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

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.

irtefa · a year ago

This is false. I am one of the co-founders of Jam. We hired 3 engineers who applied to us because they saw our post here. We don’t post here for advertising.

ilrwbwrkhv · a year ago

I have multiple reports from people who applied and didn't hear back. Can you share some data of how many applications you received and responded to?

golergka · a year ago

> Even recent startups like Jam.dev do this.

I was just hired at Jam through the HN post a couple of months ago, so it’s definitely not fake.

ilrwbwrkhv · a year ago

I have reports from the last 3 months about this. So maybe you were before that.

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

smilliken · a year ago

We've been hiring non-stop for years. It's a lot of work to review resumes and interview candidates, I can't imagine why we'd keep it up if we weren't making good hires.

I'll admit that we are selective. Our positions are in high demand, I think partly due to macro reasons, and I think partly because we make an effort to offer entry-level positions with training.

I'm sad that you (or someone you know) didn't have a good experience applying for one of our positions. Please accept my apology (on their behalf).

johnnyanmac · a year ago

> I can't imagine why we'd keep it up if we weren't making good hires.

I imagine quite a few reasons. Some malicious, some giving the benefit of the doubt.

I'll hold my tongue, but the most important aspect is to at least candidates in the loop. There's so much ghosting and that's worse than any rejection.

yellow_lead · a year ago

Thanks, this is something that I read under one of MixRank's hiring posts on HN, and I thought might be true since I always see the same positions listed as well.

It makes sense that you're continuously hiring. It may be hard for me or others to differentiate that when the listed roles + post content are the same.

imbiased · a year ago

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...

dang · a year ago

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

Ancalagon · a year ago

Is the company still paying for these ads? Or have they just not expired yet from their last payment?

Those posts aren't paid - they're free for YC startups. This is one of the ways that HN gives back to YC in exchange for funding it. See https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.

solarkraft · a year ago

I thought job ads were a perk of being a YC company?

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.

whamlastxmas · a year ago

I imagine if someone over qualified came along they could underpay, they would probably hire them. That’s what I assume a lot of job listings are.

bluedino · a year ago

They've been posting for a very long time

gabrielsroka · a year ago

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

> 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.