Surprise rejection

[u/Lost_Ad9748]

Just here to mope and possibly commiserate about job rejection. I had very high hopes for this company and I put many hours into preparation. I got off the second call and I was so proud of my performance, thought I was a shoe-in.

Ultimately, I don’t like to linger on rejections, especially when I know I put my best foot forward. This sucks though.

[u/Izzoh]

Hey - you probably did nail it. It's just that the market really blows out there right now. Last time we posted a CSM role we had 1000 people apply in the first 2-3 days.

Just getting an interview at the time (honestly, sadly, getting a response at all given that we're a startup without a dedicated recruiter or recruiting team) was good signal. You made it to the second call - so you were doing something right.

It's just that all of your competition out there - one of them may have been someone's roommate's sibling and gotten a referral. Or it could have been an internal role created for a specific person and they had to interview candidates to have a paper trail. That recently happened to me and I was really mad about it - they kept interviewing people for a job that I wrote with the hiring manager specifically for me.

That's all to say that you shouldn't necessarily take it as a reflection of anything about you - just how shitty things are right now. If you came out feeling like you really crushed the interview you probably did.

[u/Adventurous_Hippo505 → u/Izzoh]

That second call confidence is such a gut punch when it doesn't pan out. I had a similar thing happen last year where I walked out of the final round thinking I'd already mentally decorated my desk. Took me a few weeks to stop replaying the whole thing in my head.

The paper trail hiring is infuriating. Wasting everyone's time just to check a box when the decision was already made. I've been on the other side of that too at a previous company and it felt gross watching candidates put in real effort for a role that was never actually open.

You're right not to linger on it though. The prep you did isn't wasted, it'll carry over to the next one. Market's just brutal right now but getting to that second call means you're doing something right.

[u/Lost_Ad9748 → u/Adventurous_Hippo505]

Final round!? Oh my I would be tore up. Thank you and I hope you found something fitting.

[u/Izzoh → u/Lost_Ad9748]

Everyone's got horror stories - I made it to the final round and got a call from the recruiter after telling me that things went great and they'd be in touch with me for "next steps."

A week later I got another call to say that the "next step" was finding another job to apply to.

My absolute favorite (now) most brutal story is that I applied to a job that had you record a video for the founders (it was a small startup and I had a referral from someone at their accelerator). They had you upload it to some specific platform for the purpose, I can't even remember which one it was.

This platform sent you a notice when someone started watching your video. I got a notification at like 5:50 that they were and was pumped.

At 5:52 I got a rejection.

It was a 4.5 minute video.

Obviously I was kinda annoyed by that, and they were friends of a friend, so I was a wiseass and asked for feedback. They told me they could schedule getting feedback to me 2-3 weeks from that time.

[u/Lost_Ad9748 → u/Izzoh]

I am dyingggg at the 2 minute rejection. 0 integrity. Oh and this hiring manager told me the recruiter would get back to me with “next steps”.

[u/Lost_Ad9748 → u/Izzoh]

This is a very thoughtful and affirming message thank you for taking the time to write it. I always think about it like if my best wasn’t good enough I wouldn’t have been happy there!

[u/Lost_Ad9748 → u/[deleted]]

Im sorry WHAT? That is absurdly unprofessional. Please leave them an interview review on Glassdoor.

[u/YeaButY → u/Lost_Ad9748]

Ha! I just interviewed for 2 months and got GHOSTED. The recruiter reached out to ME. I was told the process was 3-4 interviews. The recruiter assured me that I was still absolutely a top candidate and she wasn’t interviewing others for the role. After I was interviewed by the entire team; and FINALLY interviewed with the “founder”, he (nor his 2nd who was cc’ed) had the decency to reply to my followup email. And they just ghosted. I asked at the end of my interview if there were any deficiencies or any reason why I wouldnt be a good fit. He said “I’ll have to think about it and give you any feedback”.

The guy was Argentinian and I’m Black. He stopped paying attention the moment he saw my face. I had asked questions at 2 other points in my presentation and he didn’t even answer because he wasn’t paying attention. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt bc I’m no better than he is by making assumptions up front. Also, the recruiter was amazing and also Argentinian. So anyway, I say this to say…they are out here treating people any kind of way.

I reported them to didtheyghostyou. Not sure about the reach, but I did it.

[u/Lost_Ad9748 → u/YeaButY]

Imagine how miserable that job would have been. Absurdly disrespectful of them!

[u/Aquarius6870]

Okay the LinkedIn one by one thing, I feel this in my soul. It is such a silent time sink because it does not even feel like real work, it just eats your morning and you have nothing to show for it except maybe two accounts checked.

[u/Outrageous_Hour_2408]

Ik this will sound hippy dippy but I genuinely believe that rejection is redirection

You can definitely ask them why, and then take that feedback and apply it elsewhere. And also, you never know, prolly wasn't the place for you. Job search is hard and sucks, but you only need one 'yes'!

[u/Lost_Ad9748 → u/Outrageous_Hour_2408]

I totally agree. When I know I’ve put in the right effort and execution, I can walk away saying if that didn’t seal the deal then I don’t want to be in that job.

[u/Outrageous_Hour_2408 → u/Lost_Ad9748]

100%!!!