Some job seekers who’re on the lookout for full remote or hybrid jobs say they run into opportunities which might be supposedly work-from-home friendly, but will later hear from recruiters who will eventually reveal otherwise.
The alleged bait and switch tactic has change into a subject of debate on social media, including on TikTok, where job seekers share their experiences with baffling working conditions and misleading job advertisements.
On April 18, 41-year-old Jamie Jackson of Nashville, Tennessee, uploaded a video to her TikTok account @humorousresources of an apparently mislabeled job posting listing jobs on popular profession sites.
The role that caught Jackson’s eye was an administrative assistant job in Lake Price, Florida, which is labeled “remote” and “WFH” (short for do business from home), however the job ad says it’s actually not remote position.
“Administrative assistant. Remote. Work from home.”
Jackson reads aloud in his TikTok video as he discusses a job that has been made available to LinkedIn by a third-party recruitment firm called Get.It Recruit – Administrative.
“What’s that in yellow there?” Jackson continued by calling up the text of the post, which she had marked with a digital yellow marker.
“In case you’re on the lookout for a remote job, don’t apply.” The job ad reads, to which Jackson replied.
“Why don’t you correct it? Check your posts.”
FOX Business contacted the Get.It Recruit administration department for comment.
In a TikTok direct message, Jackson wrote that she is suspicious of job postings which have remote and work-from-home labels that conflict with job descriptions.
“I do not think it was a proofreading error,” she wrote.
“I believe it’s more of a way to get candidates to apply. Considering candidates won’t read the main points within the job commercial.”
Commenters under Jackson’s TikTok post shared that also they are skeptical about human error related to mislabeled job postings.
“They do it on purpose to get attention. So frustrating,” one TikTok user wrote.
“I see this so often and it tells me they should not an organization I might want to work for in the event that they are cheating on their job postings,” wrote one other TikTok user.
“Done on purpose, like one pay range within the headline after which some bullshit about it not going to be a salary within the auction meat,” one other TikTok user noted.
“Are recruiters trying to increase ‘leads’ rates? Tell your boss they’ve 30 phone calls with potential candidates? one TikTok user questioned.
A TikTok user, who claims to be from Oregon, responded to Jackson’s post with a story about how she reportedly received calls from two different recruiters after applying for remote and hybrid jobs online, and was later informed during phone screenings that the roles she was applying for applied for, were intended for applicants for full-time employment.
“One person said, ‘It was a mistake on our part. I’m really sorry for wasting your time. I’m going to repost this and ensure that it doesn’t say ‘do business from home’ anymore,” a TikTok user recalls.
“She posted again the following day and it still said she was working from home.”
The TikTok user who responded to Jackson theorized that firms intentionally mislabel job postings to get a bigger pool of qualified applicants.
She concluded that having more applicants to select from could increase the probabilities of a recruiting agency or hiring manager finding someone who would agree and accept a full-time job.
Make clear Capital, a Recent York-based financial advisory firm, released a survey in fall 2022 that consulted 1,045 recruiting managers about “ghost jobs,” also generally known as job postings, that were submitted but not submitted are actively staffed.
The study found that 37% of hiring managers admitted to posting jobs that they’re “not actively in search of to fill” because they need to “have an lively pool of candidates in case of turnover.”
Job seekers share dubious job postings on social media to vent their frustration and suspicion online.
On TikTok, the hashtag #jobscams has over 6.7 million views, while the hashtag #fakejobs has 3.8 million views.
Many reported jobs which were called potential scams and pretend contacts appear to be labeled as remote or hybrid opportunities.
In April 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a press release warning Americans in regards to the rise in fake job postings and the way cybercriminals are using this method to collect personal information from job seekers.