Ghost Jobs

This is my April 12, 2026 update to this web page.
There is no danger of this topic becoming irrelevant any time soon, so there will be periodic updates to come.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, I listened to old Art Bell content to entertain myself.
The current job market shares at least one important characteristic with Art Bell content:
Much of the content of both is fiction.
With respect to the job market, many advertisements fall into one of the 3 categories below:

This web page will focus ghost jobs.
Ghost jobs and scam jobs are similar in that neither will lead to actual legitimate employment.
My definition of ghost jobs is: advertisements from actual organizations who do employ people, but who do not intend to hire anyone from the resumes collected from a given advertisement.
Ghost jobs are far more frightening than any of the paranormal themes discussed by Art Bell.
You may have been with a friend or relative who observed a ghost job ad and he or she thought that the advertiser was sincerely searching for employees.

Newspaper And Radio Advertisements

Before the internet, newspaper advertisements were an important source of leads for employment.
While less likely to be used for individual jobs, job fairs were advertised on radio.
In 2026, do not outright completely dismiss the idea of finding employment leads from newspapers and radio.
However, be aware that the goal of a newspaper or radio advertisement may not be to find candidates, but rather to demonstrate that there are no suitable candidates.
Even on your local "America First" A.M. radio station, especially during non-peak hours, you may hear advertisements which were placed in support of helping people get green cards.
In such cases, the advertisements will usually be short, and direct listeners to a post office box.
The goal of such advertisements is to demonstrate that no qualified candidates could be found.
If a member of the general public does apply to such an advertisement, the goal of the organization that paid for the advertisement will be to disqualify him or her.

Ghost Jobs Versus Ghosting

My definition of ghosting is that someone had a legitimate expectation to receive feedback in some situation, but he or she did not receive feedback.
If a man messages a woman on a dating website and she does not message him back, that is not ghosting.
The man had no basis for expecting a reply.
With a ghost job, ideally you will not be invited to an interview.
A properly prepared applicant should be aware that any one job advertisement may prove to be a ghost job until presented with evidence that it is not.
Unfortunately, with some ghost jobs there may be one or more interviews.
If you go on one or more interviews, you are told that you will receive an answer by such and such date, but on such and such date there is no communication, then you have been ghosted.
In the above scenario, YOU were ghosted, but we do not have enough information to know whether the job was a ghost job.