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A comment on Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers. Parent comment

Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by joe_the_user on Thursday October 31, 2024 @04:56PM (#42011428)
I've done tech interviewing for years. Job listing that are to various degree fake are quite common. Of course, fakeness comes in many flavor, from listings posted just to "see if there's anyone out there" (I had a boss who did this regularly) to jobs a supervisor really does want to fill but which they know they won't because the bureaucracy has forced impossible requirements on them. An example: "Junior programmer, 10 years experience in language X" (that's existed for five years).
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by zero-sharp on Thursday October 31, 2024 @05:10PM (#42011544)
This is another personal anecdote, but I had an interview earlier this year for a database related role. The job ad had a huge salary range and the interview had nothing to do with the role. I wasn't asked any behavioral or technical questions. The two people on the call just wanted to get to know me. We probably spent several minutes talking about sports. A few days later I got rejected. What the hell?
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by arp242 on Thursday October 31, 2024 @05:55PM (#42011963)
You're supporting the wrong team?

I've also been hired after similar "non-interviews". Sometimes it's hard to know if it's just disorganisation/incompetence or if there's outright fakery going on.

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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by red-iron-pine on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:37AM (#42016803)
or that they're already confident in technical ability and looking for a culture fit.
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by mistrial9 on Thursday October 31, 2024 @05:31PM (#42011739)
the interviewers are being paid to do interviews
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by shiroiushi on Thursday October 31, 2024 @08:37PM (#42012966)
Perhaps a higher layer of management had a headcount target they wanted to fill for some reason, but this team didn't actually want or need new people but were forced to go through the process anyway.
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by ivewonyoung on Thursday October 31, 2024 @10:02PM (#42013393)
Most likely a green card application related sham job posting where they already have someone working in that position on a work visa for several years with experience with their internals and doing a good job, but the regulations force the company to post their job at several places, interview people and reject them for some plausible reason, while applying for a green card for that person. All this needs to be documented properly.

It's extremely common at most companies, including MFAANG, because it makes zero sense to layoff the incumbent and hire a brand new person.

https://old.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/jy5rcw/lpt_bec...

Facebook got caught.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/03/facebook-...

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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by drillsteps5 on Friday November 01, 2024 @02:16AM (#42014480)
One of the reasons might be that you belong to a protected category (by gender, age, race, etc). These interviews are sometimes referred to as "compliance interviews". These candidates will be reported on the HR diversity metrics to prove that the company made an effort to reach out to diverse candidates (even though no actual effort was made). A few companies (Wells Fargo I believe was one) were fined by the Feds for these practices.
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by whiplash451 on Thursday October 31, 2024 @05:49PM (#42011908)
Was your boss aware of the toll it takes to interview (well) on his own teams?
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by joe_the_user on Thursday October 31, 2024 @06:04PM (#42012035)
Oh, he never interviewed, just posted on craigslist and collected resumes. But the impact on us was important. One of the purposes of the exercise for him was being able to show me a list of people could supposedly do my job better, faster and cheaper.

He was a friend of a friend and one of the most unprincipled people I've ever gotten to actually know. But I assume there are many similar people higher in corporate hierarchies that I wouldn't ever know.

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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by couscouspie on Friday November 01, 2024 @05:01AM (#42015171)
What is the benefit of knowing "that anybody is out there"? Subjective devaluation of current employees?
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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by StackRanker3000 on Friday November 01, 2024 @05:07AM (#42015203)
I took that to mean ”we don’t really need anyone right now, but if someone who is very good applies, we’ll hire them”.

Edit: Or maybe not, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42012035

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Re:Ghost jobs are wreaking havoc on tech workers by red-iron-pine on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:39AM (#42016820)
devaluation, but also just knowing if we could replace people.

I have 5 Sr. Devs and if any of them split, how long would it take me to replace them? and at what rate? and what skillsets will they have and not have?

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