The data spine

All 11 ghost-job red flags, ranked by weight

Every signal our engine checks, with its exact weight, the why, what it looks like, and what to do. Total weight: 114 points, normalized to a 0-100 score.

18 pts · 15.8% of score

No salary range listed

Ghost listings are rarely budgeted roles, so there is no real number to publish. A growing list of pay-transparency laws (Colorado 2021, NYC 2022, California and Washingt…

16 pts · 14.0% of score

Posting older than 30 days

Most genuinely open roles move to interviews within weeks. A listing that sits past 30 days is increasingly likely to be unbudgeted, already filled internally, or kept up…

14 pts · 12.3% of score

Reposted again and again

Reposting resets the visible posting date, which makes a stale listing look fresh. A role reposted monthly for half a year either has an impossible bar, a retention probl…

12 pts · 10.5% of score

Boilerplate, buzzword-heavy description

When a manager actually needs someone, the description names the team, the stack, the problems. Ghost listings are written by nobody for nobody, so they fall back on fill…

10 pts · 8.8% of score

Vague or stacked job title

Real reqs are written for one approved seat with one title. 'Rockstar engineer', 'Various positions', or a title stacking three roles into one signals a resume-collection…

10 pts · 8.8% of score

'Always hiring' / talent-pipeline language

Phrases like 'always looking for great talent', 'join our talent pool', or 'future opportunities' are honest in a way applicants miss: they describe resume collection, no…

8 pts · 7.0% of score

No named hiring manager or contact

A funded role has an owner — someone whose quarter depends on filling it. Listings with no named manager, no 'reports to', and no human contact route into an applicant tr…

8 pts · 7.0% of score

No concrete details anywhere

Specifics are expensive to fake. Team size, the product you'd work on, the tools in use, years of the company's history — real managers include them without thinking. A l…

6 pts · 5.3% of score

Urgent hiring, zero specifics

'Immediate start! Apply today!' paired with a description that names no team, no project, and no start date is a volume play. Real urgency comes with logistics: a date, a…

6 pts · 5.3% of score

Implausibly wide salary range

A range where the top is double the bottom (or more) usually means the range was written to satisfy a transparency law, not to describe a budgeted seat. It can also mean …

6 pts · 5.3% of score

Hidden or masked employer

Staffing agencies sometimes post for real clients — but 'confidential client' postings are also the classic shape of fishing listings: collect candidates first, find (or …

Free · no spam

Job-search guides that save you wasted applications

New ghost-job red flags, fresh guides, and what changed in the data — straight to your inbox when we publish.