Fake jobs

Greg Wyatt • November 18, 2024

Picture the scene.

You’ve just gone through the emotional turmoil of losing your job. Or maybe something’s happened at work to galvanise your decision to make a change.

You take a bit of time to figure out what the right next move is - a great idea.

Then you go through the obvious channels to see what jobs are out there.

The most obvious of which are job boards and other websites which promote jobs.

Your first reaction is one of hope and optimism - there seems quite a bit out there, so maybe you’ll secure something quickly.

And if you happen to be reading this, new to a job search, indeed you may.

However, for many people in this market, comes a pretty quick realisation that a significant number of adverts do not represent jobs that exist.

A double whammy in your emotional rollercoaster of recent weeks.

Today’s article looks at what ‘fake jobs’ are and what to be mindful of. There are a few categories to go through, each with different nuance, but ultimately the outcome is the same: an advert that, at best, wastes your time.

This what we’ll go through:

  1. Scraping

  2. Relisting

  3. Laziness

  4. Evergreen vacancies

  5. Fishing

  6. Scams

  7. The disappearing act

First a quick overview from the recruiter perspective.

When you put an advert up, you may allow a bit of time for applications to come in before assessing them and starting the interview process.

Let’s say the volume is manageable, and the outcome not guaranteed, particularly when a candidate you want to offer decides to take a different job instead.

There are no villains in this common scenario, and it’s common enough that risk is a consideration when advertising.

If a recruitment process takes six weeks from advert to offer, and the outcome isn’t guaranteed, it can make sense to leave the advert up, in case you need more candidates in your pipeline.

What about if your process takes three months? Illness, holiday, lack of availability, changes - there are many reasons a process can be delayed.

There are many tools and suppliers which support a hiring process, one of which is the job board, and often features are developed to support ‘what happens if things go wrong’. Or to maximise applications with the apparent intent of enabling wider choice, which can lead to many issues in its own right.

  1. Scraping

Scraping is when one website takes content from another and relists it. This can happen as an affiliate/aggregation/commercial arrangement, or to drive traffic to the scraping website.

The idea is that this increases eyeballs on the content.

In the context of job adverts, you can see this everywhere, although things are changing. For example Indeed and LinkedIn both have relisted adverts from elsewhere.

It’s changing because now some job boards have secured volume of traffic, they want to monetise that traffic and keep control of the adverts.

An indication that this happens is when you click ‘apply now’ it takes you to another website other than the employer’s, such as jobrapido which (I believe) is an aggregator.

This can happen multiple times, and every time a job is scraped there can be parsing errors where data from fields are incorrectly transferred.

While if the original advert is then updated, it’s not necessarily the case for scraped adverts.

So scraped adverts can give inaccurate salary, locational, or even job information. They can also stay listed when the original has closed, without the employer ever knowing about it.

Leading to looking like a fake job.

  1. Relisting

As a feature for advertisers, many job boards allow an automatic relisting of adverts, once a week/month, to ‘bring it to the top of the pile’.

These relists can occur throughout the lifespan of an advert, such as in the example above - six weeks in an advert appears new, but a candidate is about to be offered.

Here, the vacancy may be live, but your application may not be considered, because it is so far in process.

This can also happen manually for many reasons.

I’ve taken down a job after a couple of weeks to rewrite it, based on fine tuning from an interview process. Or when a candidate has declined an offer put forward to them. Or when a vacancy has been put on hiatus.

The reason for a manual relisting might be unknowable if it isn’t stated in the advert, but it isn’t necessarily for bad reason.

If I were to relist an advert, it would only be because I need more candidates, in which case your application would be read.

But in many situations relisting can encourage an application that won’t ever be assessed.

  1. Laziness

Unfortunately it is the case that adverts may remain listed simply because someone forgot to take them down.

This is more likely to happen if there isn’t a cost per advert, such as on an employer website, or if there is an unlimited contract.

  1. Evergreen vacancies

Some vacancies are perpetually advertised to enable a candidate pipeline for a particular specialism.

There may be no vacancy now, but anticipation of vacancies in future, particularly within larger employers, or perhaps an recruitment agency that specialises in that field.

I would hope this is made clear in the advert, but that doesn’t always happen.

  1. Fishing

Sometimes those adverts aren’t evergreen, they’re simply there to harvest applications on the off chance that vacancy comes up.

I remember a Cambridge agency that used to scrape employer adverts, list them as their own, then submit those CVs speculatively to the same employers - without a commercial arrangement in place.

Make of that what you will - I think it’s despicable behaviour.

Is there any way to check for fishing? I’d probe the advertiser for specific information, and what their relationship is with the hiring process.

However, that’s not proof of bad behaviour, because of how the contingency model works. When multiple agencies work on one vacancy, it’s common not to provide company information until later in the process.

Conversely, if an agency is fishing only to build a bank of CVs, it’s unlikely they’ll admit to it.

  1. Scam jobs

It sickens me that advertising and job scams are on the rise.

If it doesn’t feel right, if they are asking for payment, if they do a bait and switch (this job isn’t right but here’s our CV writing service), if they ask for ID that can be used for other purposes:

Beware.

Here’s some information from Indeed on what to look out for.

Here’s an example of a scam I came across early this year.

  1. The disappearing act

This last category may or may not be a fake job.

Here’s the scenario - it looks like a vacancy, it sounds like one in discussion, perhaps you even interview there on site, perhaps you even do a 5 hour presentation at final interview on your 90 day strategy.

But then it disappears. Either permanently, or maybe reappearing but with no further comms from the employer/agency.

I hear this happening a lot, particularly at a senior level, in the UK market.

There are a few reasons it can happen, not all indicative of fakeness:

  • Company had budget to recruit; however changes in the business, or external factors, means the vacancy isn’t viable at least immediately

  • Company didn’t have budget to recruit and only establishes there is no budget later in process

  • Company runs an interview process to get free consultancy in the form of a final interview presentation (scumbags)

  • Company dipping toe in market to see what’s out there, with no intent to hire

  • Company benchmarking internal hire for future planning purposes

  • Agency establishes there may be a need for employer to hire and runs speculative process that doesn’t get approval

I’m sure there are many more reasons this can happen, and there isn’t a huge amount you do, given the appearance is that of a real vacancy.

You can ask if budget has been approved, do your research on the business on glassdoor or by speaking to alumni. But ultimately this kind of vacancy is a Schrodinger’s Cat - you won’t know if it’s live or not until the process is complete.

The purpose of this article is to highlight how this happens, but it’s also to set your expectations.

If you go into a fresh job search understanding this can and will happen, I hope it takes the sting away if you come across it. And enables you to get to the truth of which jobs are actually out there sooner.

This article may help you get better use of job boards , for the vacancies that count.

Thanks for reading.

Greg

Jump the shark. A Recruitment AiDE, pt 13

By Greg Wyatt • January 29, 2026
May 2023 You’ve heard the phrase, I take it – “jump the shark”? It’s the moment when one surprising or absurd experience can indicate a rapid descent into rubbishness and obscurity. When it’s time to get off the bus. Typically in media. Jumping the Shark comes from an episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz does a water ski jump over a shark. 👈 Aaaaay. 👉 A sign creators have run out of ideas, or can’t be bothered to come up with fresh ones. In movies, sequelitis is a good example of this – an unnecessary sequel done to make some cash, in the hope the audience doesn’t care about its quality. Sometimes they become dead horses to flog, such as the missteps that are any Terminator film after 2. It’s an issue that can lead to consumers abandoning what they were doing, with such a precipitous drop in engagement that the thing itself is then cancelled. Partly because of breaking trust in what was expected to happen next. And because it’s a sign that the disbelief that was temporarily suspended has come crashing down. If you don’t believe that your current poor experience will lead to further, better experiences, why would you bother? Once you’ve had your fingers burnt, how hard is it to find that trust in similar experiences? It doesn’t have to be a single vein of experience for all to be affected. Watch one dodgy superhero movie and how does it whet your appetite for the next? You didn’t see The Eternals? Lucky you. Or how about that time we had really bad service at Café Rouge, a sign of new management that didn’t care, and we never went again? Just me? Did they sauter par-dessus le requin? Here’s the rub – it matters less that these experiences have jumped the shark. It matters more what the experience means for expectation. So it is in candidate experience. It’s not just the experience you provide that tempers expectations – it’s the cumulated experience of other processes that creates an assumption of what might be expected of yours. If you’re starting from a low trust point, what will it take for your process to ‘jump the shark’ and lose, not just an engaged audience, but those brilliant candidates that might only have considered talking to you if their experience hadn’t been off-putting? Not fair, is it, that the experience provided by other poor recruitment processes might affect what people expect of yours? Their experiences aren’t in your control, the experience you provide is. Of my 700 or so calls with exec job seekers, since The Pandemic: Lockdown Pt 1, many described the candidate experience touchpoints that led to them deciding not to proceed with an application. These were calls that were purely about job search strategy, and not people I could place. However, one benefit for me is that they are the Gemba , and I get to hear their direct experiences outside of my recruitment processes. Experiences such as - ‘£Competitive salary’ in an advert or DM, which they know full well means a lowball offer every time, because it happened to them once or twice, or perhaps it was just a LinkedIn post they read. Maybe it isn’t your problem at all, maybe your £competitive is upper 1% - how does their experience inform their assumptions? Or when adverts lend ambiguity to generic words, what meaning do they find, no matter how far from the truth? How the arrogance of a one-sided interview process affects their interest. The apparent narcissism in many outreaches in recruitment (unamazing, isn’t it, that bad outreach can close doors, rather than open them). Those ATS ‘duplicate your CV’ data entry beasts? Fool me once… Instances that are the catalysts for them withdrawing. I’d find myself telling them to look past these experiences, because a poor process can hide a good job. It’s a common theme in my jobseeker posts, such as a recent one offering a counterpoint to the virality that is “COVER LETTERS DON’T M4TT£R agree?” Experiences that may not be meant by the employer, or even thought of as necessarily bad, yet are drivers for decisions and behaviour. I can only appeal to these job seekers through my posts and calls. What about those other jobseekers who I’m not aware of, who’ve only experienced nonsense advice? What about those people who aren’t jobseekers? What about those people who think they love their roles? What about all those great candidates who won’t put up with bad experiences? The more sceptical they are, and the further they are from the need for a new role, the less bullshit they’ll put up with. What happens when an otherwise acceptable process presents something unpalatable? Might this jumping the shark mean they go no further? Every time the experience you provide doesn’t put their needs front and centre or if it’s correlated to their bad experiences…. these can prevent otherwise willing candidates from progressing with your process, whether that’s an advert they don’t apply to, a job they don’t start, or everything in between. Decisions that may stem from false assumptions of what a bad experience will mean. Instead, look to these ‘bad experience’ touchpoints as opportunities to do better: instead of £competitive, either state a salary or a legitimate reason why you can’t disclose salary (e.g. “see below” if limited by a job board field and “we negotiate a fair salary based on the contribution of the successful candidate, and don’t want to limit compensation by a band”) instead of a 1-way interrogation… an interview instead of radio silence when there’s no news - an update to say there’s no update, and ‘How are things with you by the way?’ instead of Apply Now via our Applicant Torture Sadistificator, ‘drop me a line if you have any questions’ or ‘don’t worry if you don’t have an updated CV - we’ll sort that later’. Opportunity from adversity. And why you can look at bad experiences other processes provide as a chance to do better. With the benefit that, if you eliminate poor experience, you'll lose fewer candidates unnecessarily, including those ideal ones you never knew about. Bad experiences are the yin to good experience’s yang and both are key parts of the E that is Experience in the AIDE framework. The good is for next time. Thanks for reading.  Regards, Greg

How To Network For A Job - Jobseeker Basics XIV

By Greg Wyatt • January 26, 2026
The following is Chapter 42 in A Career Breakdown Kit (2026) . In a sense it's a microcosm of how any commercial activity can see a better return - which is to put the needs of the person you are appealing to above your own. It feels counterintuitive, especially when you have a burning need, but you can see the problem of NOT doing this simply by looking at 99% of job adverts: We are. We need. We want. What you'll do for us. What you might get in return. Capped off by the classic "don't call us, we'll call you." If you didn't need a job, how would you respond to that kind of advert? In the same vein, if you want networking to pay off, how will your contact's life improve by your contact? What's in it for them? 42 - How to network for a job Who are the two types of people you remember at networking events? For me two types stand out. One will be the instant pitch networker. This might work if you happen to be in need right now of what they have to offer or if mutual selling is your goal. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this but it’s a selling activity pretending to be networking. If you want to sell, go and overtly sell rather than disguise it with subterfuge. Lest we mark your face and avoid you where possible in future. The second is the one who gets to know you, shows interest and tries to add to your experience. You share ideas, and there’s no push to buy something. They believe that through building the relationship when you have a problem they can solve, you’ll think to go to them. It’s a relationship built on reciprocity. One where if you always build something together there is reason to keep in touch. And where the outcome is what you need if the right elements come together: right person, right time, right message, right place, right offering, right price. Job search networking is no different. The purpose of networking in a job search is to build a network where you are seen as a go-to solution should a suitable problem come up. In this case the problem you solve is a vacancy. Either because your active network is recruiting, or because they advocate for you when someone they know is recruiting. It is always a two-way conversation you both benefit from. Knowledge sharing, sounding board, see how you’re doing - because of what the relationship brings to you both. It is not contacting someone only to ask for a job or a recommendation. A one-way conversation that relies on lucky timing. That second approach can be effective as a type of direct sales rather than networking. If you get it wrong it may even work against you. How would you feel if someone asked to network with you, when it became clear they want you to do something for them? You might get lucky and network with someone who is recruiting now - more likely is that you nurture that relationship over time. If your goal is only to ask for help each networking opportunity will have a low chance of success. While if your goal is to nurture a relationship that may produce a lead, you’ll only have constructive outcomes. This makes it sensible to start by building a network with people that already know you: Former direct colleagues and company colleagues Industry leaders and peers Recruiters you have employed or applied through Don’t forget the friends you aren’t in regular touch with - there is no shame in being out of work and it would be a shame if they didn’t think of you when aware of a suitable opening. These people are a priority because they know you, your capability and your approach and trust has already been built. Whereas networking with people you don't know requires helping them come to know and trust you. Networking with people you know is the most overlooked tactic by the exec job seekers I talk to (followed by personal branding). These are the same people who see the hidden jobs market as where their next role is, yet overlook what’s in front of them. If you are looking for a new role on the quiet - networking is a go-to approach that invites proactive contact to you. Networking with people who know people you know, then people in a similar domain, then people outside of this domain - these are in decreasing order of priority. Let's not forget the other type of networking. Talking to fellow job seekers is a great way to share your pain, take a load off your shoulders, bounce ideas off each other, and hold each other accountable. LinkedIn is the perfect platform to find the right people if you haven't kept in touch directly. Whatever you think of LinkedIn, you shouldn’t overlook its nature as a conduit to conversation. It isn’t the conversation itself. Speaking in real life is where networking shines because while you might build a facsimile of a relationship in text, it's no replacement for a fluid conversation. Whether by phone and video calls, real life meetups, business events, seminars, conferences, expos, or in my case - on dog walks and waiting outside of the school gates. Both these last two have led to friends and business for me though the latter hasn’t been available since 2021. Networking isn’t 'What can I get out of it?' Instead, ‘What’s in it for them?’ The difference is the same as those ransom list job adverts compared to the rare one that speaks to you personally. How can you build on this relationship by keeping in touch? Networking is systematic, periodic and iterative: Map out your real life career network. Revisit anyone you’ve ever worked with and where Find them on LinkedIn Get in touch ‘I was thinking about our time at xxx. Perhaps we could reconnect - would be great to catch up’ If they don’t reply, because life can be busy, diarise a follow up What could be of interest to them? A LinkedIn post might be a reason to catch up When you look up your contact’s profile look at the companies they’ve worked at. They worked there for a reason, which may be because of a common capability to you Research these companies. Are there people in relevant roles worth introducing yourself to? Maybe the company looks a fit with your aspirations - worth getting in touch with someone who may be a hiring manager or relevant recruiter? Maybe they aren’t recruiting now. Someone to keep in touch with because of mutual interests. Click on Job on their company page, then "I'm interested" - this helps for many reasons, including flagging your interest as a potential employee Keep iterating your network and find new companies as you look at new contacts. This is one way we map the market in recruitment to headhunt candidates - you can mirror this with your networking The more proactive networking you build into your job search, the luckier you might get. While you might need to nurture a sizeable network and there are no guarantees, think about the other virtues of networking - how does that compare to endless unreplied applications? I often hear from job seekers who found their next role through networking. This includes those who got the job because of their network even though hundreds of applicants were vying for it. While this may be unfair on the applicants sometimes you can make unfair work for you. It can be effective at any level.