I have applied for 30 jobs in the past week. Today I received a text (with my new phone number that included my name) stating that I was selected to move on to the interview process. It was for a job identical to one that I had applied for that is specific to my field. The pay range given was comfortable but still appropriate to the job, certainly not outrageous. I looked up the company and the name of the person who reached out, and they're both real. The text came after I had taken an assessment for the legitimate posting, which made it even more convincing.
But it was still a scam.
Someone tried to scam me while I am LOOKING FOR A JOB.
I'm not an idiot. I didn't click a link that said *WORK FRO M HOME $3000 A WEEK!!!1*. I applied for a proofreading job on Indeed that involved editing written material for different kinds of academic content. The job I applied for was legit, but a scammer still got my info.
Boomers talk all the time about how easy it is to get a job these days. “Just go look online! You can apply for 15 jobs on the toilet!”
Yeah, you can, but even if you're not getting scammed, you're competing with Applicant Tracking Software and triple the applicants you would have been up against in the 2000s. And that's just the applying process!!
If you're lucky enough for AI to move your application up to an actual person, you might have to go through 3 interviews only to find out that the job posting was dishonest about the pay, hours, and location requirements.
I'm not trying to get rich. I just need to be working. And I'm getting fucking scammed. shit you guys. I knew that looking for work had gotten more difficult in the last few years, but I had no idea it wasn't even worth trying.