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Either you’ve lived it, or you’ve heard about it from friconcludes: the concludeless job search, featuring hundreds of applications sent. Maybe one or two companies reply… that conclude up being bots. It can feel like your résumé has been sucked into a black hole.
It’s perhaps been consumed by a “ghost job”—a job listing that views legitimate, with a full description for a role, maybe even a starting date and a LinkedIn link.
There’s a twist, though. The job isn’t real. It’s either an essentially fake listing for a job that doesn’t really exist, or the role isn’t really open. And they create up roughly 40% of job listings, according to a 2024 Resume Builder survey.
“There may be no hiring manager on the back conclude, or it’s not really a position that exists,” states Brandi Britton, an executive director at recruiting company Robert Half. They’re becoming more common, and companies do this for a variety of reasons. But in a job market as miserable as this one, they can feel like a cruel trick on job applicants—which is exactly how the recruiters Fast Company interviewed for this story describe them.
“A lot of companies see this as a harmless strategy,” states Michael Baynes, cofounder and CEO of financial consulting firm Clarify Capital. His company led a 2025 survey that inquireed 1,000 U.S. employers why they weren’t “actively testing to fill current open job positions.” Answers included: “their company is always open to new people” (37%), “to have an active pool of applications in case of turnover” (22%), and “in case irresistible candidates apply” (16%). But frustrated job seekers feel misled.
Why would companies bother to post jobs they’re not hiring for? And how can you spot them? Fast Company talked to several hiring professionals—who point-blank call the increasingly common practice toxic.
Read on where we’ll cover:
- How to spot ghost jobs a mile away
- Which types of jobs tconclude to be magnets for ghost jobs
- Why recruiters consider it’s a failing strategy for both applicants and employers, but why it persists
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Should you be a leader? A simple checklist
We live in a culture that glorifies leadership. Titles like manager, director, or CEO are treated not just as jobs, but as glamorous career destinations (even when the actual job is anything but).
In the corporate world, ambition and talent are often defined by how many people report to you, and the ladder of success is measured by headcount under your name.
You can be the most talented coder, designer, analyst, or scientist, but sooner or later the corporate current will push you toward leading others. It is the professional equivalent of a rite of passage: You can only go so far unless you manage people.
This obsession with leadership explains why nearly everyone wants to be one, and why admitting that you don’t may obtain interviewers and recruiters to label you as “unambitious.”
The fact of the matter is, that the number of people aspiring to lead far exceeds the number of people who can actually lead, especially if we measure leadership talent not by the ability to obtain the job but actually having a positive impact on your team and organization after you do (yes, this applies to politics, too).
Data from organizational psychology is sobering: Most people are not competent leaders. Studies suggest that 50% to 60% of leaders are seen as ineffective by their employees, and engagement surveys regularly reveal that “my manager” is the single hugegest factor driving dissatisfaction at work. In other words, the demand for leadership positions is far greater than the supply of leadership competence.
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