The #1 reasons why companies put up job listings these days ISN'T to fill positions (apply, collect)

[KonaldDuth]

Originally Posted by Vision67

..."Paranoia strikes deep. Into your heart it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. Step out of line the man comes and takes you away."

I don't see how this is paranoia.

[MLSFan]

Originally Posted by KonaldDuth

I don't see how this is paranoia.

and I don't see how you don't just think job posts are just that... if you don' get the job, does there need to be another reason other than they found someone with a better fit?

[KonaldDuth]

Originally Posted by eyeb

and I don't see how you don't just think job posts are just that... if you don' get the job, does there need to be another reason other than they found someone with a better fit?

If I interviewed for a job and didn't get it, it's probably because it was a real job and they found someone better or didn't think I had the minimum qualifications. But this thread isn't about jobs intereviewed for, and it isn't about me.

[Skyl3r]

Originally Posted by KonaldDuth

In this Orwellian, increasingly jobless world we live in, something I've figured out is that companies have many reasons to post job listings other than to try and fill the position listed -- which might not be an open position or a position that exists at all.

Why companies put up job listings:

• Gives investors or potential clients confidence that the company is doing well.
• Gives clients and potential clients the impression that they're working with top-notch teams. This is one reason why companies put asburd/impossible qualifications in their listings (e.g. 4.0 GPA, 10+ yrs experience with SQL Server 2014, etc.) when their actual employees in those positions don't nearly have those qualifications.
• Scares current employees into working harder when they see their position or a closely related one posted online. It's a reminder that they're always in danger of being replaced.

Was this intended to be a joke?

[Mr_Geek]

Or they just more often than not hire internal people or people they are connected to and thus you conclude they never hire anyone since outsiders rarely get a look.

[Ed Ferris]

Way back when the Reagan Recession was getting started and there weren't any jobs, some cartoonist published a strip about a professional, seeking a job, going to an interview and spending four hours talking about the company, the work, his qualifications and plans, and then realizing something was off and asking: "You aren't really hiring, are you?" The interviewer answered, "No, as a matter of fact we are laying off. But I'm the personnel manager, and if I don't interview people I'LL get laid off."

So in the mid-1990's I got laid off from a factory in Bloomington, Indiana, that was shipping all its jobs to Mexico, and got exactly two job interviews in the following year of job-searching. One was with a printing company for a job I had done before, the exact same job. Nobody else was even close on qualifications. The interviewer mentioned that the company was being taken over by a French conglomerate. I never heard from them again. Could it be that if he didn't interview people, the new management might decide that his job was unnecessary?

[oldtrader]

There are many reasons besides hiring a group of people, that a company will advertise for help.

1: To see if staffing a new facility is possible. Example: Several companies wanting to hire 300 to 400 people facility, have chosen Montana as a great place for them to locate in the past couple of years. The unemployment office, tells them to advertise to see if they can find enough people to fill their needs. I know one recently did that in 3 cities in Montana, needing 300 people and got 70 at one location and less in the others. They had to go to another state with higher unemployment. This is something that intelligent managers do, because if they cannot get enough applicants there is no way to staff the business.

2: You would like to find a real knowledgeable person in a particular field, if one is available. If you cannot find the person you would like to find, you can still stay in business till you can. You advertise for that person. If you find one, you interview and hire them. If you can't, you try again later. Many times the position you want to hire for, is so specialized and requires more knowledge and experience that just an average person would not be qualified and acceptable. For some positions it may take 2 years to find the perfect person for the job. That is why you see the same job advertised time after time. They kept advertising to find the person they need.

3: Federal laws, regulations, and court decisions require you to advertise even though you are going to hire within the company. To comply you advertise. It costs money to advertise, and handle the applications, which the company would rather not spend. But to make sure they will not get into trouble by not advertising, they advertise.

[ohio_peasant]

Originally Posted by Mr_Geek

Or they just more often than not hire internal people or people they are connected to and thus you conclude they never hire anyone since outsiders rarely get a look.

Originally Posted by oldtrader

3: Federal laws, regulations, and court decisions require you to advertise even though you are going to hire within the compan...

This may actually be the case. Recently I was asked to solicit interest from potential candidates to fill a new vacancy. It's a research position. I e-mailed my acquaintances in academia, to gauge interest from their fresh PhD graduates and post-docs. After a month or so, I had a collection of resumes, which I forwarded to the focal-point. Ultimately, the position was filled by an internal candidate. Nobody else was interviewed… not one. The persons who responded to my solicitation weren’t even given the courtesy of a rejection-letter. I ended up having to personally apologize to the professors in question. From an organizational viewpoint, this was brilliant. Because I made personal appeals to submit resumes – rather than the organization actually advertising openings – I'm the one who looks like a craven liar, and not the organization. Even the fact that there was ever an opening in the first place, could be vehemently denied.

[briloop]

In the past 45 years, I've had 3 careers and 14 employers. I've been laid off three times. I've had numerous job interviews; too many to count. I've searched numerous help wanted ads in newspapers and other job opportunities online. I've read numerous books on job hunting.

I don't doubt there are employers who post job vacancies for the reasons cited by the OP. But, I would think those kind of employers are very much in the minority.

It's been my experience that job vacancies are posted because:

a) there is an actual vacancy and the posting is a good-faith attempt on the part of the employer;
b) company policy or government regulation requires the vacancy to be the posted; or
c) the job vacancy is posted by a head-hunter to build up the resume bank.

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by rugrats2001

And to all of you crying 'paranoid', what would you have said a year ago if someone on C-D had posted that Volkswagen was cheating on emissions testing by gaming their engine's electronics to provide overly optimistic emissions reports?

You're comparing apples to...........rocks.