Stupid job board tricks

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Thankfully, it’s not necessary to search job boards anymore because Mr. brown is now employed. But I still look now and then because the searching habit is hard to break, and I also like to stay informed about the job market in case of emergencies.

I see stupid tricks now and then that are set up to ensnare the unwary job seeker. Here are a few:

  1. Even though the link to the job is listed as being in a certain area, once you click on the link, you see that the job is clear across country or even on another continent. This is my biggest pet peeve.

  2. Click on a likely-looking job, and find out that it’s a suspiciously ambiguous description, and contains about 1,000 keywords. No doubt it’s telemarketing or sales, but they get no clicks unless the job title is vague and the listing carries as many keywords as possible.

  3. Invent a new job description for a mundane position so that it’s impossible to tell what the job entails without clicking on it. Here are a couple I remember, together with their more accurate job descriptions: “Facilities Coordinator” = receptionist. “Operations Specialist” = jar and bottle washer. “Engineering Tech” = CAD drafter.

Any other stupid job tricks?

2

People calling me and saying “we have a marketing position you might be suitable for” which turns out, after examination, to be fucking pyramid selling. Has happened three times in the past few months.

3

I’ve seen that one quite a bit. Every so often I get an e-mail alert for Florida job listings. Most of the e-mails listed are for New York, or Ohio or someplace else that’s not Florida. It’s a bit frustrating.