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Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

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Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#171

Post by shmatt »

protonbob wrote: post #62
shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

So basically you're wasting the interviewees time and breaking the law by admitting that you won't hire a citizen who would do the job just as well.

The law says I can’t submit the I-140 application, which I follow the law and I don’t submit it.

As a people manager it’s a heartbreaking conversation to have - to tell a report their dream of staying beyond their visa is gone

The law says every line manager needs to do their own industry pulse check every time an i-140 is submitted. And this is the only legal way to pulse check (advertise a ghost job). It would be much easier if the federal government did the pulse check one time for everyone and decided if engineers are or aren’t missing in the industry

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#172

Post by willsmith72 »

codingwagie wrote: post #123
willsmith72 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most companies aren't well known, what makes you think your experience is the "true" one? You mean to say you get a large amount of high quality American candidates?

Theres like a million well qualified applicants, they arent getting hired. go read any jobs forum, people are struggling

Yes, there are more candidates to choose from today than 5 years ago, but that just leaves more candidates. The hiring bar is higher, but the proportion of good Americans doesn't get higher.

Sure you can get a better American today than 2019, but you're comparing any one candidate to their competition and the company bar. If you want to deliberately hire Americans who interview worse than non Americans, you're breaking the law

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#173

Post by avgDev »

Lammy wrote: post #131
oriel wrote: post #17

A question I've had on my mind for a while now, watching this progression of fake or poisoned jobs, and miles of automatic systems to navigate: At what point do people consider the well poisoned? Where they just check out and stop applying, to specific companies or in general, because its very very obvious that there isnt actually a valid hiring market at all. I ask this question, because I've already passed this thr…

I'm already there with the monthly HN hiring threads. Not one of those companies over several years ever responded to me, even the ones where the listing felt tailor made for me, even the ones that literally said they respond to all applicants. They're a total waste of time lol

Seems like it would be beneficial to the community for someone to add some kind of a rating system for people posting in the HN hiring threads. I would expect at minimum to get a response.

Internet has gone to shit. It used to be much easier to find genuine people on the internet. Now, it is all marketing non-sense and filled with get-rich types.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#174

Post by dragonwriter »

niemandhier wrote: post #54
shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

This will than probably change with the new American government and its anti-immigration stance. Less h1b, less ghost jobs.

Yes, the depression the administration’s tariffs (and other policies) will produce will eliminate the jobs done by H1B workers, among others, and eliminate the incentives for economic immigration.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#175

Post by oldpersonintx »

bane wrote: post #133

I'm about a year into a mid-effort level job search. I work in a somewhat specialized technical field and am fairly senior (I think in FAANG-ese I'd be an maybe an L7 if I understand their levels correctly). So this means I'm looking for management, director, deputy CTO or CTO positions depending on the company. I have a track record making my company lots of money, and opening up new opportunities worth many multipl…

[dead]

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#176

Post by ludicrousdispla »

shmatt wrote: post #43
willsmith72 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was always wondered who audits this. Why should you even deny the green card?

You have to prove you tried interviewing and couldn’t find anyone to replace them. My company isn’t a super popular employer so we don’t get the best candidates. This might be a bigger problem at Google, Meta, etc

I can't imagine why they're not a super popular employer.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#177

Post by ajsnigrutin »

In EU, if you put an item on sale, you have to post the lowest price in the last 30 days to see if it's an actual sale or not (even though i'd consider 30 days a too short interval).

Why not have a similar regulation for job postings? Require companies to publish all the job posting history for the last few years, all the positions advertised and the number of people hired for those positions.

Prospective workers would see an ad, look at the history, see that the same position has been open for 3 years now with zero people hired and skip that company. Also companies would actually post their job ads only when they actually intend to hire someone.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#178

Post by IshKebab »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #83
indoordin0saur wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, this isn't clear to me. Are the interviewees citizens? So you're interviewing citizens to prove that there aren't any who can fill your jobs but even when they clearly could fill the job you don't hire them? Seems like the requirement of proving "there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job" is going to be near impossible for the government to enforce

Yes, h1b hiring practices have been shady at best for atleast a decade. For everyone that just doesn’t want to fire a coworker there is someone taking advantage of cheap labor that is easier to control under the threat of deportation. The h1b program is supposed to be for people at the top of their field so they can skip the normal visa line, but it is commonly used to save money through exploitation. A long time ago…

> The h1b program is supposed to be for people at the top of their field so they can skip the normal visa line

H1B is the normal visa line.

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#179

Post by riazrizvi »

ndiddy wrote: post #36
shmatt wrote: post #14

I have to put out a ghost job req and interview every person applying within reason for every green card a direct report is applying for. I have to show there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job The main problem is: even if the interviewee knocks it out of the park, is an amazing engineer, I still am not interested in firing my OPT/h1b team member who can still legally work for 2-3 years. So…

I'm glad our government has introduced the H1B program to help out employers like you who are dealing with a shortage of tech workers (who will work for 2/3 market and will do anything you say because if they get fired they'll be deported).

In 2023 there were 755,020 H1-B admittances. Why was it much easier to get a job in 2021? Because there were only 148,603 [1]. Notice that even though Republicans talked about immigration, neither party is talking about reducing H1-B filled roles. The kicker is if you’ve had a gap doing your own thing or because you were laid off and you apply for a job at a discount salary, you’re still not competitive against an H1-B worker because employers know you’d be able to trade up once you’ve been working for a few months.

[1] https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/h1b-visa...

Re: Why is it so hard to find a job now? Enter Ghost Jobs

#180

Post by davidgay »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #90
indoordin0saur wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, this isn't clear to me. Are the interviewees citizens? So you're interviewing citizens to prove that there aren't any who can fill your jobs but even when they clearly could fill the job you don't hire them? Seems like the requirement of proving "there are or aren’t any residents or citizens that can fill the job" is going to be near impossible for the government to enforce

This has been going on for decades. My first job out of university was at a dotcom consultancy with over 90% of software engineers there on H1B visas. The company was not at all shy about the fact that they only hired citizens/permanent residents if they had no other choice. I was hired because I had experience with a particular obscure RTOS that they couldn't find anyone on a visa who could do the work on a project…

> These threads end up fire hosed with people claiming hiring visa holders over citizens and permanent residents

They apparently also get fire-hosed with comments on the horrors of H1B hiring in a thread that is on green card application rules, i.e., all youb commenters on H1B did not even read the GP post. Those rules require advertising for a filled position, but don't require firing the current holder when you find a good candidate.

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