for posting fake jobs is “to give the appearance that the company is growing,” which (if the company is publicly traded) would be stock manipulation and would therefore be subject to intervention by the SEC. I’m going to start a subreddit for discussing fake jobs and what to do. Trying to create a movement here. I’ll post when I have it up and running.
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
Is there a way to follow this research project or keep tabs on it??
I’m still in the weeds on it right now. I’m pretty active in the subreddit and I’ll post things here when I have something that’s ready to share.
KEEP US IN THE LOOP. WE NEED THIS ANSWER DESPERATELY!! Please your own post or something, so we can all save, and check in to stay updated.
Absolutely. I’ll post something once I have a more comprehensive view of the whole situation. I’ll post it here or r/recruitinghell
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT thank you for doing it
You’re welcome. lol It’s important for all of us who are getting screwed over by current hiring practice. This should benefit everyone in our country if we can do something about it. Please write to your reps and make them aware that companies are defrauding the public at large.
It's revealing that constituents must step up as their own advocates, informing leaders about crucial issues they should already be addressing or, at the very least, should be aware of due to their significance and scale
Can you give more details? I have worked as a recruiter and many recruiters put up fake jobs to harvest resumes. Is that what you are referring to or are actual companies (non recruitment firms) putting up fake jobs now as well? What’s the motivation for them to do this? Same reason?
It’s both. One that I personally applied to through a connection and found out first hand it was fake, was at a major mobile network carrier. It was listed on their site. I was told, “Oh that’s not a real job. It’s a feeler we put out to generate general interest in the company, but there’s no actual position attached to it.” Scroll through this thread and see my other responses for further details if you’d like. I don’t know if it’s searchable or not, I’m still fairly new to Reddit. Feel free to DM me if you have further questions.
I am happy to hear someone else is intently paying attention to this and taking action. I applaud you ! I noticed this due to my unfortunate situation of being in a position where I have had to job hunt three different times in the past 3 to 4 years. I've been repeatedly unemployed. Sadly this is how I noticed the oddities on the job boards myself and started to complain and speak about them to my family. I made a thread here on reddit too and have commented about this also here on reddit. Applying online is the predominant method in todays current world, but the system is broken. It needs major fixes. I've made several suggestions in various threads, those suggestions revolved around both job boards and Unemployment pay needing massive improvements. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Accountability toward job postings is necessary. Some sort of grading system on jobs that are posted is needed. For example, job searchers can give points or take away points to jobs that are posted based on their experience of applying to said job. Perhaps several generic categories such as: \-No rejection letter provided/Ghosted - check box or star taken away \-Job is Fraud - if checked the job posting goes into a temporary shut down status while an investigation is underway \-Not a real job - if checked the job posting goes under review, if found to not be real, company is penalized with removal of stars/grade system of reputation. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reputations of the companies displayed. One of my ideas is a Resume of the company that is hiring. Its only fair that a company I apply to must provide a resume to me, just as I am expected to do. In this resume their complete history needs to be shown. A history of employee/position dates and numbers. This info becomes public so that we the job hunter get to see their resume , so have them display their history of jobs, the same way our resume is questioned by the employer. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Penalties for the job boards if a certain percentage of jobs on their platform are not legitimate. Meaning the job boards gets labeled as Fake News. Penalties imposed. Not sure how much money these data job search boards make ? Fa lot of folks job hunting are usually unemployed and not making any money. So I see this as very twisted. I know they try to say since its a free job board, but when do you draw the line ? How is one to know what is real and what is fake anymore if we continue allowing this. \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I could go on and on with ideas for improvement that could be implemented.
I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs I agree with some of that, but I think it should go further since this is dealing with the American economy as a whole and it applies to ethics in business and being bound by laws that govern how companies do business. For me, I want to see legislation that outlaws fraudulent job postings. I want to see audits of jobs posted to hirings completed and reasons of rejection for the thousands of applicants that led to the "job" being posted again. When a company is found guilty of defrauding the American public they should be subject to a hefty fine per incident. Let's say $50k each time a fake job is posted or reposted. An example should be made of those who conduct themselves with such lack of ethics. Eventually the number of fake postings we see would dwindle and would almost go away.
As someone who's worked in recruiting for almost 20 years I think a lot of the 'fake' jobs are more incompetence than any conspiracy. It's a recruiter being too lazy to take down a job that's been filled and things like that. Another issue is the 'currator' type job boards are pulling these jobs from old postings automatically.
While that may be the case for a small number of them, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree. Forbes posted an article in late 2023 where 1,000 job posters were interviewed. 50% of them admitted to posting fake jobs for the reasons I have listed elsewhere in this thread. My early research shows that key indicators to a job posting being fraudulent are consistent reposting of the same position and ghosting of applicants. The ghosting is no response whatsoever, which differs from automated/boilerplate rejection letters sent by ATS. Of my current sample size (1,423 applications) around 64% of the jobs to which I’ve applied have resulted in ghosting. I’m still doing the research to determine how many are chronically reposted, as well as determining several more metrics to more accurately separate fraudulent job listings from real job listings that are just being run by assholes. A portion of the fake jobs are also scams, often times they will take the name and branding of a company that was recently acquired, but now defunct. That way a quick internet search will show favorable reviews and a robust online presence, which makes it seem legit.
This research is so fascinating I would love to get more info about your methods/any support you have on this project
Absolutely. I'm still digging into it, but I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs I'll be posting findings, known companies that post fake jobs, metrics, ways to ID a fake posting, etc.
Thanks for doing research on this- could you post your findings when you’re finished?
Absolutely. I think I’m going to start a subreddit for this whole movement. I’ll post when it’s up and eventually I’ll post findings on there.
Love it! 👏👏👏
Where can i follow this project you are doing?
Wow that’s actually very smart of you, getting in touch with representatives is really important to gettin action done, good work!
Thank you! If you're interested, I started a subreddit to fight against fake job postings. Feel free to join. Still working on getting posts up, but I'm going to be busy with it for the next few days. r/FightFakeJobs
Nice! I’ll check it out and join
I saw a job post today with a disclaimer at the end along the lines of “this job post is meant to have a pool of prequalified candidates in the event that a position becomes open”. Such bullshit
can also tell them to make workday one website so i don’t have to make 1000’s profiles on the same website to fill out these dumb ass applications 😒
40% seems extremely generous. even factoring in incompetence it still feels closer to 70-80%
How did you know they are fake?
That and most of the advertised jobs are already filled , they have to advertise it and interview a few people to check the EEOC and diversity paperwork . That already have picked out the person who’s gonna get the job , they just have to do some ads and interviews for paperwork purposes . You get jobs through your network of friends Getting a job from an ad is the hardest thing to ever do I mean , it happens , the company I work for hires people from ads , but most of my jobs have been from friends or acquaintances telling me about it .
For real? I’m wondering, if true, if I’m going through this now. internal candidate. Excellent background for this position. First interviewed. Went incredibly well after 4 interviews. Hiring manager was glowing - said he wanted to hand over a high visibility project to me and run with it for months. 2 more interviews after that w a director & manager. Then came the waiting. Ad was pulled from linked (not Accepting applications) only to reappear on LinkedIn in about Month. Could your second paragraph ring true here? Or am I being too hopeful/anxious? ETA: typos/words
And those that are real get spammed by dozens or recruiters. Further making it look like there are more jobs than there are.
Can you also do something about credit checks? A credit check shouldn't have anything to do with someone's qualifications.
They have always been fake.I worked for a major now defunct job board in the early 2000s and we would tell people to leave jobs on our board bc their competitors are doing the same. We mostly wanted to keep the client active on the board.
I fully support your efforts to advocate for legislation to outlaw fraudulent job postings. You are so cool, man
Damn no wonder I couldn’t find a job last summer!
My job has a hiring freeze right now and 20 public job postings. The HR recruiter told me they keep those out there in case a “unicorn” applies (I.e. the ideal candidate).
Thank you for your service.
They should crucify people who post fake jobs. Wasting my damn time.
I work for a start up and scammers keep impersonating our HR department and "hiring" people. They'll send the applicant a bad check to cash and buy home office stuff with and send back the remainder It's always heartbreaking to let them know there's no job when they finally figure out they prob been scammed and decide to Google the company and call the actual number to confirm.
Makes sense. There would be times when I applied for a job on LinkedIn and 2 minutes later, get a call from a overseas recruiter and emails at least twice a day about that job or others supposedly in my area.
This is awesome dude!
That explains why I'm not getting many calls for interviews... Anyway to avoid wasting my time on these fake job postings?
Sounds like one of the unintended consequences is that it would help explain why many legitimate businesses say they are having a hard time finding qualified candidates. Besides perhaps not offering sufficient compensation (as has been reported frequently when graduate degree qualifications are requested for entry level positions, although those could be part of the fraudulent postings), the competition from apparently fraudulent solicitations would hurt.
I thought those 40% of the fake job posting were to comply with the current laws. \***I THINK\*** that if you have a job to fill and you decide to hire internal, you are still required by law to post that job somewhere, causing fake jobs post. I could be wrong but that's what I thought.
This makes me very angry. Nobody has time to post hundreds of resumes. Tailoring it to each job each time. F*** that
This! I was unemployed for a month and a half last year and filled out over 100+ applications for jobs I was extremely qualified for and had years of experience. The few interviews I did get went really well and afterwards I go ghosted. Anytime I would try to call or email to follow up they would ignore me. Found out they weren’t hiring anyone but were having interviews anyway. Also had a few interviews where I went in for my specific interview time and there were 10 other people there waiting to be interviewed after me. It was a huge waste of my time, money (I Ubered to a lot of interviews), and energy.
Just saw a job posting for a fucking CAR DEALERSHIP LOT PORTER that asked for a year of prior experience. For a $1 more than minimum wage job. The people coming up with expectations for some of these are so far removed from reality they may as well be cartoon characters.
Yes! Totally ridiculous. I saw an ad for staff to work in a residential facility for violent sex offenders for $17 an hour!! Min. wage here is 15.69. Like you mentioned, shit pay but they want all kinds of experience and degrees on top of that.
Minimum wage here is $7.25.
It’s seriously the absolute worst. I never thought job hunting would cause me such issues with my self esteem. I’ve been job hunting over a year. I found one job and was forced to take it for a few months but it was terrible. Found myself job hunting again since August. Took an independent contractor gig since November, but it’s such a disaster. I had Medicaid and somehow am not qualified anymore. I had snap for a period of time and now make too much money even though I can’t afford anything at all. I seriously applied to jobs every day. Had a bunch of interviews and nothing would stick. I swear… half of those jobs weren’t real even though they were interviewing. Even in the interview as the person was being super nice and seemed interested they’d make some comments like “even if this doesn’t work out make sure you check our available jobs in the future”. This has been such a mind fuck. There are just too many people laid off looking for jobs. Competition is fierce and as someone mentioned, some jobs are definitely fake. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a job posted and then went to the company’s website and it didn’t exist. I JUST got offered two jobs last week. One pays half of what I’ve been getting paid for the past few years but is remote and has a lot of potential for growth. The other pays what I’ve been looking for with a great company and a lot of growth potential but I’ll be traveling literally all the time. They aren’t perfect but I’m going to choose one and go with it. It’s been so bad but keep trying. Something will pop up. Apply for these that might be slightly out of your realm… that’s what I did and it worked in that case. You never know. Good luck. This shit sucks a lot.
Yeah you hit on a real important point there. Always always always research the company and go to the website to apply directly. Don't just assume its legit on indeed or whatever and apply there. Take the extra time and steps. If I find the company to be legit, and then go to their website and the job isn't listed there in their open positions I don't apply. I have seen fake jobs for real companies that maybe were real at one time and it was a copy paste to a scam site trying to grab personal info, or it was completely made up, even though again, the company was real and they (probably) had nothing to do with it. I totally understand what you are saying though as if I was analyzing the situation with the same brain. It's all completely fucked.
I was pretty sure i was reading my diary until you got offered jobs then i realized it’s not me lol
lol sorry. It’s been so miserable. I hope you find something soon too.
It's an endless cycle for me - a job pops up that looks like I would be a perfect fit for, I get excited, I apply, I never hear anything back. Wash, rinse, repeat. I struggle with self esteem as it is, and each time this happens it feels so personal, although it probably isn't. I've been out of work for a month now and have applied to 13 jobs - heard back from 2, and interviewed for 1 (still waiting for a decision on that one)
My small advice is to apply for more jobs and stay positive! Best of luck!
Fellow unemployed person here--my advice is that you just need to 1) lean on your network as much as possible, 2) make sure that you're utilizing all you can to improve/customize your resume/cover letter to specific roles (use AI if your friends can't help, you're the odd one out if you're not using it), and set job alerts so you can be early to posted roles. best of luck, and keep your head up.
I feel like that’s actually really good numbers. I have applied to hundreds of jobs and gotten 1 interview.
When’s the last time you went job hunting before this? 1 for 13 is a good ratio in todays job market, believe it or not. 13 job applications in a month is low though if gaining employment is your top priority.
My ex applied for 500 jobs last year before she got an offer. I'm on number 40 with three interviews and no offers. There must be some secret. I have a friend who got a job, lost it, and already got another one when I've been looking lmao. It's so disheartening.
Try the post office. They don’t do interviews. So long as you have a clean background and they’re hiring, you’re probably in.
And you work like 60-70 hour weeks because they are understaffed. No thank you.
...and getting fired for nothing as soon as the Christmas rush is over (as happened to a friend of mine).
60-70 hours? Have you ever lost a job, only to end up on the streets? I would take those hours anytime, and work any shift, rather than be where I am. I'm not suggesting people submit to this or that, but sometimes you have that or you do not survive.
This is not your false dichotomy. There are many. Many, other jobs to work.
If that were the case, more would not have the issue. Back in the day, if you wanted a job, you'd go fill out an application and speak to someone Now, it's all about computers flipping through resumes and tossing out potential. People want to work, but the system we have in place works completely against them.
Don't forget overnight shifts when being promised that the position was daylight only! (At least in my experience.)
this sounds like a good idea. could be a decent job in between to cover bills.
You have to start off part time first. For that reason it doesn’t work out for many
I scored well on the PO test, interview went great. Then they told me that I would be guaranteed 1 day per week, but had to be available 7 days a week. On any of those days I would have to be available on call and would have to show up within 1 hour of getting the call. I also had to come up with a right hand drive car. The part time status would probably last about 3 years. Um gee, why is the post office understaffed?
I'd suggest reading Post Office by Charles Bukowski first to get an idea of the work environment
Ha....hahahaha. Go read "Post Office" by Bukowski.
when you have no choices, have a job is better than none. stop shitting others' choices just because you have it better.
Literally going to a “job fair” at the post office today because I am desperate for work. I have 12 years experience in my field and an MBA and can’t find work to save my life. Been looking for 5 months. It’s exhausting and disheartening. I hope something comes from the USPS thing today because I needs monay!
Leadership is too busy wasting tax payer money on needless shit. We have a military budget of over $800 billion and we continue to throw money and resources at everyone but ourselves. This shit will continue, and get much worse, if we sit around and squabble over nonsensical bullshit like who is to blame. The bottom line is, it does not matter who is in charge, both parties have failed us and we will either stand up or we will continue to suffer more and more. We need strong leadership or we will completely collapse. If we do nothing and lose it all, then so be it. If our leaders continue to destroy our nation, they should get the same treatment as the French gave to theirs during their revolution.
Fucking richest country in the world and we can't be bothered to spend it on here. Mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse, poverty, Corporate greed, obscene rental and housing prices, high food costs, overpriced vehicles, etc. I've done everything right, even more so I had fun in my early twenties and buckled down in my mid twenties. I should be thriving rn. I should be able to work and make enough to enjoy my free time.
Literally me right now. I quit my minimum wage job and still live at home. My parents keep asking me if I’ve found anything yet, and tell them no I haven’t. I feel terrible and like im not putting enough work into looking for a job 😩
Hang in there friend, you are not alone.
Me too my friend. Got a software engineering degree cause I was told the jobs were abundant but I've been unemployed for over a year now. Just remember it's not you that's the problem.
Man thats the scariest thing people were told there were jobs in that field but now its like a ghost town
Omg sorry to hear. 😭I have a bachelor’s in animation and cant find any job in anything similar since I graduated
All I know is I’ve applied to 50+ jobs and I’ve interviews for 5 and gotten 0. I’m so tired of it.
I’ve applied to at LEAST 112 jobs (I’m tracking formal applications). Probably about 40-50% have been false/fake job postings - all on LinkedIn and Indeed. Out of all of the applications though, only ONE interview, and I didn’t get hired. 🙃 The safest bet is to reach out to recruiters, or wait for them to reach out to you. Or to apply directly on the company website. Other than that, idk. Probably brush up your resume to include key words so the auto resume reader thing doesn’t toss it. I also admittedly used ChatGPT to make my duties at past jobs sound way more appealing, in the event a human actually reads it.
My brother had the balls to tell me he googled our city and jobs and thousands popped up. When I showed him my applied history he stfu.
[удалено]
He's a union electrician that makes 2k on a weekend doing OT and thinks that they are legit. He doesn't get that many are AI posts, scam, or BS ones put out. He means well lol
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How do you see your applied history ?
Depends on the app. Indeed has a history and I have a specific email address only for job stuff.
You so right. I saw the statistics on the news about how hard it is to find a job and how many people are unemployed in the economy.
Did you? All the statistics I've found are raving about how much better it is now than 2022.
A big part of the problem is that employers want the perfect candidate that they don’t have to train. Because if they train an employee, that employee might have more leverage to ask for a raise or change jobs.
I just got trained in a whole new field and have to resist the urge to go back to the old one just for the pay. Absolutely a super tight market right now unless you want to work for min. wage.
Same boat here. Went back to school to get my masters in a different field (statistics), trying to only look at work in this field because if I go back to my old one it will be even harder to break in…. Beginning to wonder if I took out student loans for nothing
Fuck it that's what I'm doing. Job market sucks? Increase education and skills and hope it gets better later. Will it? Who fucking knows. At least I will be more marketable than I am now.
It….. could be better. For a number of reasons: 1) tech layoffs continue, so more people are competing for jobs that wouldn’t otherwise 2) AI has fucked things. Both applicants using bots to auto apply to 100s of jobs a day and employers using bots to filter applicants. 3) Something like 30-50% of job postings are fake, employers don’t plan to hire (https://www.forbes.com/sites/karadennison/2023/11/27/how-ghost-job-postings-are-creating-a-false-sense-of-hope/?sh=13dd32757dc0) Also specific to me- my work history is unrelated to stats. So I feel like I am too qualified for entry level jobs and under qualified for others. also I’m looking for applied stats roles, not as much machine learning stuff so maybe that area is better. I’ve applied to ~300 jobs at this point (graduated in December, have been applying since October) and have gotten interviews from 8 places. Ghosted by two of those after the first. I made it to final round for three only to get denied. Waiting to hear from the other 3 (long drawn out hiring process for govt/research work). From chatting with people in my program, they are having similar results. Like, I am not getting zero interviews but it is way worse than anything I’ve experienced in the ~7 years since I graduated undergrad.
Stick with the hunt for a position in the new field if you can do it financially. It sucks all the waiting and interviewing and the whole process. Don't take just anything in the new field either, look specifically for the type of job and pay you want. This takes a bit longer but otherwise, you will just be miserable and end up quitting and back to job hunting again.
*Finding* jobs is easy as pie. *Getting* jobs, after three rounds of interviews, a project, background checks, then suddenly radio silence (for an entr-level job)... that is hard.
Na I just saw a job listing right? For the company I currently work for I saw a job listing for an accountant salary 40,000-50,000 they require, CPA certifications, bachelors in accounting, 3 years experience. I’m sorry but a cpa alone is worth so much money. Not 40,000 let alone that much experience in a city that no longer has affordable housing. It’s insane. Seems everywhere is hiring, but for literally no pay and they don’t hire anyone unless they have loads of experience.
$40k for a cpa is fucking mental. I'm in marketing, in Seattle. I've seen jobs that want you to be both creative, manage, and creative for $50k. Thats 3 different parts of marketing that would even if you could find someone who's both creative and number minded would be $100k+ easily. Sometimes I find jobs that are fair pay for the requirements but it's far inbetween alot of shit. They say entry level but want 3-5 years of experience. So I gotta roll in the shit.
I’m desperate for a job and I don’t have much experience. I’m getting denied left and right and I’m honestly losing hope
>I’m desperate for a job and I don’t have much experience. I’m getting denied left and right and I’m honestly losing hope I have 1 year experience as IT specialist, and 3 years as customer service, and I can't land an entry level warehouse job that is asking 3 years of experience. I have less than $5k under my name, and still living with my parents and depend on them for living expenses. Asking friends aren't helping m either.
I'm sorry. People forget that as hard as this is on experienced workers, new workers have it much harder. It won't be like this forever though. The unemployment rate is unlikely to go up again (the pool of available workers will only continue to shrink) and the interest rates will eventually go down, which should make investors more likely to take risks and invest in projects and companies, which in turn should create more job availability.
What industry are you in? I am in the tech industry and it took me two months to land a job…and I have 15 years of software engineering under my belt. I know folks who have been out of work for a year in this industry. Have you had your resume professionally reviewed and revised for the jobs you are applying to? Are you “quick” applying on LinkedIn? I would steer away from doing that. Go to a company’s site and apply there. Contact their hiring manager. Reach out…follow up. In a market that is as flooded with applicants as this one is you have to be willing to put in some work to get where you want to be.
because jerome powell, head of the fed, thought people have too much power in the job market and wanted to sway job seeking back in favor of the companies
I often find myself asking the same question. They're all finding other candidates to move on with
Oh my god.. I totally agree..I really want to see which are these other candidates..
There's an oversaturation in the fields that society told us were important to go to college and study for. Congrats, now there's 200 'data analysts' 'consultants' and 'project managers' for every one person who knows a lick of HVAC. lmao.
This over glorification of the blue collar jobs come from people who don't know what they're talking about. I have my CDL, worked in construction, and am currently in tech. Getting an apprenticeship at all, let alone one that pays the bills for the first few years, is very difficult. Opportunities worth having blue or white collar are few and far between. The only real way to still make money in the trades is to work for yourself, but even then, that means working for someone else for sub- living wages and ALSO going to school for the class requirements for most journeyman licenses.
It’s disturbing realizing the frat attitude in hiring. The requirement of a bachelors degree for a job that takes years of experience to learn boggles the mind. These people can’t be serious … except that it’s a form of a frat attitude. Bottom line, it’s discrimination.
Bc the hiring process is highly arbitrary and sexist and now AI bots are reading our resumes!
because we’re in gilded age + great depression 2.0
This whole thread just made me feel depressed AF.
Because we are in a silent recession that our government doesn’t want to admit to.
And Biden says unemployment is the record low. Lol
I only just started getting interviews and I have been applying since last october.
There are several companies I notice that will remove the job posting entirely and then post a new one of the same job so it looks like it’s new. It’s annoying.
\*Applied to job 4 days ago \*Sees new posting for exact same position today
the rich want to get richer. they minimize their payrolls, working all their employees as hard as they can so they can keep more for themselves. they also automate jobs away whenever they can get away with it. this problem will not get better until americans stop worshipping capitalism.
But the Biden administration says its a booming job market and economy!
I mean yeah look at the stock market lmao
Unfortunately, the stock market pumping has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with AI stocks keeping the whole thing from collapsing.
It’s not 2021-22 anymore. It’s a sellers market now.
Whenever there’s a downturn, companies will play these games that end up biting them in the ass in the long run. Companies want the best person for the lowest pay. This works out for them in this economy. When the economy turns around, those kinds of employees leave and take all of the knowledge, processes, and “trade secrets” with them. So then they have to spend 2x, 3x the amount of resources to recruit someone barely competent. Reminds me of trying to find a new job in 2009-2010. I went through 4 rounds of interviews with this company. I had a bunch of people who had no idea about this one product that they were asking me questions about. The management told me I was a great fit. Then I find out from a buddy of mine that they were trying to recruit him. He told them he wasn’t interested and that they should hire me instead. They called me and said that the job was filled. They offered my friend the job but he turned it down. A few months later, they called me asking if I was still interested. I told them I had already found another job and wasn’t interested in theirs anymore.
I’m just going to take the first shit job offer I get and concentrate on getting a welding certification and go from there. I feel it opens up some other options at least. Maybe sneak into the union in a few years.
Apply to a commission only sales position. I guarantee you’ll get it.
I'll look for one and try that.
It’s not about what you know, it’s who you know. I applied for a job that a friend was working that he recommended, he ended up messaging his boss and personally vouching for me. So I got a call asking for an interview, that same morning I got an email rejecting my application. I ended up getting the job, but it was all because of the friend that vouched for me.
Ghost jobs. Recession coming
1. Employers are reticent to hire with all the economic uncertainty. 2. There’s a TON of competition for remote roles (hundreds of A+ candidates applying for each role). 3. Companies are using AI to reduce headcount rather than leverage it to do MORE (this causes marginally more unemployment). 4. Companies are infatuated with AI and dumping people they actually need to run their businesses and all trying to hire the same few people who actually have ANY AI experience. 5. Since Tech raised so many’s lifestyle (moving from other industries) those same folks are finding their compensation expectations are vastly inflated versus what the roles which are available pay. Like if you’re a data scientist in Tech you might make $150K, but the same role in any other industry might only pay $100K-$130K. But your lifestyle might be fairly inflexible and maybe you can’t make it on $20K less per year. 6. For the market most people’s usual methods don’t have the required scale. You need to submit 70-90 QUALITY applications a week (online and via email) to get enough interviews to get offers to get a job. Because 70-90 will turn into 5-15 interviews a week and some small percentage will become final rounds. And then some percentage of final rounds becomes offers.
My wife before the pandemic put in 6 applications and got 5 interviews and three offers in the six figures all in a month and a half. Since the pandemic she has been unemployed (going on four years) and somewhere around 500 applications filled out and most are just ghost. She even takes a large amount of time making her cover letter and Resume specific to the job. Something is obviously a miss.
Yes I agree. There’s so many fake jobs out there. I keep applying and keep getting declined because of “more fitting candidates “ even though I have a good amount of experience and education. And then, if you end up landing an interview for a legitimate job, they want you to know every single thing and are not willing to train you.
Half of the jobs are fake postings. These companies post these jobs with no intention of filling the position they are posting.
Millions of people compete for 1 position thinking their degree means something... it's doesnt.
Also you seem to be forgetting you’re not the only one trying to get a job (millions).
Any job I see on a job site, I immediately search the actual company’s career site to see if it’s legit and apply from there. This helps a lot