[JoeCortopassi]

Hey HN, want a side project idea that's easy, and would be a huge hit?

Make a web crawler that hits publicly traded tech companies careers page, once a day, and tracks how often their job listings change. Make a big line chart at the top of a landing page that compares the different companies job openings (by count), over time. Penalize listings that list/delete/re-list job openings to always make it seem like they are hiring. Maybe have a max time a job post can be open before it's no longer part of their count (3 months?)

What you'll end up showing is similar to this article: A lot of company's stock is evaluated on growth, and part of the growth estimation is based on how much they are hiring in this down market. Some companies know this, and are trying to game the system

Anyways, I bet a decent amount of people would watch that like a hawk, and the honest companies would love it because it would show how great they really are doing

[Terr_]

Working in some hiring-tech stuff right now, there are systems where the business-domain/database-model explicitly incorporates "evergreen" job postings, meaning ones that are left up constantly often because the company really is always hiring due to high turnover.

In other words, there are some legitimate reasons for a job posting to be indefinite, even if it doesn't seem common for software engineering jobs in particular.

[johnnyanmac]

If it doesn't explicitly say it's an evergreen/non-urgent position, I'd still penalize it.

But sure, that doesn't happen often in tech because they would hire a consultant or a specialized contractor for such roles of its necessary and very specialized.

[PhasmaFelis]

If a company has that much perpetual churn, it's a bad sign, even if it's not the same bad sign.

[timthelion]

What about the typical college summer jobs? Those have high turnover and that is expected.

[manquer]

there are plenty of industries that revolve around seasonal jobs. Retail, tourism, sports, entertainment, agriculture or even politics.

Churn could mean many things, not necessarily a bad sign

[rainclouds]

Also tons of places that interview then say they don’t have a slot.

Seems too easy to be abused.

[teractiveodular]

I've worked at a large company where the job portal showed open roles in chronological order, newest to oldest, so recruiters would constantly delete and repost unfilled roles to get them back up top for a while.

[ordx]

If a company pays peanuts it can have a job opening for much longer than 3 months.

[sva_]

Companies will sometimes post job ads even if they're not looking for someone, I suspect

[bluGill]

That happens because they want to look like growth opprtunities even if they are not growing.

[jlarocco]

Maybe, but not always.

My company keeps a req open on the off chance somebody in the domain (CAD data translation) will see it and apply. It's a small enough niche that if somebody with the right skillset comes along we'd like a chance to hire them, even if we're not in dire need of people at that particular moment.

I guess technically we're passively looking.

[whaleofatw2022]

In other shops it is sometimes used as a safety if someone spontaneously decides to go.. one local place puts out lots of feeler reqs around bonus time (as that is when most jump)

[bluGill]

You are hiring. The companies I'm talking about are not looking at any resumes they get in.

[ryandrake]

I had some code partially written that did this with the HN API. I was going to call it "Who's Not Hiring?" and find/call out companies that had the same job posting week after week. Got bored and never finished it.

[forgetfreeman]

Tell me how to monetize that and I'll start coding tonight.

[hn72774]

Prove securities fraud as a whistleblower and get a portion of the recovered amount.

https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/whistleblower-pro...

[aarreedd]

Sell the data to hedge funds. I saw a company selling this data at an alternative data conference a few months ago. I can't remember of the name of the company but if you message me I'll find it.

[jarsin]

Two ways

1) Provide a paid service for users to get more pro level insights. Targeted at job seekers who don't want to waste time.

2) Expand into a job board where only companies that pledge not to engage in such tactics can advertise.

[throw0012]

Dont even try. APP cant even attract few users a day let alone making money.

[devwastaken]

The most incorrect assumption about stock is the idea that it's based on reason of metrics and evidence. In reality it is orchestrated by handshaking of existing wealth. Value is whatever they want it to be.

What would happen is the information goes ignored for the corps in good graces, and used negatively for the ones already going under as a small bullet point.

If you want markets based on sane economics this isn't the one to be in.