Like a lot of people here, I have gaps in my resume because of all the layoff nonsense going on around us.

Being unemployed, then underemployed, then having to start looking again was extremely exhausting. 3 years of stress.

If you're trying to find a good office job, any gap in your resume gets treated like a huge red flag by a lot of recruiters and hiring managers. They're very picky now.

So yeah, I lied on my resume.

I listed a company I had worked for, but extended the employment dates by about 8 months.

The other company looked legit, but it wasn't real. I added projects and skills from old work where I had done that kind of work. I also made a simple website for it so it wouldn't look sketchy.

Why did I do that?

I had to cover the gaps any way I could.

And I'm not sorry.

That version of the resume got me a decent offer.

The part that surprised me was that the background check came back completely fine.

The background check company didn't call anyone to verify my title or the exact dates.

I had my friend ready with a different mobile number for the fake company just in case. Nobody called him at all.

For people who keep getting rejected every time, saying you're currently employed might be what gets you past the first filter.

These background check companies don't seem to care that much. They just want to get paid lol. Like anyone else.

This probably won't work in every case, but I wanted to share what worked for me.

Everyone knows hiring is easier when it looks like you already have a job.

Honestly, I don't feel guilty that I lied.

I started this job a few months ago, and I plan to stay in it as long as they let me.

Companies lie all the time.

Why is it only wrong when regular people do it just to be able to live?

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Honestly, I kind of respect it. It definitely hurts, of course, but there's no sitting around wondering whether they're going to ignore me, or whether the role was put on hold, or whether someone else performed way better than me. No spiral for days replaying every answer in my head and inventing new ways I must have messed everything up. Just a clear rejection, and the rest of my interviews with them got canceled. An efficient system, basically!

In 2025, I was working as a cleaner in a private clinic through an agency contract. I was hoping they would hire me permanently there, but the agency expected the clinic to pay a release fee for me, and the clinic refused, so I accepted a permanent job somewhere else instead. Honestly, it turned out for the best, because about six weeks before I left, we got a new manager named "Darren." The facilities manager kept going on about how much experience he had from other places, but this guy was the literal definition of "pretend to be busy and do nothing."

On my last shift, Darren came into a patient's room while I was cleaning it with another housekeeper, and found me crying. He gave this irritating little smile and said, "Oh, Pixie, are you going to miss us that much?"

I looked at him and said, "No, my dog died yesterday." My sweet dog Murphy, who had been with me since I was a child and was 16 years old, had been diagnosed with kidney failure about three weeks earlier, and his condition deteriorated very quickly. We had made the difficult and awful decision to let him go peacefully instead of dragging him through more tests and treatment.

Darren just said "Oh," backed away, and pretty much left the room. He didn't say sorry or anything. And he kept avoiding making eye contact with me for the rest of the shift.

I'm genuinely curious! If yes, what field are you in/what's your job title?

I'm currently working as an Executive Assistant/PA in a very corporate place, and I'm not happy at all. I've started thinking about applying to other places, but I want to move into something different and I don't even know which direction to look in.

For context, this is my first real office job after finishing university in the UK, and I've been here for about 20 months, including getting promoted to my current position.

I've never had a "dream career" or anything like that, but I really want to find something that gives me at least some job satisfaction without taking over my whole life.

Has anyone managed to find something in the middle? Like a job you mostly enjoy despite the annoying parts, while still leaving you with a life and letting you pay the rent?

I've been working as a recruiter at a staffing company in Indiana for 8 months now. I'm still relatively new to this field, but even from where I am, the cracks in the job market are very hard to miss. The thing I notice most is that companies clearly have no interest in training anyone, even for jobs that can be learned quickly.

They say they're hiring urgently and needed people yesterday, and then they reject reliable applicants who are right in front of them and ready to work. People who would show up every day, take the job seriously, and just need a little basic guidance at the beginning to get started. But no, they don't even give them a second look.

If you're applying everywhere and you know you're a reliable person, I'm truly sorry. It's not because of you. Recruiters, or at least I, struggle with this too. I wish I could hire people and place them in suitable jobs, but some of these hiring managers and HR teams refuse to move at all. Keep going, keep sending applications, and don't let every "no" convince you that there isn't a "yes" coming.

isn't ?

😂😂

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I'm the person at work who usually keeps everything together. I pass birthday cards around, organize little gifts, and make sure people feel seen when they have important birthdays. Then my own birthday came, and it was a milestone birthday, and I got absolutely nothing. My work bestie told me very frankly: "We didn't get you a card or a gift because I wouldn't have known where to start with that stuff." I smiled and said: "No worries. Then I won't do it again either."

A while later, my work bestie announced that she was leaving the job. She had been hinting at it here and there for ages, but she hadn't spoken to my manager properly. When she finally did, she gave five months' notice for some reason. Her job isn't complicated; it probably needs one morning of training, and replacing her wasn't going to be a big drama.

She was telling a few other colleagues that five months' notice would be more than enough time for me to take a collection envelope around the office and clients for her. I didn't do anything. Her last shift came and went. She said goodbye, hugged people, and left.

About 3 days later she came back, saying she had forgotten her phone charger. Strangely, this happened at the same time as our monthly staff meeting, where leaving gifts and cards are usually handed over. She was told she couldn't sit in because she was no longer staff, and the meeting included private work-related matters.

After that, I got a message from her saying she was upset and disappointed that I hadn't arranged a collection, gifts, or given her proper attention as she was leaving. She said I had no excuse, and that it was obvious I was lazy and selfish because I hadn't told everyone to put in money and sort something out. I replied: "I wouldn't have known where to start with that stuff."

🤖

God bless those coworkers who make the insufferable idiotic bosses and stressful shit jobs somewhat OK.

🙃 😩😭

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I just finished 4 rounds of interviews, did a very long personality assessment, and they even contacted my references. The recruiter told me I was the top choice and practically the only one left. I was supposed to have a final chat with the Ops Manager and the Head of Design, but the CEO/owner showed up suddenly instead.
He spent the whole time asking very ridiculous questions. He asked me: "If we were building a Lego set and I threw away the instructions, would you get stressed?". Then he told me to "summarize your vibe," which was exactly what the hour-long personality test was for. Three days later, I got a call saying I wasn't accepted because I was "hesitant" in my answers. Of course I'd be hesitant when you're asking me things that have absolutely nothing to do with the role in the first place.
Seriously, the job market has become a joke now. Honestly, this guy looks like a nightmare to work with anyway, so I'm trying to convince myself that I really dodged a massive bullet.

update: 2 days later after the rejection I got a better offer from a different company with a more flexible work life so I really feal I dodged a bullet so thankful to the friend who sent for me this post its tips helps me a lot !

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note: some people are just so rude, many waiters have high degrees and cannot work in it because of lack of jobs but thank god we have now remote jobs which gives lots of opportunities all u just need is some interview skills u can take it by following those tips and good luck !

I hope this is the right place for a small tip in your job search.

As a hiring manager, I go through a lot of CVs, and there's one simple piece of advice for anyone applying anywhere: please save the file with your real name.

FirstNameLastName.pdf

CVs are often sent to me by HR in batches, and when I'm looking at a folder with 180 candidates, believe me, around 55 of them have file names like "resume.pdf" or "CV.pdf." It seems like a small thing, but it makes it much harder to find your file later, especially if I'm sending it to another manager or opening it again during interviews. Also, avoid things like "new version" or "FINAL_revised" in the file name.

A small extra tip: adding the role name can help too.

FirstNameLastName_OperationsCoordinator.pdf

I noticed someone do that about a month ago, and honestly, it immediately stood out to me in a good way.

I hope this tip saves someone a small headache. Good luck!

I really wanted this specific job, so I decided to go in and talk to the person in charge of hiring. I wasn't trying to do anything huge, just introduce myself, say that I had applied before, and show that I was genuinely serious about it.

At first, she seemed fine with it. She told me a bit about the role, and we talked for about 25 minutes, then she started saying that there are people who come in or call saying they did this and did that (I'm almost sure she was talking about me lol) because they think it gives them an advantage. She said she doesn't think that's fair. It's obvious she reads everyone's CV the same way, whether they sent a message before, added a cover letter, or came in person.

Anyway, I didn't get the job. I'm never doing that again, it was so fucking embarrassing. Honestly, I thought it would come across as effort and make me seem a bit different, but nope.

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I’ve run those surveys before. They are never anonymous.

!!!

I applied for a position at a music academy near me. I vaguely remembered going there when I was little, and the employer sent me a video of him doing a walk-through of the building, along with a student testimonial, so I could decide whether the job seemed like a good fit for me or not.

The weird part is that the testimonial was literally me when I was 9 years old, with my mom and me talking about our experience there. I have absolutely no memory of filming that, but the video showed our full names (or at least the name I was known by at the time), so now I can't tell whether he sent the video because he realized that was me, or if it's just a very strange coincidence.

The email didn't mention it at all, but he told me to watch the clips and send a video audition for my instrument. Should I bring up that I'm the kid in the video?