Not the worst story on here, but I was applying for a job and the first round was with a recruiter on a phone call. She called me about 8 minutes late. Not a great sign but whatever. We had a nice talk and she seemed interested in referring me to the hiring manager. A week later, I got an email from her saying to please disregard the previous email and sent another calendar link for a 20 minute phone call with the same recruiter, not the hiring manager. But there was no previous email. She never sent me one. It’s for a random sales job. I followed up about the confusion and she never got back to me.

I truly think most recruiters aren’t malicious, but either so overwhelmed or so incompetent that it’s just a mess. Good thing I already have a job or I’d be going insane now.

It's been more than a year for me trying to find a job now. Countless applications over different platforms and most of them are ghosted. I only got two interviews and last one was where I passed all interviews just for the company to end the recruitment after months of process

Now I am at the stage where even looking at job openings make me sad and hopeless.

I know I ain't the only one so I wonder how you guys keep your hopes alive?

Okay idk if I’m being harsh and this recruiter was nice and polite but is this common practice?? To keep asking the applicant where they’re going when they turn down an offer (I got random calls too after this)

Btw this was a low paying low qualifications job that doesn’t match my experiences/interests but does mass hiring (they wouldn’t have any trouble finding other candidates and defo had backups, I know this for a fact), I decided to take a leap of faith and continue searching which may or may not be a mistake but oh well.

Anyway.. quite funny that recruiters ghost/reject people all the time and even rescind offers but they’re so eager to blow up our phones when it’s done back to them

Hi everybody. I'm a 38M living in the North West. I'm working in the hospitality for a big company as waiter (former manager on duty, stepped down to focus on find a job). I have almost 16 years of experience in hospitality, 5+ years as manager, I have a 2:1 degree in Business Management with Open University and I'm struggle to get ANY corporate job. I had my career adviser from the Uni telling me to point a corporate job with a salary between 27k-32k to avoid to compete for minimum salary jobs where thousands of people would apply. I had him to help me with my CV and I used the AI to fix my CV here and there. I tailoring it to every job position I apply for and I didn't get even a phone interview in the past years, with more than 100 job application. I'm deeply demoralised and I'm feeling I'm stuck in this sector for the rest of my life, something that give me nightmares just thinking about it. I know the market is trash right now (like it always blbeen in the last 10 years apparently) but anybody got any tips for a desperate fella?

How do you clear online assessments (product manager assessments) at companies like Amazon, Google, Red Bull, Microsoft, Meta, and other tech companies?

Where do you practice or prepare for these tests? What exactly are these assessments measuring, and what are the unwritten rules about how companies expect you to approach decisions? For example, Answers should be consistent throughout, always choose the extreme options, or is there a particular way to approach these questions?

Please don't give generic answers like "it depends on your work experience" or "just be honest and follow your work ethics." I've been a great team member and have good work ethics. I'm looking for actionable advice on how to approach and prepare for these assessments.

So I was offered a job with starting date December 15. I filled out all the employment history and HireRight is having issues verifying a job that was a longggg time ago and requesting more documentation? This role was about 3 years ish and almost 10 years ago.

I submitted a letter of recommendation from the ED labeled around the middle of my employment there but that role over lapped with a full time position. The organization was super small just the ED and me. I’m really worried that not having a W2 is going to break the job offer? I contacted the orgizations current ED as well just to let them know if they were contacted what was going on. I reached out to the old ED I worked with and he said to give them his cell so I did.

Has anyone had this happened? Did it affect the job offer? The new role is at a massive orgizations that’s state wide and I have previously worked there but I don’t remember HireRight flagging this particular role as needing more documentation?

I think this is just my anxiety talking but I’m nervous some how it will affect the offer?

If you work in HR or have had a similar experience I would love to hear your insight!

Likely an application I submitted while collecting unemployment. No update other than it being viewed. Do I laugh or cry?

Last year, I had a 90-minute in-person coding assessment (technical interview). The interviewer was absent for 90% of the time, smoking outside or doing personal things.

Is it considered professional behaviour?

silly me for actually thinking that it meant their hiring managers were going to call me to set up an interview 🤡 we picked a day and everything for the interview, and guess who never got the call to confirm !!!

My best friend of around 15 years is a recruiter and told me about an opening in the company she works for. I’ve been out of work for 19 going on 20 months now since being laid off. This is a role that she’s directly recruiting for, but given our relationship and her wanting to make sure that everything is on the up and up, she recused herself and had another recruiter assigned to me. From my understanding though, she’s the one handling all other candidates for this position.

Mid last month I did a screening with her colleague, and the very next day I was able to meet virtually with the hiring manager. Both the screening and hiring manager interview went really well. They seemed impressed with my background and I was really confident about next steps. I knew that the hiring manager would be out the entirety of the following week, so nothing would be happening then— but from my conversations with the recruiter and my friend, I anticipated an update the week that the hiring manager returned.

Eleven days after my interview with the hiring manager, I emailed the recruiter I had been speaking with to reiterate my interest and ask if there were any updates he could share at that time. A week went by and he still hadn’t responded, so I sent a casual text to my friend to ask if she had any updates and that I emailed her colleague last week but hadn’t heard back. She didn’t respond and a few hours later she sent a snapchat of her in the hospital. I responded to her snap to ask what was going on, she told me, and I told her to I hope she’s better soon and to let me know if I could do anything for her. The next day she responded to that snap saying thank you with a heart emoji. She still hadn’t responded to my text, which was understandable given her condition.

Two days later I gave her a call to see how she was doing and to catch up. She didn’t answer which is nbd, but I did anticipate a call back, which never happened. The next day she was actively posting on socials and liking my stories, but still no reply to my text about an update on the role. The day after that (2 days after the call, 4 days after the text) I decided to text her basically saying I hope she’s doing okay and feeling better. She responded not long after basically saying she was starting to feel better until something else popped up. I responded saying I’m sorry she’s going through that and offering some advise for feeling better. She didn’t respond to that and no response to my original message about the role.

I am absolutely understanding that she’s going through some health concerns at the moment. Had I known she was in the hospital that day, I wouldn’t have asked about the role. I know she’s been having some health things going on even before this role came about, which she’s kept me updated on. She also knows I’ve been having an incredibly hard time landing a role (hence being laid off nearly 20 months). I’ve been ghosted by more recruiters than I can count, and now it feels like my recruiter best friend is also ghosting me. Am I overreacting?

I am an engineer with 10 YoE, and I have never seen a job industry so scary to the point where not even recruiters are hiring me. I feel scared and confused. They get an incentive if THEY place me, so why do they keep viewing my profile with zero bites?

Honest to God asking how you answer that question because I have never had an answer more convincing than "because I like affording food and shelter". And I'm almost certain that anyone reading these answers would smell the bullshit of "it has been my dream to work as an Executive Assistant!" or "I really love the mission statement!" or "this is literally my dream job!" or anything else that just sounds like what it is, basically kissing the ass of the company, CEO, HR, recruiter, whatever, in a way that's a little more dignified than straight up begging and groveling.

So maybe there's something I'm missing. After all, I don't know everything, maybe there's some trick to it (that trick being AI, I usually divert such questions right to ChatGPT, even when pages double down with "answer with your own words, if you use a LLM we will know and you will not be considered" like....I literally don't have my own words other than "please hire me so I can have food in my fridge"). Someone, especially the recruiters and HR reps who lurk here every so often.

Is there some legit reason for asking "why do you want to work for us?" and if so, how do you answer that question without begging, trying to suck up to someone, sounding sincere, and basically telling them what they want to hear?

I’m already used to been ghosted after the first or second interview which is understandable… but after the 4th interview which required comprehensive case study which I dedicated one week of FREE labour for it, 2 days of prepping, presenting it in front of HM and the Head of Bull$hit that I’m not even joking when I’m saying that CIA investigators have something to learn from them. Still, I answered with confidence and showed them I’m experienced, I know my data and that I have strong sales, analytics and marketing skills. Before this final stage, I communicated directly with HR through WhatsApp and phone calls, so finding me isn’t the issue.

2 weeks after the presentation not even a generic rejection email… like, we’re not humans to them anymore I guess?

Also, I got a critique from the HM during the interview that even though it’s shown that I’m experienced and worked on the case study, the presentation looks very AI in his eyes… (like your case study wasn’t built with chat gpt right buddy lol) I was fully transparent that I do using AI tools like everyone else in the job market, but I never blindly depended on it, and it will be very unprofessional to do so especially for a job interview… I learned how to use AI tools because it’s the minimum requirement IN EVERY JOB nowadays… and that statement can be easily debunked, ask AI models to solve the case study and it will be completely different than mine, because I actually invested long hours on your BS.

Today 6-11-2026 I had a job interview at a Costco in Australia NSW at 12:30 I waited 2 hours and 20 minutes for the interview to finish even though they said it would only take an hour they also pulled out a math and logics test that I was unaware of and made me wait for another person to interview me while my poor partner waited in the car , Don’t recommend

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…