What do you think when you see a job listed for a long time?

Could be they have a difficult-to-meet standard or expectation, and have not had a candidate that meets that requirement. And, especially if they are going on recruiting websites, they may have a minimum applicant pool size.

My department had an opening for a low level analyst in another city. I had a friend’s nephew apply because it was a good fit with what he was looking for. My colleague who was interviewing applicants told me he would have been a good hire except he had no experience in our business, and they did not want to have to train anyone. So the job remained unfilled.

It can also be that the actual job turns out not to be what is advertised. As in, they say the job is “A” but when the talk to the candidates, it is really A+B or something totally different. (That happened to me last time I was looking for work).

Another thought: People may not be eager to make an employment move right before Christmas.

It could also be a job that is hard to keep filled or even get anyone to bite… because it sucks

Another tactic is to turn down people because they already have a person in mind and want to push that to the forefront.
Or just that they are particular about the qualifications and cast a wider net?

Perhaps the previous employee quit after being trained and thus they are looking for the impossible unless they recruit from there competition?
Is this company has a union, I would get in touch with them to see what the real problem is?
The company is trying to satisfy the union in recruiting .

Shit job for whatever reason.

I usually think it must be nights or not pay well. Plus employment agencies often charge for the hook up.

The company has to high of expectations, or they are a horrible company to work for and people know it.

I would reserve judgment and apply for the job if I were interested and see what I could find out about it. One could ask at an interview why it was open so long.

In those cases, in my industry (graphic design), they’re often looking for a unicorn.

They’ll be looking for someone who’s an amazing visual designer, fluent in all deliverable platforms who is also a skilled programmer with deep bench knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and more.

Either they don’t understand the skill sets or they’re trying to save money. Or both.

I’m a really good designer but a mediocre coder. My friend is the opposite.

I got hired for a job that had been posted and went for the interview five months after I responded to the posting ( they were waiting for corporate funding) start date was January 3rd following year.

I see them as someone who is difficult to work for, or the pay is low, or the benefits package sucks!!!

Or the person you would be reporting to is a fucking lunatic.

Low pay, high work demands, no benefits, high turnover because of shitty bosses, and shitty work environment.

They could have a high turnover.
My Job is 75% highschool students. We had a total of 5 (including a full-timer) quit this month. It is ALWAYS hiring.
also the place is shit and no one is happy there

I think that the employer is playing games.

I’d think it’s probably a crappy job.

@NoMoreY_Aagain YES YES YES

seriously, why doesn’t upper management seem to look at the people in charge of the areas constantly hiring or losing people? people literally quit because they spoke to the boss about MORE hours, it was agreed, and then they got scheduled one day a week…

If it’s low level in a large company I think they always need employees at that level. If it’s a high level I think either people in the industry know that company sucks to work for, or the company has been dragging its feet hiring someone.

A lot of companies keep ads rolling. They take applications, and if a job opens they have apps already in hand. Every so many weeks they dump all the apps to make room for new ones. It is an effective ploy for a company with several identical positions.
Now that so many companies are broadening their maternity and paternity leave policies, it may be we will see such recruitment tactics more often, to hire medium to long term replacements.

Possibly a head hunter with no actual job opening.

Thank you all, for your answers! Between the stomach ick and going back to work after that, I haven’t been back here. I plan to respond, but wanted to make sure you all know how much I appreciate your thoughts.

This job still shows up on a couple of websites. The company is not listed, but based on the industry and location, I think I deduced who it is. If I’m right, they have mixed reviews on employer review websites. The only thing that stuck out as negative from those is a lack of potential advancement. I’m not at a point where that’s important to me.

The job listing reads as having many duties, which isn’t an issue. Based on the salary – $50,000 to $55,000 a year, I’m concerned that they have made it a salaried position. The job duties don’t read that way, but I can see with this many responsibilities, and an above average wage for the position, they might expect a 60 hour work week but not pay for it appropriately.