hOw eLsE WiLL wE cOnViNcE tHe ShArEhOLdErS wE'rE gRoWiNg!?

I know places that I worked for or kept an eye on after interviewing and reaching final stages (talking to founders) doing exactly that

Place A (I worked for): 13 job entries permanently open although they are not hiring and didn't hire a new person in over 2 years

Place B (I worked for): 1 job entry looking the same for the past 7 years, last one hired for that position started 3 years ago

Place C (open source project with enough funding to hire people): 2 positions permanently open but didn't hire in 3 years (Rotki)

Place D (similar to C): 4 jobs (CVAT)

Place E (failed Open source + enterprise plan project): 1 job (SuperduperDB)

(I can't disclose the first 2 for obvious reasons)

So it feels this how it's gonna be now I guess

a lot of job listings are fake, yes. as in their is a legit job, but the person they will hire for it will be someone's kid who already works there, or another insider/connection. all external candidates will be ignored and are essentially throwing their application into the void.

for a lot of companies the job process is about telling themselves and the world they aren't playing favorites, but they 100% are hiring the person with the connection who is less qualified than external candidates.

i remember in college/grad school, they had to publicly list all the research/assistant jobs, but the only people who got them were internal candidates who who already students, so basically 100% of those job listings were 'fake' and while they might interview a few applicants, anyone who applied was never going to get the job.