Why No One Trusts Recruiters Anymore

Is that job for real? There's not a ghost of a chance.

According to a recent survey conducted by MyPerfectResume, a whopping 81% of recruiters admit to having posted ghost jobs. What is a ghost job? It’s a job listing that looks like a bona fide open position but is really one the organization has already filled or never had any intention of filling in the first place. “Ghost job” is a polite term for “fake job.” “Fake job” is a polite term for “lie.”

Why would recruiters post nonexistent jobs on LinkedIn, Indeed, or CareerBuilder? Turns out there are plenty of reasons that have little to do with hiring someone. Of the 753 U.S. recruiters MyPerfectResume surveyed:

38% wanted to test the market for hard-to-fill roles

38% sought to maintain their presence on job boards

36% were testing how effective their job descriptions are

26% wanted insights about the current job market and their competitors

25% were assessing how difficult it could be to replace a current role

20% sought to improve their company’s reputation

Another survey by Resume Builder uncovered that organizations posted fake jobs to show they were amenable to hiring external talent and to appear as if they were growing even if they were in the midst of a hiring freeze. Even worse, some stated they advertised ghost jobs to make their employees believe their workload would be eased by hiring additional headcount or, conversely, instill fear by making them feel replaceable.

Resume Builder also found that 7 out of 10 hiring managers believe that posting ghost jobs is an acceptable practice.

It is not an acceptable practice.

Let me say on behalf of all employees and job seekers that 100% of us believe that the recruiters and companies posting fake jobs are unethical liars who waste our time and energy and erode our mental well-being. And the more we witness your company listing ghost jobs, the less likely we are to trust you again.

"Ghost jobs lead me to feel that my job search is futile. The experience makes me want to just give up. It hurts and makes you feel invisible — unseen and unheard."—Current Job Seeker

Fake jobs leave candidates wondering if their efforts are meaningless.

Let’s say you’ve just been laid off. You get busy doing what all the experts suggest: Update and polish you resume until it glistens, reach out to your existing network, strengthen your LinkedIn profile—maybe even pay for an AI-generated headshot that looks like it was done with AI, but hey, takes a few years off your face—and create accounts with all the popular job boards. When you see a job posting you’re qualified for, you meticulously tailor your resume to the position, write a shimmering cover letter, then hit send. You smile as you get the confirmation email that your application was received. Then you wait.

Undaunted, you do this 100 more times, which, conservatively speaking, costs about 50 hours of your life. Then you wait. And wait.

And wait.

Sometimes you hear nothing at all. Sometimes you receive the “we’ve gone in another direction” response. And sometimes you get called in for an interview.

Sweet Mother of God, an actual interview!

On the day of your interview, you choose your outfit and practice your spiel in front of the mirror. “You’ve got this,” you say to your reflection as you straighten your tie. And you do. You are awesome.

The interview goes swimmingly. You establish a good rapport with the hiring manager, the position sounds perfect, and they even give you a small (unpaid) test project to complete. You go home and tackle the sample project while fantasizing about having the means to keep the roof over your head and food in your children’s bellies. You nail the assignment and email it off. A week ticks by, then two. Then there’s complete radio silence. Your follow-up calls and emails are ignored.

Oh, sorry. Did I forget to mention that companies frequently interview folks for ghost jobs? And recruiters, are you surprised to hear that job seekers are becoming a bit salty about this?

“I have been lucky enough to land three interviews, yes, three in almost a year. One local job went so far as to give me an hour-long Zoom interview. They brought me in for a two-and-a-half-hour interview in person, where I met the entire department feeling like I nailed it only for them to ghost me for six weeks.”—Current Job Seeker

Fake jobs tarnish your reputation.

As a former hiring manager, group director, and brand ambassador, I can unequivocally state that the practice of publicly lying on job boards is eroding trust in your company and actively damaging your brand. If a job seeker spots you advertising a ghost job—and worse, wastes their time and emotional labor on it—they are less likely to engage with you again and will take their skills elsewhere.

HR is often the first experience people have with your organization, and being pegged as a business that actively lies to its candidates, dupes or scares its current staff, and artificially inflates its growth and visibility with fake jobs—at the expense of a humane hiring process—is terrible for your reputation. It also makes you less likely to attract, engage, or retain top talent when you are hiring for a real position.

"Ghost jobs increase my distrust of organizations who are being dishonest and use their HR functions to boost visibility, enhance their market standing and assure investors.”—Current Job Seeker

In the end, no one wins.

Candidates are often coping with financial and emotional pressures and have racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, and ableism to navigate when interviewing for legitimate jobs. So asking them to apply, interview, and complete a test project to prop up your big lie is unconscionable. And it must stop.

“My dignity, strength, and confidence are barely intact. I would think it was me, but sadly, I know so many people in my position who are struggling…. I have also seen the same jobs advertised month after month having already applied to the job and being a 10 out of 10 match. Are those real jobs? Did they forget to take the post down? The battle scars on my mental health have been very real. I am just holding on, hoping something will turn up after all this exhausting work.” —Current Job Seeker

Recruiters, this is why no one trusts you. If you truly want to repair the damage your ghost jobs have done, you must first stop disregarding the humanity of job seekers, then recommit to transparent and equitable hiring practices. In the meantime, on behalf of every job seeker out there, let me say this: We’ve had enough. And while we wish you the best in all your future endeavors, we have decided to go in a different direction.

This article originally appeared in the human i newsletter at https://bit.ly/47hjG9P

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