You customized your resume. Next, you wrote a passionate cover letter. Finally, you hit “submit” on fifty different applications this month. And what do you hear back? Silence. Maybe a generic rejection email arrives three months later, but mostly, you face a void. You start to spiral. “Is it me? Am I unqualified? Is my age showing?”
I am here to tell you to stop beating yourself up. The game is rigged. A new trend has taken over the corporate world, and it is called the “Ghost Job.” Recent data suggests that up to 40% of the job listings you see on major platforms are not real. They are phantoms designed to trick you, the investors, and the current employees.
The Illusion of Growth
Why would a company post a job they have no intention of filling? Perception drives this behavior. Companies want to look like they are growing. Consequently, if a company has zero open positions, it looks stagnant. It makes investors nervous.
However, if they have 50 “open” roles listed on LinkedIn, it looks like they are booming. It signals expansion and health. Therefore, you are wasting your time applying so that they can boost their stock price. You essentially become unpaid collateral in their PR strategy.
The “Resume Farming” Strategy
Data is the new gold, and your resume represents a valuable data point. Some companies post ghost jobs just to harvest resumes. They want to build a backlog of candidates for the future. Perhaps they need someone for a role that will open in six months, or maybe never.
They hoard talent “just in case.” Meanwhile, you sit by the phone waiting for an interview for a role that doesn’t exist today. Although it is disrespectful to your time, it remains standard practice for HR departments trying to look proactive.
Pacifying Overworked Employees
This is perhaps the most cynical reason. Imagine a team of three people doing the work of five. They burn out. Eventually, they complain to management, “We need help!” Management says, “Don’t worry, we have a job posting up. We are looking for someone.”
In reality, they are not. They post the job to silence the current employees. It gives them the false hope that relief is coming. As a result, it buys the company a few more months of overworking their staff without actually spending money on a new salary.
The Internal Candidate Charade
Sometimes, a job is technically “real,” but management already made the decision. Laws or internal policies often bind many companies to post a job publicly even if they already promised it to an internal candidate. This might be the boss’s nephew or the person from accounting.
Consequently, they must go through the motions. They might even interview you to make it look legitimate. But you never had a shot. Instead, you merely checked a compliance box for them.
How to Spot a Ghost Job
You don’t have to be a victim of this. Signs exist to help you avoid them. First, look at the posting date. If a job has been up for 30+ days, or if it reappears every few weeks, it is likely a ghost. Companies fill real urgencies quickly.
Second, look for vague descriptions. Be suspicious if the job description is a generic block of text that could apply to any company. Third, check the company’s career page. Sometimes the job appears on LinkedIn but not on their actual website. That signals a major red flag.
Focus on the Hidden Job Market
The existence of ghost jobs proves that the “apply online” method is broken. It has become a black hole. Therefore, to bypass the ghosts, you must tap into the hidden job market.
Network. Connect with actual humans at the company. Additionally, ask for informational interviews. A referral from a current employee is the only way to know if a job is real. Don’t rely on the algorithm; rely on relationships. The system is full of ghosts, but your network is alive.
Don’t Take the Silence Personally
The most important takeaway here involves protecting your self-esteem. When you don’t hear back, statistics suggest there was no job to begin with. It isn’t a reflection of your worth, your skills, or your hire ability.
Rather, it reflects a broken corporate culture. Keep going but change your strategy. Stop chasing ghosts and start chasing connections. That is where the real opportunities hide.
Have you ever applied for a job that you suspected wasn’t real? Share your experience below.
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The post The “Ghost Job” Trend: Why 40% of job postings you see aren’t actually real appeared first on Budget and the Bees.
