system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Companies posting job listings, taking applications, and putting candidates through multiple interviews just to build a candidate pool "to be prepared if [they] have openings in the next few months" should be f*ing illegal.

After having been job hunting for a couple months, I'm finding that there seems to be a new trend of companies posting job listings, taking applications, and putting candidates through multiple interviews just to build a candidate pool.  There isn't actually a job opening currently or even on the immediate horizon.  This has happened to me 4 times now.  Interviews with 2-3 different people, then comes, "Well, you sound like a great fit, we might have a position available in a month or two, can we keep you on file?"  

The latest potential employer even wants me to do a couple ride-alongs for me to "get a feel for the job" even though he doesn't have any positions currently available.

This trend is a colossal waste of time for everyone involved.  Employees waste time driving and calling for interviews.  HR people are wading through resumes for positions that don't even exist. Hiring Managers are spending time interviewing candidates who will almost certainly be unavailable when those phantom positions do materialize months later.
gpt
>"Well, you sound like a great fit, we might have a position available in a month or two, can we keep you on file?"

This sounds like a polite way of saying no.

Its a way to reject you for the position without burning the bridge.  Or to keep you around as a 2nd/3rd option if their first option doesn't work out.

​There probably was a job, you just weren't the first choice.