Applying for a new job is exciting, scary and time-consuming, but more than anything else, it is usually frustrating. After crafting a personalised cover letter, tailoring your CV for the recruiter and maybe even networking with other employees at the company, there’s nothing worse than getting a rejection, or sometimes, no reply at all.

More often than not, this is the standard experience. In fact, according to Movement to Work, it can take an average of 10 to 20 applications before getting an interview and a further 100 to 200 applications before getting a job offer. 

While you may assume that this is simply part of the process of applying for a new job, new research suggests that something a bit more sinister may be going on behind the scenes. What if a large percentage of the jobs you are applying for never even existed? It appears we have a spooky new job trend on our hands: ghost jobs.

A survey conducted by StandOut CV analysed almost 100,000 jobs posted on Indeed across the UK and found that over a third of the 20 most in-demand listings were ‘ghost jobs’ – in other words, they were listings for jobs that didn’t appear to actually exist.

We spoke with Andrew Fennell, ex-recruiter and founder of StandOut CV, to find out more about the phenomenon.

What are ghost jobs – and more importantly, why do they exist?

A ghost job is any job listing that is created with an ulterior motive, ie one other than actually hiring a new employee. Employers can have a range of reasons for posting these jobs.

“Ghost jobs can come in many forms,” Fennell tells us. “One ghost job could be an employer posting a job listing online that never existed at all posted to make it look like they are hiring, which, in turn, creates an image of growth to outsiders.”

A ghost job could also be posted to “satisfy an internal request for help from staff”, Fennell says.

“The most common ghost job type is when employers have already done interviews and have hired someone, but they leave the job listing up on a job board so that they can gather a pool of future applicants,” he says. “Practically, this could save them both time and money the next time they need to hire for that role as they might not need to pay a recruiter, and it’s a perfect backup plan if the new hire doesn’t work out.”

The new survey by StandOut CV suggests that ghost jobs are dangerously common. The worst area for ghost jobs in the UK was Islington in London where over a quarter of job listings were classified as ghost jobs. Ghost jobs were most common for people looking for roles as veterinary nurses and software engineers.

Is it possible to spot a ghost job before you apply for it?

The problem with the ghost job trend is that people applying for jobs can’t tell which jobs are real and which are not, so may spend hours applying for jobs that never existed in the first place. Job applications are time-consuming enough without having to deal with ghosts.

Fennell has a few tips on how to avoid ghost jobs during your application process:

• Check the official website of the company, if the job is listed on a job board but not their careers page, that’s a red flag.
• See if they’re still advertising for the role on social media. They likely wouldn’t do this if it was a ghost job.
• Find the hiring manager (often listed in the job ad) and drop them a message on LinkedIn, or email them, to find out if this is still active before applying. It’s their job to speak to candidates so they will more than likely be helpful and you won’t be seen as wasting their time, especially if it’s been a few weeks since they posted the job.

Unfortunately, we can no longer always trust that every job listing we see online is created by a company that is actively looking to hire someone new. So, in the age of ghost jobs, it’s always worth doing a little extra research before applying for each role to weed out the ghosts.

Images: Getty