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Comment by givemeethekeys | Hacker News Reader

Most job listings are fake - keep the investors, competitors and other employees think you are hiring. And who knows, maybe the right resume will actually be worth a look.

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I've heard this from other people. Is there any evidence of it though?

I've had 500 applications over the last four years come back without ever having gotten an interview. With my background and experience I've always gotten at the bare minimum an HR call before. Now none.

None of the jobs ads are real.

I hear you. I've been through it too. I'm not necessarily doubting there are fake job postings. Just asking if there's any credible evidence besides our anecdotal accounts.

Is it possible it's largely caused by shitty ATS software that everyone uses and we are mistakenly attributing it to fake job postings?

I think it's more that for white collar jobs in the west, applications get spammed into oblivion that your resume will never reach an actual human without the ATS triggering a 100% match on all the buzzwords.

If you look at HN who is hiring threads sometimes the same companies post every time for very extended periods of time. And I've applied at some of them to never hear back. IMO they're just fishing for people who have specific profiles that they don't disclose in the job description, not actually hiring.

Studies have shown at least 30% are ghost jobs, which means in practice probably higher.

Add the fact that they stick around longer and I can comfortably say 50%+ of the jobs people are applying to are fake.

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