Do early-stage startups post ghost job openings?

Question

I recently came across an "open" job application at a startup, which was a form to submit your resume so the startup can build a pipeline of candidates for later, when they're ready to hire.This led me to wonder, are some of the posted job opportunities at startups ghost openings just for pipeline building i.e. no intention to immediately hire but for later, provided a funding round materializes?Please share if you know something about this, either as a job hunter or startup hiring manager.

version_five · Accepted Answer

If it's a small startup and you're experienced (or even not) contact the founding team directly and ask for a 30 minute chat with them. There's a good chance you'll be ignored but it tells you what you need to know about the company. If it's a three person company and an interesting person reaches out (and the need someone), guaranteed they'll talk to you unless they're some bureaucracy obsessed weirdos you don't want to get stuck with anyway.

grepLeigh · Answer

Yeah, I've seen startups do this. I wouldn't attribute it to malice, just inexperience. Keep applying and remember finding a good job is a numbers game!A startup I worked for wanted to collect applications for all jobs it might post in the next 12 months. I explained that high quality candidates are only on the market for a few weeks (sometimes less than a week), so they were going to end up with a pool of low quality candidates.