Ghost Jobs

Apparition Applications

Recently, I’ve gotten some complaints about the quantity and quality of jobs on the job board, and I honestly can’t blame these readers. But it’s not something unique to TAPA.

Some issue endemic to the entertainment industry are hurting the job market for everyone. The industry is contracting, which means there are more people chasing fewer jobs. At one time, the famous UTA joblist came out twice a week; after the pandemic, it became weekly, at best. Sometimes it can go for weeks or months between issues. I’ve seen this with job posters who reach out to me directly, too. Far fewer job openings come my way than a decade ago.

The lack of openings has led to a proliferation of “ghost jobs”—postings for jobs that don’t exist, or have already been filled.

Why do people pretend to be hiring when they’re not? There are a few reasons, but prepare yourself; they’re all disappointing.

No Good Reasons

Not all ghost jobs are scams, per se, although those exist. The Los Angeles Film School got in trouble for posting fake jobs to get graduates’ hopes up.

But even if it’s not a scam, ghost job posters often have ulterior motives. It makes HR managers look like they’re busy, for example. Pretending to sort through resumes allows them to justify their own jobs for a little while longer. Which is ironic, because so many HR departments are now using AI to scan resumes, and so many applicants are using AI to write them (or at least optimize them for AI readers). It’s bots talking to bots all the way down.

It could also be a command from the higher-ups. An executive might ask the HR department to post non-existent jobs for show. Externally, it gives the impression that the company is doing so well, they’re expanding. Internally, it lets current employees know they’re replaceable.

Plus, some corporate governance rules dictate certain types of jobs have to be publicly posted, even if in reality, they already know they’re going to hire some executive’s nephew or whatever.

I’ve also read that ghost jobs are a subtle way of scouting talent, to gather a file of resumes that HR can pull from later when the need arises. This sounds nice in theory, but the thing is, I just don’t believe they ever do that. I’ve been the guy collecting resumes and organizing them into folders. Not once was I ever told to go back into the file and look for a candidate; we just posted a new job. “We’ll keep your resume on file” is a myth.

You’ll Never Know

So you apply for a job, and either don’t hear back or you’re told it’s been filled. Unfortunately, if you’re not the person doing the hiring, it’s impossible to know if the position got legitimately filled or if it was a ghost job. That’s the whole point; they look real for the express purpose of tricking applicants, employees, shareholders, the EEOC, everyone.

Sometimes the job opening pops up again in a few weeks or months. (Again, I heard complaints from readers suggesting I was re-posting old jobs.) This could be part of the ghost-job cycle, where someone copy-pastes an old job description out of pure laziness. Or, it could be that they really did hire someone, that new employee didn’t work out, and they’re looking for a new-new employee. Who knows?

It’s just one more frustrating part of the already frustrating process of applying for work. I wish I had better news for you. As far as I’m able to tell, the only option is to get very zen about it. You don’t know, you can’t know, so simply exist in your state of unknowing.