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Tell HN: BuildZoom posts jobs on HN, but no actual openings available

by lightwin on 7/4/24, 3:48 PM with 26 comments

I see a HN job post from BuildZoom a couple of hours ago. If you click on the link, you will be taken to a job board which says no jobs are available.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40874189

Just wondering why a company posts a job on HN without having actual openings.

Is it some automated system to post jobs, or are companies using job posts as a marketing tactic?

  • by imbiased on 7/4/24, 4:05 PM

    I've been seeing job posts for them coming up at the top of HN and I always wondered what was going on. Roles often repeating, like Principal Engineer, posted for years now, look:

    https://imgur.com/a/lz7FP0x https://imgur.com/TgKbcI4

    https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 7/4/24, 4:48 PM

    Not just them. Aha! is also notorious for this. Even recent startups like Jam.dev do this.

    Unfortunately a lot of companies use Who's Hiring as a way of keeping mind share / advertising. But they are not doing well so they can't actually hire you.

  • by dang on 7/4/24, 4:47 PM

    Yes, sorry - the job ad system on HN has needed some work for years now. I'll see what I can do.

  • by golergka on 7/4/24, 3:58 PM

    Some of the companies that post on “who's hiring” are not actually hiring too. I think they're using these fake openings to signal something to their competitors or investors.

  • by yellow_lead on 7/4/24, 4:55 PM

    There's also a company called MixRank that continuously posts the same openings but apparently never hires anyone.

  • by bluedino on 7/4/24, 3:54 PM

    They've been posting for a very long time

  • by gabrielsroka on 7/4/24, 4:00 PM

    See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39008011 and the rest of the thread

  • by johnnyanmac on 7/5/24, 7:48 AM

    > Just wondering why a company posts a job on HN without having actual openings.

    Ghost jobs. In addition to interviewers ghosting candidates, it's been a trend on the rise these past few years: https://www.forbes.com/sites/karadennison/2023/11/27/how-gho...

    TL;DR there's 3 primary motivations:

    1. -Lie- convince shareholders that they are still growing

    2. -Lie- convince existing, overworked employees that help is coming

    3. -Lie- conform to regulations for future offshorting/H1-B's.

    #1 thing I'd want looked into from these job boards. It's fraud in sheep's clothing.

  • by OutOfHere on 7/4/24, 6:23 PM

    I imagine many companies do it on many websites. They can use it to falsely signal to their VCs that they're trying to hire when they're actually not.