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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

#21

Post by twelve40 »

changoplatanero wrote: post #4

What’s the difference between a ghost job and opportunistic hiring? I’ve never seen any team I work for put out a job posting with no intention of hiring and I’ve certainly never participated in interviewing a candidate where there is no intention to hire. However, I have seen my team put out a job posting where we only intend to hire if we get an applicant that is unexpectedly good.

> put out a job posting with no intention of hiring

i've seen (and worked for) many startups that post reqs prominently to signal to the world (investors, customers, etc) that "things are going great" and "we're growing" while not even able to afford a req.

> never participated in interviewing a candidate where there is no intention to hire

I haven't seen as much of that, but have been in situations where the company is either doing great (transitioning during an acquisition) or not so great (running out of money) but you keep interviewing to "look normal" or to keep the pipeline just in case things get back to normal.

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

#23

Post by charliebwrites »

duxup wrote: post #9

>The trend could be due to the low marginal cost of posting additional job ads and to maintain a pipeline of talents. After adjusting for yearly trends, I find that ghost jobs can explain the recent disconnect in the Beveridge Curve in the past fifteen years. The results show that policy-makers should be aware of such a practice as it causes significant job fatigue and distorts market signals. Very interesting. I cer…

> to maintain a pipeline of talents

See, this is the part I don’t understand.

If they don’t have real jobs available, what’s the point of building this “pipeline”?

Are they genuinely going to plan to use this pipeline for future roles? Because simply posting a real job in the future will still get 1000s of applications which builds _real_ pipeline

I don’t see recruiters going back through a bunch of old resumes to find “the one”. That’s not how that works and isn’t an efficient use of time

Seems like a bunch of busy work for nothing

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

#24

Post by ghaff »

changoplatanero wrote: post #4

What’s the difference between a ghost job and opportunistic hiring? I’ve never seen any team I work for put out a job posting with no intention of hiring and I’ve certainly never participated in interviewing a candidate where there is no intention to hire. However, I have seen my team put out a job posting where we only intend to hire if we get an applicant that is unexpectedly good.

And people get job descriptions written for them. They may--or may not--be actually posted. (I'm genuinely curious and wish I had looked at the time about my last job.) Wouldn't mean no one else would have had a shot but almost certainly not a random applicant putting in an online application.

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

#25

Post by cryo28 »

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, you are effectively committing fraud!

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

#26

Post by duxup »

charliebwrites wrote: post #23
duxup wrote: post #9

>The trend could be due to the low marginal cost of posting additional job ads and to maintain a pipeline of talents. After adjusting for yearly trends, I find that ghost jobs can explain the recent disconnect in the Beveridge Curve in the past fifteen years. The results show that policy-makers should be aware of such a practice as it causes significant job fatigue and distorts market signals. Very interesting. I cer…

> to maintain a pipeline of talents See, this is the part I don’t understand. If they don’t have real jobs available, what’s the point of building this “pipeline”? Are they genuinely going to plan to use this pipeline for future roles? Because simply posting a real job in the future will still get 1000s of applications which builds _real_ pipeline I don’t see recruiters going back through a bunch of old resumes to fi…

I don't understand it either. I never had the company I had this experience with call me back, the whole experience was pretty off-putting.

But I suspect the "pipeline of talent" might be the internal excuse and in fact .... again there's no mensurables so no way to know if it is true or not. But someone can say they added folks to their "pipeline" like they add contacts on linkedin.

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

#27

Post by schwartzworld »

charliebwrites wrote: post #23
duxup wrote: post #9

>The trend could be due to the low marginal cost of posting additional job ads and to maintain a pipeline of talents. After adjusting for yearly trends, I find that ghost jobs can explain the recent disconnect in the Beveridge Curve in the past fifteen years. The results show that policy-makers should be aware of such a practice as it causes significant job fatigue and distorts market signals. Very interesting. I cer…

> to maintain a pipeline of talents See, this is the part I don’t understand. If they don’t have real jobs available, what’s the point of building this “pipeline”? Are they genuinely going to plan to use this pipeline for future roles? Because simply posting a real job in the future will still get 1000s of applications which builds _real_ pipeline I don’t see recruiters going back through a bunch of old resumes to fi…

Everybody has to do something to justify their paycheck. If you’re in hiring and there’s no jobs, you have to do something.

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

#28

Post by willsmith72 »

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

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

#30

Post by falseprofit »

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…

Maybe if someone is “amazing” you should get them a green card.
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