I applied to The Spark Group's Digital Photographer & Retoucher role in 2017 and never heard back, so a few weeks after I sent my application, I called their office to check on where they were at in the hiring process. I have caller ID, and when I called their office it showed up as a personal number. When a guy finally picked up after several rings, I had to confirm that I had called the right place because he answered with a "hello?"--no mention of The Spark Group in his greeting. When I asked about the photographer role, he sort of stumbled a bit and then said that they weren't looking for a photographer at the moment (it was not that the role had been filled, mind you--it was that they weren't looking to fill that role to begin with). Since I hadn't given him my name and I felt I had nothing to lose, I replied that the listing was still active, not only on LinkedIn and Glassdoor but even on their website, and that maybe they ought to take it down if they weren't looking for that role anymore. The guy then more or less said that they leave it up in order to collect a roster of possible future contract workers (which is doubly dishonest, as the job ad lists it as a full time position, not a freelance gig). True to his word, I have observed The Spark Group relist the very same job ad about every 2-3 months for at least the last year and a half, and it is also still listed as an available position on their website. Is this company even real? Google results provide surprisingly little literature on them given that they've supposedly been in business since 2010. I don't know what their deal is, but it feels shady.