The jobs you post online, unfortunately, share something with Big Foot. Smart people are becoming increasingly suspicious, and less inclined to believe they are real. The root cause is pretty much the same in both cases: bad apples have compromised any trust the public initially extended.
Let's face it, there are a boatload of reasons why any given job posting isn't the real opportunity it presents itself as:
- The position is filled, but the employer hasn't remembered to turn it off.
- Since it was posted, the position has been put on hold or otherwise fallen into limbo.
- The job is only posted because of a corporate policy, for example, all jobs must be posted externally even if there is an internal candidate who's a shoe-in.
- The employer is only "trolling," in case someone interesting applies.
- It's an identity-theft, work-from-home. MLM, or other type of scam.
Unlike most of my postings on this blog, this time I have no great solutions. As employers, collectively we have dug ourselves into this hole, and there's no easy way out. I can share two ideas that will help, to some degree:
- Make sure that jobs posted on job boards are posted on your corporate web site, and vice versa. Incongruities between what's posted on different sites, including your own site's careers section, chip away at the credibility job seekers attach to your postings.
- When job seekers apply to your postings, always respond. Nothing "confirms" their suspicions more than applying for a position and (aside from the typical autoresponder) hearing nothing back.
