Why That Job Posting Is Still Up (And Why It's Actually Good News)

When you're on the job hunt, every day without news can feel like a personal verdict. You refresh your email, check career sites, scan job boards, and wonder what you're missing. Seeing the job you applied for still listed—or popping back up as if it's brand new—can trigger painful thoughts: Maybe they're not interested. Maybe they already hired someone else. Maybe you never had a real chance.

The truth is far less dramatic. Across many employers and roles, the average time to hire is around 44 days from when the company first markets the opening until the candidate accepts the offer. That's a month and a half from their first step to getting a "yes"—and that doesn't even include the extra time before the new hire starts. Once you see this bigger picture, the confusing things you notice during your search start to make sense.

What Happens Behind the Scenes

Think about what happens inside an organization once they decide to open a role. Someone has to write or update the job posting. Approvals must be gathered, budgets confirmed, and the posting pushed to the company career site and distributed to job boards like LinkedIn and College Recruiter. Recruiters and hiring managers need time to review resumes—often while juggling dozens of other openings, meetings, travel, and their own projects. Interviews must be scheduled, coordinating calendars of candidates, managers, and sometimes entire interview panels. All this eats up calendar time, even when everyone wants to move quickly.

From your perspective as a job seeker, all this activity is invisible. You see the job appear on a board, apply, and then notice it's still listed week after week. It's natural to think the employer isn't serious or doesn't know what they're doing. In reality, what you're noticing is often just a side effect of how employer career sites and job boards are set up.

Why Jobs Stay Posted (And Reappear)

One key detail is that many employers are slow to turn off a job posting once they have enough candidates in the pipeline. Reasons vary: they might still be interviewing and want a backup plan if their top choice declines the offer, or updating postings simply isn't a priority amid urgent meetings and hiring decisions. The job looks active to you, but inside, the hiring team may already be far along with candidates.

There's another layer: many career sites and job boards automatically refresh or repost jobs after a certain number of days—often around thirty days. The goal is to keep the posting fresh and bring it to the top of search results. The system does this on its own; no one manually presses a button for each ad. So you might see a job pop back up that you applied to two weeks ago, looking like a brand-new opportunity with a current date. In reality, that job may be deep in the interview stage, with the recruiter focused on final choices, not new applicants.

Because of these systems, it's risky to read too much into whether a job is still posted or has reappeared. An active posting doesn't automatically mean the employer has rejected you. A reposted job doesn't automatically mean the process has started over. In many cases, these changes mean nothing about your individual chances—they're just noise from software rules and busy humans.

How to Navigate the Wait

This is where that 44-day average really matters. If the typical employer takes that long from first posting to accepted offer, there will be long stretches where candidates wait and wonder. During those stretches, postings will still be visible, some will refresh, some will be copied to other boards, and some may appear under slightly different titles. All of this can be completely normal, even in searches that end with a great offer for a candidate who applied weeks earlier.

So what should you do when you notice a job you applied to is still posted or reposted?

First, remind yourself that it doesn't automatically tell you anything about your standing. The employer could still be very interested in you, comparing you to other candidates, waiting on approval for the next step, or done reviewing applications but haven't cleaned up the posting yet. You don't have enough information to draw a firm conclusion, so resist filling in the gaps with the most discouraging story.

Second, use time in a more helpful way. If it's been a week or ten days since you applied and you haven't heard anything, consider a polite follow-up if the posting didn't say not to. Keep it simple and respectful: thank them for the opportunity, briefly restate your interest, and ask if there's any additional information you can provide. Then let it go and move on to other applications, networking, and skill building. Your job search shouldn't grind to a halt while you wait for one employer to decide.

Third, build a visible record of progress so you're measuring your effort, not just outcomes. Track how many roles you apply to each week, note which employers you followed up with and when, and keep a log of networking conversations, career service meetings, or alumni chats. Looking back after a couple of weeks, you'll see you're moving forward even if a few employers haven't replied. That sense of forward momentum is critical for your confidence.

It's also helpful to remember that employers are full of people just as human as you are. The recruiter who didn't close the job posting might be covering for a sick coworker. The hiring manager who hasn't replied might be buried in a product launch or budget meetings. The HR system that brought the job back to the top might be following rules set years ago. None of this excuses poor communication, but understanding the messy reality on their side can help you stop treating every delay as a personal rejection.

There will be times when a reposted job signals a real change—maybe the employer didn't find the talent they needed, the role evolved, or the first hire didn't work out. In those cases, if you're still interested and the posting is a strong fit, it can be worth applying or reapplying, especially if you've gained new skills or experience. The key is to act based on what you can control, not trying to decode every employer move.

Your role as a job seeker is to stay in motion. Keep applying to roles that match your skills and interests, keep talking with your career service office and people in your field, and keep improving your resume, portfolio, and interview skills. When you do this, the long timelines and strange posting behavior become background noise, not the main story.

The average time to hire is long, and getting hired is rarely a straight line. Some employers move faster, some take longer than 44 days, some communicate well, and others disappear without explanation. You can't fully control any of that. What you can control is how you interpret what you see and how you respond. When you notice a job still posted or reposted, let it remind you that hiring is a slow process, not a message that you've failed.

If there's one takeaway to hold onto, it's this: don't let the behavior of a job posting decide how you feel about yourself or your future. A line of text on a career site doesn't know your work ethic, character, potential, or the value you'll bring to the right employer. Focus on the actions that move you forward and give employers a chance to catch up. In time, the right one will.