Job seeker spends weeks on interviews and unpaid assignment before realizing the tech job they applied for never actually existed

Author image for Cata Holmes
Cata Holmes • Writer
May 31, 2026 5:15 PM EDT

Are companies hiring employees or just collecting emotional damage at this point?

A growing number of frustrated applicants in the Reddit community r/jobsearchhacks have started sharing stories about so-called "ghost jobs," where companies appear to run extensive interview processes for positions that may never have truly existed. One post from Reddit user @Millennium_Pi especially caught people's attention after describing a four-round interview process that included a brutal, unpaid assignment, only for the company to suddenly claim the role had been frozen after weeks of interviews and encouragement.

Part of what made @Millennium_Pi's experience resonate so strongly with readers in r/jobsearchhacks was the amount of unpaid effort involved. Modern job seekers are increasingly expected to complete take-home projects, presentations, personality tests, and multiple interview rounds before even knowing whether a company is seriously hiring. After months of job searching, discovering that a role may have simply been reposted over and over again can feel less like rejection and more like being professionally scammed.

The growing discussion around ghost jobs has also highlighted how disconnected online hiring has become from real human experiences. Some companies allegedly keep positions active to collect resumes, appear successful to investors, or prepare for future openings that may never happen. Meanwhile, applicants are left spending entire weeks emotionally invested in opportunities that disappear the moment interviews end, creating even more distrust toward already exhausting hiring systems.

At this point, many online job hunters have become deeply suspicious of companies that repeatedly repost identical listings every few weeks without ever seeming to hire anyone. Stories like the one shared continue fueling broader conversations about transparency, unpaid interview labor, and whether modern hiring practices are quietly becoming one giant test of emotional endurance instead of an actual search for employees.

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  • 01
    A stressed applicant looks at a laptop in this illustrative image about ghost jobs and difficult job searches
    via Unsplash+ (via Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    Job seeker reacts to frustration during exhausting online hiring process and ghost job concerns

  • 02
    I am so incredibly angry right now I can barely type this. I've been job hunting for five months, and I just found out I was completely clowned by a mid-sized tech company for a role that was never real.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 03
    I applied for an operations role back in October. Over the course of four weeks, I went through a phone screen, a hiring manager interview, a brutal 4-hour take-home assignment, and a final panel interview with three people. I poured everything into this. They kept telling me I was a "top candidate" and that they loved my work.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 04
    Two days after the final round, the recruiter emailed me saying they "decided to freeze the headcount" for the rest of the year but would keep my resume on file. I was devastated but accepted it.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 05
    Well, yesterday I saw the exact same job reposted on LinkedIn. It said "Posted 2 hours ago."
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 06
    I felt like something was off, so I asked my roommate to apply using a fake name and a slightly adjusted version of my exact resume. Within ten minutes, he got an automated email saying the role had been "filled" and was no longer active, even though the listing was still up.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 07
    I did some digging on Glassdoor and saw three other reviews from the last six months saying the exact same thing happned to them. They go through all four rounds, get told there's a hiring freeze, and then the job is immediately reposted.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 08
    They are literaly running fake interviews just to harvest data or make themselves look like they are growing to their investors. Four weeks of my life, hours of unpaid labor on their take-home test, all for absolutely nothing.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 09
    How is this even legal? Be careful out there, guys. If a company keeps reposting the same role every few weeks, dont waste your time.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 10
    A candidate holds a resume during a job interview in this illustrative image about modern hiring practices
    via Unsplash+ (via Resume Genius)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    Applicant reviews resume during competitive tech hiring process and interview preparation

  • As the story spread through r/jobsearchhacks, commenters quickly began sharing their own experiences with suspiciously repetitive job postings, endless interview rounds, and companies suddenly claiming “budget freezes” after weeks of candidate evaluations. Many readers said the situation described by @Millennium_Pi felt alarmingly familiar in today’s increasingly frustrating online job market.

  • 11
    chadpendergast they're trying to cheat the PERM process (labor market test) to keep their foreign national employees
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 12
    Happy-Range3975 Name and shame. Also, contact your representatives about this. There needs to be legislation making this illegal.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 13
    jupitaur9 That take home assignment? Maybe it's some code their current employees couldn't do.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 14
    A person types on a laptop in this illustrative image about job searching and suspicious hiring practices
    via Unsplash+ (via Glenn Carstens-Peters)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    Online job applications contribute to frustration around ghost jobs and hiring process burnout

  • 15
    DreadPriratesBooty Name, shame and invoice for your time.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 16
    UngratefulCanadian You should also have names the company to protect others as well as hopefully someone takes an appropriate legal steps.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 17
    GeoHog713 That s ks. Companies keep doing it "for the optics". It's bulls. I saw the same for geologist roles, posted by Oxy, on a quarterly rotation. I knew people on those teams. They were confused bc they were going through "re-organization".
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 18
    Longjumping Duty4160 What was the assignment? They should not be asking you to work for free.
    via Millennium_Pi
  • 19
    Halfassedtrophywife You hear about this so often with the free work they get out of you. Why do people do this? That's what your probationary period is for at work. So many stories of companies taking the work from prospective employees and not hiring anyone. We all need to band together and not do that.
    via Millennium_Pi

  • Whether the role was intentionally fake or simply handled poorly, the story tapped into a growing frustration among modern job seekers who already feel overwhelmed by endless applications, unpaid interview labor, and unclear hiring practices. Many workers say they are no longer just searching for jobs: they are trying to avoid becoming part-time participants in corporate performance art.

     

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ghost jobs job interview process tech hiring practices handling employment difficulties
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