Ghost ads haunt job sites. Here’s how to spot them


If you’ve applied for jobs and companies aren’t contacting you, you may have applied to a ghost classified ad.

The term “ghost job” refers to job postings on job boards that remain online and are apparently never filled. For what ? According to wall street journalsometimes the position never existed or the company never intended to hire someone for the position.

In a survey conducted by Clarify Capital of more than 1,000 executives, 68% of them found that a job posting had remained active for more than 30 days. The survey also revealed that there are reasons why companies deliberately advertise ghost jobs.

Company looking for new employees looks like it’s growing

One of them is that the company is always looking for new employees to give the impression that it is growing. Another reason may be to motivate current employees. And sometimes it’s not intentional.

Joe Mercurio, project manager at Clarify Capital, explains that to avoid applying for a ghost job, you need to pay attention to how long the job offer has been open to applicants. If a job has been open for too long, it’s probably a phantom job.

Another reason employers post ghost jobs is to maintain a pool of candidates for high-turnover positions. THE wall street journal explains that companies spend exorbitant amounts on LinkedIn and Indeed ads (and the same for Welcome to the Jungle). To smooth out these costs, they keep shadow job postings on the site so they don’t run out of candidates.

Don’t confuse ghost job ads with scams

It is also important not to confuse phantom job advertisements with advertisements that are pure scams. Scams on recruiting sites like Indeed and LinkedIn work with candidates quite differently than ghost job postings.

In these employment scams, someone will, for example, ask you for an upfront payment before you start work, usually for equipment needed for the job, such as a laptop. If you’re trying to tell the difference between a scam and a ghost job, the first step is to verify that the person works for the company they’re advertising for.

My advice: to get the best results in your job search, apply directly on the company’s website. Applying here reduces the risk of falling into the traps of phantom job ads and scams.

Source: ZDNet.com





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