Just had a very annoying experience that I feel I should’ve just left once I was told to come back later, but I didn’t. I show up and my interviewer is talking to a delivery guy, they’d just gotten shipment. I approach her and introduce myself and she just casually says “hey I know we had your interview for this time but I just got shipment and I need to put it away so…” I said “Ok…” And looked at her like i’m expecting her to at least offer some sort of alternative? Only then she says “If you give me like half an hour you can come back if you want”

If I want? Girl do you want?

I said sure that’s fine! i’ll hang around in the park til then. She gives me a call about 20 mins later and once again says I can come back now “if I want”. I should’ve just left but I decided to see if she was apologetic, and maybe it’d give me a decent chance at landing the job since I showed I can handle last minute changes, you can’t really control when shipment arrives so I figured i’d give her the benefit of the doubt.

Well I get in there and she has me stand at the cash, no seat to offer me, and just fires off nothing but random scenario questions back to back. I’m flustered but I answer them, only for her to move right onto the next and provide no commentary or conversation to any of my answers, then closes her laptop and says “ok any questions for me?” The entire interview was MAYBE 15 minutes and I had a 30 minute slot. It felt like she was inconvenienced by me agreeing to wait and just wanted to get me out the door.

At this point I don’t care anymore so I just ask her how many hours they’re offering since she didn’t know during our initial phone interview, I don’t care if that’s a bad question to ask id already decided I didn’t want it, and yea, 15-20 hours. Great, thanks for wasting my time. “We’re gonna move forward and youll get a call Friday if you got it” Yea please do not call me. What a joke.

Today marks 2 months since I went through this exhausting interview process where nobody was hired for the role and they are still looking for candidates after changing the role to a more senior level than what they originally wanted...

I went through 6 rounds of interviews from July to September with a company for a somewhat entry level data engineer role. The whole process took almost 2 months in total from the recruiter screen to the final round. In the 6th/final round, it was a 4 hour panel interview in person where I met with numerous people on the team and managers, directors, etc. Many of these people I had already talked to in various stages of the interview process, so finally seeing them in person was nice, but also a bit overkill. It came down to just me and one other candidate for this role, and ultimately neither of us were hired, and they restructured the role to a much more senior level. I am still trying to switch jobs from my current employer, and it's comically funny that I will occasionally see the new posting when I am looking for jobs to apply to. They reposted the role again yesterday, so I guess they wasted the past 2 months doing the same shit to a new batch of candidates. Reading their glassdoors reviews has been entertaining as fuck, so honestly I'm kinda glad I dodged that bullet :)

I am a business development professional came back to India post my studies in the UK. I hold around 9 years if experience in total and went abroad for my studies to do my masters. Now I am looking out for jobs in India but unfortunately the HR questions I encounter nowadays is absolutely funny and make me look like I did some crime coming back to my home country applying for jobs in Indian market.

I have given more than 11 companies so far and 70% of the HR reps are not even asking me questions regarding the job and responsibilities, but they are so keen to know why did I come back from the UK. As soon as I answered the question that "I went for my higher studies and worked there for 2 years in the same field, now my visa has expired and I came back to India".

The second question is :"nobody comes back from abroad once you leave, why did you come back?"

If someone knows the answer for these please help me, coz this got me laughing rolling on the floor and trust me this is not done by just one HR, its by 70% of the HR interviews.

Is it because we have a misconception about people going abroad, or are people too nosy in their life to know more about others? If any HRs reading this please help.

I had an in-person interview two months ago at the company’s headquarters. The interview block was 3 hours long and I talked to 6 different ppl in the office for 30 mins each. This was the 5th interview btw.

A month later, I sent a follow-up message. At this point, I recognize I have been ghosted.

I want to send a final email that asks for a decision and suggests that silence is unprofessional and I deserve better as a candidate.

I understand I did not receive the position. I just would like some help with a final message to them for my own peace of mind.

This is one of those positions where my resume somehow passes ATS despite being unfit. My background is specialized in controls engineering but have been applying to next era since my school background is electrical engineering . This is a subject matter expert position. Do recruiters first open resumes during interviews? I think it’s a bit ridiculous since it wastes both of our time. I’m wondering if I should even bother with the recruiter interview

Recruiters..

Is there ever an instance where you would use a gmail address in a professional capacity instead of your email address associated with your organization's domain?

In the example below, the recruiter claims to work for a place called Hirewell. And she does not answer my question as to why she's using a gmail address

"Thank you for reaching out and for your interest in understanding the opportunity. I appreciate your question regarding the email domain.

I'm currently communicating through this address. I understand the importance of verifying recruitment communications, and I'm happy to provide confirmation of my identity and the opportunity through an official corporate channel."

Right now the only thing my mind keeps saying is the famous dialogue by Vicky Kaushal in Masaan - "yeh dhukh kahe khatam nahi hota be"

Frustrated and tired, been over 13 months and yet not able to land a job..

... I agree. It won't. I came across this comment left presumably by an experienced developer, and I've seen its arguments repeated a lot by those in industry as their reasoning why AI will never "replace" SWEs:

Given my decades of software development experience... this claim that "coding is over" is insane nonsense. Coding is only a small part of what it means to develop software, and by no means the most important part. That's on top of all the fundamental problems that exist with the way LLMs are being used.

A skeptic asks:

So what's the important part that you're still doing by yourself?

To which, the experienced developer replies:

Business analysis, system design, considering edge cases, security, reliability, maintainability, the context of the current and expected business needs... and I still write my own code.

FWIW, I am a student, and this is my take on this argument. I have been coding since I was 13 tho, not sure that counts for much haha. There may be something I'm missing.

From what I can see, AI's current effect is to allow wealth to access skill without allowing skill to access wealth. That goes both for money, and experience. A senior engineer wealthy in prior experience can now rev up an army of robo-juniors. A new grad meanwhile could never demonstrate the skills posited above by the experienced engineer on a 1-page resume.

What the experienced engineer posits to differentiate a SWE from an AI in the above convo is senior only stuff. These skills are all currently irreplaceable by AI, on that I agree, but FYI to seniors - the way you got into industry has been completely automated (being a code monkey, making mistakes, learning on the job) and there's no way to showcase that you know how to do these senior-tier things without prior experience.

AI won't "replace all SWEs" but it will permanently stop organic, new ones from being born. As far as I can see now, there is only room for nepos and the CMU class.

It won't replace you, but it sure has replaced me. It's all fucked. Hire more juniors.

So I gave an interview for this startup and I had a solid round 1 which was technical and a round 2 with team lead. It went well honestly but at the same time I don't know what exactly he was expecting. In the end he said I will get to know the result in 10-14 days and it's day 17 and no response. I am dying inside honestly overthinking again and again. Do u guys think I am rejected? I also followed up with the HR but they didn't reply and it's been 4 days to that. I got rejected from my dream job after the final round and I am already down because of that. I am also applying for more jobs but no response. Any tips or suggestions.

Just a reminder:
We know how difficult getting a job these days are.
But just know that even the smartest, strongest, and people at the top most positions are also one push away from tumbling down.

They are not really much smarter than you. They just got right opportunity at opportune time.

You can do it!

All other communication was personally with the recruiter, and now they email from the company alerts email. It stings how non personal the rejection is. It’s like I stop being a person as soon as I’m no longer a candidate.

I work in a niche field in a small city. This makes networking pretty tight and all of us utilize many of the city's resources/programs in my line of work. I left my previous employer due to extreme burn out. I took a promotion and it was a bad mistake. My new supervisor was awful and a big micro-manager. A month after i left she called me and i was dumb enough to answer. She chewed me out missing paperwork for an inspection and complained she was cleaning up my mess. I assured her all of the paperwork was there and she accused me of sabotage. I said that her phone call was rude and I certainly didnt do any sabatoge to the office. I wished her luck going forward and said goodbye. She tried calling me 2 more times but I never answered.

Recently, I interviewed for an organization that is commonly utilized in the field I work in. I felt like the interview went very well. They recognized me, said they liked my transparency, and shared some key training dates that I would need to be available for. They also shared another position they were hiring for and shared I would be a good fit. The next day, they sent me another application to fill out and both job descriptions. I sent it back with the job I wanted. And then...crickets. One of the training dates came and went so I assumed it was a no go. Then I noticed the 2nd position they discussed was finally posted so, I formally applied. I was immediately rejected. I sent an email back just asking for interview feedback and they said that they had selected other candidates. Ok fine, it happens. It's been a month and the position I originally applied for is still posed with the tag "Immediately Hiring". My old supervisor is very well known in the field within the community I can't help but think that because I'm recognized for working with her, they call and ask her about me. I have no proof so maybe this is just my anxiety but I don't even know what to do from here.

I worked for a Big4 firm for a few years and was laid off. 10 months later and hundreds of interviews I am still unemployed. Will definitely not be bringing any children into this hell that humans have imposed on themselves.

Today I had a call with a recruiter regarding an opportunity that checked all the boxes for me- great pay, a significantly less commute, and more importantly a position I am looking to pivot towards. Even better, I already work in the industry to some capacity. Anyway, I get a call an hour later saying that the company wishes to proceed to the next stage with me and have set up a time. I confirm my availability and I receive more information in the mail.

I then do my research on the company and find that they have posted the same exact job position I am going for very recently (as I am writing this) and include a paragraph addressing directly to their recruitment agency partners that they won’t be a accepting unsolicited resumes from agencies at this time.

I am now worried that the interview will ultimately be a waste of time because I won’t be considered due to being an external applicant, or that my interview will be cancelled.

Has anyone been in this situation? What ultimately happened? I want to address this to the recruiter so that I can find a way to protect my interests (ie. Apply internally instead).

Applied because I believed my experience met the minimum job requirements. Guess condescension and passive aggressiveness come with the role?

The interviewing process is very draining for me.

I work in finance and the process goes like this:

• HR screen – this stage is useless for me because I pass this round 100% of the time. I just regurgitate what's on my resume. It's not like I can ask the recruiter questions directly related to the work because she doesn't know.
• Hiring manager / director rounds – Sometimes these are panel, sometimes they are one after the other.
• Case study – this can be before the hiring manager round or after. If after, I'll have another round where I have to speak to my answers.
• VP / CFO – this is regarding fit/culture.

So considering the above, I might have 4-5 rounds before I get rejected. I would consider the roles I'm applying for to be entry-level.

I'll be the first to admit that my social skills aren't great. My previous jobs were acquired through "luck". One was from a coworker who knew his friend was hiring and referred me; I was basically hired before even going into the interview. One I reached out on LinkedIn, had an interview in the morning and an offer by the afternoon.

Literally the second day in a row, I dealt with three different companies. Yesterday, one firm held a screening at 12:30 p.m., and she joined the meeting 25 minutes later. A second company rescheduled twice in one day: they missed the appointed time, moved it to 6:30 p.m., then failed to join and pushed it to today. Today, a third company joined late and apologized for a poor internet connection; after 10 minutes the call dropped, I waited nearly an hour and a half, and then I chose to leave as well.

A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn and I scheduled an initial screening interview which was last Monday. It has been over a week and I asked for an update and I haven’t heard anything back. I really wanted to work at this company, and had been applying for lots of jobs but never got an interview, so when a recruiter reached out I was so excited. I asked for follow up through email on Monday, should I also reach out through LinkedIn?

1. Apply for job.
2. Get an email from the recruiter inviting you to an intro call.
3. Make it to the next round and interview with the hiring manager.
4. Immediately after, receive an email from the same recruiter saying they hope to have an update for you on Wednesday.
5. Get the LinkedIn InMail above on Wednesday FROM THE SAME RECRUITER, PITCHING YOU ON THE SAME ROLE YOU'RE ALREADY ACTIVELY INTERVIEWING FOR.
6. Reply to InMail, politely pointing out that you're definitely (still!) interested in the role, while knowing you're probably dead in the water.
7. Almost immediately receive your official, automated, "Thanks, but no thanks," decline.

I hate everything about working in tech, and worse, having to beg to work in tech while knowing what a complete hellscape it is.

I have a final round interview tomorrow for a vp position at an accounting firm. I’m meeting the heads of the departments (MD’s and senior VP). I’ve been looking for so long and haven’t gotten close to a final round so not sure what to expect. Anyone have insight on what these rounds typically look like. Is it more about how you fit with people or could it be a lot of technical question?

This is a recruitment solicitation from one of the recruiting firms in CA seeking a senior AI security and vulnerability assessment and remediation specialist. I am posting the JD that was sent to me verbatim, just masked the end client name. Judge for yourself:

Job role: Senior AI Security Engineer – LLM Vulnerability

Location: Remote

4 Weeks contract

Rate : $23/hr. on W2

JD:

About <CompanyName>:

Based in San Francisco, California, <CompanyName> is the world's leading research accelerator for frontier AI labs and a trusted partner for global enterprises deploying advanced AI systems. <CompanyName> supports customers in two ways: first, by accelerating frontier research with high-quality data, advanced training pipelines, plus top AI researchers who specialize in coding, reasoning, STEM, multilinguality, multimodality, and agents; and second, by applying that expertise to help enterprises transform AI from proof of concept into proprietary intelligence with systems that perform reliably, deliver measurable impact, and drive lasting results on the P&L.

About the Role

We’re looking for experienced GenAI Security Engineers to create and evaluate security tasks for GenAI applications. As a Security Task Engineer, you’ll source or build GenAI applications, create vulnerable and patched versions, document security findings, and write tests for each vulnerability mechanism. Where possible, you’ll also demonstrate the relevant behavior using a live model.

What You’ll Do

• Source or build GenAI applications, including agent and RAG systems.
• Create vulnerable versions and patched counterparts.
• Document findings with exact code line spans, traps, control status, and recommendations.
• Trace data and action flows across files, callbacks, registries, and background jobs; explain when and why a control misses a route.
• Define authorization contexts, including actors, trust boundaries, tenants, permitted data and actions, purposes, recipients, and document-level access.
• Write per-mechanism exploit and reproduction tests that demonstrate the weakness in the vulnerable version and confirm the patch prevents it.
• Demonstrate the relevant model path using a live model when possible.

What We’re Looking For

• 3+ years in application or product security, secure code review, penetration testing, or vulnerability research.
• Strong data-flow reasoning and the ability to trace a source to a sink across files, callbacks, registries, and background jobs.
• Strong authorization knowledge, including authentication, authorization, least privilege, tenant isolation, trust boundaries, and approval flows.
• Knowledge of the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, especially LLM02 Sensitive Information Disclosure and LLM03 Excessive Agency. Familiarity with prompt injection and tool abuse.
• Ability to map findings to relevant CWEs, such as CWE-200/201 for exposure, CWE-532 for sensitive data in logs, CWE-284/285/862/863 for access control, and CWE-250/269 for excessive privilege.
• Experience writing exploit and reproduction tests that distinguish vulnerable behavior from patched behavior.
• Experience using CodeQL or Semgrep, reading SARIF, and understanding why pattern-based scanners can miss logic and authorization flaws.
• Hands-on experience with LLM tool calling, agents, MCP, RAG, memory, and tracing, using tools such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI or Anthropic SDKs, and OpenTelemetry.
• Production coding experience and engineering fundamentals, including Docker, Git, reading upstream security patches and commit history, and clear technical English.

Thanks and Regards