How do I know if a job posting is real?
You cannot know for certain from outside, but a posting attached to a real opening usually says who the team is and why the seat exists. Postings that have been live for months with unchanged text are more often pipelines than vacancies.
There are several different things people mean by a fake posting, and they are worth separating. A pipeline posting collects resumes for a role that is not open yet, an evergreen posting stays up permanently for a high-turnover job, and a repost is a real opening that has been relisted to look fresh.
Only one of those is genuinely a waste of your time. The rest are real, just not on the timeline the posting implies.
What is a ghost job?
A posting for a role the company is not actively hiring for right now. It may be a pipeline for a future opening, a role already earmarked for an internal candidate, or a listing nobody took down.
Companies rarely do this to waste your time. It happens because taking a posting down requires someone to decide to, and because a resume pipeline is free to collect.
The effect on you is the same either way, which is why it is worth spotting before you spend an evening on it.
Which signals actually mean something?
Specificity is the strongest one. A posting written for a real seat names the team, the person it reports to, what the first months look like, or why the role exists.
Postings assembled to collect resumes tend to describe a category of person rather than a job. They are also more likely to read like three roles merged into one, because no single manager wrote them.
Reposting history is the second signal worth watching. The same text relisted every few weeks over several months usually means the seat is not moving.
A very wide salary band is weaker evidence than people think, since in several places the band is a legal disclosure rather than a plan.
Does an old posting always mean it is fake?
No. Senior and specialised roles often stay open for months for the ordinary reason that the right person has not applied yet.
What separates the two cases is whether anything has changed. A long-open role that has been edited, retitled or had its requirements narrowed is a live search that is struggling.
The same words, month after month, is the pattern that should make you cautious.
Should I apply to a posting I think is a pipeline?
Only if it is cheap for you. A pipeline posting is worth a stock application and never worth an evening of tailoring.
It is a real option rather than an automatic no, because pipelines do convert eventually and being early is sometimes an advantage. The mistake is spending scarce effort on one as though a decision is coming this week.
Treat it the way you would a speculative approach, and keep your real effort for the postings where somebody is waiting on a hire.
What ArcLens looks at inside a posting →