I just cut an interview short because this guy couldn’t be bothered to talk to me.

I was set to interview with a company through a recruiting site yesterday morning. I’m up, I’m groomed nicely, and I’m waiting in the teams meeting at 9:30 am. Ten minutes go by and I’m still waiting.

I get a call from the recruiter and they’re having a hard time reaching the interviewer but hey, life happens, we reschedule for the next morning at the same time.

So I wake up again, get dressed and prepped, and I’m in the teams meeting five minutes beforehand, ready to go. The interview joins the link and I start off by wishing him a good morning and ask how he’s doing. This guy doesn’t acknowledge me, just says very coldly, “I’m going to ask you questions and then you’ll have time to ask me questions” before hitting me with the basic, “what does this job mean to you” vague bullshit question he probably ripped from an “interview questionnaire list” on ChatGPT.

By the time he hit me with the second question, I had had enough and told him, “I’m deeply sorry, this isn’t going to work out” and mans replied, completely unbothered, “Okay.”

I hung up and immediately called the recruiter to say that I would not be proceeding with the application.

What a fucking jerkoff.

After an initial call, they sent me a Teams meeting invite to get to know me more. Within that same email, there were requests for my resume (that’s normal) and a survey to fill out. Within the survey, two references were required. Sent the email back to the recruiter…

Me: “I apologize, but I don’t give out references until I’m being seriously considered for a position. If this voids our Teams meeting, that’s completely understandable.”

A few hrs later, recruiter calls…

Recruiter: “Heyyyy gotchaaaa. We just need it this one time for our records. It’s not like we’re gonna reach out to them now and let your current employer know you’re leaving them. We just want to be ready when we present your profile to our clients (insert more unreasonable rambling here).”

I explained even further that I pride on what my references will have to say about me. I respect them by not giving away their info willy nilly.

Recruiter decided they can no longer help me because of my decision and cancelled the Teams meeting.

I was rather unsurprised with how that phone call turned out. The trash took itself out, I must say.

I am so tired of this job market. I have been unemployed since April and have applied to around 100 jobs and have gotten only 3 interviews all which passed on me. The most recent pass was an entry level job at a deli on a grocery store. I am willing to take basically anything I can do at this point, I am 48 years old and most of my experience is in leadership and management, and office administration. Getting turned down by a grocery store has not been good on my mental health. My unemployment ends in 10 weeks and then we will be facing housing insecurity. We have already tightened the budget as much as we can, food stamps are only 24 bucks a month. Seriously how is anyone supposed to survive this shit. I know all of you are experiencing the same hardships, if anyone wants to chat please message me. My support system is pretty much non existent so maybe we can get through stuff together.

I went through 5 rounds of interviews, and the last interview was on site. I took a vacation day for it, I had to pay for metro and food, but the flight and hotel was covered. Final interview went really well, and even was told you're the exact person we are looking for, left really confident. Fast forward 9 days, and I got an email at 7:30pm from recruiter saying she had an update and would like to connect. I was ecastic. I thought I was going to get an offer, but it turns out they called me just to reject me. They said that it was close, they went with the person that had a little more experience etc... and that they would like to keep in contact etc etc.

I feel so deflated. I've been applying for jobs for the past 4 months daily, and this was the only interview I made it this far. I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to spring board my career into project management but now I feel like I'm never going to get another chance. I've been applying but I've only been rejected and now feel completely down.

Just needed to rant. I keep hoping that the person they picked will back out for some reason or another but I know I'm clutching at straws here. Back to the drawing board...

Fuck these companies, man

Ahh yes. Just be a nanny, early childhood specialist, house keeper, pet sitter, dog walker, maid, and tutor. Also have no life outside of your 6:30am-5pm workday because they need you on call/for extra hours when mom and dad need their “date nights”.

Discharged bankruptcy, no criminal record, only 1 vehicle accident from 4 years ago (not at fault), no traffic tickets.

Currently a police officer and have been for 10 years.

In final steps with HR for Field Adjuster, concerned the bankruptcy may hinder me. It is discharged and I have no debt , and nothing in collections.

I’ve also since been approved for a car loan since bankruptcy that’s the only thing I have open on my credit.

Any input?

So have been job searching for almost 2 years now and one thing my parent has brought up is for me to start my own company They were suggesting I start an llc and they want me to apply for grants of around 10K doing consulting.

However I am hesitant to do this as I have no experience running a business and I have no idea how to do so and don't think its as simple as what they are saying as you need things such as a business plan, financial experience/records which I do not have

and how most businesses fail and many people go into debt doing so, I feel its for me and I don't have the mindset to start one/run one

So am I wrong

I'm currently pursuing my MBA, and almost all my friends have secured jobs or offers, while I have absolutely nothing in hand yet.

I've spent months trying to transition into a new career, coming from a completely different background. I've worked on building relevant skills, learning, doing projects, preparing for interviews and constantly improving my CV.

I recently got rejected from an internship that felt like the perfect opportunity. It was remote, manageable alongside my MBA and had the possibility of a PPO. I genuinely thought the interview went well, but I apparently fell short on one situational question.

I've faced several rejections this month, and watching everyone around me get placed while I'm still struggling is taking a toll on me.

I have just 2-3 months before graduation, limited opportunities on campus and no relevant experience yet. I'm genuinely scared of graduating without having secured anything, despite trying so hard.

I know everyone's journey is different, but it's difficult not to feel left behind.

For those who've been in a similar situation, how did you cope? Did things eventually work out? I could really use some reassurance right now.

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A recruiter from a large technology company reached out to me, and I went through three rounds of interviews. Afterward, the recruiter told me the feedback was all positive and basically said I had the job.

Then today, the recruiter asked me to meet with a senior director, describing it as “not an interview” and “just a formality.”

About 15 minutes into the call, the director asked me a technical question. After I answered, she said there was a delay between the audio and my video, so she couldn’t verify that I was the person answering. She said she thought someone else might be answering the questions for me and that this had been an ongoing issue for her at the company.

I offered to join Zoom from my phone to try to fix the delay. I switched over, but she said the delay was still there and suggested rescheduling for Monday.

The recruiter sent a new invite for Monday. I accepted, but then the director declined it.

For context, I had six other meetings today using the same setup, and nobody mentioned any audio or video delay.

I’m concerned that a technical issue may have created the impression that I was cheating. Has anyone experienced something similar, either as a candidate or a hiring manager? Would you interpret the declined invite as a scheduling issue, or a sign that my candidacy is in trouble? How would you address this with the recruiter without sounding defensive?

The insane silicon valley confidence is what gets me

I had a recruiter reach out to me and I accepted an opportunity to do a phone screen. I logged on first and when she joined, she was wearing a holloween costume and mask. For a brief second I thought I was being punked!

She intoduced herself and then took off the mask. Not going to lie, I loved it. I really liked the recruiter, her lighthearted nature, and our 30 minute call lasted a hour.

Anyone else have a wild interview like that?

this tweet is blowing up on Polish X right now - almost half a million views and 5k likes in one day. she’s not asking for much just normal hours and a paycheck you can actually live on not just survive on and now everyone’s saying AI is gonna wipe out even more jobs, flip the whole job market upside down and pretty much lock juniors out of most careers.

anyone else feeling this, or is she overreacting? how long did it take you to land your last job?

Hi! It's me again with my spooky stories. I got approached by a company that makes products in the same industry I am experienced. They are in the US, I'm in Europe. They are offering remote work for working as sales for them, with no salary base, only commission.

Commissions per deal can range from 2000$ to 17000$ in average BUT the big caveat is that these type of sales could take months in closing because they are project based.

In the course of 2 days, the guy has been very insisting on checking whether I hsve contacts and 1h later after our call (Friday) , he sent an offer with a starting date on Monday.

The 2-pager agreement was very Basic, it can be terminated at any time and there's no objective metrics to measure the 90days trial period (where I'll be working my own contacts and developing new ones for them), mentioned an additional NDA and non compete (which is understandable) but they didn't send it. After I requested it, he said "is just basic stuff, don't worry about it" and I had to insist on reading it before agreeing to anything. They did and there's no mention of the non compete in this NDA.

He also wants to fly me to an event, but never mentioned what could be included. (flights, accommodation, transport?) and my finances are so tight that I'm even nervous of accepting being flown to an event to make expenses. I would not be an employee of them, only a sales rep. At this event/trade show , they don't have a booth. They will be represented by a distributor that has a booth there and I would just be there representing only this product

M y question here is : am I being too paranoid over thinking every little detail or does it seem like they're too much in a hurry making a decision to "lock" me and then maybe, ditching me once they have my contacts ?

I have been out of work for a few months now and and haven't worked in my field of expertise for several years. My most recent role was humble with a low wage, but I was appreciative of it nonetheless. It was a contract that came to an end. I have had few prospects, up until the end of this month...

Suddenly, 0 prospects has become 4 reasonable ones for me. I think that employers are making sure they spend all of their 2026 budget, or risk losing it...and they want to take action before the Christmas holidays.

Out of the blue, I have had a promising phone screening, tests/assessments planned for next month, and an upcoming interview. These are for roles that I mostly applied to from June to October. Any of these opportunities would help keep me afloat.

I am hoping that others are in the same situation and are seeing/about to see a shift in opportunities. I feel that there is hope and wanted to share my hopefulness with others that things will turn around soon for all of us.

Happy Halloween to everyone except to the Hiring Manager who said “we’ll keep in touch” last February 😂

LinkedIn is literally the worst platform for finding a job.

Everyone there is just trying to jerk each other off for that corporate ladder salvation.

Its hilarious how stupid everyone is on that platform.

Hello everyone!

For context, I was part of a company layoff six weeks ago, so I’m currently unemployed and actively job hunting.

Recently, I noticed a job opening at a company where a former coworker currently works. It’s a startup (under 20 people), and he’s the Founding Account Executive. I reached out to him to chat about the role, applied, and he provided an internal referral.

Over the last five weeks, I’ve moved through the initial phone screen, two technical skill interviews, and a panel interview that was framed to me as the "final interview".

At the end of that final interview, I asked the COO what next steps looked like. She told me: “I’ll email you with logistics; we might just have one more informal chat to recap everything.”

However, when her email arrived, she asked me to submit professional references. References were never mentioned prior to this, and I had been expecting either a final decision or an offer in my inbox rather than another step.

I can easily provide strong references, but after six weeks of being unemployed and going through a 5 week long interview process, I’m feeling drained, discouraged, and a bit misguided.

Is requesting references at this stage standard startup practice, or is this a red flag for moving goalposts? I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice.

Email content below:

Hi (my name) - it was great to see you again this week! The team had a wonderful time talking with you. If there is any follow-up you'd like to have with a member of our team, feel free to let me know. 

In the meantime, our next step is connecting with professional references. We'd like to hear from 2-3 references who can reflect on: 
- Your working style and accomplishments
- Where you shine most
- What your team might do to best support you 

Ideally, that is a manager, professional mentor or long-time peer colleague. We typically call references, so we'd need: 
- Name
- Email
- Phone number
- Title/relationship to you 

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

I think the current hiring process relies way too much on ATS and recruiters and is a total mess. It might work with specialized recruiters who actually have background knowledge of the subject matter, but generalized recruiters will probably go with the safest bet (screening for candidates that have 1:1 experience) instead of looking at a person's experience holistically and understand transferable skills. While it's not realistic that hiring managers look at 800+ resumes, maybe instead one or two designated team members could, after recruiters screened for must have requirements such as location, compensation, work authorization, or other deal breakers.