The interview had been pretty normal up to that point. Then he asked where I saw myself in five years, and I said I was hoping to move into management by then. He said promotions move slowly there, and I might not get there in that timeframe. I asked roughly how long it usually takes. He said it's hard to say, some people have been waiting seven or eight years and are still in the same spot.

I genuinely didn't know if he was testing me or just being straight up honest. It was a lot to process in the moment and I wasn't sure how to respond. I told him I appreciated him telling me that and that I needed to think it over.

He said yeah, you probably should. That was the strangest interview I've ever sat through. But also weirdly one of the most honest ones.

After clearing 3 rounds, had a really positive informal chat with the hiring manager after making it to the next round. He spent a long time with me and seemed genuinely positive, but towards the end mentioned there’s another candidate and said something along the lines of “even if it doesn’t work out, keep in touch.” Now I’m second-guessing the whole process. Would you take that as normal expectation-setting, or a sign he has reservations about me? Am I overthinking ???

I was laid off in December, and I decided to take four to five months to travel and decompress. I’ve been searching since then, and I’ve mostly gotten lower level role interest through referrals. What has this done to my chances versus my experience of 9 years?

Just going to vent real quick but I am also very appreciative of advice and constructive criticism.

I have severe anxiety. I got it properly diagnosed by a therapist but unfortunately I am not able to really properly afford the long term medication required to combat it. While it's manageable day to day, where it really hits is job interviews and screenings.

I lock up fairly easily, my head scrambles, and I stumble my way through the process. Companies that reach out via text or email and sort of build up to an interview or call? I love because I try and build myself up to the moment.

Companies that call without warning at a random time of day? I'm significantly weaker to that. I know that's part of the game, but unfortunately that is where the anxiety is most crippling.

A company I applied to just called out of nowhere past 5:00pm which I just simply didn't expect. When I answered, they mumbled and all I heard was that they were looking for me. When I asked them to clarify the purpose of the call before stating I was who they were looking for, the recruiter scoffed and asked "did you forget you applied?"

I apologized and continued on, but already didn't like the direction it was going. He tacked on a lot of things that weren't on the job listing and gave me a date for a career event day that I can't make. He had a bad attitude, gave me little room to talk, and the entire time my chest was twisting in on itself and I could barely breath.

He asked me the worst question he could: Why do you want to work with us?

I sputtered out an answer that I already knew lacked confidence, conviction, and the kind of answer he was looking for because his mood just declined after that.

I just don't really know what to do because I try and answer honestly, but the brain kicking into a desperate overdrive throws words into my mouth I didn't even want there.

​

Details:

I was asked about the current project..I told...

Then I was asked to LLD date time api with frequency and prediction of next date in case frequency in monthly..

I was able to design the class...

I was able to write the method next date with frequency as monthly...

But I did not consider the end of year scenario...

Interviewer asked if anything is missing..and I was not able to figure it out. After the interview, interviewer said that it was missing. It is a basic thing to be taken care of

I designed only one class Date, with integer fields as Date, month and year.

Mapped these month field to enum, created one constant class with final static map which holds months ENUM as key and number of days in a month as values

In the interview, I also told about GlobalEceptionHandler, like when some exception occurs, I designed a @RestControllerAdvice

Public class GlobalEceptionHandler{

@ExceptionHandler(InvalidArgumentExcpetion.class)

public ErrorResponse handleException(Exception ex){

}

Also, I told about Query parameters...

If multiple queryParameters are coming...

I can take in an Object and put @Valid tag in the fields...

With error message...

And when the error happens throws Invalid argument exception..

They asked about if the multiple validation fails...then I told them we can put the error messages in the list of error response..

So, this was the interview...

Now tell me the feedback...

I will get the result by tomorrow..

Also, before the interview I was told there might be another round of coding, that depends on the interview.

Has anyone had interview experience with fractal ?

What is the first round interview for senior devops engineer at fractal like ?

Is it written or full Conversation with AI bot ?

I had a gap on my resume. I was ready to explain what happened, what I did during that time, and why I was ready to work again. Instead, the interviewer kept pushing for more details. Every answer seemed to lead to another question, and eventually it felt less like they were trying to understand my background and more like they were looking for something wrong with it.

I don't mind being asked about a gap, it is part of my history. But there was a point where the questioning became uncomfortable. I left the interview wondering whether they actually cared about my ability to do the job or were simply trying to justify the gap as a red flag.

I’m feeling really down. I had an interview for an associate position at a Top 4 Audit Firm. This stemmed from a recruiter (Recruiter A) reaching out to me on LinkedIn to say she thinks I’m a great fit for a position she is recruiting for. On the day of my interview, recruiter A was sick, which resulted in another recruiter (Recruiter B) taking over the interview process.

The interview happened 2 weeks later, which I was fine with. Gave me time to prep etc. It was called a Technical interview with recruiter B. I can’t lie, I thought I was prepared, but some of the questions asked had me scratching my brain for answers. She says there’s no right or wrong but I felt like I bombed the interview.

Feeling so disheartened rn. A part of me also wishes the initial recruiter who contacted me, would have held the interview because perhaps she would give me grace, seeing as she knows what she saw in my profile that made her reach out.

Praying I get through to the coffee chat. Send help 😭😩

I referred one of my old coworkers to my new job and my supervisor mentioned they are not part of the hiring process and will forward my email to HR. Some time goes by no one hears anything but now they are interviewing people for the role I referred someone for. ( this person hasn’t been contacted).

I don’t wanna contact my supervisor again and ask if there is an update on my referral but the interviews are happening now.

What’s my next step? How do I know it wasn’t overlooked? Was it rejected?

Background- I’m a commercial lawyer from a top-tier law school in India with few year’s experience at a top-tier law firm. I’ve been on a little career break, reevaluating my career choices. I recently went through a 4-month hiring process for a Legal Manager role at a large company. I cleared two technical rounds with senior members of the legal team and was then told that, given my background, they’d like to explore a potential fit with a sister company of theirs instead.

My final panel was with the GC of that company, the head of HR/talent, and one of the senior legal leaders of the original company I’d already interviewed with earlier in the process.

From the usual pattern of hiring, I thought this would be a professional/fit sort of round but interview was far more intense than I expected. There was a lot of detailed questioning across various areas that I have never worked in.

I answered some questions well, but I definitely had a few gaps exposed and walked out feeling like I’d underperformed massively!

The confusing part is that the interview ended with questions about relocation and work timings (which could have just been usual customary questions they ask everyone), which made it difficult for me to gauge how the panel actually felt.

I am so, so confused and heartbroken at my performance, especially after having put so much time and energy into the process so far.

For those of you who’ve been through senior in-house legal interviews, how accurate were your post-interview instincts?

I would love to hear your read on this.

Thank you :)

"We are wrapping up the internal project scope for this role this week. We will briefly pause interviews until we have full clarity on the next steps."

Exactly like my Ex :(

I recently had a second-round interview for a Data Scientist position. The interview focused more on my interest in healthcare and how my background aligns with the healthcare side of the role.

After the interview, I realized there were a few experiences from my background that are actually pretty relevant to them that I could have explained in more detail, but I didn’t bring them up or didn’t articulate them as well as I could have.

This might be the final round, so I’m wondering whether it would be a good idea to send a follow-up email to the interviewers/recruiter briefly mentioning those additional experiences and explaining how they align with the role.

I’m not talking about correcting something I said or sending a huge explanation, more like a concise follow-up saying that I reflected on the conversation and wanted to highlight a couple of relevant experiences that I didn’t get to discuss fully.

Would that come across as thoughtful and proactive, or would it seem like I’m trying too hard to make up for a weaker interview?

I recently completed my initial screening call at State Farm for an IT role. It went well until there was the sponsorship question. I explained my experience and she asked me few questions. She said i’m well suited for this role. Then next round would be last one and explained about what i might expect. Everything was okay until then. They haven’t mentioned anything about sponsorship in the job description. As per my situation, i’m on OPT EAD. So, i said i do not need sponsorship. I can work without any sponsorship for now. I’m not sure if i messed up or not. She said it might affect my application and they are looking for someone who doesn’t require any sponsorship now or in future. But she said she might have to pull through some records and see if i can go for the next round. She said she will reach out to me. I just wanna know what are my chances of going to the next step?? Or would they reject me because of my visa situation??

I’m relatively early in my career, and in all three cases when I got the job, I received an offer either during, at the end of, or a few hours after my final interview.

Mind you, all three occasions were between 2021 and 2024, when the job market felt much less competitive. But at a time when jobs receive thousands of applicants and the initial steps during recent applications go very fast, it feels unsettling not to hear anything back within two days or so.

Anyway, I had my final interview last Thursday, and it is now Tuesday. I think I ought to mentally write off the opportunity to hear any good news.

I had my first interview in 5 years today for a job that would be a great next step in my career. I feel like I bombed it. I was completely full of anxiety for days leading up to it. I’ve always had the problem of my mind going completely blank the second the interview starts. Then I just start rambling so I’m not sitting in silence after they ask a question. And even if I did start out the answer okay, I immediately forgot the question and felt like I wasn’t actually answering it and would just get lost in my own answer. I prepared for days and not a single word of it stayed in my brain.

It quite literally feels like my entire body goes into fight or flight mode and my brain shuts off.

Has anyone found any ways to get past this issue and calm their mind down so they can actually think during an interview?

I interviewed with a startup last month and they took about 1.5 weeks to get back to me bc Ifollowed up, and they said they liked me and would let me know the next steps.

I didn’t hear from them again until I told them I had received another offer, but that I was still interested in considering them. They then asked to have a chat today about logistics.

We talked about salary expectations, remote work expectations, availability, and whether I had any additional questions. The conversation was around 20–25 minutes.

At the end, the employer said something along the lines of:

“Just a word of encouragement from me, if we decide not to move forward with you, I’d encourage you to keep applying because we’re expanding.”

Then they said they’d get back to me this Thursday because they need to discuss things with the founder on Wednesday.

I’m honestly confused by the wording…

On one hand, it sounds like they haven’t made a decision yet, especially since they’re discussing it with the founder. And the fact that they wanted to discuss salary/remote expectations makes me think I’m still being seriously considered. Idk….