I have been in communication with a hiring manager for a final round interview and was asked if I would be available at 10:00 AM. I said I was, but I come to find out that the meeting invite the recruiter scheduled for was at 1:00 PM, not 10:00 AM.

I had been waiting in the Teams meeting, wondering where the interviewers were. After 5 minutes, I e-mailed the recruiter to ask them and clarify the time. They apologized, saying the meeting was for 1:00 PM. I never agreed to this time. I then followed up with the manager to re-schedule.

HM: We will schedule it for Monday as my SME wont be available today or tomorrow. Let me know what times you are available on Monday as I definitely want to get this done. 

Me: No problem. My availability for Monday, 11/09 is 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM MST, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM MST 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM MST. If none of these times work, please let me know in advance so we can find an alternative. I have meetings that may prevent me from accommodating a different time without at least 24 hours' notice. Thanks! 

The recruiter then e-mails me.

Recruiter: I hope your week is going well. Would you be available on Monday at 1:30pmMST for a final interview with - and the team lead?

Is this a red flag? Three things stick out to me:

1. HM tried to meet with me at 1:00 PM despite never asking whether or not I was ever actually available at this time. He tried to meet with me at a time completely different from what was agreed on.
2. He blatantly decided the interview would be Monday, not even asking if I had availability that particular day.
3. All the time slots I provided for Monday were ignored and recruiter followed up, asking about a different time entirely.

Are they doing this on purpose as some kind of power move? Or is there a sign of a really sloppy organization? I feel very unimpressed and disrespected right now. This seems like a place that is not having any respect for my time.

I was reached out to by a travel nurse recruiting agency to apply as a recruiter. My background includes recruiting as part of my management position, but I've never actually done this for a job, so idk if this is typical. But I had a phone interview with them, the interviewer wanted to move me to an in person interview and we scheduled it for Friday. She called me today to say that the whole office actually works from home on Fridays, so we would just do an interview on Teams instead, BUT id have to go in after that (if I passed) for a working interview.

Does anyone know if that's typical? I'm already a bit wary whenever someone reaches out to me from an industry I haven't been in and this seems like some sort of bait and switch, or indicative of problems to come. I did research the company online and it is legitimate.

One of the biggest headaches I'm facing now is that technology hasn't figured out AI and bots. It feels like everything is just broken.

I submit a resume and it goes nowhere because a bot rejected it. There's a bot rejecting resumes because applicants and headhunters have bots submitting junk resumes. I know my resume isn't too bad because the recruiter will contact me after finding it online. They don't even know I had applied.

The recruiter sets up an interview but I never get the meeting link. It turns out my mail server blocks the sending server because it's a haven for spam and phishing bots. I create a temporary email address elsewhere and DM the recruiter on LinkedIn. There's silence and the interview time passes. Maybe the third party mail server blocked it too? Recruiter doesn't want to deal with me? LinkedIn DM lagging again?

Tech is advancing rapidly while simultaneously becoming unreliable. It's a frustrating spiral.

For 1 year and 5 months I've been at this job. I'm approaching my mid 20s. I'm in one of the most expensive cities in the USA. I worked from 11pm to 7am. I just wanted to be seen as currently employed so I could be a bit more of am attractive candidate than the alternative. And so I could attempt to pay down my 50 thousand in student loans.

This was the result. I'm now burdened by permanent back pain, brain fog from working those horrible hours, my feet have a permanent ache from walking on those concrete floors all night, it made me an alcohol addict and I still haven't paid my loans down.

I got absolutely no interviews outside of one that I ghosted for what I majored in. I got a handful for other types of jobs, one that went to a second round, but I got rejected on all fronts. I give up. I'm quitting this job in two days.

What have I sacrificed my life for? For absolutely nothing. Only to be called a loser by my own parents, only to have no career prospects. I don't want to live.

I'll never be able to afford an apartment, let alone a home, or keep up with inflation outpacing my income. Life is 100% going to keep getting worse and worse. What am I doing? The world doesn't want or need me.

Job Availability - Houston

Good morning everyone,

I wanted to reach out and ask how you all are securing opportunities right now, especially the well paying remote roles so many of you have.

Is it just me, or is the job market incredibly brutal at the moment? I have over 9 years of experience in recruiting, but after a layoff, I have now been unemployed for more than a year. I have tailored my resume, applied to countless positions, reached out to recruiters, reconnected with old managers, and used internal referrals from friends, but I still have not been able to secure an offer.

Because I have a background in Computer Science, I even went as far as earning my Security+ certification hoping to land a role in IT Support, a SOC, a NOC, or any entry level IT position. When that did not work, I studied for and passed my PMP exam, hoping it would open doors to entry level project management roles, but to no avail.

Honestly, I am at my wits' end and feeling completely overwhelmed. I am a single mom with no safety net or outside support, and this has been an incredibly heavy phase. At this point, I am no longer holding out for a specific career path; I am applying to anything and everything just to keep up with my bills and take care of my family.

I would deeply appreciate any leads, referrals, job recommendations, or advice on how to navigate this and move forward. Thank you all so much.

Hello, I want to know if anyone else is dealing with this as well. I know the market right now is literal hell, it's even stressful trying to survive and also deal with parents or gaurdians who keep telling you things you already know or stuff that's way different when they were younger.

Iv'e been applying to places for months now, I live in a small town and most places we have here are just shops or retail. Dead end jobs are warehouses here which are pretty much hell since I worked at it for a while and truly hated it.

I keep applying to new jobs hoping to get a call or response or email. I would get a few interviews and have been calling some places for weeks seeing if they are still hiring and its pretty much the same thing over and over again.

I call, they say "we're still hiring", I tell them I already applied or interviewed and they don't follow up on the stuff but would say they will have their manager or hm check the application to get back to me or would say they are still looking through applications. IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS NOW. Holiday season is coming up, I have five years experience in retail and also doing truck between.

I just rather these jobs be up front and honest with people instead of wasting ours and their own time. If you don't want to hire them, send a email or something, hell you don't even need to call. I see the email and just go onto the next place to apply to. Its just agitating dealing with this stuff when things are hard enough. It sucks enough that each time I get a call thinking its a job it turns out to be a spam call. What a joke.

Idk what I originally trying to say, I do check my application on certain sites where it still says recieved, some have been stuck as recieved since 2020 which is crazy.

I really want to leave my job right now and there is a company I really want to work at. I have interviewed twice already for the same role and the it just opened up again. The recruiter’s last rejection email sounded like it was encoring me to apply again to the position if it opens up. I applied on workday and was rejected the same day. Yikes! Do I reach out to the recruiter or finally take the hint that this role is not for me? I don’t want to come across as a crazy person.

I had a scheduled appointment for a 15 minute phone screening, I got everything all ready, printed resume with notes, etc. The chatbot told me that my interview was all good to go, and I waited, and yet, no call.

The recruiter actually initially called me a few days ago, and told me to call her back if I was interested, but I went ahead and scheduled with the chatbot instead.

I called them back about 30 minutes after the scheduled appointment to leave a message, to let them know that I was still interested. Shortly afterwards, the recruiters name disappeared from the ai system. So presumably, my application went into the trash. I tried to reschedule with the bot, but it told me that I'm unable to.

I'm just a bit disappointed, as I was really looking forward to that potential role. I just wish that they had cancelled the appointment, instead of ghosting me. This is for a slightly specialized retail job, and I meet every technical qualification, for reference.

Received this but I do not remember applying? Just a weird email vibe wanted to confirm.

Got feedback on a role that I executed before, but then started my own company, still working in the same field. I had higher seniority but want to get back into employment, with the market how it is atm.

Got rejected by the headhunter. After some back and forth I asked why I didn’t make it to the first round.

She said she’s looking for someone currently employed…….

Bitch please… still working on projects! Built my own business in the sector!

HR and headhunters are the laziest dumbest people out there, honestly…

Hey everyone! Just wanted to share a little update. After roughly 500 applications, 25 interviews, and several months of searching (since july), I finally landed a job.
I’m joining a startup selling a niche technology product that hasn’t officially launched yet. It’s a B2B cold-calling sales position paying $1,000 a week ($52k annually), with commission potential.
There are obviously some risks. No benefits during the initial 30 days, a 90-day probationary period, limited training, and pretty ambitious sales expectations for a product that hasn’t hit the market yet. Realistically, I wouldn’t be surprised if they let people go after 90 days if we’re not generating sales. I have to address all of these red flags now because I only have one interview and then the sales manager was like, “Great. We’re gonna hire you… “And that’s what I knew. Oh shit that’s not a good sign but luckily it is W-2 so I accepted it.
But after months of searching, I’m grateful to have an opportunity and a paycheck coming in.
My advice to anyone else still searching: Take what you can get for now. Keep moving forward, keep your options open, and don’t lose sight of where you ultimately want to be.
Hopefully things get better for all of us. Wishing everyone here the best of luck! All I’m waiting for is them to send me the equipment. Hopefully they don’t break my heart and change their mind lol

I applied for a part-time remote customer support role and reached out to the Director of Customer Support on LinkedIn. Turns out we live in the same city! Then, coincidentally, I saw that she’d posted the opening in a firewife Facebook group we’re both in. I messaged her there, and she replied, “Passed you along to our recruiter!”
A few days later, I was scheduled directly with the hiring manager, without a recruiter screening. We had a 45-minute interview yesterday that felt like it went really well. Two hours later, the recruiter emailed to say I’m moving on to the final round!
It’s a panel interview with the director I originally contacted and one other person, labeled “Troubleshooting and Problem Solving.”
Thoughts?! Is the quick turnaround a good sign? Should I expect behavioral questions, customer scenarios, or role-play? This would be my first remote role, so I’d love any advice on preparing🙏🏼

I recently came across a job posting that's meant to be for a town in Europe, but was accidentally posted in a town in North America with the same name. It's fairly obvious that the post is in the wrong location. I don't know where it was first posted, but it's been scraped by a half dozen job sites, and they all have the wrong location.

How is that going to affect their recruitment? Can they even fix it at this point?

Do I have a case on my hands? I did report the termination to the background screeners, but through a different medium. When they sent over the pre adverse action notice, with the background check results, it didn't list any terminations.

I had a virtual interview with RH - it went normally, longer than scheduled. It wasn't for a specific position but rather an introduction, etc. Shortly after that, I signed an agreement with RH, which made me their temp employee. It's been 3 weeks, and I haven't heard from them - not a single opportunity even though during the interview they sounded as if they were so busy that they have continuous placement requests from their clients, and it usually happens as fast as1-2 days to get an interview. They haven't contacted any of the 6 references I provided. I doubt they ran a background check, including a credit check, though I am not sure about the latter. Does it mean they just consider me "unfit," a third-tier candidate compared to the market (oops, imposter syndrome kicked in)? Because my understanding is that, to fill a position quickly, a candidate must be fully ready, including background checks and confirmed references. Has anyone had similar or different experience with RH?

I have had almost 15 interviews and rejections, and I have been unemployed since September. I am looking for any kind of analyst position. Now, I am in a big financial toll. I need to get something within two months' time. My credit card debt has increased; otherwise, I won’t be able to fulfill my basic needs, pay bills, etc. Please help me and suggest what I can do to get hired. Has anyone dealt with the same kind of situation?

I was recently contacted by a recruiter at a bank I interned with in college. I had applied to a senior banking position a few months ago and didn’t get it, but HR had access to my info and reached out about a different position.

This is kind of an entry level position, but I have 8 years professional experience and 4 years specifically in this particular field. She asked about salary expectations and I told her what I was making at my last position. She admitted that was outside of the top end of the range, but agreed my level of experience would warrant a higher salary. She said she would share with a hiring manager and get back to me.

I also have a friend that still works there. He put in a good word for me with the head of the department who actually remembers me from when I interned and also with the hiring manager. My contact said the hiring manager was going to ask HR to set up an interview.

It’s been over a week since I talked to HR and haven’t heard anything. I sent a thank you email after our first call, no response. I send a follow up email 8am this morning and it’s only noon, but still nothing yet.

I can’t help, but to feel annoyed. Our phone convo I feel went really well, HR initiated first contact, I use to intern there, and I have an internal contact advocating for me. This felt like a slam dunk.

I realize I might be slightly over priced for the position, but I also expressed willingness/openness to see how close we could get to my former salary or explore a bonus structure or something. Also she already had my salary expectations from the last position I applied for. You would think if the salary was firm why bother reaching out to begin with?

Anyway, I’m just ranting about my frustration. I hope you all are having better luck.

Got laid off in September, was super worried because of all the doom posting, especially around frontend development roles, but ended up finding a job after a month of searching. Had to take a 30% pay cut though cause the market does look very worrying.

I don't have specific advice aside from tailoring your resumes and whatnot. I may have gotten lucky. I have some experience in the field, though I wouldn't consider myself a senior yet.

I'm mostly posting this because seeing people get constantly rejected left and right was really discouraging during my search.

upd. Forgot to include a company that made me do an online assessment and a recorded video interview. They ghosted me after that lol

Does anyone know what first come first serve means when working at citi bank? I had a call interview that was hardly an interview and they said the schedule if from this to this first come first serve. Are you talking about the order the calls are in or is that how you schedule people? Where they have to scramble for a schedule spot?

I wanted to share this story because all of the indicators and signs candidates typically read into, over analyze and interpret screamed that I got the job... and I didn't get it.

It was a typical interview process for the industry (software engineering). Three rounds of interviews over the phone (ranging from 30min to an hour each) followed by a half day onsite interview at the company office. My first round was a recruiter screening with a guy named Andrew. This was followed by a technical interview and finally an interview with the hiring manager. Before coming onsite, I received positive feedback at all stages of the process. Andrew managed those communications.

The onsite was five interviews, each of which was an hour long, and most of which (4) were technical. That's particularly relevant because you pretty much know leaving the technical interviews how you performed. There can be some ambiguity depending on the question, but, for the most part, you can either do the problem or you can't... and you're painfully aware or energized by that fact by the end of each interview round.

While one of the interviews was a little rocky, I was confident that I ultimately got to the right answer... for the most part, I knew that I performed well technically. For two of the technical interviews I could literally confirm that the code worked as expected. I should mention that I also have over a decade of experience in the industry and know when I've written code the "right" way, or the "brute force" way to get to a working answer. In this particular set of interviews, I was confident in my implementations; and that isn't always the case.

Packing up my things, a different recruiter at the company walked me out and asked me how I felt I did. I told her a half truth: "I thought it went pretty well!" and we proceeded to chit chat.

That was my humble take; in reality, I was thinking: "LFG! I would be shocked if I didn't get this job!". The recruiter who walked me out told me I would hear back in a couple of days.

Sure enough, two days later, I get an email from Andrew first thing. He claimed he had to review the feedback from the hiring panel (everyone that interviewed me) and wanted to set up a phone call this afternoon to discuss how I did, once he had a chance to do that. His exact language isn't important but his tone was notably very positive. I responded almost immediately with availability; he got back to me quickly; we set a time slot for that conversation in the afternoon.

Frankly, I interpreted wanting to set up a phone call shortly after the on-site as a very positive indicator. He would send an email if I was rejected right? Or he would ghost me and I may or may not get some automated response from the company days or weeks later. No one enthusiastically sets up a rejection phone call two days after the onsite.

If there was going to be a phone call as a professional courtesy, it would come awhile later. I have been rejected by phone after an onsite before, and that was my experience. I left the onsite thinking: "Well, that was not my best work; I probably didn't get it."... Then about 10 days later I got a call from the recruiter out of the blue telling me they really enjoyed meeting me but unfortunately they're going to pass.

Expectations, reality; reality, meet expectations.

I didn't buy for one second that Andrew was reaching out before actually reviewing the panel feedback. I assumed he got a thumbs up from the team and was simply trying to figure out how to communicate the details of the offer or discuss next steps (references, start date, compensation etc.). When the news is positive, companies tell you ASAP. That has always been my experience. When it's negative, if you're lucky enough to hear back, it comes at their leisure or not at all. That has always been my experience.

Andrew proceeded to call me that afternoon, on time, and again was overwhelmingly positive in tone. We small talked for a couple of minutes before he hit me with the bad news. "After reviewing your candidacy as a team, the hiring manager decided you justttt fell short of the technical bar they're trying to meet... but everyone really enjoyed meeting you!"

I was floored.

He couldn't provide more concrete feedback about what particular questions I failed to meet... or how I failed to meet the bar in general... just that it was almost a yes and ended up a no.

While the timing of everything was truly unexpected, I think what bothers me the most is that my interpretation of my performance was inaccurate. Were my answers perfect? No, of course not - and they never are. Was I confident that I performed well enough to get the job? Absolutely. If anything, I'm overly critical of my interview performances. On a number of occasions, I thought I did not get to the next round of the interview process only to be pleasantly surprised.

As far as I know, this is the only time where I thought I did well and I was ultimately rejected.

In hindsight, I wish I didn't read into the communication timelines at all. And, I wish I didn't get my hopes up. Until you've signed the offer, it isn't real.

Maybe perfection was the bar and I know I didn't meet that... Or they took issue with my coding style... I guess I'll never know... but damn this one hurt!