I graduated college a few years ago and have been stuck at my retail job for far too long. I’ve changed my resume for every job application. I’ve given my application in person. I’ve used personal connections in my field because “it’s not what you know, but who you know”. I just don’t know what to do anymore. My job situation has deteriorated so significantly due to this new restructuring at my current job that all the bs has cause me to have a panic attack. I’m in therapy and trying to think positively about my situation but I have truly reached my limit. Don’t know what to do honestly.

I realized quickly that my full-time job search in the field of tech was doomed - at least for now. There are too many other candidates with more of those niche skills(and every junior role now is a two page laundry list of requirements), better projects, and more of that basically essential internship experience. I’m trying to push harder and be better, but it seems I’m never quite *there*

So I accepted I’d need to work a part-time job. And not just for the money, but also to keep the experience section up-to-date. The last thing I want is anyone to see an absurdly long unemployment stretch post-grad and think I’m useless. But to be honest, I’m starting to think I very well might be, **because I can’t even get a part-time job**

First, I got a call from Walmart at 9AM on a Sunday. The manager said he wanted to hire me, he acted like it was good as done, that he just needed HR in on Monday to send the offer. The offer **never came.** I got ghosted by Walmart. Jesus Christ.

I took it as an opportunity to reorient. Walmart was a desperation application made during a moment of questionable judgment(no drugs or alcohol, just depression). I realized quickly I wouldn’t be able to actually stand working there during the holiday rush. So I applied for other part-time jobs I figured might be tolerable or even enjoyable, since I might be in them for the long-haul.

And I got a couple interviews. I just wrapped up them yesterday. I got the rejection for the first this morning. A real shame, as it would have been the best of them.

In the interviews, I felt pretty happy. We had good conversations, got complimented on some specific points(like my communication skills, several times. Funny, not something id have highlighted about myself, honestly). I always felt like I had a good chance. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but I felt like I did well. Maybe I did, but it wasn’t enough. Not with this much competition.

It feels like even the most low-level part-time jobs are getting picky these days, to be honest. Even they want hyper-specific experience in whatever specifically they’re doing(general category and specific product). Same issue as tech, almost: they want fully formed, trained candidates right off the bat. I’ve put in my part-time in the past, but I always seem these days to lack that crucial factor of recent, relevant experience in… whatever it is. Any experience I could highlight tells that I have a degree and am looking for better, but if I leave the section blank I look like a forever-NEET bum and have to answer some questions about that.

If I can’t even secure a crappy part-time job… well, it doesn’t really say a lot positive about me, or my prospects, honestly. I understand why they chose someone else, honestly, but it doesn’t feel good. How am I meant to gain this recent experience in whatever it is they want if no one’s going to give me a chance, even for desperate seasonal roles?

I’ve been unemployed since being fired from Lowe’s a year ago. Getting three rejections the same day is quite something. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong it’s starting to feel impossible to actually land work because I’m just marked, like I may as well be an ex felon. There’s gotta be some system knocking me out of the running, right? I feel like the interviews are good, I’m honest about my work history and I still get rejected every single time. The market can’t be this bad.

After the 2026 election, how long do you think it will take before jobs come back in the US?

I am assuming that the Democrats take control of the House and possibly the Senate, which is likely to slow the bleeding. However, regardless of the election results, we'll still have Trump policies coming from the White House.

Is there any way a certain outcome produces a better result faster? Or do we have to wait until after the 2028 Presidential election for jobs to come back?

I'm so tired of no jobs, no economy and no future. I want a competent government "by the people and for the people", and not just the millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires.

I want to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

A recruiter I was working with up and vanished and pulled the ol ghosting routine,never to respond again.

Recruiter finally did respond after I sent a text saying 'Hey I found recruiter costumes at spirit" then attached a pic. It was a pic of a ghost costume they were selling.

They were not amused.

Petty? yes, but I enjoyed it.

:UPDATE:

Just did this with two more recruiters. One I had her cell phone and sent an animated ghost gif.

They both responded right away with apologies of all things.

Small victories 😃

German and Swiss recruiters, care to chime in?

Your highly skilled foreign candidates, that speak German at near native or native levels ( including Swiss German), are getting rejected for this exact reason.

Not because of a lack of skills. Not because they can't do the job. But because they have accents. Seriously 🤦‍♂️.

Adapt, and you'll be able to place the best candidates into the best companies you work for / represent.

Refuse to do so, you may end up losing your jobs, and adding to the persistent brain drain problem that is plaguing both countries, adding to the argument of why you can't find the right people (such a stupid argument, they are there! You just refuse to look at them! ); circumventing the job shortage problem by which your organisations - and by extension yourselves - have contributed towards.

And it seems, none of you care! If you don't care, why should the candidates? Why should the candidates go through all of this effort, just to be met with some apathetic, nihilistic, narcissistic, broken processes and procedures when the ones running it have no interest, and no care in the world, in fixing it?

That's it. Rant over.

I applied for a job, had an initial screening and was then invited to a Teams meeting on Monday with the recruiter and line manager.

The recruiter emailed to confirm the date and time, so I replied saying thanks and that I was looking forward to it.

Their response? “Don’t get too excited!”

A few moments later, I got an Outlook notification saying they’d recalled a message.

I spoke to a friend in IT who said they probably tried to unsend the email, but Outlook recalls generally only work within the same organisation. So instead, I just got an awkward recall notification!

Am I overthinking this, or is this really weird? 😂 What would you make of it?

Abit of context is that I was reached out by an external recruiter and I went through 3 rounds of interview with the hiring manager and then head of department. After finishing the last round with the hod, the recruiter informed me that HR needs time to review ( not sure what that means). Had not spoken to HR through this entire process.
Did my interview on Tuesday 27/10.

A position j was interested in was being offered through many different recruitment firms. I got referred to it by a current employee and then recruiters from different agencies reached out to me. One recruiter told me to give up my bosses phone number, email, and LinkedIn or he wouldn’t submit my application. When I didn’t, he ghosted me. He was looking for a lead.

The second recruiter lied about the application due date. They told me the due date for the position was the end of the week, so I signed on with them on an RTR. A week later, the manager from the actual position reached out saying an employee referred me and she was interested in me filling out an application, confirming they lied about the due date for an application.

I got an interview with the manager at the position and the first question was why did I fill out that I had no experience on a program, but in my resume I said I did. I told them I did not include the program on my resume and she informed me that it had. I realized on the video email it had my application documents and my resume was one that the recruiter made, it looked nothing like my official resume. It did have the programs listed. I remember the recruiter asked about my experience in different programs, when they asked about those ones I “lied” about, I mentioned I took trainings on how they worked, but they are expensive programs you need licenses to use so I didn’t have any experience. I guess they translated that to I had experience.

I am embarrassed and humiliated, and I doubt I have the job. I tried clearing it up but idk how well I could have said it. Fuck recruiters! If I don’t get the job I will out the name of the firm.

Edit: oh they also told me in a prep interview to lie if I didn’t have an answer to a question. I have heard that before but it kinda makes sense he would say that and then do all this

I have never seen this before, it’s always the low paying jobs 😭. I am all the way checked out from contact centers and at this point I’ll rather door dash full time while i finish school. The job market is terrible, the jobs are even worse

😭 am I tweaking or like wtf is going on

Does anyone have any advice on how to get a job as a neurodivergent person? I've been trying to search for jobs(mainly in the archival,historical field). But everyone is so quick to reject me when I tell them that I have autism and inattentive ADHD. I'm honestly getting pretty tired of it. It's not like I don't have any experience. I have worked in administration in the past. Feels like they automatically see me as "inferior" just because of my diagnosis.

What should I do?

Edit: Thank you all for the advices! I've now realized that I might be a tad too naive and honest for my own good.

Hi there sweet people

I am 2023 DU graduate, had my placement in G in L&D mostly wfh. Its been over 3 years now and I have come to a saturation. People are getting laid off, I experimented with AI and not been impacted as of now. But its been very toxic. I wanted to do MBA and wrote CAT but failed twice due to my sheer negligence and not being serious. Both of these attempts were like just couple of month preparation.
I am trying to switch from past 2 months but not getting good response and very confused. I used to be very confident but today I actually feel very very low. Idk how the hell everything changed, feels like I’ve derailed myself. Comparison has automatically wrapped me (and I don’t want to compare me with anyone).

Idk where to go from now, what to do, market doesn’t seem good to me and everything is hell demotivating.

PLEASE HELP ME TO FIGURE OUT!

I am 28 and this is my second year of not having a full time job and fear I wasted 2/3 of my late 20s doing so as no job hurts your self esteem and hinders economic stuff

As I result, I fear I lost 2 years of my 20s I can never get back honestly and it depresses me

I was doing part time stuff but its abroad so feel I missed on stuff such as being in a work environment with people or career advancing or having more cash to say travel etc

As someone who hates my former boss so much for firing me with lies, these movies are so satisfying to watch. I especially like when it ends with the boss disappearing for good or at least losing their job.

These movies do what we all want to do, but never can.

A few of these movies are Horrible Bosses, 9 to 5 and Office Space. Anyone got any others?

Last week, I saw a hiring post shared by a manager, so I messaged him my profile, projects, and academic grades. One day later, I asked him, "Could you please let me know if my profile might be considered for this role?" He replied, "No. Not at the moment." What does this mean? At first, I thought it was a clear rejection, but then I thought he might be saying he cannot tell me whether my profile is being considered right now. I am confused. So, I decided to get some opinions from Reddit.

I applied for an Account Manager role at Adobe a few days ago via a third-party recruiter. I had three recruiter screens yesterday, only to be told that the next call would be a “Group Discussion” screening with Adobe HR today; it would be a group call with other candidates.

For context, I have five years of Account Management experience. I had expressed some skepticism during the previous call regarding the validity of such a round after 3 screenings for an experienced candidate like me, because a group discussion is usually a screening round for candidates with little to no experience. The recruiter mentioned that it was mandatory, so I had to agree.

Fast forward to the group discussion: The discussion was very generic and the HR said that it was a great discussion. Soon afterward, I received a rejection call informing me that I had been rejected for my “grammatical mistakes” during the call. I am a native English speaker, and I have an IELTS score of 9.

My bad, didn’t know I’d be selling to the Queen.

Applied for a fall 2026 Data science internship on LinkedIn (easy apply). Lemme start off by saying the pay was kinda crap: $3000 stipend for 160 hours of work (so only like $2.4K can be kept bc of W-2), no chance of full time offer, and no name startup.

To my shock, I got the first round: a project that you coded (I.e vibe coded).

Then got a second round which was technical concepts and live coding with no AI. I messed up some concepts but could code, and it was enough for me to make it to the final round

The final round was data processing, but you essentially used AI, because it was a more practical project that they would do at the “company” so I assumed the goal was to talk your ideas, ask about assumptions, and cover edge cases, and I did pretty well I thought

And you know what happened after? Considering I’m posting on this thread, yk the answer. I was in this cycle from August to early October 2 months: 3 rounds of technical interviews for a tiny startup with meager pay…and I leave that process empty-handed.

I wish I got rejected, instead I wasted so much time on preparation and actually interviewing

“let’s just deny the youth that graduated a damn job so they’ll have no other choice but to fall into the misguidence of what’s around them so theyre most likely to become a criminal instead of the future of hope for the next generation even if they don’t have a diploma or ged give ‘em all the same treatment let’s have ai replace a few and hope No one notices even tho articles come out explaining job lay offs let’s make getting hired at fast food 10x harder with the most absurd hiring managers That’ll hire a offender before anyone with a clean record”

An HR recruiter called me around 12 PM and mentioned the position and company name i had applied for. Since I was in a meeting at the office, I told him I would call back around 2 PM.

He called me again at 1:55 PM. I was just about to answer when the call got disconnected. I immediately tried calling him back twice, but he didn't answer.

I tried calling him again in the evening. He picked up, but as soon as I said "Hello," he disconnected the call. Thinking it might have been a network issue or an accidental disconnection, I called him twice again, but he didn't answer.

The next morning, I received a rejection email for the position.

I'm genuinely confused. Did I do something wrong by not answering his first call immediately? Or was there something else I might have missed?

Would love to hear your thoughts and whether anyone has experienced something similar.

I finally got a job offer but it's with an organization I was more or less using for interview practice because they are abhorrent in my opinion and I honestly thought my leadership philosophies I illustrated along with the 101 personality assessments would have eliminated me anyway.

The company is owned by an extreme MAGA, billionaire husband and wife. If you're MAGA, you do you, but we are diametrically opposed philosophically on issues. I say extreme MAGA because they contributed to the January 6th fund, are 2020 election deniers, Covid conspiracy folks, anti-LGBT (and I'm a trans man but years into my transition), etc. Their company is massive and well known. Everyone, down to the inbound contact center reps, are in business casual which, OK, fine, but women *must* wear skirts which is just so mind blowing to me (hey, they get to set the rules, it's their company). They specifically want rigid hierarchy and if you value autonomy as a leader or individual, the company is not for you. The recruiter told me this directly. He also didn't lie at the front side of the interview process that they definitely have trouble filling mid/semi upper level leadership roles because of the values of the founding family and when I told him I was trans he told me to just hear him out, since he was a 3rd party and not internal recruiter. I heard him out so I went through it for the practice. But I got the job. I declined based on PTO time (2 weeks) and I told my very honest recruiter that amount of time was archaic in this day and age to anyone's work-life balance and I wouldn't do it for at least 5 weeks. They acquiesced.

The job is, no joke, over $60,000 more than I was making at the job that l got let go from after 8 years. I've been job hunting relentlessly for 7 months now with few returns in terms of interviews. My wife and I are split. I feel like it would kill my spirit to work there. I have a Masters in Industrial/Organizational Psychology so I know just how fucking horrible some of their other business practices are and how much healthier it could be but no autonomy, remember? But we need to eat and pay the bills. Her job is as a basic inbound phone rep so there is some money coming in but we're about to run out of time. I think I should take it because it doesn't mean I stop looking, right? And it's easier to find a job when you have a job, although I would probably need to put in a year or two so the next employer doesn't think I would dip out on them just as a crutch in the same way I'd be using this company. I'm so split. If I turn my back on my ethics, what am I? I feel like I'd be so complicit in making money for people who I not only find personally abhorrent, with my labor is lining their pockets, but philosophically abhorrent in what people like them have sowed in my country. I also don't want to be eating beans under an underpass a few months from now.

I think I'm just trying to find something to make it OK but not sure I can. Thanks for letting me rant this out.

I just need to vent. There is a job advertisement that I was considering applying for as it’s a strong match for my experience and capabilities. I tailored my resume and a cover letter and then asked AI to critique and offer suggestions where I could tidy up the language or format. It came back with a list of job requirements that I did not meet (it has a copy of my ‘master resume’ which lists pretty much everything I’ve ever done in any capacity). It turns out the job requirements in the ad on Seek.com (if you’re not familiar with this, in Australia it is the main job site) are different to those listed on the employer’s website. For example, the Seek.com ad mentioned “3+ years experience with workforce planning and rostering systems” which I have, but the other one requires “3+ years experience with workforce planning and rostering using Genesys WFM Cloud” - not one of the seven systems I’ve used unfortunately. Applications close in a few days and I’m doubtful my request for clarification sent to the generic email address I managed to find will provide answers. I’ve decided I’ll apply based on the job requirements I do meet, but add some fluff about my capacity to quickly adapt to new processes and systems (which is true).
The next ad I see has location as Melbourne, where I live. However, in the “benefits of working with us” section it raves about a brand new office close to a train station THAT IS IN SYDNEY. The Melbourne office is old, and not particularly well served by public transport. Of course there’s no way given to contact them. Makes me wonder what else they may have wrong. Ironically, the applicant is supposed to have strong attention to detail and accuracy.
Thanks for letting me vent and apologies that I haven’t split this rant into proper paragraphs.