Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

arxiv.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 598 posts

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

#181

Post by goochphd »

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…

That's great that you found a new spot.

I've seen other research and discussion on this topic. Some stats that may be validating for you (and others) to hear:

* There's a 0.08% job application -> offer rate when applying through LinkedIn (LI). An average of 1 in 1,250 applications lead to an offer

* The linked paper on this post finds that 21% of postings are ghost jobs, but I've seen credible estimates that the proportion is as high as 50%

* A Stanford survey found hundreds of fake LI profiles, AI-generated "recruiters" that are interacting with candidates and posting ghost jobs on behalf of big companies

* ~75% of resumes from qualified applicants are never seen by a human

* resumes get on average 6 to 8 seconds of consideration when they are reviewed by a human

* 300,000 jobs are outsourced annually (with respect to the US)

All this to say, you're right, something is fundamentally broken in the labor market, especially the tech labor market. And not that many people are talking about it, except for those of us who have been unfortunate enough to need to look for jobs in the past ~2 years.

In my own case, my previous employer (a startup) ran out of money and laid everyone off last Fall. I was fortunate enough to find a new position, but this job search was the hardest I've faced since 2008 - and it seems worse now than it was this time last year.

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

#182

Post by bryanlarsen »

Iwan-Zotow wrote: post #119
cj wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Many (especially smaller) companies don't want to hire people who need visa sponsorship because it requires a decent amount of overhead. The company needs to have an immigration lawyer to prepare and submit paperwork, which many smaller companies don't want to bother with. FWIW it's illegal to require "US citizenship" in a job description. You can, however, say "eligible to work in the US". (The former would be d…

> FWIW it's illegal to require "US citizenship" in a job description. nonsense tons of jobs advertisements required "US citizenship", because there is a security clearance attached

Those companies are breaking the law. SpaceX was prosecuted for doing that.

Now SpaceX says:

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

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

#183

Post by para_parolu »

bluGill wrote: post #169
ndiddy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

H1b should be a bid salery to play not first to apply. That is we will allow x of them, when you sponser someone you commit to paying them some salary for the full term - no layoffs (you get fire for cause but that is a legal thing they can take you to court for , and the courts can force you to give back pay if it wasn't a good cause) , you should know your budget can afford them. , someone who really is the best ,…

This means small companies may not get good talent that value things besides salary (wfh, perks, fun project) and will have to compete with corporations for people who only cares about money. This may (or may not) impact startups

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

#184

Post by jmull »

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…

What makes it worth the extra trouble?

I guess the "green cards" really work cheap?

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

#185

Post by underlipton »

stronglikedan wrote: post #151
protonbob wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

it's okay to break stupid laws as long as you don't get caught

Break stupid laws/don't get caught | Civil disobedience/face consequences

------------------------------------|----------------------------------------

Don't break any laws/get SWATed. | "It's never okay to break any laws ever"

____

I feel like this model could be useful somehow.

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

#187

Post by grugagag »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #63
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…

Rage baiting?

Doesn’t appear so, the OP seems genuine

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

#189

Post by grugagag »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #140
fjni wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP already hired H-1B in the past and that person is working for them now. OP is now in the process of doing a green card application for said employee. They can't move forward with the GC application because there are other qualified citizens/residents, but they don't have to fire the existing H1B employee. That's how I understand OP, if that's legally true or not, I don't know.

You're correct that they are under no obligation to fire the employee on the H-1B. (In theory, they are applying for a "new" job, and them not getting it for whatever the reason isn't an issue for their current job and status.) However, what OP is missing is that rejecting the US citizen application based on their citizenship is still likely a prohibited discrimination case regardless of what they do with the existin…

The problem is that it’s hard to prove they did that. Until the law is changed the show will go on.

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

#190

Post by satisfice »

indeed30 wrote: post #125

Hang on a minute. There is absolutely nothing in this research that measures the accuracy of this approach. A user saying "I was ghosted" is not, to my mind, proof of anything. Job seekers almost never actually know if the job was real or not, so it's hard to see how Glassdoor reviews can ever provide the insight this work is looking for. I do believe that "ghost" jobs exist, often for H1B purposes, but I don't think…

Hail to you, person who also reads studies.

The methodology is pretty weak.

Post reply on HN