If it feels like a large share of the jobs you apply to are already filled by the time you hear back — or never respond at all — that's not just bad luck. There are specific, structural reasons job postings stay live long after the role they describe has already been filled or cancelled.
Internal process keeps requisitions open as a buffer
Many companies' internal hiring systems treat a "closed" requisition as a formal event that requires sign-off from HR, finance, or the hiring manager. Until someone actually does that paperwork, the posting often stays live on every board it was syndicated to — not because the company wants more applicants, but because nobody has gotten around to closing it out.
"Evergreen" postings for high-turnover roles
Roles with regular turnover — sales, customer support, retail, some engineering roles at high-growth companies — are sometimes posted as permanently open, collecting applications continuously regardless of whether a specific seat is open right now. These postings aren't lying exactly, but applying to one doesn't mean there's an active opening today.
Job boards re-display scraped listings without checking live status
Large aggregator boards pull listings from thousands of company career pages automatically. If a company removes a posting from their own site but the aggregator's scrape is a week stale, you'll see a listing that's already dead on the board, even though the source removed it properly.
Some postings are pipeline-building, not active hiring
Especially at larger companies, some "open roles" exist to build a resume pipeline for a team that expects to need headcount later, not to fill an immediate seat. These are usually vague about start timing if you read closely, but it's easy to miss on a quick skim.
Signs a listing is probably dead
- The posting has been up for 60+ days with no changes to the description.
- The exact same listing (same wording) appears on many unrelated job boards, suggesting it's been sitting in a syndication feed for a while.
- The description is generic enough that it could apply to several different teams — a sign it may be a pipeline posting rather than a specific seat.
- No specific hiring manager, team name, or recent company news lines up with active growth in that area.
The only way to actually know is to check the live page
None of these signs are certain on their own — the only real confirmation is checking the posting's current state directly: is it still accepting applications, does it still show the same role, has the company said anything recently that contradicts active hiring. Doing that manually for every candidate match is exactly the part of job searching that eats the most time for the least payoff.
This is the specific thing Seekwyn automates: before any match reaches your report, the AI fetches the actual live posting page and confirms it's still open, reads the real stated work mode and salary, and only then counts it as verified. Anything it can't confirm goes into "unconfirmed" with the reason stated, rather than silently passing it off as a real lead.