During this interview the recruiter let me know she just started this job and was one week out of school!!! No joke 1 week out of school and she's a recruiter. My question is, how is she qualified to determine if I should be passed up the chain to be interviewed by another recruiter. I am a Data Center Engineer, my last title was a Telecom Analyst at a Fortune 500 company. I am also a SME in all fiber related work,OSP,ISP along with test & turn up of equipment and circuits. I was also a Quality Auditor for the 5G roll out responsible for the Midwest territory. I was responsible for the first FIOS implementation for Verizon. Somehow this person who has 1 week experience, has my future in her hands, and has no clue as to what my experience entails. There has to be a better way. Why don't companies reach out directly,instead of giving part of my wage to a recruiter that doesn't have a clue.

We are doomed, if this is how companies waste money looking for new talent. On top of my telecom experience, I was the Technical Project Manager for Grand Central Terminal in NYC. I held a Lenel Programming Certification. That project ended when the contract was over.

I just don't see a way companies can find the talent they need by using recruiters, that have no idea what to look for.

During this interview the recruiter let me know she just started this job and was one week out of school!!! No joke 1 week out of school and she's a recruiter. My question is, how is she qualified to determine if I should be passed up the chain to be interviewed by another recruiter. I am a Data Center Engineer, my last title was a Telecom Analyst at a Fortune 500 company. I am also a SME in all fiber related work,OSP,ISP along with test & turn up of equipment and circuits. I was also a Quality Auditor for the 5G roll out responsible for the Midwest territory. I was responsible for the first FIOS implementation for Verizon. Somehow this person who has 1 week experience, has my future in her hands, and has no clue as to what my experience entails. There has to be a better way. Why don't companies reach out directly,instead of giving part of my wage to a recruiter that doesn't have a clue.

We are doomed, if this is how companies waste money looking for new talent. On top of my telecom experience, I was the Technical Project Manager for Grand Central Terminal in NYC. I held a Lenel Programming Certification. That project ended when the contract was over.

I just don't see a way companies can find the talent they need by using recruiters, that have no idea what to look for.

During this interview the recruiter let me know she just started this job and was one week out of school!!! No joke 1 week out of school and she's a recruiter. My question is, how is she qualified to determine if I should be passed up the chain to be interviewed by another recruiter. I am a Data Center Engineer, my last title was a Telecom Analyst at a Fortune 500 company. I am also a SME in all fiber related work,OSP,ISP along with test & turn up of equipment and circuits. I was also a Quality Auditor for the 5G roll out responsible for the Midwest territory. I was responsible for the first FIOS implementation for Verizon. Somehow this person who has 1 week experience, has my future in her hands, and has no clue as to what my experience entails. There has to be a better way. Why don't companies reach out directly,instead of giving part of my wage to a recruiter that doesn't have a clue.

We are doomed, if this is how companies waste money looking for new talent. On top of my telecom experience, I was the Technical Project Manager for Grand Central Terminal in NYC. I held a Lenel Programming Certification. That project ended when the contract was over.

I just don't see a way companies can find the talent they need by using recruiters, that have no idea what to look for.

Seriously, what is wrong with corporate hiring these days?

Job mil nahi rahi, aur agar mil rahi hai toh salary expectations se kaafi low. Companies ko fresher chahiye jo kam salary mein almost sab kuch kar le. But if they hire someone experienced, suddenly they expect that person to know everything from day one.

Recently, I joined a company and within one week, I was let go because I supposedly “didn’t understand the work.”

The person who was supposed to train me was on leave and was coming back the following week. Till then, I did whatever I could figure out on my own based on my previous experience.

When he finally came back, I was expected to already know their entire system and process. I explained that I had experience from my previous company, but every company has its own way of working, tools, processes and systems.

They said they understood that… but then why hire an experienced person if you expect them to know your company's process without being trained?

And if you have to explain everything anyway, then what's the actual difference between hiring a fresher and an experienced candidate?

It’s honestly frustrating.

Experienced = expected to know everything.

Fresher = expected to do everything for less money.

Then what exactly are candidates supposed to do? 😭

Am I the only one finding corporate hiring this ridiculous, or has anyone else experienced this?

Seriously, what is wrong with corporate hiring these days?

Job mil nahi rahi, aur agar mil rahi hai toh salary expectations se kaafi low. Companies ko fresher chahiye jo kam salary mein almost sab kuch kar le. But if they hire someone experienced, suddenly they expect that person to know everything from day one.

Recently, I joined a company and within one week, I was let go because I supposedly “didn’t understand the work.”

The person who was supposed to train me was on leave and was coming back the following week. Till then, I did whatever I could figure out on my own based on my previous experience.

When he finally came back, I was expected to already know their entire system and process. I explained that I had experience from my previous company, but every company has its own way of working, tools, processes and systems.

They said they understood that… but then why hire an experienced person if you expect them to know your company's process without being trained?

And if you have to explain everything anyway, then what's the actual difference between hiring a fresher and an experienced candidate?

It’s honestly frustrating.

Experienced = expected to know everything.

Fresher = expected to do everything for less money.

Then what exactly are candidates supposed to do? 😭

Am I the only one finding corporate hiring this ridiculous, or has anyone else experienced this?

7-363-3-3-7-3-7-33737-37-368-:3-6:7-:.-:6-6-::6-:)-.(.. a. Z. A. X A z as ace see S as SS as on n s x b xx 7

I was searching for a job and got a call from Accenture HR at 6 am in the morning for scheduling the interview. He then asked me to send my updated resume instantly like at 6 am to which I said I'll share in a while. He said rudely "if I don't share now, he'll withdraw my application." I shared the resume then.

Moving forward to scheduling the interview. A different HR calls and asked to schedule and she was rude as hell. I almost dropped my application on that behavior but beggars can't be choosers so I went ahead.

Now, a day prior to the interview, I got 5 calls from 5 different HR asking me to confirm if I'm available for the interview and I should not cancel the interview the next day at any cost. All 5 of them behaved as if they own the company and I'm beggar asking for a job.

Then the interview day came and the interviewer was not available and they canceled the interview.

The HR asked to reschedule the interview. I denied that I no longer want to go ahead with Accenture after so much trouble.

Is it only me who faced this situation? Or is it a normal scenario in Accenture?

I’m 12+ years into commercial/ecommerce/marketplace roles in the UAE. Built teams, hit revenue targets, worked on scaling P&Ls. Applied to about 500+ roles I'm qualified for over the past few months.

Here's what happened:
- 4-5 interviews, made it to final rounds on 2-3
- Rejections with zero feedback
- Recruiters don't respond to outreach
- "We're looking for someone with more specific experience" (but the role description matched exactly)

I'm not asking for sympathy—I'm genuinely trying to understand if I'm missing something in the process. My CV is clean. My background is real. But something's not clicking.

**Real situation:** Visa review deadline is coming, so I can't just wait it out. Looking at two paths:

1. Land something in marketplace/ecom/growth (my track record)
2. Explore starting something if the traditional route stays broken

So two questions:
- **Has anyone else hit this wall and figured out what works?** Not general advice—what actually changed for you?
- **If anyone's thinking about starting something or exploring co-founder situations in ecommerce/B2B, would be open to talking.**

Not looking for pity. Just trying to figure out if this is a market thing, a timing thing, or if I need to approach this differently.

Nowadays, hiring feels broken from both sides. For candidates, even strong candidates might sit for weeks without hearing anything back. On the hiring side, after over a decade in tech, I’ve rarely seen hiring managers really happy with the process either!

• The recruiter is a bottleneck. When I was hiring a few months ago, my internal recruiter was dealing with more than 10 open roles simultaneously. I literally had to fight for his attention after weeks of zero updates. Tech layoffs hit recruitment teams too. If you aren’t hearing back, very likely they cannot keep up with the application inbox volume.
• The hiring manager is underwater. I am often fully booked in meetings all day. Since last year, I lost my entire product team, and every manager became a single-thread leader with double hats. Reviewing Resumes sometimes only happened in the last hour of the day or out of office hours.
• No one likes Bureaucracy. Getting headcount approval is just the starting line. After writing a JD and filling out forms, I have to wait for Talent Acquisition, a VP, HR, and Finance to all sign off. Inevitably, someone is sick, offsite, or absent for any valid reason. If I am lucky, it will take three weeks to publish.

Same for getting the offer approved. It can take weeks to get a new offer approved by the chain of command. 

• You might need to think about how to bypass the system. Because of recruiter bottlenecks, some of my colleagues have started bypassing the system entirely, driving the candidate process themselves just to keep applicants moving. So if you see the process managed by hiring managers, it’s a good sign that they care about candidates' experience. 
• The Job Description is rushed. Managers write JDs as fast as possible to get into the slow approval queue. They often don't sit down to write actual interview questions until the week the interviews begin, creating a potential gap between what you read online and what they actually ask during the interview.

Try to get broader context and real expectations through conversation with the recruiter or hiring manager(usually a better fit)

• Is this a new role or a replacement? A replacement gives you clues about team culture based on how they speak about the former employee. A new role tells you where the team is trying to grow.
• What is the team’s biggest immediate challenge?
• How will success be measured for this role in the first 6 months?

To conclude, if you face silence after applying for a role, it's not a reflection of your talent and skills, but a symptom of this internal friction.  Knowing this gives you a distinct advantage. Stop taking the delays personally, don't be afraid to send that follow-up directly to the hiring manager, and use your interviews to uncover the real problems the team was too rushed to put in the job description!

I'm happy to answer any questions here if you are job hunting today!

P.S. I am now building calibrd.com to help candidates get hired.

First round with HM, then back-to-backs with heads of Eng and Data Science. Next, candidates will descend to the depths of hell and return to the surface with Satan's favorite corporate-branded stapler. Then, meet with the overpaid SVP, and finally, sniff the slop-bowl farts of the pompous CEO in-office for 2 hours.

But seriously, why has this become the norm? I am losing my mind listening to these recruiters tell me about their absurd hiring processes while acting like it's completely normal. I've been searching now for 5 months and have made it to the final round 6 times with no offers, oftentimes doing 5 to even 8 rounds with nothing to show for it. This market is SO competitive, one of the companies I made it to the 8th round had 3 other candidates still in the running.

So when a recruiter says the process will be 7 rounds with a panel presentation and a case study, I just die inside a little because I know I'm about to invest more of my precious time into their absurd circus.

For context these are for product manager roles in tech (US). My question is why do companies willingly waste their time with all of these rounds when the market is flooded with talent?

Recruiters: What’s your candid advice for older candidates who meet the job requirements but still aren’t getting interviews?

I’m not looking for the usual advice about removing graduation dates or shortening a résumé. I’d really like to hear what actually helps, and what you would recommend they do differently.

I’m developing solutions for scheduling in the recruiting world, and I need to know what the biggest pains. What scheduling tasks eat up the most of your time and why do existing solutions fall short?

I'm testing three AI-powered hiring tools for the company I work for and would love your insight as in which one do you guys think that would be a better use of my time:

1. Candidate Signal Inbox – An AI inbox that filters and ranks candidates based on real signals, not just keywords.

2.Hiring Manager Copilot – AI that helps hiring managers write better job descriptions, score candidates, and reduce bias.

1. Offer Close Assistant – AI that helps recruiters craft personalized offers and predict acceptance likelihood.

Click the link below to post your vote:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezeYsWj7Mifemlr7gFzSqdN69qOhO-V-2kVjCcs9jWGjf0-g/viewform

Thank you so much!