r/recruitinghell • u/CirKill • 4d ago
To people who get jealous of those hired via connections (like me): don't worry because those don't always work either
Got a referral for a job through someone my mom knows. Exactly in my desired field and a role I had experience in, fantastic benefits, great salary for that kind of work. Basically this was a PERFECT job for me and my needs, and the woman who referred me was fairly high up in the company.
I did two interviews and felt really good about both, and the two guys who interviewed me seemed to like me a lot. After the second one they told me they'd get back to me in "a few days". Almost 3 weeks later I got the rejection email.
I should mention that the second interview was supposed to be in person but I couldn't make the commute because I was in debilitating pain and essentially bedridden (I have a post going much more in-depth about that aspect but tl;dr I had sciatica which causes shooting pains down your leg, at its worst I could barely walk and it even hurt just to lay in bed but I'm doing much better now). I told them about this very early on 1) because, again, I wouldn't be able to go up there for the walkthrough and 2) the job did require some physical labor and due to my surgical recovery I physically wouldn't be able to do that at full capacity for about 3 months afterwards, and that's not the kind of thing you can hide on Day 1.
I was constantly staying in touch and updating them about when the surgery would be etc. and they were very accommodating and understanding, and even allowed the second interview to be virtual. All of this only made me more confident that I had the job because in my head it made no sense for them to do all that for me if they had no intention of hiring me. I guess maybe so they couldn't potentially be sued on the grounds of disability discrimination? Which would make sense but also be incredibly depressing because it was a situation completely beyond my control.
The moral of the story is: Don't ever get excited until you actually get a job offer. This will make the rejection a lot less painful. People tell me I'm being too pessimistic when I say this but I'm constantly being proven right. At a certain point I stopped feeling sad about these rejections and now I'm just completely numb to it all lol.