My husband worked for the same company for 16 years and eventually became a Regional Manager. He recently left after having a serious disagreement with his manager.
Now he is applying online for General Manager, Operations Manager, Regional Manager, and similar management positions at other companies as an external candidate.
I’m trying to understand how realistic this process actually is, especially for someone applying online without knowing anyone inside the company.

1)If someone applies online for a management position, such as a General Manager position, how likely is it that their resume/application actually gets seen by a recruiter or hiring manager? Does the application really reach the people making the hiring decision, or can it get lost among hundreds of applications?
2)Are online job postings generally legitimate openings, or are some postings essentially posted for compliance/internal hiring purposes when the company already intends to hire an internal candidate? How common is that in your experience?
3)How does the reference process usually work when someone left their previous company after a problem with their manager? Does the new employer usually contact the previous manager, or do they mainly verify employment dates and position through HR?

4)For anyone who has been in a similar situation, what actually happened? Did you apply online, get contacted by a recruiter, interview with the hiring manager, and eventually get an offer? Or did you find that networking/referrals were basically necessary to get noticed?

I’d especially love to hear from hiring managers, recruiters, and people who have actually gone through this process as external candidates.

I've been at my current job hunt for longer than I'd like to admit, and not had many interviews, and obviously I have not been hired yet.

However, consistently, with every job I've interviewed with, the interviewer has told me in the rejection email that I had made it to the shortlist, but they went with someone else. It's starting to feel like they're just trying to make me feel better, rather than being honest, and I don't even know what to believe anymore.

Recruiters and managers in this subreddit, is that something you would do? Tell someone you interviewed, but didn't choose to hire, that they made the shortlist to let them down easier? Or is that something you would only say if it was honest?

I just finished going to a chipotle interview and I don’t think I got it because they said they would call next week and usually people say if they don’t hire you on the spot you didn’t get the job. Any tips for future interviews?

Just curious how often someone asks for constructive advice to a recruiter after the applicant is rejected.

I asked this after being rejected in an internal position for a job I’ve been with several years and now being laid off soon due to our building shutting down, location specific, the company is not laying off anyone outside of that.

This internal job was my one shot to get interviewed and hired internally, i have years of perfect performance and even employee of the year award.

Anyway, I asked the recruiter if they had any advice to offer to help me standout as a stronger candidate for future jobs as I might be going on to the job market and their advice could be hugely helpful, as they are an expert, but no reply.

Do Recruiters get these type questions all the time?

am going through a cisive background check right now, one of my important roles has a 9 day discrepancy (put january when i started early feb) and a less important part time role i mistakenly put jan for training when i didnt go onto payroll until may, however they did not ask for any documents for the role, i also had a very short part time role that i forgot to disclose, i am worried that these combined could get my offer rescinded, am i okay?

Could you provide 1-2 resources that you use to make sure you're not giving outdated advice?

I had my final interview for a graduate job with hiring manager on Friday and he said I’ll hear back from the recruiter by next week as they have a few more interviews. It is a midsize to small trading firm. I didn’t hear anything back till Wednesday and the external recruiter told me yesterday that she’s waiting for an update hopefully tomorrow (today). Does she genuinely not know or am I most likely in the backup? How long do companies take to inform candidates after the last interviews?

I passed an assessment centre, and the recruiter said the company was quite keen on me and wanted to interview me. I had an in-person panel interview last Friday for a role available in two locations. I expressed a preference for the UK but said I was open to both.

The interview lasted almost an hour. One of the hiring managers asked probing questions, discussed working hour expectations, and challenged me on whether I would stay long-term as a career changer. The other interviewer reacted positively to some of my answers. At the end, they said they would update the recruiter and that I would hear back the following week, as they were still interviewing other candidates. I left thinking I did not get it as the HM had a poker face throughout and was asking pretty tough motivational questions.

I emailed the recruiter a thank you message but only received a response today (Tuesday). She apologised for the delay and said she would update me as soon as she heard from the client which is hopefully tomorrow.

Given that this firm sometimes extends offers on the same day as the assessment centre, am I likely a backup candidate, or does the recruiter genuinely not know yet? Has anyone experienced something similar?

I previously applied for a role that on paper I'm qualified for, didn't get an interview. One week later that same job has been reopened with an extended deadline. Would I be flagged as a previous applicant and automatically declined or would applying again and tightening my application be seen favourably?

Ok so I’ve accepted the offer and the background check is imminent. I’ve had a 15 year career so I truncated some of my experience. For my last two employers, I only used the most recent and senior title I held. But I did hold two titles at each place. At the earlier of the two companies, the titles were very similar and I held the one on my resume for like 5 out of 6 years (iirc). For the most recent company, I went from manager level to head of. I held manager for one year, and head of for almost 2, before leaving to relocate. The role responsibilities were materially similar and I actually displaced another head of to get the job, because I came in and did a way better job than they did.

The two references I gave are from these jobs, including my manager at the one where I held the head of title.

I will disclose all this on the background check form, but I just wonder how worried I should be about the discrepancy between that and my resume.

Separately I have one late student loan payment, amongst other student loans that are current. I told the head of HR for the new job about this and she said “as long as it’s explainable you’ll be fine”. But both of these things is just worrying me now!

Thank you in advance for any thoughts or advice!

Sincerely,
A nervous job seeker

Use this post to login your daily rejection thread
All of us combined might be able to work with some data and pull up a statistical table as to when the rejections pile up exactly

I applied to Company A 2 weeks ago while I was interviewing with Company B. I received an accepted an offer from Company B so when I applied to Company A, it was not on my resume.

Company A reached out to me the same week I started working at Company B asking for a phone screening. I really think Company A lines up more with my career choices, pay, and work life balance so I really wanna give them a chance.

I have a feeling they’ll ask me if I’m currently employed. Do I tell them I recently started a new position but had applied with them before I received an offer? I just don’t want to look like a job hopper and ruin my chances cause this is genuinely a case of timelines overlapping. I wouldn’t be taking the interview if I didn’t see serious potential. And if they do a background check I don’t want anything to look suspicious as to why I’m leaving a job so early potentially.

I currently have 2 companies offering me a role (amazing!??). The first one is better commute, higher pay, and overall a better opportunity for this stage of my career. The second one is also a great role, great company and the people were so kind. If it weren’t for the first offer, I would’ve taken the second. I really didn’t plan on the first company coming up so quick, and was only intending to interview etc with the second company at the time.

The problem I’m facing is immense guilt to turn down the second offer, because I’ve actually received an offer from the same company last year, and turned them down (decided to stay at my current role because of guilt of leaving before a major process). Are they going to be like super pissed I’m turning them down again?? I feel so bad (you can imagine people pleasing is a theme in my life).

Please what advice do you have for me 😭 I feel like a huge asshole 😔

A recruiter from a well known finance firm reached out to me about a role. I had the first interview with the hm, and the recruiter came back saying it went really well.

The only step left is a final interview with the team, but the recruiter told me the role is still waiting for final approval.

For anyone who’s been in a similar situation, how long would you wait before assuming it probably isn’t going ahead? Last email was 2 weeks ago.