Forget about online dating apps. The concept of ghosting has become so much a part of our everyday lexicon that it has even infiltrated the world of recruiting.
Thanks to the Great Resignation, the U.S. job market remains vibrant and the rise of job ghosting — where potential candidates fail to show up for scheduled interviews or new hires simply fail to show up on their first day of work despite being signed on the dotted line — is now commonplace.
And the latest paranormal paranoia-inducing iteration in the rental space? Ghost vacancies.
While ghost jobs look similar to regular jobs, they differ significantly in that they never result in a new hire and are intentionally posted by a company or hiring manager to serve a different purpose.
The good news? While there is no way to predict or prevent ghost job applications, savvy job seekers can learn to identify ghost jobs and waste their time and effort applying to dead ends if they know what to look for. Here’s how.
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Look at recent layoffs
From Stripe to Twitter, in the second half of 2022, several established names in big tech began laying off thousands of employees for myriad reasons. Layoffs are usually part of a restructuring plan that also includes a hiring freeze, so if a company has recently reduced its headcount by a significant percentage, it’s unlikely they’ll be looking for new talent. This is a strategic move: companies don’t want to give the impression that they are in a tailspin, especially to their competitors, so they leave vacancies open.
Plus job postings are a great way for internal HR departments to keep track of potential candidates as and when they are able to target future talent.
Is the roll evergreen?
Certain industries are always on the lookout for potential employees – currently 43% of organizations worldwide are struggling to find top talent in the cloud and cybersecurity space – and this can mean job openings stay live for months without any action being taken. done about them.
With this in mind, be wary of job titles that are vague e.g. “software developer” or job descriptions that don’t refer to specific jobs or duties as this could be a ghost listing.
Follow the 60-day rule
When hiring managers are serious about filling a position, they tend to act quickly, and the resume-scrolling stage usually takes no more than a few weeks. With this in mind, be wary of applying to a job that has been live for more than 60 days as it is most likely a ghost job.
So now that you know what a ghost job is and are armed with the tools to weed them out, head over to the VentureBeat Job Board where there are hundreds of job openings at companies that are currently hiring, like the three jobs we’ve featured below.
Integration engineer 1, PayPal, remote control
PayPal is currently seeking an Integration Engineer to join its Global Professional Services team in North America. This role is a remote position and the successful candidate is expected to play a central role in enabling growth and innovation, working with vendors, partners and technology providers and working with the sales and business development teams to provide technical advice. As the “voice of the customer”, the Integration Engineer also provides feedback to product managers, technology and other stakeholders to help resolve any issues. View the full job description here.
Senior SoC and IP Authentication Engineer, Microsoft, Hillsboro
This Senior SoC and IP Verification Engineer role has a high impact and is part of the pre-silicon hardware verification team. In this role, you have the opportunity to own the verification of complex flows at the SOC, subsystem or IP level and learn about the design while collaborating with partner teams to define verification strategies and test plans. Candidates must have a minimum of a bachelor’s or master’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or computer science along with seven years of pre-silicon SOC, chip level, subsystem or IP verification experience. Experience creating, maintaining or integrating test benches, checkers and stimuli using System Verilog Test Bench (SVTB), UVM and/or C, and aptitude for writing scripts using industry standard languages such as Python is a bonus. Apply for the job now.
Staff Data Scientist Finance, Shopify, Dallas
Data is a critical part of Shopify’s mission to make commerce better for everyone and the Staff Data Scientist Finance will be responsible for supporting financial forecasting and reporting data to the company’s finance teams. You’ll also assist in a major automation and data reconstruction project that will enable self-service by financial analysts and reduce their reliance on data scientists, proactively identifying and promoting projects that solve complex problems across multiple domains. If this completely remote role sounds like the challenge you’ve been looking for, check out more details here.
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Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.