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Ghost jobs sound like a fantasy nightmare, but they're far from fake. While ghost jobs have been in the news as of late, they've been an industry best practice for a long time.
What are ghost jobs?
In the recruiting world, we call these "evergreen postings." Essentially, these were jobs that were always on our career board and rarely taken down. If an evergreen posting (aka, a ghost job) was taken down, it was usually because they wanted to refresh the job posting to make it look new.
Why do ghost jobs exist?
There are a number of reasons ghost jobs exist. Some companies post them to show growth. Others post them because they have the budget but they're still not sure what they want.
The most common reason ghost jobs exist is because of high turnover. You read that right - if a company has a ghost job listed, chances are, it's multiple jobs in different locations, but they just can't seem to keep their employees.
Consider a tech company that regularly hires software developers. At any given time, they may have 25 software developers working there, and they may lose 5 of those developers every year to their competition. Recruiters and hiring managers may decide to post a ghost job for a software developer. Recruiters and hiring teams do this because they think soon enough there will be a job opening and they'd like to have a bench of candidates to pool from immediately.
The problem is, while that job posting exists, the job itself might not exist. It may not exist for another week, month, or even year. So you may have submitted your application and still wait a long time to even hear back.
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How do you spot a ghost job?
Because ghost jobs don't technically exist, the job posting tends to be vague and miss critical information.
A generic job title is used (like "software developer" at a large software company)
No location is listed
A vague and even short job description
Does not mention the hiring manager's title
No indication of expectations or what would make someone successful in the role
Does not mention the name of the team the position is in
What happens if I applied to a ghost job?
It's difficult to identify a ghost job. Even if you used the key points above, there's still no way to confirm if a job posting is a ghost job. So, the chances are, you'll probably apply to a ghost job by mistake if you haven't already.
But, don't worry. If you apply to a ghost job, all you've done is waste your time. Your application will be sent to them and sit. The best case scenario is the job recently opened and you get an interview. The worst-case scenario is you've wasted some of your time. So, don't worry and move on to the next application.