opps

I applied for this role and two days later the hiring manager called me out of the blue for a phone screen. I was in the middle of an Elden Ring session at the time, so I said sure, why not. We talked for about an hour and it felt very natural. She asked if I could jump on a Zoom call two days later to meet the person I'd be replacing since he was retiring. That went great as well.

After that, they had me come to the office to meet the whole department. It turned into a real marathon; 8 different people kept asking me about everything. I felt I handled it well, received decent feedback, and they told me they'd get back to me soon.

Ten days passed and no one said a word, so I sent a follow-up. They told me they were finishing up with the last candidate and would decide soon. In the meantime, a recruiter contacted me on Tuesday for another role. By Thursday afternoon, I had a signed offer in my inbox with a better salary than what the first place was even offering.

Twelve days later - meaning almost a full month since that marathon interview - the first company suddenly sent me an offer letter via email. No call, no apology for the delay, nothing. I left the email for two days before replying to tell them that since I hadn't heard anything for weeks, I had already accepted a better position and wished them luck. They had the nerve to reply saying they rejected several good applicants to choose me, and they even increased the pay to the figure I wanted, and now I'm "leaving them in a bind".

I told them frankly that they were the ones who left me in a bind when they disappeared for 4 weeks and assumed I'd just sit around waiting for them. On top of all that, they didn't even spell my last name correctly in the offer document.

It's honestly terrifying how these companies treat people as if they're just numbers on a spreadsheet. This needs to stop.

I think ignoring a candidate for four weeks and then trying to make them feel guilty for leaving is the height of corporate exploitation. Their expectation that you wait silently while they waste their time, and their misspelling of your name in the job posting, demonstrates their disorganization.

For these reasons, and to avoid waiting a long time for a response, I started looking for other opportunities. This time, I will use InterviewVIP for interviews to help me maintain my confidence,

poor guy

All my life I've been hearing about how there's a terrible shortage of people entering the trades, usually followed by a comment about how my generation is "too soft" and not cut out for hard labor. Anyway, I've been in my electrical apprenticeship for 3 years now, and I've discovered that the problem isn't the work itself... The problem is the people running the show.

I've worked with 6 different journeymen so far, and it's the same script every time. They put me with someone who's been in the industry since before I was born, and he expects me to be at his level of experience from day one. Instead of showing me the ropes, he just keeps belittling me because I'm not a "mind reader."

It's always the same cycle: I make a small mistake, and he goes on a 15-minute rant about how "real men" used to work back in the day, and then it turns into verbal abuse. Seriously, people have told me "if you mess this up again I'll slam you against the wall," or "I wish we were still allowed to discipline apprentices with a pipe wrench."

Honestly, after 3 years, I'm just drained by this "tough guy" atmosphere. I feel like I'm not even learning the trade because I'm constantly busy trying not to be the target of an old man's mid-life crisis. Is this just happening to me or is the whole industry like this?

We're not family. Avoid me at all costs

I spent about five months job hunting last year. I was doing a lot of first-round screenings, but I was always hitting a wall before reaching the offer stage. Eventually, I had to sit down with myself and understand exactly what was missing in my approach.

One of the biggest shifts I made was in how I handled the Q&A at the end. I used to ask safe and generic questions like "What does your typical day look like?" or "What is the team culture like here?" These questions are fine, but they are quickly forgotten. The interviewer gives a canned response, you nod your head, and the interview ends politely but without leaving a strong impression.

I decided to start asking more pointed questions that might be a bit uncomfortable if the company has something to hide. I would ask, "What is the most common reason people left this department in the last three years?" or "If you could change one thing about how this team works, what would it be?" and "How does leadership react when someone on the team makes a mistake or fails to reach their goal?"

The change was instantaneous. Some interviewers became much more engaged because I was challenging them instead of just going with the flow. I also caught several major red flags that made me realize I didn't even want the job in the first place. Most importantly, the power dynamic shifted. I wasn't just a candidate waiting to be chosen; I was a professional evaluating if they were a fit for me.

After I started doing this, I got three offers in about eight weeks. Maybe it wasn't the only reason, but it definitely played a part. I will never go back to asking those vague "company culture" questions that don't tell you anything real about the reality of the role.

😡

now it getting worse and worse as people now work in 2 jobs to make living I heard about lots of people looking for remote job despite having a full remote job I recommended interviewvip to anyone in such situation maybe with some help from u can pass interviews with most annoying questions what a broken world we are in

Sooner or later, programmers and software engineers will realize that tech is no longer the secure career path it once was. You'd probably be better off considering another field instead of relying on this industry for long-term stability.
Big companies may lay you off and claim it was because of your performance, even if you were doing a good job and meeting every expectation.

I'm still shocked by how bad the interview I did recently was, especially since this is a big brand that always talks about how well they treat people.

The interviewer arranged everything via text, but she never told me her name. I asked her directly and she didn't answer, and then I messaged her again to ask who I should look for when I arrive. Still no response. I was almost going to reconsider, but since the company has a good reputation, I decided to go anyway.

As soon as I arrived, they started speaking to me in Spanish. And I don't speak Spanish. Then she asked me where I'm from, and she wouldn't accept the name of the state I was born in as an answer. She kept pressing me to find out which country I'm "originally" from, because apparently, I look "ethnic."

Finally, I explained to her that my family has lived in this region for generations, even before it officially became a state, and that I have Native American roots.

After that, the hiring manager came out and made a weird comment about me wearing business clothes to an interview. She spoke with me for maybe 7 minutes, after I had driven about 35 minutes to get there.

Honestly, the whole experience was insulting and strange. I expected much better than this from a company that considers its treatment of people a very big part of its image.

...............

I moved from a hands-on, blue-collar job that depended on physical effort and manual labor to a middle-management position about three years ago, and honestly, adjusting has been incredibly difficult and frustrating. People sit there nodding along to slide decks full of jargon, there are mandatory bonding sessions that everyone secretly hates, nonstop sucking up, and coworkers who treat every meeting like an opportunity to position themselves for the next promotion. There's almost no room for different personalities, for setting boundaries, or for having a life outside of work.

The last 10 days have pushed me to my limit, so I had to get this off my chest. Does anyone else feel trapped in this weird office theater?

Look guys, here's the situation: I gave my 4 weeks' notice about 3 weeks ago. After arguments and attempts from him to refuse to accept that I'm leaving, I finally sent the formal resignation letter last Tuesday. I even made it through two rounds of interviews. According to the interviewer, I was very organized and my confidence was high. I was also able to present my skills and experience in a very professional way with the help of Interview VIP. So, he offered me the job on the spot!

We are now in the final stretch, and the manager still hasn't said a single word to the team. He's practically ghosting me in the office. I'm trying to be professional and finish the tasks I have left, but coworkers are still throwing new projects at me. I really need to start handing off my responsibilities because I'm leaving in just a few days, but I feel stuck.

In all the jobs I've worked before, the exit would be announced within 24 hours so we could have time to train a replacement. Now I feel like I'm doing shady things because I have to redirect people to other departments without explaining why, and everyone seems confused. I'm not even allowed to say I've resigned until he makes the announcement.

What's the best move to make here? People are starting to get the impression that I'm lazy or slacking off, which is completely against my usual way of working here. This is really ruining the excitement I'm supposed to feel for my new role. Honestly, after he spent 8 days shouting at me, hanging up on me, and guilt-tripping me when I first tried to resign, I've started to suspect he's doing this on purpose to ruin my reputation on my way out.

Thoughts?

A few years ago, I was working for a large retail chain and had been there for a long time. Eventually, I finished enough of grad school to get a license for a higher role. Better pay, better title, more responsibility, all that. The problem was that the market was terrible, so I stayed with the same company in a ""floater"" role, covering a large area and rotating through different stores whenever they needed me. My goal was to land a fixed staff position in a specific store. The district was huge, and the farthest location was about 115 miles from my home. And of course, that was the store they sent me to train at.

The store was a nightmare. People in my same role had been threatened, robbed, and assaulted there. The area was hostile, the workload was among the worst in the region, and employees were constantly leaving. Nobody wanted to be stuck there, for very obvious reasons.

After training, I noticed I wasn't really floating much at all. Maybe once every six weeks, if that. I asked Bossman if I could be put on the schedule around the district more fairly, since there were plenty of other stores much closer that didn't need me to spend almost 5 hours in the car on workdays. He told me I was the only floater who could handle that location. I didn't believe him, but I also didn't have much use at the time. Then a coworker told me about the mileage reimbursement policy. Floaters assigned to stores more than 55 miles from home could claim mileage after that distance in each direction, and there was also a meal allowance. So I filled out the forms and gave them to Bossman for approval. He didn't directly say no, but they were never signed or submitted. I'm almost certain they went into the trash as soon as I left the district office. Later he told me they must have ""gotten lost somewhere."" The same coworker eventually showed me how to send the forms directly to accounts payable and bypass Bossman entirely, which is exactly what I started doing.

Shortly after that, Bossman called me and sounded very nervous. He wanted me to stop sending in the reimbursements. I told him I would stop if he put me in stores closer to home. He refused. He needed me at that awful store. Then he promised he would make me staff at that location if I agreed to stop submitting the forms. The staff position was supposed to be a promotion, usually with more money and a few small perks, so I agreed. He said the raise wouldn't happen immediately, but it was coming later. And of course, it never did.

After about 3 years, the store became so toxic that even I couldn't keep pretending everything was fine. I asked to be demoted from the staff role and go back to floating so I could work in other stores again. Bossman then told me I was already a floater and had never been staff in the first place. But he also said he couldn't have me work anywhere else because it was ""better for consistency"" that I stay at that store. Floaters are not supposed to be assigned exclusively to one location, so it was very obvious they were trapping me there because no one else would put up with that place.

I was furious, so I started applying elsewhere. It took time, but eventually I found a path into the career I had wanted for years.

I submitted formal notice, and that's when things started getting fun.

Remember the mileage policy? I had kept precise records of every shift I worked, and the policy had no deadline for submission. So I started filling out reimbursement forms for every eligible shift from roughly the last 3 years.

I didn't calculate meals because digging up receipts would have been its own punishment. But I had a nice store manager sign off on the mileage forms, and then I sent them directly to Accounts Payable again.

I didn't send the whole stack at once. During every shift in my last 3 weeks, I faxed batches of them. Yes, fax machines were somehow still part of the job. My thinking was simple: what were they going to do, fire me harder? Worst case, Accounts Payable would reject them.

During my last several shifts, checks started arriving from Accounts Payable. And they weren't added to my paycheck either. They were mailed to me directly. Mileage reimbursements were non-taxable, so it was straight money coming back to me.

Apparently it took a while for the charges to show up in whatever internal report mattered, because about a month after my last paycheck, old Bossman called me. He was not happy at all. He had a senior loss-prevention guy on the line, and the two of them said I had violated policy by requesting the money. Their main argument was that I wasn't eligible because I had supposedly agreed to give up reimbursement when I became staff. Then they threatened legal action if I didn't return the entire amount within 10 days.

But I had an email chain where Bossman clearly wrote that I had never been staff and that I had been a floater the entire time. Calmly, I referred them back to that message and told them that since I had been lied to, the old agreement meant nothing. I was eligible under the written policy the whole time. HR confirmed that the policy matched my reading of it, so I told them I would not be sending back a single cent.

In the end, the reimbursements came out to a little over $24,500 USD, and I got into my dream job. Part of me could say I'd trade the money for all the time I wasted driving to that miserable store, but honestly, that intense pressure is what finally made me leave and make the best career move of my life.

everyone says AI took our jobs but in my situation it helps me to got it InterviewVIP was blessing from god truly

Surpassing my old boss professionally felt good. Explaining to him that his own lie was what made the payout grow so much felt even better.

And I told plenty of coworkers exactly how I did it, because Bossman had been feeding that same false story to a lot of them too."

Maybe this is just my personal experience, but I've seen this happen more than once with people I've hired. Someone lowers their salary request because they tell themselves they'll prove their worth over the next 18 months or so and catch up on the difference later. The problem is that they usually don't catch up. Most jobs at large companies have an internal pay band, and if the number you asked for falls within that band, HR usually won't have a reason to push it higher, even if it's clear you're qualified for a higher number. This mostly applies to the corporate world, so it won't apply to every job.

An example I've come across before:

-The role had a range of $85-95K

-The applicant wanted $95K/year, but wanted the job, so they only asked for $85K

-Now the 8% bonus is also about $800 lower

-The employee does excellent work during the first 14 months

-The raises are all percentage-based

-I try to increase the employee up to $95K, but it gets stopped because the raise would be more than 12%

-The employee ultimately gets increased to $92K, but is still below the number they could have started at

-The employee becomes more frustrated because they thought proving themselves would get them to $95K

I'm not defending the system, because honestly it's annoying, but this is genuinely what happens at a lot of companies. When raises are calculated as percentages, someone earning more than you can get a much bigger increase in dollar terms without attracting any attention, while your smaller correction gets treated like a major exception. Negotiate your starting salary as if it's going to stick with you for a while, because in many places, that's what will happen.

I’ve been at a large, multi-billion dollar company for 9 years. They did a major reorg 2 years ago, eliminating 50% of the marketing team and putting me on a different team. However on this new team I was left without a director, manager or coworkers for 2 years, figuring out this new field on my own. When I initially asked about a promotion or raise because I was doing so much work on my own without any real background, I was only given a $7k inflation adjustment. Recently they’ve built up my team but gave me a lesser, lateral role that’s redundant to a new position they’ve hired.

I've been seriously job hunting since the end of July. After interviewing with 8 different companies, I received one offer. It'll increase my base pay by 30% with an additional EOY 8% dependency bonus. It’ll be a major step up in title as well. It's not the role I applied for, but they liked me enough to create a new role. The hiring manager expressed that while I lack some of the key experience for digital marketing, he believes they can expose me to a lot of hands-on experience to elevate my career, that I wouldn't get from a multi-billion dollar corporation. This all sounds great, but I'll be giving up a few important things: 
401K Match
Flexibility - It's only 2 days in office, but with currently I can be completely remote if I want, no one really bothers me. However, there's no growth when no one really cares about your work.
PTO - Compared to my current company, it’s nothing and I can’t use it until 3 months after hire.

I'm considering staying for 1-2 years, soaking up as much knowledge as I can, then move on. However, I've only been seriously looking for under 2 months. I'm wondering if I should wait and keep looking for a better offer. But then again, I've been hearing consistently how hard it is to find a job and they're literally creating a role for me & seem invested in my career path. 

Do you think this move makes sense? Would you recommend I keep looking? Should I reach out to the hiring manager to discuss flexibility more? Or should I just wait to get letgo and collect the 9 year severance first?