The problem with fake jobs, resume/cv gathering and disrespect.
Would you change how you apply for jobs if you knew that half of the jobs online are fake or dead?
What if you knew most applications are irrelevant or SPAM? Technology tools and job boards focus on maximizing content, reach and response. Job postings are noise. No one is happy with the outcomes. As individuals, recruiters and companies, we have to make different choices.
Why are we incentivizing job seekers to apply to anything and companies to post everything? In any other situation that’s a crime. That’s SPAM.
Companies and recruiters are directly encouraged to promote, refresh and post fake jobs. It’s so easy; why not? Some recruitment companies even train their recruiters to post fake jobs to build their network. More resumes and CVs is never a bad thing; the logic goes. Yet, in reality, more irrelevant information makes any decision worse.
What is happening?
If the ads were posted or advertised by a company, it’s often motivated by a desire to maximize available tools and resources. Common reasons fake jobs get posted by companies:
Don’t have approval to hire
Figuring out what’s on-the-market
Building pipeline
Using up job posting credits
Gathering market intel
Because a hiring manager requested it
If the ads were posted by a third-party recruiter or agency, it’s often motivated by a desire to be “in the know” and driven by internal policies. Third party recruiters, under increasing price and competitive pressure, are doing whatever they can to boost reach and exposure. Common reasons fake jobs get posted by recruiters:
Don’t have approval from the Company
Finding candidates to sell into Company ads
Looking for active jobs via candidates
Fishing for active job seekers
Building database “for the future”
Branding and promotion
Why is this happening?
The market is losing credibility with everyone because real and fake jobs are mixed together without differentiation. The less credible the market, the more willing people are to “try their luck” and the less seriously they take any single transaction. This drives even more SPAM into the system, which encourages even less professional behavior by advertisers. After all, “since it’s 99% junk, I might as well just post more” or “I need to further optimize, target or promote my ads”. Job applicants, in return, assume “since no one replies, I might as well apply to everything”.
I’ve seen recommendations from job seekers to “apply to 50 job ads a day for a few months to ensure you get an interview or two a week”. Less than 1% of your applications converting is horrible. That alone proves the system isn’t working for anyone.
For any recruiter posting and attempting to manage “real” jobs, they will face an overwhelming number of applicants who are mostly SPAM. This encourages them to take increasingly less care with the whole process and we know what happens next. The recruiter simply stops replying or delegates to a system which sends automated messages. When questioned about the humanity of this kind of system, companies and recruiters respond “the job ad says clearly ‘only shortlisted applicants will receive a reply’” or even better “what do you expect me to do? This is how things are”.
The system is broken for everyone.
Companies don’t get value for the time and resources invested.
Job seekers don’t accomplish more, better matching with less effort.
Recruiters who operate professionally have to carry the burden of a market flooded with SPAM.
Recruiters are failing Companies and Job Seekers. The majority of recruitment companies make this problem even worse by focusing on pointless activity statistics that are removed from adding value to anyone or anything. The image of ‘a frustrated monkey throwing shit at the walls of their cage’ is an apt description for the mental state of many recruiters.
Companies and Recruitment organizations are happy to invest in pretty and appealing employer branding, flashy movies, complex reporting and tracking systems, and appealing landing pages; without investing in the people those tools are meant to attract and encourage. Right now we are treating recruitment like a factory of widgets rather than an opportunity to create meaningful interactions with other humans.
“What part of the job advertising and promotional process today is respectful?”
What can you/I/we do?
I don’t advertise. I don’t promote. I find, speak with and build select relationships with select people. I still make mistakes. I forget to follow-up. I miss emails and take longer than I should to close out projects. However, I reply to everyone who messages me a reminder. I see one of my fundamental responsibilities as a recruiter and as a human being is to treat people as I would want to be treated. This is a higher standard that all decent recruiters should strive to achieve.
For job seekers, stop applying to job postings. Start to see job ads just like any other kind of completely unregulated advertising: exaggerated, unrealistic and artificially designed to trigger an emotional response. Instead of applying to job ads, use those jobs ads as another piece of information to figure out which companies and which roles are interesting. Reach out to the hiring managers, human resource people in those businesses directly and start building relationships. Take an empathetic, professional approach to building relationships with other people. Many HR and Hiring teams get volumes of “hire-me!” SPAM. Learn to be different.
FAQ: I have to post jobs…
If you are working in a company that requires job postings, you can experiment to make the process more human. One empathetic way to deal with the flood of applications is to add a sentence to your job postings. At the start and end of the posting put: “Please, call me at <number> to confirm your application. We will not consider your application until you call”.
You won’t get many calls. Most applicants don’t read the job ad before applying. About half of the calls you get won’t be relevant to the role you are advertising. They may be relevant to something else, they may not be. You can tell them directly over the phone. The other half will be relevant, you can find their application and go through the process from there. Learn to be empathetic to other people and the time they are investing in you.
FAQ: I receive thousands of applications each month…
I think you are likely advertising the wrong jobs. If you are working with a company that receives thousands of applications each month, you need to seriously consider re-engineering how you recruit. Many software companies can manage to maintain reasonably good tech support through layers of questions, escalations and message boards. Your recruitment function can run differently. Start asking questions like: “how can we build a team that ensures every application is reviewed by a human who has time to consider and reply, empathetically?” It’s actually easy, if you break out of how things “have always been done”.