Ghost Jobs
The job search is like playing chess. It involves strategy, patience, and skill. Applying online is like playing the lottery. If you are going to focus your job search through job boards (online applications), here are a few things you need to know. Many ATS offer posters the ability to cross-post job openings on hundreds of job boards for free or on premium job boards for minimal cost. But what happens when the company closes the job posting? Enter ghost jobs.
Ghost jobs are posted without intent to fill, or old job postings never removed from circulation. A recent survey shows that 50% of respondents left jobs open to harvest resumes to make future openings easier to fill. Applying directly on the company’s career page gives you the highest probability that the job is still open, but even then, there is a chance it’s a ghost job.
How do you know if it’s a ghost job? If you don’t recognize the job board advertising the role, immediately go to the company career page to see if the job is posted. For example, a job is advertised on Uvaro for a Senior Customer Success Associate with Treepublic. When you go to Treepublic, there is no job listed. What is Uvaro? No clue! But a quick search leads me to believe they are a recruiting agency. Is this job fake? Not necessarily. Although Treepublic doesn’t list their open jobs, they have an email to inquire about careers. For this example, I would email them with your resume, explaining that you saw the CSA job posted online but not on their site and wanted to know if it is a legitimate job posting before applying.
Ghost jobs are the #1 reason you apply to a job and never hear back; unlike when you apply and get an immediate rejection, you are left hanging, wondering what happened to your application!?
My advice is to use Google to source jobs, but do your due diligence to vet openings:
Verify the job is open on the company’s career page.
Research the website advertising the job.
Review the job posting for language, posting dates, and any other red flags you may see
Job boards with the highest credibility are LinkedIn, Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed, Glassdoor, BuiltIn, and other tech/startup-specific job boards.
Pro Tip: Instead of emailing the example above, look the company up on LinkedIn, then search people to find a recruiter and send them a DM with your inquiry.
Whenever possible, apply directly through the company’s career page. The next best thing is LinkedIn because they charge an arm and a leg to list jobs, and there’s a good chance companies aren’t wasting their money on resume harvesting through LinkedIn.
