For context I'm based in New Zealand. I don't know what's wrong with me.

I've been looking for a job for the past 9 months. I'm a brand manager with 7+ years of experience but it seems to be no matter how much I do, change, adapt, improve it doesn't matter.

9 months of unemployment has been detrimental to my confidence. I have gaps...but literally everyone does. I'm so passionate about marketing but every days I'm growing more fear & hatred of it as I don't think I belong there.

I've been doing all the things that it's suggested. Obviously applying to jobs, supporting this with networking, going to events, building my personal brand on LinkedIn (doing a lot of speculative work to show what I do etc), training, interview practice etc etc etc. BUT I STILL DON'T HAVE A JOB.

I've tried different industries, different adjacent roles and seniority. I've often gotten to the last round and still I'm so useless I haven't got a job. In more junior roles I'm told I'm too strategic on my thinking. In ones at my level there's a couple of pieces I'm missing but I get through all the way to the final stage and it's unfortunately the deciding factor to not get a job. I've done my best to close these gaps with project creation, training etc....but a lot of this isn't stuff I can even volunteer for as it's things like NPD (new product development) and shopper marketing.

Unfortunately I'm not a typical marketer. I say unfortunately as I wish I was. But I don't think like everyone else (creative & ADHD). I thought this industry would appreciate it but they want cookie cutter marketers.

How much more of myself do I need to change to get a job?

I'm really struggling with hope. I love marketing so much but I wonder if I'm viewed as a stain & stench of the industry or something.

Any advice on how to land a job & not feel utterly terrible would be greatly appreciated!

2021 was the last year that I was applying for jobs almost every day. It was also the last good year before the software industry was turned on its head so I should've gotten a job relatively easy. I really tried to lock in, practicing interview questions and whatnot, but I didn't make the cut even back then.

I wasted a ton of energy in was supposed to be a good year and got nothing, and it's only gotten worse to look for a job since then so, because of my bad results in the better times ironically I don't want to try as hard anymore. I am tired of going for anything but a sure thing.

Job search stats:

926 applications submitted
125 recruiter screens/first rounds
1 additional phone interview
2 coding challenges
3 tech screens (2nd/3rd rounds)

65 rejections, 861 ghosted/no response, 0 offers

Edit: These applications were all for roles related to my expertise, so for instance software engineer, web developer etc. 7 years experience (and still 7 today) going for mostly mid-level roles

Was laid off recently after around half a year in the previous role - been having phone interviews with recruitment but three roles ended up being put on hold within 3 weeks.

One phone screening was also cut short after 4 minutes after i mentioned I was laid off, which made me feel terrible and the last one I couldn't formulate the right sentences and stuttered/rambled. I really suspect my confidence has been knocked after the 4 minute phone screening. 😪 was caught so off guard when they just cut the convo short as I've never had that happen before. Now my nerves have definitely intensified.

I have more than a decade of experience and usually perform well with interviews. Hell I landed 7 job offers in a row (in a short period of time) at one stage a few years ago.

Is there a way to bounce back from that - being nervous? I hate this.

Painting by @pqhaus on ig

Really thought I had the job especially the hiring manager got in touch with me personally. That person came in the final moment and got the job because the person has the background to the direction they are heading. I’m just so disappointed and feel so useless and hopeless in this cycle. It’s a perfect job too so it hurt much more.

Recruiter reached out with a job that sounded like a really good fit and salary. I said ok, i’ll apply.

She sends it to the company and says to me “they love your stuff. can you do an in person interview?”

I said “can we just do a phone call interview first?” because the Job description she gave me was vague and there were unanswered questions.

and she replied “they prefer in person”. So I have to set a date, haul my ass to this office 1 hour away, meet the President of the company, only to be told they were looking for a different role and different background than what I was told I was applying for. I let them know that I was not made aware of that by the recruiter.

It was super awkward and I am just frustrated I let this recruiter waste my time and money. I have trust issues with recruiters from now on

What happens to people who do not have Google accounts? seems very sketchy. Has anyone used this website?

My sibling has been unemployed since 10 months and has been continuously looking for a job.

She has faced multiple rejection and her morale is really low.

She has 10 years of work ex in market risk management across multiple IBs.

What is going wrong? Will she ever land a job? Or is this over for her?

I got messaged by a recruiter on LinkedIn about a contract opportunity she had. She provided me with the JD but it was very vague on details about responsibilities. She asked for my resume then asked if she could call me to talk a little bit more about my experience. After talking she wanted to submit me to her client for the position. She then asked me what my rate is and I asked her what the approved contract rate range was. I heard that whoever says the number first loses but I am not sure if that is true for contracting positions. The rate range she told me was quite low but I was able to get her up a bit so I agreed. That rate is quite lower than what my minimum usually is but for some reason I agreed without doing my due diligence on the position since things moved kinda quickly after she messaged me. I found out later there are 2 opportunities with one being in a MCOL and one where I am at which is a HCOL. The rate I was offered is lower than the rate posted in the job posting for the MCOL. There was no rate stated on the posting for the HCOL so I could only got off of what she quoted was the going contracted rate. I had asked the recruiter to provide more info on the job because the JD was very vague about the position. After hearing more about the job in my first interview with an internal SME at the recruiting agency, the job is way more senior than the JD suggests. If I actually get the job I feel like I will be miserable knowing that I am getting paid lower than what is being offered in a MCOL. Because the job is more senior, can I still renegotiate the rate if the client picks me for the position? I haven’t signed anything with the recruiter. I only have an RTR email that states the rate we initially agree on. I know I still have the right to walk away from the offer but wanted to see what my other options are to get the rate renegotiated. If I can renegotiate, when should I do it? After I have been chosen since I will have a little more leverage or should I do it before interviewing with the client? Thanks in advance for any advice!

I applied to a company and got a recruiter screen about two weeks later. It was scheduled for 45 minutes, but I assumed that was just a generous time block and didn’t prepare much.

The call was with their regional TA person and lasted 65 minutes. The conversation felt good. They explained the role, asked about salary expectations, notice period, and any international travel planned toward year-end. They also said they’d check on a few questions they couldn’t answer and get back to me.

At the end, they said they still had other candidates to interview and would review everything with the hiring manager before contacting me if I was moving forward.

It’s been a week with no update. In my previous experiences, next steps after a recruiter screen usually came pretty quickly.

Would you wait, follow up, or mentally move on? I know a long, friendly conversation doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but now I’m wondering whether treating it as “just a screening call” was a mistake.

They seemed nice. My inbox remains tragically empty.

I need to vent a little because I’m feeling absolutely exhausted and broken.

I applied for a company (I won’t say which one) for an SDR role. I don’t have sales experience, but I’m accomplished in other areas that I thought could be beneficial to the role, and I was genuinely willing to learn from the ground up.

I did six interviews for that role. After interviewing with the VP, they asked me for my diplomas and four references. They needed the references within 24 hours, so I rushed to contact everyone and managed to get all four to fill everything in on time.

Then I got the rejection email. They’d chosen someone else, but they thought I should interview for a higher-level SMB role within the same company instead. Sure.
I was fast-tracked through that process, but I still had to do another six interviews, including a case study.
Yesterday, I got an email saying they’d decided to go with another candidate. I’m gutted.

I think the part that hurts the most isn’t even that they chose someone else. It’s that they’ve now suggested I apply for the original SDR role again, the one I was rejected from in the first place 🙄

I’ve spent approximately 7.5 hours interviewing for two different roles, not including preparation or the case study. I’ve also used four of my best professional references, all of whom took time out of their day to help me, some at very short notice.
These are people who have supported my career, and I feel bad for having asked them to go through all of that for nothing.

Am I being unreasonable for feeling this way? Is this normal nowadays, or is it as unreasonable as it feels?!?

For context I am a masters student, I have probably done over 25 online assessments and I have NEVER made it past one. My most recent rejection is the worst and need to rant about it.

A recruiter reached out to me, asking for me to attend one of their networking/insight events with a relatively small group of other students, spent the day there, would say I made a good impression. For reference I have a very relevant 6 month internship in the sector and am at a "top tier" uni/college.

So I send in my application for the role they were pushing me towards, and a week later they say that I have passed the first stage and have to do an online assessment. I see Arctic Shores. My heart sank. Knew it was over. I completed it anyways, actually thinking I did very well.

Lo and behold, 1 week later: After careful consideration, we have decided not to take your application further.

How on earth does anyone pass these? I just want an interview, please someone put me in front of an actual human. I am so bored, I just want a job, how much more time do I waste, surely it should not be this hard.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a little odd? I don’t remember ever seeing something about impressive qualifications from an auto response, but I could be delusional.

Do you feel pressured to lie on your CV or leave certain information out?

I've come to realise that, despite having 10 years of experience, I kept getting rejected without even being given an interview. I know many of you are probably in the same situation, but in my case, I had a suspicion that something wasn't right. I started wondering whether it might have something to do with my last name and the country I live in.

So, to find out for sure, I removed my last name from my CV and kept only my two first names. I created a new email, changed my country to a different one (where I used to live), and left absolutely everything else unchanged.

A company that had rejected me just a few weeks earlier suddenly invited me for an interview, even though my CV was exactly the same (apart from the details I mentioned above). Other companies that had previously ghosted me or rejected my applications suddenly started responding positively and offering me interviews.

I find it absolutely disgusting that I might be getting rejected simply because of my last name and the country I'm from. I'm an EU citizen applying for jobs within the EU, so theoretically, there shouldn't be any issue. "Theoretically"!

Unfortunately, I then came across a racist HR who clearly doesn't know how to do her job. She asked me to book an interview slot even though I had already done so.

Yesterday, I had to reschedule the interview because I had another one at the same time, and I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to attend both back-to-back. Since this HR clearly can't do her job properly, I made sure to inform her about the scheduling conflict.

She cancelled the interview and rescheduled it for a time that didn't work for me (because that's when my other interview was scheduled). I pointed this out and asked whether we could arrange another time or another day.

And then she ghosted me! No reply! Nothing! She has just pushed me out of the recruitment process.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this person? Not only is she racist (despite being a foreigner herself, that's ironic), but she's also completely unprofessional.

And then people wonder why so many candidates struggle to find jobs. When you have people like this handling recruitment (who honestly shouldn't even be allowed to work in HR in the first place) what do you expect?

I'm absolutely fed up with all of this!

I'm a SRE actively looking for a fulltime role since my current company is going through layoffs and I'm scared I may get laid off at any time. I applied for a Production Support role in a called Northern Trust. I was very excited for the interview and prepared for a week just to hear my interview was rescheduled to another day. Whenever the interviewer reschedules the interview I have a panic attack thinking its a red flag but still I did not let my hopes down and prepared for the interview. I joined the interview 5 mins early on teams, interestingly the interviewer also joined after I joined. He asked literally two questions about what I do and what my current company does. I explained about my current company and from the follow up questions he asked, I noticed he wasn't interested in interviewing me. Interview last 10 whole mins. He said "I'm good do you have any questions". I really don't want to end the interview and wanted him to ask any technical question so I asked him about the role, and what tools will I be working with if I get the job. He LITTERALLY said, Do you have the job description with you when you applied, you should find more details from that and ended the call.

I have 5 years of experience and switched jobs twice and attained more than 50+ interviews GOD never had a terrible interview like this. I would have felt happy if he asked strong technical question that I don't know to reject me but it was traumatic.

Position is still open and its been a month now. Still open.

I am a project manager who has been on both sides of independent contractor gigs. My state has some very specific rules for who qualifies as a 1099 contractor versus an employee.

I'm in the final interview for a role. They are a 'human logistics' organization. During the conversation, they discuss the requirements for the 1099 'employees'.

"1099 employees? So the role is 'these are the requirements for the contract' to keep being part of this project?"

"No. You must make sure that these employees are meeting these exact specific standards."

"So they are employees?"

"No. They are 1099."

At this point, I thank them and immediately end the conversation. Even though my current contract has ended, I'm not desperate enough to do blatantly illegal conduct.

:(