Scroll through LinkedIn on any given day and you’ll see two things happening at once.
On one side: thousands of people posting “open to work,” sharing updated resumes, celebrating small wins like getting a single reply after fifty applications. On the other side: companies announcing layoffs, hiring freezes, and “restructuring” — while somehow still posting new job openings every single day.
It doesn’t add up. So let’s talk about it.
Job seekers today are doing everything right. They’re tailoring resumes, writing custom cover letters, following up politely, checking job boards obsessively. And still, silence. No rejection, no interview, not even an automated “thanks for applying.” Just nothing.
Meanwhile, the job postings keep coming.
So here’s the honest question: if a company has no real intention of hiring, why post the job in the first place?
Sometimes it’s to satisfy internal policy — a role has to be posted externally even if someone internal already has it lined up. Sometimes it’s to build a pipeline of resumes “just in case.” Sometimes the posting is old and nobody bothered to take it down. And sometimes, frankly, companies are testing the market to see who’s out there and what they’re willing to accept, without any urgency to actually fill the seat.
Whatever the reason, the cost of that isn’t evenly shared. A company loses a little admin time leaving a post up. A job seeker loses hours of effort, hope, and — over time — confidence.
Then there’s the other piece of this puzzle: automation and AI stepping into roles that used to be done by people. And look, nobody’s arguing that AI isn’t useful. It is. It can speed things up, cut down repetitive work, and free people to focus on things that actually need a human brain.
But here’s what worries me: what happens when AI can’t deliver what was expected of it?
When a company replaces a person with a tool and that tool falls short — misses context, makes an error a human would have caught, can’t handle the messy, nuanced parts of the job — who’s accountable? What’s the plan then? Because “we’ll figure it out later” isn’t a strategy, it’s a gamble, and often the people who pay for that gamble aren’t the ones who made the decision.
People are not just a line item to reduce. They bring judgment, adaptability, and the kind of thinking that doesn’t show up in a spec sheet. Technology should be there to help people do their work better — not to make people feel disposable.
So I’d genuinely like to open this up, because I don’t think one side of the table has the full picture.
To recruiters and hiring managers: What’s really going on behind the scenes? Are open postings always genuine? What would help job seekers understand what’s happening on your end?
To job seekers: What’s your experience been? Where do you feel the process is breaking down the most?
I don’t think this conversation has a single right answer, but I do think it’s a conversation worth having — honestly, and out loud.
Drop your thoughts below. I’d like to hear from both sides.
