How Many Pharma Job Postings Are Fake?

If we could update our LinkedIn profiles with emotion- we'd see a lot of this right now:

The pharma/biotech world has been nothing short of a rollercoaster lately, with most of us feeling the ups and (mostly) downs over the last six months to a year. Layoffs are the norm rather than the exception these days. If you haven't been laid off yourself, chances are you know someone who has.

It's a tough scene out there with more companies cutting jobs than creating new ones. This has led to a flood of talent in the market. But here's the kicker: it's a mess, not just for the companies trying to navigate this surplus of talent but even more so for the candidates caught in the middle.

Many people think the job hunt confusion comes from all this newfangled AI and resume-scanning tech. They think about key-words that need to be on the resume. But let me tell you, it's not as straightforward as that....

You wouldn't believe it, but over half the jobs posted online are phony.

Here's how I found out:

Last year, I put forward candidates (at a director level and above) for 400 roles. I'd reach out directly to hiring managers. And guess what? The feedback, or lack thereof, from hiring managers painted a pretty bleak picture.

I got back responses for 280 roles, a whopping 62% were going nowhere. And here's why:

1. The job's already got someone's name on it internally, but they had to post it just to tick a box.
2. The position was filled, but someone forgot to hit 'delete' on the posting, so it just kept popping up like a bad penny.
3. Some hiring teams are just collecting resumes without any intention or budget to hire.

Now, promoting from within is great. But posting a job, getting folks' hopes up, and going through the motions when you've already picked your player? That's a low blow.

With 62% of jobs being dead ends, roughly 40% of those were due to the job already being earmarked for someone on the inside or a friend they plan on hiring. I recently read an article shared by a friend that highlights an interesting point regarding hiring solely based on culture (which seems to be the excuse when hiring managers want to bring in their old team). This quote in that article resonated well:

"Avoid promoting entirely based on culture fit. Although you may have good intentions, it often results in a lack of diversity of thought and outdated leadership models." Give it a read.

When you combine these ghost jobs with the uptick in professional ghosting we're seeing, you've got a perfect storm for headaches.

So, what's my advice in this chaos? Think competition, but not just in terms of how you stack up. Right now, with the scales tipped, you've got maybe 40 candidates for every single legit job. And we're not talking about barely making the cut; we're talking about the cream of the crop, the top 90-95% qualified candidates.

Despite all this doom and gloom, I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Funding's picking up, companies are slowly hiring more, and that overwhelming 62% of go-nowhere jobs from last year? I'd bet it's down to around 25-30% now. We'll see what the numbers say after Q1 of 2024 (I run these reports quarterly), but I'm hopeful.

Let Cascadia Search Group help you transform your job relationship status from "it's complicated" into a long-term relationship with your dream company. As always, feel free to reach out to me through LinkedIn. I appreciate those who engage, like, comment on, and share these articles with peers, as they are meant to give you an extra tool when looking for a new role.

All this negativity to say.... it's getting better. Very fast.

Cheers,

-NP