Looking for a Scam? Stop Applying Through Job Boards

Alternatively, how to better spend your time landing an interview

Shelly Fagan
6 min readJun 28, 2023
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

Having problems landing an interview? Don’t assume it is your résumé or skills.

The vast majority — some 85% of jobs are filled by networking. This means someone you know reaches out to you about an opening.

That means the 15% of jobs are filled by other means including applications from job boards and recruiters.

Assuming all job ads are legitimate (spoiler, they aren’t), that means your chances of landing a position through a job board are already slim. Once you know the truth, it becomes practically impossible.

Now, what do you think your chances are of landing an interview when you take into consideration the number of fake jobs, scams, duplicate postings on multiple platforms, or repeated ads (e.g. “content writer” and “bilingual content writer”) for one opening?

“In a survey of more than 1,000 hiring managers last summer, 27% reported having job postings up for more than four months. Among those who said they advertised job postings that they weren’t actively trying to fill, close to half said they kept the ads up to give the impression the company was growing, according to Clarify Capital, a small-business-loan…

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Shelly Fagan

Complicated subjects made accessible. Politics, Basic Income, Philosophy. I follow back.