Former LinkedIn Employee Claims There's A Secret Way To Find Real Jobs On The Site
There might be a way for job seekers to get around the fake job postings often found on LinkedIn.
Grustock / Shutterstock Job searching nowadays is an exhausting, disheartening, and time-consuming experience. Between fake job postings, outrageously low wages, and companies ghosting interviewees, those on the job hunt are undeniably struggling.
However, there may be a clever way to combat at least one of these issues. In a TikTok video, a content creator named Giovanna Ventola offered some insight that she'd heard from someone who used to work for LinkedIn. The former employee had been laid off and was extremely unhappy about it, so to spite the company, she decided to spill some helpful insider information.
The former LinkedIn employee shared the secret way to find real jobs on the website.
In Ventola's video, she explained that while she didn't want to share everything the former employee said, she did want to inform people about the tangible action items. One of those had to do with combatting the fake jobs frequently found on the site.
In a survey conducted by investment and wealth management firm Clarity Capital, more than 1,000 hiring managers admitted that a lot of the jobs people are applying to aren't actually real. This happens for many reasons, including gathering resumes for future candidates and wanting to give the illusion of growth in their company to boost employee morale.
To combat this, "you wanna make sure that a job posting is verified," Ventola advised.
"A lot of companies don't wanna pay to put their jobs up [on LinkedIn], so what they do is people in the company will post," she continued. So, if you want to search for a job, she suggested typing in the search bar: "I'm hiring" AND "[Job title]."
She also pointed out that job seekers can search for multiple positions at once by typing "I'm hiring" in quotes, AND in capital letters, followed by the names of both job titles in quotes with the word OR capitalized in between. For example, you could search: "I'm hiring" AND "Customer Service Manager" OR "Account Manager."
Ventola also learned that the algorithm matters on LinkedIn.
Whenever you like or comment on someone else's post, it shares that with everyone in your network. This means people can see all your activity on LinkedIn, including looking and applying for jobs.
"I don't want people to know what kinds of jobs I'm looking at," Ventola said. "It's embarrassing because your entire network sees that you're looking for an entry-level position. That's super awkward."
More and more job seekers admit that it's becoming harder to find available jobs.
According to a survey of more than 1,500 candidates from the staffing firm Aerotek, nearly 70% of job seekers say their current search is more difficult than their last one.
It's not just the fake job listings — recruiters are also putting job seekers through multiple rounds of interviews and assigning them unpaid projects as part of the application process.
A recruiter named Mike Peditto explained why many companies simply aren't hiring anymore, despite how many available jobs are out there. He pointed out that a huge part of the issue is the massive layoffs that have been happening among recruiting staff over the last several years.
"Recruiting teams that used to have 50 people on them now have 10; recruiting teams that used to be 10 people now are one," he said. "That 10-person recruiting team used to get 50 applications if they opened up a role. Now it's a one-person team that gets 300 applications."
With how hopeless it feels to look for a job right now, Ventola's advice is invaluable. Refining your search and utilizing all of the tools available on LinkedIn can help drastically combat the number of roadblocks that stand in the way between job seekers and employment.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.