Why Most of LinkedIn Jobs Are Fake (And How to Find Jobs instead)

TThe Coding Koala
구직/면접재택/원격 근무AI/미래기술

Transcript

00:00:00So if you are currently unemployed and spend your time searching jobs on LinkedIn, I'm sorry,
00:00:04but you might actually never get a job. If you still haven't realized, just look at the number
00:00:09of jobs you have applied and ask yourself how many of them actually got back with you. It's not
00:00:14because you are not good enough, it's just because most of these openings you see on LinkedIn are just
00:00:19ghost jobs or scammers trying to steal your data or money. So in this video, I'll discuss why you
00:00:25are wasting your time applying for jobs on LinkedIn and most importantly, I'll share some of the
00:00:30strategies experience people actually use to apply for jobs. First, let's talk about why applying on
00:00:35LinkedIn is useless. One of the most frustrating reasons is fake or ghost job postings. These are
00:00:41jobs posted by companies or scammers that look completely legitimate on the surface, but in
00:00:46reality, they are jobs posted with no intention of hiring. You won't believe me, but some of the jobs
00:00:52you see on LinkedIn aren't even real. But why would anyone post fake jobs? Well, first, let's talk
00:00:57about why scammers do this and I think they have pretty clear motives. When you apply, you're
00:01:02handing over personal information, your email, phone number, resume, sometimes even more, and that data
00:01:09can be used for their benefit. In some cases, you might be even asked to pay some kind of processing
00:01:15fee or interview fee to continue in the interview process, which is an immediate red flag. No real
00:01:21company will ever ask you to pay to get hired. And then there are also phishing attempts. You might
00:01:26receive a message saying you've been shortlisted along with a link that looks official, but once you
00:01:31click it, you could end up compromising your accounts or personal data. And the scary part is when someone
00:01:37is desperate for a job, they will not think twice to click. If you want to know how to discover this
00:01:42type of job listings, we will talk about it in a bit. But the thing is, these fake jobs are not only
00:01:48posted by scammers, they are posted by real companies too. They do this for various reasons.
00:01:54First is they might be building a talent pool for future hiring or they might be trying to present
00:01:58themselves as a growing company. And posting more jobs hiring is no better way to do that. Ghost jobs
00:02:04are the one frustrating thing about LinkedIn job listings. The next thing is high competition. Even
00:02:09if a job is 100% real, you're not the only one applying. Every posting easily racks up 100,
00:02:16sometimes thousands of applicants within 24 hours. And with the easy apply button,
00:02:21it takes literally seconds for someone to submit an application. That means your resume is getting
00:02:27buried under a pile of hundreds of others within minutes. And to make things even bad, some people
00:02:32are using bots to mass apply to jobs, which completely floods the system. So when you don't
00:02:37hear back, it's not necessarily because you're unqualified. It's because your application probably
00:02:43never even got seen. But with that all said, how should you actually be searching for a job?
00:02:48The first thing you need to stop doing is relying on easy apply as your primary strategy. It feels
00:02:54productive, but in reality, it really works in your favor. Instead, use LinkedIn the right way.
00:03:00Think of it as a discovery tool, not an application platform. When you find a job listing, don't apply
00:03:06directly through LinkedIn. Take an extra step. See which company is posting. Go to the company's
00:03:11official website, find their careers page, and apply from there. This not only increases your
00:03:16chances of being seen, but also helps you verify whether the job is actually real. But before you
00:03:21even apply, you need to validate that the company is real and you are not sending to some random
00:03:26scammer. To verify that, first check their LinkedIn profile carefully. A legitimate company usually has
00:03:32a detailed description, a proper website, and visible employees. If you go to the people section
00:03:37and find little to no employees, that's a major red flag. Doing this will make sure that your
00:03:43application actually gets seen by the employers, and most importantly, you are not giving your info
00:03:48to random person. So finally, let's talk about the most important part that most people completely
00:03:54ignore. Applying for a job outside these listing platforms. So what you do next is stop waiting for
00:04:00job postings. Instead, make a list of companies you actually want to work for, whether they are local
00:04:06or international. Then reach out to them directly. Send a well-written email expressing your interest,
00:04:11your skills, and how you can add value to their team. You might be thinking, why would a company
00:04:16respond if they're not hiring? Because hiring doesn't always happen publicly. Sometimes companies
00:04:21need someone but haven't posted a job yet. Sometimes they are open to opportunities but just not actively
00:04:27looking. And sometimes you just get lucky by being in the right inbox at the right time. This approach
00:04:33is called cold emailing, and it works more often than you'd expect. In fact, this is how I got my
00:04:38first job. If you want a complete guide on cold emailing, join my Discord server. The link is in
00:04:44comments. Go to the resources channel and download a guide to land your next job. So to summarize
00:04:49everything, LinkedIn job listings aren't completely useless. The way you use it makes the difference.
00:04:55If you rely only on easy apply, you're competing in the noisiest, most crowded part of the job market.
00:05:02But if you use LinkedIn as a tool to discover opportunities, verify companies, and then take
00:05:07action outside the platform, you immediately put yourself ahead of the majority. And if you really
00:05:13want to stand out, stop waiting for opportunities to be posted and start creating your own. I dropped
00:05:19everything I know about searching for a job, and if I miss something or if you have something to add,
00:05:23drop it in the comments. Also make sure to check out the cold emailing guide. That's it for this video.
00:05:29If this was helpful, make sure to show some love and I'll see you guys in the next one.

Key Takeaway

LinkedIn functions better as a discovery tool than an application platform, as bypassing the Easy Apply button in favor of direct career page submissions and cold emails avoids the 1,000+ applicant bottleneck and ghost job scams.

Highlights

Most LinkedIn job postings are ghost jobs or scams designed to harvest personal data and processing fees.

Legitimate companies post fake openings to build talent pools or project a false image of rapid growth.

Individual job listings often receive over 1,000 applicants within 24 hours due to the ease of the Easy Apply button.

Bot-driven mass applications flood the LinkedIn system, burying manual resumes regardless of candidate qualifications.

Applying through a company's official career page instead of LinkedIn increases visibility and verifies the job's legitimacy.

Cold emailing target companies can bypass public listings and access the hidden job market where roles are not yet posted.

Timeline

The Reality of Ghost Jobs and Scams

  • Many job listings have no actual intention of hiring a candidate.
  • Scammers use fake postings to collect personal data like phone numbers and resumes for phishing attacks.
  • Legitimate corporations use ghost jobs to maintain a public perception of growth or to bank resumes for future needs.

The prevalence of ghost jobs explains why many qualified applicants never receive responses. Scammers often target desperate job seekers by asking for processing fees or sending malicious links disguised as interview invites. Real companies contribute to this problem by posting roles solely to build a talent pipeline or appear more successful to investors.

The Flaw of Mass Application Features

  • The Easy Apply button results in hundreds or thousands of applicants within the first 24 hours of a posting.
  • Automated bots mass-apply to roles, creating an oversaturated environment that hides manual submissions.
  • Lack of response usually stems from an application never being seen rather than a lack of qualifications.

High competition is exacerbated by the low barrier to entry for applying on LinkedIn. Within minutes, a resume can be buried under a pile of hundreds of others. This saturation is worsened by users who deploy bots to apply for every available role, making it statistically unlikely for a human recruiter to reach the bottom of the pile.

Strategic Discovery and Verification

  • LinkedIn is most effective when used as a discovery tool to identify hiring companies.
  • Direct applications on official company websites yield higher visibility than third-party platforms.
  • Verification of a company's legitimacy involves checking for a detailed description and a visible list of employees.

Shifting the strategy from applying on LinkedIn to applying on the company's official website helps bypass third-party noise. Checking the 'People' section of a company's profile serves as a safeguard; a company with no visible employees is a significant red flag for a scam. This extra step ensures the data is sent to a real employer rather than a data harvester.

Tapping into the Hidden Job Market

  • Proactive outreach through cold emailing targets roles that are not yet publicly listed.
  • Direct emails should focus on how the candidate adds specific value to the team.
  • Successful hiring often occurs outside of traditional listing platforms through well-timed personal communication.

Hiring often happens before a job is ever posted publicly. By creating a list of target companies and reaching out directly, candidates avoid the 1,000-applicant competition entirely. This method, known as cold emailing, works because companies are often open to talent even when they are not actively running a recruitment campaign.

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