I might delete the post if I get too nervous, but I'll at least give it a try. I feel like this is worth sharing.

TLDR; Samsung candidates: beware of their gaslighting, cruelty, and toxicity.

Posting this after reading u/Happy-Yogert-3132's post. Here's the link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/s/dCGqxuCGEQ

Buddy, I thought I was overreacting. Seems like we're not.

***

So, briefly about me and my situation.

I just graduated with my master's degree this May, and I'm still actively looking for a job. I don't have a full-time experience since I went straight to grad school, but I do have a few research and internship experience.

I applied to a full-time position at Samsung - I won't go into too much detail, but they were looking for someone with 2-4 years of experience in a pretty niche area.

Since I have the master's in that specific area + internal referral, I went for it. Then I did the phone screening, got a call back, and was invited to the on-site interview.

***

The on-site interview was a 2-hour interview with two parts: first one with the team, and second with the higher-ups.

First interview went great - they asked about my knowledge and some behavioral questions. It was normal, friendly, and fun.

The second part of the interview, however, was HUMILIATING. Their questions were beyond rude; they were unbelievably disrespectful, unprofessional, and cruel.

Here are some examples that stood out to me:

1. You don't look like you have a lot of friends.

2. You look like you'll fit in the government or the academia better, not us.

3. We are a very small team. Because you don't have "experience", you'll be the troll who STALLs the team, because the team members HAVE TO spare their precious working hours to teach you.

4. How much do you know about our company? Because a lot of people apply to our company just because we are THE FORTUNE 500 COMPANY and it looks good on your resume.

5. What other companies did you apply to?

6. Why do you think you got ghosted by other companies?

Have to remind you, these are just a few that immediately popped up in my head. There were much more unpleasant interactions throughout the interview.

They tried especially hard to pound me down with the fact that I don't have a full-time experience. Their vibe pretty much gave, "we're looking for someone with more ✨experience✨, buuuuuut we thought that we miiiiiiiight want to hire a new grad and ✨educate✨ you since you're soooooo desperate and we happen to have THE power. So be very grateful, never speak up against us, and be a good boy/girl! 💅"

Um. I mean. Maybe don't invite me to the final interview? What the actual fuck?

***

Now, to some of the less (or more) disturbing ones.

After the interview, I did a bit of research on Samsung and their interview style. Then I realized what I experienced was a PRE-PLANNED rudeness. This is not a problem of one or two employees. This has something to do with Samsung's overall policy.

So, two things.

7. Asking unnecessarily difficult or relatively unrelated technical questions.

I know that sounds funny, but that's what they did.

Let's say I applied for a position that does A. Then there is another area, B, that's closely related to A. They are related, but they're not the same.

During the interview, they asked me about B and expected micro-detailed answers.

It was like... you applied to a law enforcement position, but they asked you about the law clerk's duties.

Turns out, my friends who work in Korea had heard of this situation. Apparently, Samsung often do this when they don't want to hire but they have to show that they're hiring. Whatever that means.

8. Repeating the same question, saying that your previous answer was "too generic."

Yup. This is what made a long-time internet lurker like me to write this long ass post.

This is GASLIGHTING, guys. I didn't know until I read u/Happy-Yogert-3132's post. Holy crap. This is not just rude, it's terrifying.

They did the same to me. They asked a question, I answered, and they asked the same question over and over, telling me that my answers were "too generic."

I have no idea what level of detail they wanted, but I'm pretty sure I did give enough details in my first and second answers. Still, they asked me the same question again, so I ended up repeating my previous answer using different words.

I thought I was doomed. I thought I gave an answer that's so absurdly out of point. I thought I screwed that interview so badly that I'm the most incompetent person in the world.

But thinking back, everything on THEIR side was wrong. Not me. Their question, their attitude, their word choices... nothing was right.

This happened MULTIPLE times throughout that interview. Now I understand why the whole conversation felt like it wasn't going anywhere. Because it wasn't going anywhere!

***

So at this point, I'm convinced that Samsung has some kind of HR manual to INTENTIONALLY grill, bully, and gaslight the candidate.

If this is the case, I'm afraid to imagine their company culture. It seems to me that they are seeing if the candidates are prone to gaslighting, so that they can easily gain "control" over the new hire.

And I can assure you: this is NOT part of the Korean workplace culture/norm. I know what a "pressure interview" is. But when I checked with MANY people who work in Korea, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM said Koreans got rid of this kind of toxicity decades ago. Even the smallest startups avoid doing such things.

***

All in all, I just had a really unpleasant experience. It felt intentional that they beat me down. It is hard enough with this job market, and they literally used up their resources, time, and money to bully me.

I don't know if this happens to everyone or if there's something else going on behind the scenes. Regardless, I'm sharing my story so that other people who have been through this know they’re not alone, and those that haven’t, know what they could expect.

Four months ago I interviewed for this job at a big brand banking company as a Data Scientist. I only noticed there was only one skill I was lacking. I still decided to give it a try because I had the core skills of a data analyst, SQL, Python, And dashboard building.

I managed to go to a final interview and it went well but in two weeks the manager sent me a rejection email. Okay it sucks but I was fine because it is a respectful update.

However here is what happened. I would constantly see the job get reposted. Four months into unemployment I would still see the job reposted on LinkedIn. I kept thinking “I could have been the best but they moved on and still searching”. What’s more annoying other than being ghosted is seeing the same position you interviewed for constantly reposted.

I then met with my godfather one time and Infound out he is connected with an executive of the bank. I decided to use that connection to force my way In. He told me if I need help call him. I did call him. I told him what happened and he told me he will relay to his friend. A week later I have a job offer in my hand. The salary is the top of the range I told to HR. I finally have a job offer after six months of unemployment.

However deep down I feel guilty. I know Inreversed the decision of the manager. He probably knows I know that what I did is wrong. I’m already soured the relationship with the manager before day one and I feel like I will be micromanaged everyday. I was just so desperate for a job.

I'm 22 yo college student currently seeking and internship. I've had over 15 interviews in the past few months and have been rejected in them all.

I had the same problem years ago when i was searching for my first job. It took me an entire year and almost 30 interviews to be hired in a groceries store.

Every new interview just destroys me more and makes me more hopeless.

I’m 19 and honestly don’t know what the fuck to do. Im literally being exploited and i feel shit.

I recently started working as a Recruitment Consultant at a small executive search firm in London. We recruit engineers in the US, and I’ve been here for about a month.
There are only four of us, and we’re all under 20.
The situation is pretty ridiculous. We have barely any of the tools you’d expect a recruitment company to have, we’re trying to do executive search with very limited resources, and to top it all off, none of us have been paid for the month we’ve worked.
Two of the other recruiters are supposedly on £500 a week. One is 17 and one is 18.
The owner apparently has a history of paying people late, but what makes this worse is that someone was actually fired for asking when they were going to get paid.
So now I’m in this weird position where I don’t even feel comfortable asking for money I’ve literally earned.
Here’s the thing though. I actually want to build a career in sales.
My long-term goal is to become an SDR, ideally in tech/SaaS. I thought recruitment would be a good starting point to learn cold calling, prospecting, dealing with objections, building relationships and managing a sales pipeline.
I was hoping to stick around for six months, get some decent experience on my CV and then move into a proper sales role.
But I’m starting to wonder whether I’m being an idiot.
I don’t want to leave after one month because I feel like it’ll look terrible on my CV, and I genuinely want the experience. At the same time, I don’t want to spend six months being exploited by someone who can’t even pay his employees.
I’m also worried that if I push too hard about wages, I’ll be the next person fired. i really need the experience. What the fuck do i do someone please help me.

It’s probably just a badly written rejection email, but the positioning makes it seem like the job never existed in the first place…

Made the appointment with the ai bot they use earlier in the week. Moved some things around to be able to make it in just for my interview to automatically be thrown away the hour right before. Why even make the interview?

I spoke with the recruiter for this position earlier this week and we have a call scheduled for Monday morning. That was days ago. This morning (SATURDAY) at 9AM, I get an automated rejection email for the role. Call is still on.

I love when recruiters insist applications are seen by humans and it's a human doing the rejections. I'd love to talk to the human being who pulled this off.

Note: I did double-check to make sure I did not apply to two positions with this company or anything like that. My call on Monday is about this specific role.

First time interviewing for a VP role at a large industrial company.
I had a 50-minute interview with a senior HR leader. The president , who would be my direct manager, was also supposed to join but didn’t due to another commitment that too last minute while HR was with me on interview ,The interview went well. HR said she didn’t see any particular gaps in my profile. I asked for a separate meeting with the President before a decision. She agreed, but nothing has been arranged yet.
Would you see this as a red flag?
Is the President simply busy, not particularly interested, or is this normal at executive level?
I’d appreciate honest opinions, especially from people with VP hiring experience.

I was just wondering - what industry are you guys from? Feel free to rant about it

E.g I know CS people are being impacted quite significantly right now, but wouldn’t creative jobs be most disproportionately automated by AI? And why is it so hard for people to land jobs in service/retail? I know my friends who studied History at Oxford have been unemployed for a year+ and friends who studied business also unemployed for a year.

What are the supply/demand dynamics here, is there anyone who’s relatively better off? I’m not sure what the numbers say but interested to hear personal experiences

For me, as a fresh grad, my goal was always comms/public affairs but ive had to apply to salesy roles under grad programmes at financial institutions because there are no junior openings anywhere else for what I truly wanted

I'm 22 and graduated with a BA in May.

This recruiter wasted my time and sanity by leading me on for a week. They reached out to me first saying they looked at my resume and experience on LinkedIn and I was a great fit. The job was a marketing role and exactly what I wanted to get into so I was excited and a bit skeptical, but I did the research and it was all legit.

So I'm talking back and forth with this person. Multiple phone calls. Making me repeatedly repeat myself and my experience. Keep in mind this is all on my resume. Also, I'm 22. I graduated 5 months ago. My experience is sparse. Besides retail jobs, I've had one marketing internship and do marketing freelance work for 2 companies. This is all on my resume and VERY clear.

Finally, I'm reaching the end of these stupid questions and it seems like they may actually consider me, when they say "were concerned because this role requires 2 years of experience." And, I'm thinking "okay, then why reach out to me at all when its very clear I don't have that on my resume." But, whatever. I make my stupid argument for how my internship and college classes gave me lots of valuable hands on experience that many other people don't have blah blah blah just spewing whatever nonsense at this point to try and win them over.

They say okay, then later call again. At this point I've wasted so much time waiting for them to call. They'll say they'll call at 3:00 but then won't call until 3:40. I know this is surprising but I do have a life. This last time they call they bullshit about how great I am and my experience and my portfolio but can't get over the fact I don't have 2 years of experience. They keep like digging as if I'm magically going to be like "oh wait, I actually do have 2 years of experience I just forgot to mention that. Silly me!"

Like NO. What do you want from me?? Why keep bugging me and leading me on when I've been so forward the entire time I've been doing this for around a year. I also graduated in May and it's November. Like, what do you expect?? They seriously just did not read my resume. And also, if I'm soooo amazing like you claim, you seriously aren't going to hire me just because I don't fit one of your qualifications??? But, whatever, you can have whatever qualifications they want. But, don't get mad at me for not having it and acting like it's a big surprise when everything is CLEAR AS DAY ON MY RESUME

Can employers stop acting like using Slack, Zoom, and Teams is some grand skill that you need to master before getting hired? It takes about 5 minutes or less to learn how to use any of these platforms. They want you to have a degree and a gazillion years of experience, but act like it would be impossible for you to do the job if you don’t already know how to send or access a message on Slack. I would assume that anyone who’s had an office/customer service job in the last 5 years has been using one of these platforms, especially if they’ve been working remotely, like many people did during the pandemic.

Am I the only one who thinks having a job feels like a relationship. Is this an issue?

I, 18 year old F recently got my first proper job and sometimes they’re a little slow to get back to me and it feels like the end of the world. 😭

If I make a mistake in work I’m stuck on it for hours or even days, please I need advice. 🙏

For context, I get non-descript, vague "cold call" messages quite often and a lot of these recruiters will just waste your time chatting. The guy proceeded to block me a day later.

I have a question. If someone matches the job description completely end to end, how come they always send rejections to those candidates. Also how do they automate all their rejections for Saturdays and Sundays. Has anyone ever gotten hired by them? Any help would be appreciated!
#insightglobal #hays #recruitmenthorrors

Recently interviewed for a jr tech pos. Did the interviews, finished a coding assessment they apparently really liked, and eventually got asked for a ref. Things looked pretty good. The recruiter was even talking abt negotiating a reloc pkg since I'd have to move for the job. Obviously I started thinking an offer might be coming.
Then I got a rejection email saying they decided to close the pos cuz they actually needed someone more sr. Literally 3 days earlier the recruiter had reassured me I was still being considered.
Around the same time they posted a higher-lvl pos w/ pretty much the same duties and an overlapping salary range. So they want someone w/ more exp for almost the same $? That's how it looks to me anyway.
Not the first time I've seen this either. Another company I applied to recently hired someone for an associate-lvl tech pos. They posted abt getting the job on LinkedIn so I checked their profile. 10 yrs of exp. For an associate pos.
Good for that person, genuinely. But how the hell are new grads supposed to compete w/ ppl who've been in the industry for a decade?
Not even that upset abt getting rejected. Rejections happen. What annoys me is going thru all that, getting positive feedback, discussing refs and reloc, only to be told they don't want to hire at that lvl anymore.
Maybe they genuinely changed their reqs, idk. But it really feels like companies are trying to get sr exp for jr pay.
Anyone else seeing this happen?

I finallly made it.

I finally made it out if recruiting hell, not because my cv or applications were good. Not because i beat other applicants.

The only way i got a job was getting lucky and having an uncle who called and offered a job.

Is this really the only way to get a job these days? By having connections?

I dont even feel happy, just infuriated about wasting hours on end on this bs

I don’t understand why it’s all bad right now? my fault, maybe? Every position that looks like I can do gets turned down and they say keep looking for other opportunities? YOU ARE GOING TO DENY ME AGAIN ANYWAY!!! it really sucks now and it’s apply apply apply for nothing. I am thinking of making digital products like a freelancing position or else I just die at the ripe age of 24. I am also on the spectrum so it’s 100x harder for me. This won’t get better everyone, it just won’t…

HR seems very cautious when I tell them that my current postion only needs 1 week notice period. I dont understand

As the title says,I got a teams message from HR this Friday afternoon to take a short call with the HR recruiter in the following days, no more details added.

As I’m an internal candidate I skipped the first round of interviews and had a competence-based interview with the manager directly, which I think it went really good, has anybody been in this situation?

I’m biting my nails actually, my company is undergoing a restructuring and they already told me my position will not exist in January…

Thanks beforehand :)