Three Ways to Recognize a “ghost” Vacancy
The job search is a process fraught with so many pitfalls that when you find a position that matches your skills and sounds interesting, it feels like a minor victory before you even apply. But this feeling usually does not last long: days, and sometimes weeks, pass, and you do not hear a peep from the company – not even a refusal.
Perhaps your friend is trying to console you by saying that in all likelihood it was always an internal hire, but they were required to post the job. And while that could be true, it’s also possible that the debut—or even the role itself—never existed in the first place. A recent Resume Builder survey , also known as “ghosting” jobs, found that 40% of companies have posted fake job listings this year. Here’s how to spot job postings that don’t exist and why companies post them in the first place.
How to spot fake job advertisements
To be clear, when I talk about “ghost” job advertisements, I am not talking about advertisements that are actually scams designed to trick job seekers into forking over money and/or their personal information. (But if you’re looking for tips on identifying them, you can find them in previous Lifehacker articles .) Instead, I’m focusing on posting about non-existent job openings at legitimate companies. Here’s how to identify them.
1. Look for details
Sometimes companies post jobs that don’t exist in order to get to know existing talent better and to identify potential candidates in case real jobs become available in the future. For this reason, ghost job listings are usually quite vague, both in terms of the specific qualifications they are looking for and the responsibilities associated with the role. If in doubt, contact the company’s Human Resources department and request additional information about the position to help you determine your suitability.
2. Check the date
Generally, it is best to apply for a job within a week of it being posted. Of course, reposting a job (so that the post gets a new date) doesn’t require much effort, so a recent date is no guarantee that the position is real. However, if a position has been posted for more than a month or two, it’s usually a bad sign.
According to a 2023 report , it takes an average of 44 days to fill an open position, so if you find a position advertised for that same period of time or longer, you can contact the hiring manager or HR department and ask if the job is still available available. Another possibility is that at some point the vacancy was for an actual job, and—intentionally or not—it was not removed once filled.
3. Look for duplicates
In an effort to attract a wide range of talent, some companies are creating two (or more) slightly different lists for one open position, career coach and former hiring manager Mandy Woodruff-Santos told CNBC . To avoid wasting time applying for both and to have more realistic expectations about a company’s capabilities, check out their full job listings and look for potential duplicates.
Why do companies post fake vacancies?
So why do companies even bother with job applicants? One of the reasons, it turns out, is to boost the morale of current employees by making them think that new employees will soon join their team and help lighten their workload. Likewise, according to 649 hiring managers who responded to a recent Resume Builder survey , posting fake jobs also helps convince employees that they are replaceable and that they should be grateful to have a job at all. Other times, it’s stockpiling resumes for potential future jobs. Finally, it could be optics: in other words, the company wants to make it look like it’s growing and thriving, and someone decided that posting fake jobs was the best way to do that.