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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

#531

Post by diego_moita »

anotherevan wrote: post #509
diego_moita wrote: post #232

This is the reason I no longer bother with HN's "Who's Hiring" posts. They're all Ghost Jobs and we can't even complain there about it.

On a similar post about ghost jobs a couple of weeks ago, I made the following suggestion: Another potential way to at least surface dodgy behaviour perhaps: Automatically append to a poster's comment links to all their previous comments in Who's Hiring threads in the past twelve months. I can foresee posters then creating throwaway accounts to avoid this, but the green username would be a give-away (or restrict new…

You're assuming that HN cares about ghost jobs. They don't.

They make money by growing startups and selling them, not by respecting job seekers.

So, why would they put any difficulty in the startups' growth? What's there for them to gain?

In the end, it is "caveat emptor". It's the responsibility of job seekers to evaluate if the posts are trustworthy.

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

#532

Post by John_Cena »

BadCookie wrote: post #520
sotix wrote: post #197

Ghost jobs are certainly problematic, but I’ve been getting actual interviews where the technical bar feels too high. There’s extraordinarily little trust in previous job experience and interviews assess for test taking anxiety rather than actual skill[0]. [0]: https://news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-job-interviews-anxiety/

Thank you for sharing this article. The study illustrates something I have tried to explain to people but haven’t found the right words for. As someone with (diagnosed) severe social anxiety, I would rather get a tooth drilled than do a technical interview. That hasn’t been great for my career, as you can imagine. I desperately wish I could just take a written test or something.

I have to schedule multiple interviews in the day so I can at least feel normal by the last one. I'm at my current job because I scheduled three interviews in a day, including a hour drive to a physical location for the second one.

I was so done with it I wore something between a Hawaiian shirt and a dress shirt to the last interview. This kind of approach is the only thing that works for me.

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

#533

Post by memtet »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #412
riazrizvi wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Right, and while the fraudulent H1-B hires (taking jobs where there are qualified unemployed Americans who would like them) are taking jobs from Americans, the illegal immigrants, about to be deported, are not (even if we taxpayers are paying $500/night to put them up in NYC hotels etc). I don't think Trump give a crap about helping American workers, anymore than his buddy Elon does - the anti-immigrant thing was jus…

[dead]

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

#534

Post by John_Cena »

noworriesnate wrote: post #381

Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between a ghost job and an interview that uses MS Teams on a bad day. Eventually headhunters will catch on and realize that MS Teams gives plausible deniability--"We invited the candidate to an interview but they never showed up".

MS literally hung up on me in 2020 during the interview in teams, no less than 3 minutes into the interview itself (interviewer was more than a dozen minutes late, and is a prominent MS guy who gives lecture style talks)

it's only gonna get worse

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

#535

Post by projectazorian »

John_Cena wrote: post #528
JAlexoid wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fist - it is not companies' responsibility to train anyone. It is not their business. Second - H1b are exploitable, because the system allows it. H1b has demonstrably not suppressed software engineering wages at all. Non-competes, have - on the other hand.

> H1b has demonstrably not suppressed software engineering wages at all. That's simply impossible; it's basic economics.

The lump of labor fallacy is usually covered in “basic economics” classes. There are multiplier effects from clustering of certain types of skilled workers. This increases overall demand and thus overall compensation for everyone in the market.

This is why ending the H1B program like posters propose here would be profoundly stupid - if companies can’t staff their teams here, they will staff them elsewhere, and either stop hiring here or close up shop entirely. This will lower salaries and increase unemployment in the relevant fields.

You already see this in microcosm due to real estate costs serving as a brake on internal migration, many companies have moved all net new hiring out of the Bay Area.

Now admit too many foreign workers at too low wages and you will hit diminishing returns, but we are way short of that point, especially if we can manage to curb abuses of the existing program.

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

#536

Post by cscurmudgeon »

calculatte wrote: post #368
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any evidence H1B workers in tech have lowered wages? I have only seen anecdotes while the law explicitly states H1Bs should be paid the prevailing wage or above.

Look up that "prevailing wage". It's a deep discount compared to the real world. Minimum for a Software Developer in SF: $113,444 https://h1bgrader.com/

Define “real world” and how it differs from actual data used to compute the prevailing wage.

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

#537

Post by projectazorian »

bdangubic wrote: post #503
projectazorian wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it's not 100% required, there are exceptions for certain job categories like nursing and there's also the extraordinary ability exception. (Not trying to be pedantic but US immigration law is full of random loopholes and people who qualify for them, or might be able to qualify with a bit of work, often aren't aware.)

I should have been more clear - I am talking about IT/Dev/… jobs, not other professions.

Not sure if it’s still the case but extraordinary ability green cards used to be surprisingly easy to get for software engineers! Get your name on a patent (not as hard as you think, companies love adding to their IP portfolio), get accepted to do a couple of conference talks, and you’re most of the way there. Or so I was told a few years ago by someone trying this route.

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

#538

Post by cscurmudgeon »

hollerith wrote: post #498
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that is happening widely, surely there will be some data to support that right? Authorities do enforce H1B provisions proactively. https://www.uscis.gov/scams-fraud-and-misconduct/report-frau... https://cis.org/North/Apple-Hit-25-Million-Penalty-Favoring-... https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/11/06/h-1b-visa-fraud-leads... > absence of consistent heroic efforts Will that apply to every law in society or just to H1B…

You seem to be genuinely curious, which is commendable. >Will that apply to every law in society or just to H1B laws? The H1B laws are harder to enforce than most laws -- or so it would seem to me -- because the question of whether there are Americans that are able to do a particular job at a particular workplace depends on many fiddly details that only the managers of the particular workplace (the prospective defend…

> The H1B laws are harder to enforce than most laws -- or so it would seem to me

Most laws are like this. Do you know criminality laws require intent and yet we do fine without mind reading devices.

Most H1Bs are in software and wages in software have been rising along with number of people in software engineering over the long term.

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

#539

Post by John_Cena »

ghaff wrote: post #465
Muromec wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>an internal champion. It's an interesting way to spell "corruption".

And "corruption" is an interesting way of saying that you don't think personal connections should pay into business decisions but I realize many folks in tech roles think that way.

Yeah we refuse the ethics-twisting of suits; that much is certain.

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

#540

Post by John_Cena »

bell-cot wrote: post #472
ein0p wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, then those specialties will have to pay Americans more, rather than dump cheap foreign workers into the labor market. It's by design.

So the moment that someone wants to hire a bilingual child care worker who has a fairly obscure second language (vs. English/French, English/Spanish, English/German, etc.), you think it's perfectly reasonable to 10X the pay rate? Ditto if a museum is hosting an exhibition of art from some tiny country, and wants a few docents who can read the inscriptions? Ditto if ...

I couldn't care less for the incentives of a corporation. Why are they allowed to slight the environment for their benefit but I cannot for my own? Am I not represented in this country (nobody is, your votes can't compete with consolidated bribery)
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