WHAT’S UP WITH FAKE JOB POSTINGS?
Go “Old School” Instead
Many of you may not know this, but aside from being a scientist and an IT geek, I also spent a number of years as a life coach, focused on transitions and career management. This meant that I was often asked to help people seek out a new job, whether they had been laid off, hated or were bored by their current job, or just needed to try something new. This involved conceiving the kinds of positions they would consider, defining goals, writing resumes, creating a LinkedIn profile, interview practice and more.
The one thing no one could control was how delayed the process seemed to be. You might wait a month to hear from an employer, even if the job posting made it sound like they needed someone urgently. People shared their experiences of having to do more than five interviews, some online, some in groups and some in-person. It made me wonder…why take up so much time and resources to find a great candidate? What is really going on?
On a personal note, a small company took a month to call me back after a great, in-person interview. They had flown me to Toronto and put me up in a hotel. Everyone told me they loved what I brought to the table…and then, nothing. In this case, it turned out they had planned on bringing in a newbie and had budgeted for that. But they wanted me and had to find room in the budget to make me an offer I would accept. But this is unusual.
Today’s Reality
Clarity Capital did a survey that revealed the ½ of all job postings you might find online are fake. The company posting them has no intention of interviewing or hiring anyone. If you’re in the job market, you have to have suspected this. When you apply for something where you are the ideal candidate (like a competitor with inside info), it doesn’t make sense that you wouldn’t hear quickly.
Epoch Times journalist, Autumn Spredemann, decided to go deeper, trying to understand why companies would do such a thing. We’re ignoring the scam jobs where you are offered thousands per month for making a few phone calls at home. What we’re discussing here are jobs that look just like jobs you would consider and have previously applied for. Spreedemann found a few possible explanations: managers creating a pool of qualified people for a possible future job that isn’t currently funded; managers making their own people feel threatened, as they see postings for their own jobs; but most importantly, to make the company look exciting, growing and profitable. Only companies doing well are hiring, right?
Other reasons might apply. You have to keep HR busy, right? It costs less than hiring people. The data collected by the fake job offers might also help them with marketing analytics. Still, it is depressing and time-consuming for job-seekers to go through this morass.
One group that benefits is the current administration in power. The Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data on job postings which they use to explain how robust the economy is. However, when you survey households, you don’t see optimism. For all of Biden’s term, the BLS data shows growth, but the household survey shows radical decline. Sounds a lot like the data on inflation, right? If you find yourself reading cheerful government data, aren’t you having trouble buying it?
What Can We Do?
We can’t change government reporting, the first and major source of fake news. But we can change our job-hunting strategy. I have long recommended networking as the primary way to find a job. Use your LinkedIn network to meet with people who work at your target company. Have them get a copy of your resume to their manager. Many companies prefer to hire someone who is known to a current employee. This process also helps you find people who work in groups that are under-staffed, because they’ll tell you that there is a problem. It makes it more likely that an online job posting is real. And, once you’re in with people at the company, they may help you by looking at their internal job board, which is more likely to be accurate.
Ironically, the job-hunting process appears to work better the way some of us old guys remember it—in person. Show up, resume in hand, and take people out to coffee. Pick up the phone, and yes, make a phone call. Show off your clear communication skills. By making these efforts, you show more clearly your interest and commitment to that company and that job, than by spending five minutes filling out each online posting. And, your success will be greater.
What do we do about the online fraud? Not much you can do, except vote to show your anger at being duped. The rosy numbers being proffered by our government don’t reflect our reality. Stop buying into their scam. Take the first step to your dream job by going “old school.” As few consider this, it may be the smartest career move you make.
I occasionally manned a table at job fairs and discovered as you suggested minimal actual positions available. I was told that we just like to make our presence known and remain active in the marketplace. Quite the boondoggle for me as it would turn out.