Blog

How do I tell if a job posting is a ghost job?

By Find your role first team · October 18, 2026, 12:00 UTC

You can't prove a company has no plan to fill a role, but you can check the signs in about two minutes. Start with the company's own careers site: a role missing from there is closed. If it is, look at how long it's been open, whether it keeps getting reposted, and whether the company is hiring anything else.

Five checks

1. Is it on the company's own site? Search the company's careers page for the exact title. Job boards keep listings up after a role closes. The company's site is the source.
2. How old is it really? Job boards reset the date when a role is reposted. A role that says "posted 1 day ago" can have been open for months, so trust the date on the company's own site over the board's.
3. Is the company hiring at all? Look at its recent pace. A company that posted no other roles in a month and closed a lot of them is a weaker bet than one adding roles every week.
4. Is the posting specific? A real opening usually names a team, a manager or a project. A vague "always looking for great people" posting is often a pipeline listing, collecting résumés for later.
5. Has it been around before? Search the exact title and company on Google. Copies on other job sites, months apart, mean it's been floating a while.

Using company pages for check 3

Every company page here shows open roles, new roles in the last 7 days and roles closed in the last 30, read from the company's own site. Stripe's, on October 18, 2026, showed 730 open, 46 new in a week and 241 closed in 30 days. That's a company that's actively opening and filling roles.

What a ghost job isn't

A role that closed after a week, a role filled internally, or a role that went quiet after your application. Those are normal hiring, and frustrating, and not a sign of a fake posting.

Spend your time where it pays

The cheapest fix is applying early to roles that are actually new. A role that first appeared on the company's site today is open by definition, and your application lands near the top of the pile. New jobs in the last 24 hours shows exactly those, by role, with no sign-in.

Questions

Are ghost jobs illegal?

In most places there's no general ban. Some states have proposed rules requiring employers to disclose whether a posting is for a real opening. Check your own state's labor department.

Should I still apply to an old posting?

If you really want the role, yes, but send a short note to a recruiter or the hiring manager too. That tells you quickly whether anyone is reading.

Can a tool tell me for sure?

No tool can read a company's intent. Anything claiming a certain answer is guessing. The checks above tell you whether a role is open and how fresh it is.