Job hunting is stressful enough, especially with so many people competing online, all trying to stand out among a sea of applicants. But there’s an unexpected hurdle making it even harder for many—‘ghost jobs.’

Recently, digital creator Ceros Whaley took to TikTok to shed light on this issue. ‘Ghost jobs’ are fake postings that companies put up, misleading countless hopeful job seekers who are simply trying to land a position.

Below, you’ll find Whaley’s explanation of how this happens and why it’s becoming such a common problem.

According to this hiring manager, the job you applied for might not exist

Image credits: Austin Distel / unsplash (not the actual photo)

“I got fired from my second job ’cause I wouldn’t post a ghost job. So, let me explain what I do for my second job, what I did for my second job. I was a hiring manager. I usually just post job listings sometimes on Indeed or other job listing websites for my company. I’m not gonna explain what company that is ’cause I can’t do that, but I am gonna talk about what I can talk about ’cause I read through my NDA.

I used to post ghost jobs, which are fake jobs to encourage our current employees to work harder. These jobs will be fake jobs, so you could apply for the listing but not actually get hired. They’re called ghost jobs. You’re probably wondering, ‘I apply for all these places, why am I not getting callbacks?’

You might have applied for a ghost job, which isn’t a real job, it’s just put there to show that we’re looking for new hires at higher rates to get our current employees to work harder, as an incentive to make them work hard as opposed to increasing the base pay or the base rate. And I’ve made maybe 300 ghost job listings. I’ve made a lot. I’ve made so many it’s insane. And what messes me up is that they’re still doing it.”

Image credits: ceroswhaley

“I got into a little bit of a scuffle, a fracas one might say, with my previous hire manager. My hire manager said, ‘Hey, you stopped posting ghost jobs. Look, what’s going on buddy? It’s really working. It’s helping our team morale.’

I said, ‘Listen, I don’t feel good about doing this.’ Might be the first time I’ve ever said that. Usually, I have like no morals, no ethics about anything. I just didn’t feel good at all about doing it, despite the fact that I was getting a massive bag from it, and he said, ‘Well, we need somebody to do it, and you’re the best we’ve got.’

I’m not gonna continue to post ghost job listings so our employees can act like they are scared to lose their jobs. That ruins, destroys their mental health deeply. And he said, ‘That’s HR’s job, not ours.’ So I’m talking to him and I’m arguing, and at this point, he’s shouting. I’m calm.

So I’m thinking I can take it to HR, and he says, ‘You know we’re probably gonna have to talk about this later, but you should clock out for the day.’ I said, ‘I don’t wanna clock out for today, because we’re not done talking about the specific issue.’ This is insane, this is psychotic. So I go cool off. I talk to my friends on Discord, we’re cooling off, we’re talking about it.”

Image credits: Resume Genius / unsplash (not the actual photo)

“Then one of my friends does the same job as I do. He also posts ghost jobs. And it’s disgusting. It’s not just my company, it is every company I’m seeing doing this: it’s Walmart doing this, it’s Amazon doing this, I’m not gonna disclose my company, but it’s Best Buy doing this.

They’re posting these fake job listings to trick you into thinking ‘Oh well, they’re hiring a bunch of other things.’ Or because just in case you’re looking to move to a new job or talking about needing a pay raise. And they’ll post a new job at a higher rate. Say you got hired at $17 an hour, they’ll post a ghost job at $22 an hour. And if you try to apply for that, they’ll clock you for that, and they’ll know it’s you ’cause they got your Social Security number.

It is a disgusting business practice ’cause as soon as you apply to get a higher position or anything like that, they’ll talk to you about it and they’ll ask you, ‘Why do you want a higher position? Do you want more pay? Are you dedicated to the company?’ They’ll give you a performance review, they’ll check everything about you just to see.”

Image credits: ceroswhaley

“I recommend, this is my honest opinion, this is my honest recommendation, doing the bare minimum at jobs. I mean, bare minimum. Just coast by, doing the bare minimum at jobs. Don’t try to do anything extra or crazy, just coast by, doing the bare minimum at jobs. I’m so serious.

Because I didn’t know there was so much of it. I thought it was just my job doing this. I thought we were like the monopoly on doing this, that’s what I thought. But I’m applying to other jobs, I’m applying to other places, and I’m noticing the ghost jobs. I’m noticing that there are many of them. There are so many ghosts out there that are just fake. They’re just fake jobs.

I am sickened, I’m disheartened, I’m disgusted, I’m angry ’cause I don’t have my second job anymore, by the way. It was a small job, I worked 20 hours a week just doing the analytics and the hiring for our company, that’s all I did. I still work at Amazon, but man, I’m just sickened. Amazon doesn’t care about what I post, by the way. They’re fine with me doing whatever. Amazon doesn’t check anything I do, they don’t care about me at all, but man, this is stupid, this is weird. Look up ghost jobs, just look them up.”

You can watch the full video here

@ceroswhaley #fyp #storytime #job #foryou #viral ♬ original sound – CerosWhaley

People in the comments acknowledged how frustrating it is to deal with ghost job listings, both as employees and job seekers

Whaley also posted a follow-up video with tips on how to avoid falling for ghost jobs

@ceroswhaley Replying to @Aυƚιʂƚιƈαʅʅყ.Dɾιʋҽɳ 🥀꧁༺༻꧂🖤 #fyp #jobs #manager #reply #replyingtocomments #viral ♬ original sound – CerosWhaley

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