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And, it's crazy that this has to be mentioned: don't post ads for jobs that don't exist.

steveBK123 2y ago
I had never considered it but its apparently a thing that big public companies post / keep up lots of fake jobs so that web scrapers see a stable/growing job posting count and infer the company is doing well financially.
- paulryanrogers 2y ago
  Would that be fraud? How would they coordinate that without a trail of evidence?
  - steveBK123 2y ago
    No coordination required. It's just individual company not being incentivized to pull down job listings when they no longer have capacity to hire. The roles suddenly become "opportunistic hire" rather than actual open headcount. Open roles exist in a continuum of "urgent backfill" / "open budget headcount this quarter" / "could negotiate headcount for the right candidate" / "just passively interviewing to see who is out there" / "no chance we are hiring anyone this decade". Not a clear case of fraud to be made really. Better to have no job listing to send resumes to? Not clear thats true either.
    - paulryanrogers 2y ago
      Systematically offering roles that have already been filled seems like fraud, even if only due to subconscious neglect. Though I suppose it's impossible to prove.
      - steveBK123 2y ago
        Not everything that is bad rises to the level of being a crime. And some things that are bad would have even worse side effects if you tried to police them. How would you define a fraudulent job listing versus simply keeping a listing up in case the right candidate shows up / budget comes back next quarter? Wouldn't this create incentives for companies to be more hesitant to post job openings and more aggressive in taking them down? I've worked at places where we had job listing X, talked to some people and ended up filling job Y and Z instead (which didn't exist as listings) because we found some really interesting people. Would that possibly create unwanted side effects like more jobs filled without being ever listed via backchannels/personal networks? Or more process/HR?
- EasyMark 2y ago
  I’ve heard this but never seen anyone put forward any proof that it’s actually true other than “trust me”. It seems like a an internet tall tale so far in my experience.

I had never considered it but its apparently a thing that big public companies post / keep up lots of fake jobs so that web scrapers see a stable/growing job posting count and infer the company is doing well financially.

paulryanrogers 2y ago
Would that be fraud? How would they coordinate that without a trail of evidence?
- steveBK123 2y ago
  No coordination required. It's just individual company not being incentivized to pull down job listings when they no longer have capacity to hire. The roles suddenly become "opportunistic hire" rather than actual open headcount. Open roles exist in a continuum of "urgent backfill" / "open budget headcount this quarter" / "could negotiate headcount for the right candidate" / "just passively interviewing to see who is out there" / "no chance we are hiring anyone this decade". Not a clear case of fraud to be made really. Better to have no job listing to send resumes to? Not clear thats true either.
  - paulryanrogers 2y ago
    Systematically offering roles that have already been filled seems like fraud, even if only due to subconscious neglect. Though I suppose it's impossible to prove.
    - steveBK123 2y ago
      Not everything that is bad rises to the level of being a crime. And some things that are bad would have even worse side effects if you tried to police them. How would you define a fraudulent job listing versus simply keeping a listing up in case the right candidate shows up / budget comes back next quarter? Wouldn't this create incentives for companies to be more hesitant to post job openings and more aggressive in taking them down? I've worked at places where we had job listing X, talked to some people and ended up filling job Y and Z instead (which didn't exist as listings) because we found some really interesting people. Would that possibly create unwanted side effects like more jobs filled without being ever listed via backchannels/personal networks? Or more process/HR?
EasyMark 2y ago
I’ve heard this but never seen anyone put forward any proof that it’s actually true other than “trust me”. It seems like a an internet tall tale so far in my experience.