One of the most diabolical trends I’ve heard about in the job market is that about a third of job postings are “ghost jobs” — where there is no intent of hiring someone for the position posted.
A survey of 1,641 hiring managers had 40% of respondents admitted to posting ghost job listings with the reasons shown in the image.
This trend feels unnecessarily cruel and disheartening for job seekers navigating the market.
One aspect of ghost jobs only briefly touched on in the article, is something that I think may make up the majority of ghost jobs: the latency between a position being posted, and a position being taken down.
There is a very long wait list to join my team, both internally and externally. When I post a job opening, it gets a lot of applicants very quickly. Everyone that applies, gets screened and possibly interviewed.
Still open, but applying on day 10 is probably too late
1/N
If you apply on day 10, there are possibly hundreds of people scheduled for various levels of screening ahead of you. The role will likely be filled before you can be screened.
Technically not a "ghost job" but from the candidate's perspective, it can feel almost the same.
I make sure that my managers take listings down ASAP once we have a pool of at least one candidate that has passed the interview. I do "pre-hire" announcements to help potential candidates be ready day 1.
Dare Obasanjo
mekka okereke 