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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

#71
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 can’t tell if this is satire or actual comic book villain behavior. I guess not really villain behavior, but certainly gaming a clearly broken system

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

#72

My bet is that companies are hiring H1Bs but must post jobs. I literally dont see americans getting hired at well known tech companies

To be fair, the amount of good job applicants from america is also really low. It's not a great argument, but it's the same with DEI. I literally don't have enough applicants to fill a quota even if 100% of them passed all interviews

I run interviewing at a well known company, this isnt true

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

#73
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 gave up applying for jobs many years ago. Mostly because I am bad at the interview process. I maintain a good personal network and have a good reputation, so I can always find work.

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

#74
post #2

In tech, ghost job listings maybe as high as 50%. Another reason for ghost job listing is to meet the requirements for visa processing.

I've encountered this before with absurdly high job requirements paired with a low-moderate commensurate salary. While on call with an HR rep for a listing I had loosely met, I deduced from their responses it was done so the company could claim their talent needs aren't being met domestically, and thus would file for more H-1B or H-2B work authorization permits. This is rife with its own issues of non-transparency and offshoring, where I likely encountered it in the later stages[0] and was being paid lip service to the process without the intent of hiring.

[0] https://flag.dol.gov/programs/H-2B

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

#75
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…

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

It is. Best case scenario H1Bs allow companies to avoid training citizens. Worst case (and most common) H1Bs are more exploitable labor compared to citizens.

H1Bs etc just suppress citizens wages and increase profits of capital holders. There’s a very very tiny % that actually aren’t replaceable domestically.

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

#76
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.

Not likely. The new government is not interested in harming the interests of the big employers.

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

#77
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…

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

> 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

Correct. It's pure theatre.

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

#78
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.

Just like how the last Trump government fixed it?

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

#79
There are no jobs. I've been looking for two years. A couple of humongous rounds of interviews (one company in Sydney had me do 15 interviews plus a presentation, plus meetups with the CEO for lunch and the CTO and a case study), all for one mid-size startup CPO role.

No hire. Two weeks later they announced another 25% of layoffs.

I've tried and exhausted all my contacts, from work, Stanford alumni, everything. There's no one hiring. At least 500 applications either led to no reply or "sorry but you're not the person we are looking for". Week later the same job is advertised again. It's all ghost jobs.

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

#80

My bet is that companies are hiring H1Bs but must post jobs. I literally dont see americans getting hired at well known tech companies

My wife a couple years ago was at a cyber security company that had very generous referral bonuses. Multiple members of senior management in her company were laying off talented and hard-working American citizens on the justification that they needed to downsize. But then just months later they would change their tune and fill the vacated positions with friends or acquaintances (always non-American citizens), they would also collect a generous referral bonus (often $20k or more). I'm not sure if this was purely to collect the bonus, because of ethnic preference or a desire to help their friends/family migrate from India but something strange was certainly going on. My wife eventually was part of one of these cycles of layoffs "because of the financials" then later heard from a colleague still working there that her manager had shortly afterwards backfilled her position with a referral of his own. Last we heard it sounded like the company was approaching bankruptcy.
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