The Rise of
Fake Jobs

Did you know there’s a subreddit called r/FightFakeJobs?

I didn’t either. 

Until this week when a friend asked me if my company posts fake jobs “like everyone else does”. 

I was perplexed. 

First of all, I’d never heard the term “fake jobs” before. 

Fake candidates, yes. But not fake jobs. 

So I asked for more details.

“Well, companies post fake jobs to make it look like they’re growing. Or to sell your personal information. Or to get more customers.” he said. 

Slightly shocked and feeling naive, I decided I needed to do some research before I chose to argue with him over something that seemed ludicrous to me. 

I mean…every recruiting department I’ve led had a whole process in place to approve a requisition before posting. It’s nearly impossible to post a fake job!

So, to better educate myself on this issue, I took to Reddit. 

THE POWER OF REDDIT FOR RESEARCH

Yeah, I know…Reddit isn’t exactly the oracle of truth. But, it’s a great place to find insights. Especially from people who are unhappy about something…anything. 

I typed “Fake Jobs” into the search bar and up came the /FightFakeJobs subreddit. To my surprise it had 2.0K followers! I read a bunch of their comments. 

I also asked my trusty AI partner Gemini to scan some other jobseeker subreddits for the top 5 things jobseekers are disgruntled about on the platform. 

And wouldn’t you know it…”Fake Jobs” showed up every time.

The way people described the frustration was in line with my friend’s description. They cite rampant use of fake jobs to build candidate pools (that will never be used), to drive traffic to company websites, and to keep existing employees nervous that they’re going to be replaced.

Again, to me, the comments make no sense in my world. But there’s obviously some bad actors out there ruining it for everyone.

SO…WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THIS?

Well, if you’re a talent leader or in charge of talent branding at your company, you can win back the trust of job seekers and position your company as a trustworthy employer with a few easy moves. 

Here’s how I’ve dealt with building candidate trust online over my career:  

  1. Create a centralized approval process for job postings so hiring managers can’t go rogue and post their own openings.

  2. If posting an “evergreen” requisition, say so at the top of the job posting.

  3. If collecting contacts for a “talent community”, trigger an email that lets people know what they can expect as part of the community.

  4. Audit job openings weekly and flag any that are open longer than 30-60 days and drive them to closure quickly. 

Also, consider partnering up with technology solutions that can bring job postings to life in a way that lets candidates know there’s real people behind the postings.

One company doing this well is Puck.

They can help you embed real stories from real employees across your career site, socials, and other candidate touchpoints. 

We partnered up to offer my readers a free brand audit that maps how you’re showing up across touch points that matter. 

—> If you’d like a free audit, complete the form below.


While you might not be able to solve every candidate’s trust issues or stop other companies from posting fake jobs, you can certainly take control of your situation. 

And if we all do our part, hopefully in the future there won’t be a need for r/FightFakeJobs anymore!