Any person actively seeking a new job opportunity has likely looked through want ads to view job vacancies in their area or in a state or a city they want to live in. Likewise, that job seeker has likely seen one or more job vacancies at a company or organization reposted often. Job seekers should take caution when applying to such jobs because while the reposting could be a good sign of a company or career field’s positive outlook or jobs often get reposted for not so positive reasons.
The good. On the positive side of things, when a company or organization is thriving and expanding, often into entirely new departments or units, the need for support staff grows. In such circumstances, companies often repost certain positions because they need more professionals in their respective roles. Consider a university advertising for a faculty position in American Sign Language (ASL) or a deaf school advertising for a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. When an ASL Department at a university or a deaf charter school first opens and is filling a small space, the university or school likely needs only one to two teachers to handle the teaching assignments or courses. Then, after getting a reputation for excellent education, the university or deaf school may draw more students and, in turn, need additional teachers to handle the growing department or school. So, the school administrator advertises the need for more teachers. In the months ahead, if the department or school keeps booming, the school administrator may decide to move to a larger building or office space to accommodate their students better. Again, the administrator will likely need to advertise for more teachers. In these scenarios, the reposting of jobs reflects a growing department of school with ample opportunity for future growth. A very good thing. Unfortunately, there are other reasons why job vacancies are reposted repeatedly that should alarm job seekers.
The bad. Again, sticking with the ASL Department at a university or the deaf school scenarios, let us say the school administrators started with a larger building and hired many teachers to handle the daily teaching assignments. If this school is posting openings for teachers repeatedly over time, which may be a sign of problems in the workplace as it indicates a high amount of employee turnover. In other words, teachers are getting hired but are not staying for a long time. Such circumstances generally suggest that employees are not happy with the work conditions, not the salary but rather the work environment. Without solid support from supervisors and Human Resources Department, employees will likely quit after a relatively short period of time. Companies and organizations that repost the same job vacancy every two to three years should likely cause concern for job seekers. True, it could be that a company or organization is expanding and needs new hires for growing departments or even that they often promote managers, which in turn leads to a need to hire again. Also, finding people in ASL or deaf-related fields can be difficult due to the shortage.
How do you know? For job seekers, determining why a company or organization reposts a specific position on an almost ongoing basis is important, and it could not be easy to find out the real reason why. How do you find out the reasons behind it? In an interview, you could ask why the previous employee left. You could also reach out to your acquaintances, friends, or colleagues who work or have worked at that company or organization to determine what the work environment is like. Job seekers also can find reviews for most companies or organizations on the Internet. These reviews will let you know whether a company maintains an empowering environment or a toxic one.
DeafJobWizard.com has many job vacancies listed; check them out now!
Comments