Working in HR for the past six years, I’ve seen firsthand how LinkedIn has become a go-to platform for job seekers and employers alike. It’s a powerful tool for networking, sharing, and discovering job opportunities—arguably one of the top places to find jobs today. However, while LinkedIn is great for visibility and initial contact, it’s not always the best platform for completing the entire application process. Most employers rely on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), making it challenging to keep the full recruitment workflow on LinkedIn. This means that even though a job may be posted on LinkedIn, the actual application is often diverted to an external system. Adding to this complexity, many companies have multiple job openings managed by a handful of recruiters or hiring managers, which can lead to inconsistencies and delays. While some companies have managed to integrate LinkedIn job postings with their Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), in most cases, HR teams have to manually repost job listings on LinkedIn, creating a tedious and often repetitive process for hiring managers.
Why Are Job Seekers Struggling to Find Jobs?
Despite the apparent abundance of job openings, job seekers continue to face challenges in securing employment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 9.6 million job openings in September 2023. Yet, this figure raised eyebrows as hiring numbers seemed unusually low, leaving many to wonder: If there are millions of open jobs, why aren’t more people getting hired? In fact, less than 2% of those 9.6 million openings were filled by October.
To dig deeper into this issue, a survey conducted by Clarify Capital in October 2023 found that 50% of hiring managers admitted to creating job postings not to fill immediate vacancies, but rather to build a “warm talent pool.” This means that many job listings are essentially placeholders, intended to attract potential candidates for future needs rather than current ones. This practice leaves job seekers in a difficult position—wasting time and effort on applications that aren’t for genuinely open roles.
But this isn’t the only issue at play. The challenges job seekers face are multifaceted, and there are a few more layers to this problem that are worth exploring to truly understand what’s going on behind the scenes on job boards like LinkedIn. Let’s dive deeper into these nuances.
HR Strategy with Job Descriptions
A well-crafted job description is as crucial to the hiring process as finding the right candidate. According to HRSG’s State of Job Descriptions 2020 Survey, about 65% of HR professionals reported spending two hours or more drafting a single job description from scratch. This initial draft is just the beginning—it often goes through several rounds of approvals from hiring managers and requires research on industry trends and comparable roles to ensure competitiveness and clarity.
In a project I worked on with a previous employer in 2023, the company adopted a strategy to keep job postings open for roles that required frequent hiring. Instead of creating a new job post every time a position needed filling, the HRIS system or HR team would simply repost the existing one. While efficient, this tactic also led to situations where job postings remained active even when there were no immediate vacancies, creating confusion for job seekers. However, this approach allowed the company to build a “resume bank” over several years, which proved valuable for refining job descriptions. By analyzing the types of candidates applying, the company could adjust job descriptions to attract more suitable talent. For example, resumes submitted five years ago might rarely list “Excel” as a skill, but today, nearly every applicant highlights experience with Excel or even advanced Excel functions. This evolving data helped HR teams update job descriptions to align better with the changing skill set landscape, thereby attracting higher-quality candidates.
An Unusual Labor Economy
In today’s unpredictable labor market, many U.S. employers are not rushing to fill positions. This strategy can be seen as a calculated move in response to economic uncertainty. Keeping positions vacant or “slow-rolling” the hiring process allows companies to reduce expenses and stay ahead of budget goals. This maneuver helps organizations maintain the appearance of active hiring and growth while discreetly achieving cost savings. Such tactics enable the C-suite to meet quarterly financial targets without the negative optics of removing job postings altogether from their career sites.
HR Staff Count vs. Number of Openings
The imbalance between the number of HR staff and job openings is another reason behind misleading job postings. Most companies have far more job openings than HR professionals available to manage them. A 2022 survey by HR company Workvivo found that 98% of recruiting and HR professionals are experiencing burnout, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work. The recruitment cycle is often relentless, and during peak times, the number of open positions can far exceed what the HR team can reasonably handle.
When job openings surge, HR departments often struggle to keep up. As a result, even as some positions are being filled, they are not always promptly removed from job boards. These listings continue to accept applications, misleading job seekers into thinking that positions are still available. Even with the introduction of AI-driven solutions to streamline this process, the closure of job postings often remains a manual and cumbersome task. This gap between job listing management and actual hiring needs contributes to the perception that there are plenty of job openings, but few actual hires, creating frustration for job seekers navigating the market.
The Reality Behind Job Openings for International Students
For international students, navigating the U.S. job market comes with unique challenges beyond the typical difficulties faced by all job seekers. The combination of strategic job postings, a cautious labor market approach, and overwhelmed HR teams creates a particularly misleading and often frustrating landscape. While LinkedIn and other job boards might display an abundance of job openings, the reality for international students is even more complicated.
Many companies leave roles open not because they are actively hiring, but to build a pool of potential candidates for future needs. For international students, who face additional constraints such as visa sponsorship requirements and tight OPT or CPT timelines, these practices can lead to wasted time and effort. They may find themselves applying for jobs that are not immediately available or even real, which only adds to the stress as their visa deadlines approach.
Additionally, a cautious labor market means companies might be slow to hire, trying to cut costs by leaving positions vacant for longer periods. This can create the illusion of growth and opportunity on job boards, but for international students who must secure employment within a limited time frame to maintain their visa status, these misleading postings can be particularly disheartening. Overwhelmed HR teams often delay updating job statuses, resulting in students chasing opportunities that have already closed.
How to Navigate and Improve Your Job Search Strategy
Given these challenges, international students need to adopt a more strategic approach to their job search. The probability of landing an actual open position increases significantly by applying to more jobs, reaching out to referrals, and actively networking. Simply relying on job boards alone can often lead to dead ends, as many of these postings are not current or are placeholders for future hiring.
To increase the chances of success, students should prioritize networking—both online and offline. Connecting with alumni, attending career fairs, participating in industry-specific events, and reaching out to professionals for informational interviews can provide valuable insights and potential referrals. Personal connections can often bypass the crowded applicant pool that online job boards create, providing a more direct path to a real opportunity.
Another strategy is to use referrals strategically. Employees are often incentivized to refer candidates for open positions, and a referral can move your application to the top of the pile, even bypassing the ATS. Moreover, actively engaging with companies through LinkedIn by commenting on their posts, attending their webinars, and following up with recruiters can also set you apart from the crowd.
Ultimately, navigating the job market as an international student requires persistence and a multi-pronged approach. Understanding that not every job posting represents a real, immediate opportunity is the first step.