crmd 4 hours ago

We need more regulation of commercial speech. It should be unlawful with serious penalties to knowingly mislead people via commercial speech.

  • hirvi74 2 hours ago

    I concur. We already have laws about commercial speech regarding false advertising laws in the US. I am not sure why a job listings cannot be beholden to similar laws, as well. Aren't companies, on some highly pedantic level, "advertising" that they have an open position when listing a job?

DaveMcMartin 6 hours ago

That’s why tools like Jobs Applier AI Agent are proliferating as well. Fight fire with fire, I guess?

  • kyleee 5 hours ago

    We need a snappy word for everything in life becoming a shitty escalating cat and mouse game. I’m hearing the word enshittification a lot these days but unsure if it’s right here

    • hackingonempty 5 hours ago

      No "enshittification" is a specific process where you use VC money to make something great and attract a lot of users then you open it up to third parties to make money together with your platform, gradually making it shittier for end users, then once you have killed off competition and have third parties locked in you start turning the screws on them making everything shitty for everyone while you shovel money into your accounts.

_rm 3 hours ago

What if any are good ways to check if a job listing is fake?

cadamsdotcom 6 hours ago

Nothing new, just amplified by AI.

Companies inflate open roles to make themselves look more legit. A bonus is they can trawl for candidates and keep resumes in the back pocket. AI makes this easier so it can be done for less effort so more companies can do it.

If you want a real job that really exists, aim for intros to hiring managers.

  • hirvi74 2 hours ago

    My 'company' is actually a governmental agency, and they even had one or a few fake job postings. So, I completely understand companies using fake postings to artificially inflate themselves, but that would have not be relevant for us.

    So, why did it happen then? Well, we have a handful of people on H1-B visas. Apparently, there is some requirement that employers are required to demonstrate that there are not any other capable applicants than the one they are sponsoring or something like that. So, my employer made the posts, collected all the resumes, and just stored them in one of my coworker's desk drawers.

    I wonder how often other employers are doing this very same thing as well?

  • paleotrope 4 hours ago

    Who are these people keeping resumes in their "back pocket". Has anyone ever been reached out about a job months or years later. Has anyone here ever just keep a resume just in case?

29athrowaway 6 hours ago

It should be illegal.

Fake job postings are used to harvest data, to give fake signals like the company is growing.

One is a privacy problem, the other one is fraud.

If you get a response saying the position was filled, you should be able to request for the job posting to be removed, or they should do it within a reasonable period of time.

If the position remains open after they tell you it is closed just apply again.

  • Ancalagon 5 hours ago

    It does seem like the SEC should be involved at least for public companies.

    • bdangubic 5 hours ago

      I have been an investor for the last three decades and have NEVER heard anyone mention anything regarding companies health etc based on how many job openings they have (outside of some pitch like “XYZ is planning to hire XXX people for their ZZZ). can’t see why SEC would be involved here in any way. Maybe Dept of Labor but not sure what they could do

      • onetokeoverthe 3 hours ago

        ...some pitch like “XYZ is planning to hire XXX people for their ZZZ."

        exactly.

more_corn 6 hours ago

What people fail to understand is that fake job postings pollute the pool and make real hiring impossible. We’re back to a referrals only job market.

  • DaveMcMartin 6 hours ago

    I was never able to get a job through applications on LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. Every job I got was through a referral, and the same is true for my friends who are also programmers.

    • hirvi74 2 hours ago

      I am so screwed then. I have been wishy-washy about going on the hunt again. However, I have absolutely no network. Every dev I worked with that I have any way of contacting, which were not many to begin with, has completely left the field in pursuit of some other role.

OutOfHere 6 hours ago

Fake jobs, fake candidates, fake/useless work, and fake/inflationary money! All for what? It'll all go to zero. Meanwhile, if you want to get a job, a good recruiter still works, although there are many fake recruiters too.