People are describing a job search that feels increasingly broken, with hundreds of applications leading to almost no interviews, listings staying online even after positions have effectively been filled, and employers reposting jobs that applicants thought were already closed.
Commentary YouTuber Jack Morgan reacted to a series of TikTok videos on his Red Leather Podcast, where job seekers described sending out anywhere from dozens to more than 300 applications while still struggling to find steady work.
One woman said that after roughly 300 applications, only five employers responded.
Three appeared to be scams, another was described as a pyramid-style operation, and one company was no longer in business.
Hundreds Of Applications Led Almost Nowhere
The same job seeker said she then widened her search to places such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and local gas stations that regularly displayed hiring signs.
According to her account, McDonald’s and Taco Bell told her she was overqualified, while some of the gas stations she expected to be hiring suddenly said they were not.
The experience left her wondering what she was supposed to do next.
Morgan said situations like that help explain why so many people are frustrated even while job listings remain visible everywhere.
The contradiction is difficult to ignore: businesses advertise openings, job seekers apply repeatedly, yet both sides still seem to say they cannot find one another.
One Applicant Says The Job Was Already Filled
Another TikTok user said she carefully tailored her resume for a specific opening, spent about 40 minutes adjusting her application and even found a recruiter inside the company who offered to connect her with the person handling the role.
Then she learned the company had already completed formal interviews and was preparing to make an offer.
When she asked why the position was still online, she said she was told the company commonly leaves listings open to collect applications for possible future use.
The posting reportedly did not include a date showing when it had first gone live.
The applicant said that made the usual advice to customize every resume feel almost pointless.
She had done exactly what recruiters often recommend, but by the time she applied, she may never have had a realistic chance.
Morgan called the practice “dirty.”
That frustration makes sense because a job listing normally signals that an employer is actively considering applicants, not simply building a database.
Job Seekers Say “Ghost Listings” Are Everywhere
Several of the people Morgan featured said they had begun questioning whether many online job openings were real at all.
One person described applying to 60 to 100 positions in a week and hearing nothing back.
Another said companies repeatedly advertised themselves as urgently hiring, only to ignore applicants and later repost the exact same job.
That pattern led some of the TikTok users to blame themselves at first.
One said she started wondering whether she was simply a terrible candidate because she was submitting so many applications and getting no response.
Morgan argued that people may be taking those rejections too personally.
In his view, many applications may never even reach a person because employers are using automated systems, stale job postings or listings that were never tied to an immediate opening.
Morgan Says Knowing Someone Still Matters More
Morgan repeatedly returned to one piece of advice: connections.
“Honestly, just knowing somebody is your best bet,” he said.
He said a large share of his own past jobs came through people he already knew, whether it was a manager, friend, former coworker or somebody willing to introduce him directly to the person doing the hiring.
Morgan recalled working in restaurants where piles of applications would come in, but managers often paid much more attention when someone showed up at the right time and spoke directly with the person making the decision.
He also described getting a previous job at a country club because a friend already worked there and talked to his boss.
The process moved quickly from introduction to interview to hiring.
Morgan’s point was not that networking guarantees a job, but that personal contact can help an applicant avoid disappearing into a large online system.
Automated Hiring Is Adding Another Layer
One of the TikTok clips discussed applicant tracking systems and claimed that companies increasingly use similar algorithms to filter candidates.
The woman in that clip described what she called “algorithmic monoculture,” arguing that applicants can be judged by systems built around similar rules across many companies.
Morgan said that idea matched what he had seen with online hiring platforms.
He described people receiving rejection emails at odd hours and assuming no human being had ever looked at their application.
He also compared the system to having a hiring score that applicants cannot see or challenge.
Those claims were presented through the creators Morgan was reacting to, and not every employer uses the same process.
Still, the feeling of being filtered out before speaking to a person came up again and again in the videos.
That may be one reason online applications feel so impersonal now.
Applicants are told to tailor resumes carefully, but many have no idea whether a recruiter, an algorithm or nobody at all is actually reviewing them.
Applicants Say Ghosting Happens Even After Interviews
The frustration did not stop at the application stage.
One woman described spending significant time preparing for an interview, commuting there and sitting through the process, only to hear nothing afterward.
Another said her friend reached the final interview stage, was told she would receive an answer by Friday, and still had no response more than a week later despite following up twice.
Morgan said that kind of ghosting has existed for years, although he agreed it is disrespectful.
He also offered the employer’s perspective.
Morgan said he and a business partner recently received roughly 100 to 200 applications for an editing position and could not realistically respond personally to every candidate.
His experience showed why some employers simply stop communicating once they have chosen someone.
That does not make silence pleasant for job seekers, but it does show that not every unanswered application is necessarily malicious.
Qualified Candidates Still Say They Are Being Passed Over
Another TikTok user described applying for a position that closely matched her experience while she was working remotely as a military spouse.
She said the employer appeared impressed but was unwilling to work through the logistics of remote or hybrid arrangements.
The position was later reposted.
She found that especially frustrating because she believed the role closely matched her existing experience and she was willing to discuss some in-office work.
Morgan reacted by saying the modern corporate hiring process sounded like a “nightmare.”
He contrasted that system with smaller businesses, where hiring can sometimes come down to a much more direct question: can the person do the job?
Reposted Jobs Are Making People Feel “Insane”
One of the most striking stories involved a person who received a rejection email saying someone else had been hired.
Less than 24 hours later, she found the exact same job reposted with the same title, company and description.
She joked that whoever had supposedly been hired must have somehow already lost the job.
But underneath the humor was real frustration.
“When you’ve been unemployed for so long, this is the kind of thing that actually makes you feel like you’re going crazy,” she said.
That feeling appeared throughout the clips Morgan reviewed.
People were not only struggling to find work.
They were struggling to understand whether the hiring process they were participating in was even operating the way they assumed.
Morgan Says Job Seekers May Need To Go “Old School”
By the end of the video, Morgan’s advice was simple.
He believes people should rely less on blindly sending applications through large job boards and spend more time contacting people directly.
That might mean former coworkers, friends, managers, restaurant employees, relatives or even loose acquaintances who can introduce them to somebody hiring.
He said even many jobs at major professional firms historically came through personal connections.
Qualifications still mattered, he added, but getting in front of the right person often mattered too.
Morgan also pointed to his own hiring process.
For creative work, he said he cared far more about seeing examples of what somebody could actually produce than reading a polished cover letter.
That may be the larger lesson behind the frustration shown in these videos.
People can send out hundreds of applications and still feel invisible because the process has become increasingly automated, crowded and difficult to read.
The jobs may be listed.
The candidates may be qualified.
But between stale postings, ghosting, automated filters and recruiters who already have finalists in mind, many applicants say simply pressing “apply” no longer feels like enough.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
