Job offers: All that glitters is not gold

Have you seen certain companies looking for professionals for months without filling the position?

The job platforms send you the same ad several times, “telling” you you are the right match for the position.

You fulfiled all requirements, applied for the position, and they sent you an email saying something like:

"... your educational and professional experience is incredibly competitive ... unfortunately, we found other candidates who better fit the profile", and you see the SAME job offer again after 3, 6, 9, 12 or even more months?

You see the job offer on the internet over and over again. And you think: with thousands of people well qualified and hundreds of applicants, why can’t they find somebody?

How can this be?

Sometimes, the person who accepts the position leaves after a few weeks or months, so they must go back to the search. That happens.

Some companies have high turnover. You check LinkedIn, and most employees have worked there for only months. Red light!

Check Glassdoor and Kununu and read comments by applicants, employees and former employees. This can be oh help, but only sometimes 100% true:

In some companies, the management and/or marketing department instructs some employees in high positions to evaluate the company very positively to obtain a high ranking.

In other cases, the employees left quite upset and evaluated the company worse than it really is.

I think the best is to connect with people who have worked there or still work there, so they can tell you about the company, the culture, how they treat people, etc.

Some start-ups and small and mid companies resort to some of these practices to improve their image and appear more successful than they are:

a) When looking for new investors, having many open job offers on social media makes them look successful, growing fast, and the business is going very well.

b) Others are looking for clients or partners, so having many job offers on social media produces the same effect as in a)

c) Others aren’t really looking for new employees but want to build a database with the CVs of professionals to contact them if they need them in the future.

Especially if they use the LinkedIn free 1-month job ad.

When the time comes, they will go to the CVs and reconnect with former applicants sending them the job ads without paying headhunters, job platforms, etc., which is very useful for small companies that usually have a very small budget for recruiting.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I have seen these practices.

And because I want to give you a small message of hope: Don’t feel sad with each rejection, thinking you’re not good enough, doubting your skills and abilities.

Many times it is not you: It’s them.

All that glitters is not gold.