Ghost Job Psyche Out

When seeking employment, I can be placed anywhere, but I fit in nowhere.

My unedited resume looks like it belongs to at least five people. From COO of a union to assessing bills for residential utilities, if I can learn it, I can do it.

Add to that my certifications and degrees in bookkeeping, front end web development, and UX/UI design, and I’m a “Swiss Army knife” employee. Oh yeah, I have extensive work from home experience, too.

So, from a teamwork standpoint, that looks fine; if one department needs extra hands, I can fill in with minimal friction to get the job done. In theory, it sounds good. In theory.

As I’m approaching a year of looking for work, I’m starting to understand that it’s not serving me well.

It’s not just that employers are insisting that employees work at a physical location to be tactically micromanaged on site. It’s also not just that employers who do hire remotely refuse to hire anyone from California and other states with protective, pro-employee laws. It’s much more nefarious.

Now more than ever, it’s an obvious employers’ market. And if you’re not willing to jump through all the flaming hoops and ever-changing skills requirements, you’re locked out and feeling devalued.

There’s nothing wrong with you. The dynamics of power have shifted, and many in power to hire are relishing the opportunity to make job seekers tap dance on command.

On Reddit, I’m seeing subreddits about the pain points of countless people looking to keep up with the basics in their lives (food, rent, utilities, etc.). What’s most notable is applicants are facing similar challenges:

• Not getting responses to applications

• Getting interviews but not hearing back

• Getting ghosted

• Offered the job but then no follow up or responses to requests for onboarding status

• Getting a date for onboarding, only to be told that the job offer was made in error and the offer is rescinded

• Getting onboarding instructions and then being told that they are not on record as a potential employee (but who sent the information about the onboarding session to the applicant?)

• Other time wasting and game playing shenanigans

Oh yeah, let’s not forget the grandmaster of gaslighting, otherwise known as “ghost jobs”.

This Job Doesn’t Exist

I made a theme song for the post 2024 employer (in the tune of the classic TV western Rawhide):

“Ghost ‘em, ghost ‘em, ghost ’em! Keep them applicants hoping! We’re committed to “nope-ing”! Ghost jobs!”

I had to get my Gen-X mojo rolling for that one. Not sorry.

Anyway, in case you don’t know what ghost jobs are, an article from the website Builtin:

“Summary: Ghost jobs are active job postings for positions employers don’t intend to fill immediately. They build talent pipelines, signal company growth or keep recruiters busy. For job seekers, they can cause application burnout and skewed market data, making the job hunt feel more deceptive and difficult.”

Yep, those jobs don’t even exist. Most job seekers have caught on by now. That’s the good news.

Why are ghost jobs a thing? The excuses range from threatening to replace current employees with new ones to just having a bunch of resumes on file for a later date just in case they want to fill positions sometime in the future.

So don’t worry! You can simply tell your landlord that your resume and job applications are on file with several companies if they ever want to hire in the future. Yeah, ok - let me know how that goes.

How to spot and avoid ghost jobs: https://builtin.com/articles/ghost-jobs