We’ve all seen job postings with hundreds or even thousands of responses. Often, these jobs have been posted and reposted again and again.

Some hiring managers believe that continuously reposting a job signals selectivity—that they won’t settle until they find the absolutely perfect candidate.

It’s true. Your job post may have piqued the “perfect” candidate’s interest. But that interest quickly turns to skepticism when they see it’s been reposted multiple times and has accumulated hundreds or thousands of resumes.

Here’s what your “perfect” candidates tell me they think about when they pass on a job that’s been up for too long and overwhelmed by responses:

“It’s not a real job.”
“The job must not be very important if it can lie empty for months.”
“They’ve already selected a candidate, and the posting is just to check a box for HR.”
“It must be a bad job, team, territory, or manager if no one wants it and they have to keep going back for more candidates.”
“They don’t know what they want.”
“Their internal processes must be really screwed up if they can’t figure out how to hire someone.”
“They’re just collecting resumes to feed into AI for competitive analysis.” (Think about it—resumes include sales results, key accounts and strategic wins. Can you think of an easier way to collect this information?)

The Bottom Line

What companies see as a sign of strength and high standards, candidates often view as weakness and an inability to execute. Which message are you sending?