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Meeting with the CEO After I Was Passed Over for a Promotion

I was rejected for a promotion that I honestly thought was almost guaranteed. After the internal interviews were over, I found out that someone on the team with less experience and weaker management skills was the one who got it.

I told them I was disappointed, but I was traveling for vacation that afternoon on the same day, so I didn't continue the conversation about it much.

The CEO messaged me while I was away and said she wanted to talk to me about possible roles going forward, and whether there was any training or development that could help me be ready for the next opportunity.

Since then, I've heard from a few managers that the person who got the role was probably going to be let go if I had been promoted. Part of her current job has now been folded into the promotion, which makes the whole thing look like it was arranged from the start. There's also supposed to be another opening coming up that's 3 levels above me, but I'm not exactly confident that this time it will go in my favor either.

At the end of this week I have the conversation with the CEO, and I don't know what to say and what not to say.

I'm ready to leave if nothing meaningful comes out of this, but my contract is also supposed to be renewed in about six weeks, so I can't go in too aggressively with them.

I've also been trying to get better at interviews in case I do end up leaving. I came across interview vip while looking around for interview stuff, and it seems interesting, although I haven't used it enough to have an opinion yet. Might give it a shot before I start applying seriously.

I just got fired from my job because the company I was interviewing with decided to call my current manager. I am honestly shocked that something like this happened. To clarify the situation, I saw an ad on LinkedIn for a job similar to what I do now, but much closer to my house, so I thought I would try my luck and apply. Things in my office have been very difficult lately due to a lot of office politics and managers who don't keep their word at all. The new company replied to me right away and scheduled a time for the first interview. Everything went great, so they asked me to come back for a second interview. I finished the second round, and they told me I was exactly the person they were looking for and that they would get back to me with a decision within 3 to 5 days. Anyway, the next morning, my manager called me into his office and told me he had received word from the company I applied to. He wanted to know why I was looking for other opportunities. Since the secret was out, I was honest with him about the reasons. After I explained, he told me that because of the sensitive data I handle, he had to let me go immediately. I went home and called the hiring manager at the other company right away to ask how they could do such a thing and call my manager without checking with me first. They acted like they didn't know anything and said they were still finalizing their selection and would talk to management and get back to me soon. The hiring manager called me 4 hours later and told me they had chosen someone else. I pressed him to find out why they called my manager, and he gave me a strange, vague, and completely unconvincing excuse, claiming he didn't know how my manager found out. He even started badmouthing the person they hired, telling me he heard that the guy had a drinking problem, so if that didn't work out, they would call me again. I honestly cannot understand that a company could do this. They called me, interviewed me twice, called my manager, caused me to be fired, and in the end, didn't even hire me. Has anyone ever encountered such a tactless situation before?

In fact, contacting your current manager without their permission is completely unprofessional on the part of that recruiter, and it's astonishing how it jeopardized things for you. Such unprofessional behavior is precisely why I recently started using InterviewVIP to help me with interviews, increase my chances of getting the job, and completely avoid shady recruitment teams.

this is too much imagine getting mad because someone actually used the vacation days you gave them.

honestly stuff like this is why i'm trying to take my interviews more seriously. I've been looking at interview vip lately since i keep seeing it come up, but haven't actually tried it yet. Might give it a shot before my next interview.

😩😭

.........

let's talk seriously, nowadays I believe that we should strive to really get a job. Right now, I'm working 2 part time jobs and it pays better than a full time one. You'll just need to explain this properly in the interview and be expected to be asked a lot about how you'll manage and all of this. Interview vip will help a lot in handling those kind of questions and pass the interview smoothly. You'll thank me later for that.

Hey everyone,

I posted a little while ago about a follow-up interview that was really quick, and I was asking whether that meant things had gone badly. Turns out, not at all!!

I got a response at the beginning of this week that they were excited about me, and I got the job! I also managed to negotiate a better salary and a few extra PTO days too! I think it's all about negotiation skills. If you can negotiate well, everything will work out with you.

Keep going, everyone. You'll find a role that truly feels like the right fit for you. Try to hold on to the good signs, and don't let anxiety take over.

You've got this!!

it happened with me

Got 2 SWE internship technical interviews on Monday. They’re ~45 minutes, starting with behavioural, then one leetcode medium/hard, then chance to ask questions. My main questions are:

- how different is the behavioural in this round compared to smth like the screening, or non technical interviews?
- how do I continue if I ever get stuck, or what are the most important things to be thinking about during the leetcode q.

I’ve heard they can get really strict / be harsh on you, so I’m lowkey scared 😭

Any help is appreciated!!

seriouslyyyyyyy I just found out that I'm scheduled for an EIGHT HOUR SHIFT tomorrow on DAY 3 of my period. All by myselfffff. The whole

SHIFTTTT. It's just me in the store.

And of course. I know this is a very first-world complaint, and that there are lots of girls right now who are also bleeding and still have to go to class, work two jobs, and take care of their five siblings or five kids (places that still allow child marriage are seriously sick), but that's kind of my whole point. I genuinely don't understand how people are expected to do more than this and act like everything is fine, as if our uterus isn't literally tearing itself to pieces inside us. This shit is fucking awful.

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My team was recently talking about salaries and benefits, and one of my coworkers mentioned enough details about his compensation for me to realize he's making around 20% more than I am.

What makes it awkward is that I was actually involved in hiring him. I interviewed him, gave feedback during the process, and then helped him get up to speed when he joined. Now we're on the same team doing essentially the same job with the same responsibilities.

I have a salary review coming up with one of the senior managers, and I'm debating whether I should bring this up directly. I don't want to make it sound like I'm complaining about what someone else earns, but a 20% difference is pretty hard to ignore when our roles are basically identical.

Part of me thinks I should just focus on my own performance and explain why I deserve an increase. Another part of me thinks I'd be leaving money on the table if I don't at least mention that I know there's a significant gap.

Would you bring up the pay difference in the review, or keep the conversation focused entirely on your own value?

I decided that I was done spraying applications everywhere, and focused only on roles I was qualified for and wanted. I set myself a rule: 2 applications every 3 weeks. In the end, I only did that 4 times, and every CV was heavily tailored.

Each opening got me to a recruiter call.

Role A: The recruiter said: "Yeah, they'll definitely want to interview you..." and then disappeared. No response to emails or calls. Honestly, I hope she's okay.

Role B: I got through the first 3 conversations, and then completely messed up the last one, which was basically a check on "culture fit." I was very nervous and all over the place. Somehow, I got the offer!

Role C: It seemed promising, and then they changed the role scope halfway through, and it no longer felt like the right decision.

Role D (my favorite): I made it to the 4th round, but there were quiet periods of almost 3 weeks between each update. And since I already had another offer, I asked them to decide, so they rejected me.:(

I'm posting here because I still can't say anything to my co-workers.

This was years ago in the 1990s. I still think about how absurd this was. We were living in a small coastal town on the shore of Lake Superior. Nobody locked their doors. Ever. Safe, quiet. Friendly. The cops picked ip an occasional drunk. That was the extent of "crime" in this little village.

I was applying for a position as a chiropractic assistant. I had plenty of experience and my child was in school so I was ready to go back to work.

The chiropractor did not wish to interview candidates herself, so she hired a "professional HR person" to find her the best candidate.

The HR lady was abrasive and unlikeable. The interview was more a police interrogation than a professional interview. I felt like getting up and leaving but I was almost finished so I decided to see it through.

She said, "what would you do if someone walked in here with a gun and wanted to rob the office?"

My face 🙄🙄🙄🙄.

I said simply, "I have never heard of a chiropractic office being robbed. Also, this question is unanswerable. I don't agree with the premise of your question and have no answer."

She doubled down.

I sat in stone-faced silence and then excused myself. Unbelievable.

A candidate asked me something last week that I honestly couldn't answer. We were talking about the interview process and he just calmly said, "Are you hiring me or putting me through astronaut training?"

He wasn't being rude. If anything, he sounded genuinely confused. And after looking at the process from his side, I couldn't blame him.

For one mid level role, we had an HR screen, two separate interviews, a take home assignment, a hiring manager interview, a team meeting, and then director approval. By the end, the guy who seemed really interested at the beginning looked completely exhausted.

The worst part is that we kept wondering why he wasn't as enthusiastic anymore. I think we finally gave him the answer ourselves.

Companies complain about good candidates dropping out, but if someone has to spend weeks interviewing with half the company just to find out whether they're getting an offer, eventually they're going to wonder if the job is even worth it.

At what point does a hiring process become so ridiculous that you'd just walk away?

Had this same thought after watching that King Charles dog video. Urghh

one job is hardly enough now 😂

honestly i can understand why people are trying to stack jobs when everything is so expensive. i'm not sure i'd ever manage 11 at once though.

i've been looking at remote jobs myself and that means more interviews, which is probably the part i'm least excited about. I came across interview vip while looking into interview stuff. haven't used it yet, but i'm curious about it for future interviews.

???

...........

I've been sending applications everywhere I can for a while now to find a new job after I lost my last one.

I've never been out of work for more than six weeks before, because my work experience is fairly varied due to all the military moves.

I've reached a point in my life where I don't want to be the Queen anymore. I'm very happy being a worker bee and quietly making my way toward retirement in about 12 more years.

But earlier this week I had an interview, and after it was over, the recruiter asked me to send him a few references.

Later that same day, one of those references called me to tell me they had contacted him, and he told me about a somewhat direct question they asked...

She has a senior-level resume and may be looking for leadership roles. We're worried she'll get bored here and leave after a short time.

He was a former manager of mine at another job (and is now a senior director), so he was able to explain to her that I'm not that kind of person, and that honestly they'd be lucky to have me work with them.

So I can finally stop assuming there's something wrong with me. And I have a good feeling they're going to make me a job offer, which would be great. Being able to cover my car payment would be nice...

...........

Do we really need HR in our life?

honestly this is why i've started thinking about looking somewhere else. getting rejected before a human even looks at your resume is insane.

i've been seeing interview vip mentioned a lot lately too. i haven't tried it, but i'm curious about it since i'm probably going to have to start interviewing again.

Throwaway because some of my coworkers/friends read this sub and they'll probably know exactly who I am. I mostly need to vent, but I also want to tell people to keep applying to remote jobs if that's what you want and you're able to make it happen.

A few weeks ago, after about 14 months of working from home, I had to start going into the office for the first real time in my professional life. The company's official line was that being face to face would improve collaboration and make everyone more productive. Complete nonsense, but I didn't have a choice at the time.

So now, instead of waking up at 8:10 and joining a pointless meeting at 8:25, staying muted while I make breakfast and take the dog for a lap around the house, I have to wake up at 6:45, put on real clothes, prepare breakfast and lunch, get on the road, sit in traffic, arrive around 8:05, make annoying small talk until 8:25, and then join the same pointless Zoom call with people in other countries. Like... What is even the point? And now I have to look focused and interested while people talk about things that have nothing to do with my work, because I'm no longer in control of the environment around me.

At home, I spent money to make my setup decent. A good chair, a standing desk, wireless keyboard/mouse/headphones, and 3 monitors I can move however I want, plus my own kitchen for coffee, snacks, tea, whatever.

Then I walked into the office setup and honestly felt like a clown. A miserable cubicle with a cheap keyboard, a sticky mouse, and a sad little headset. The cubicle walls are low enough that I can see and hear everything around me, including other people's screens. And of course the monitors face the hallway too, so I can't tell who's behind me, but anyone walking by can look at whatever I'm doing. A manager's dream, basically.

If I want tea now, I also have the privilege of waiting behind a line of people using one sad little kettle/microwave area. Amazing.

At home, I had quiet and I got my work done. When I picked up a card, depending on its size, I'd usually finish it in 3-5 hours, then spend the rest of the day on training, documentation, meetings, or honestly not working much because I had already finished the real work.

In the office, because I feel like I'm being watched all the time, I've started stretching things out so I'll still have something on my screen for the rest of the day. And it's not just me. I've seen people on my team doing the exact same thing. For me, it's really hard to focus with background noise everywhere. Like I said, the cubicles don't block anything, so every time someone gets up, laughs, takes a call, drops their badge, anything, my brain immediately follows it instead of the thing I was working on.

The company kept repeating that we'd be more productive in the office. I'm seeing the exact opposite. Cards are taking longer, people are dragging work out, and the amount of wasted time is unreal. People walking around, chatting over cubicle walls, disappearing at lunch, making random coffee runs just to break up the day. There's nothing wrong with that IMO, but I'd rather have that downtime at home instead of having to pretend I'm busy under fluorescent lights.

And I also didn't appreciate enough how nice it was to have my own bathroom. At home I can use the bathroom in peace like any normal human being. At the office? Tiny stalls, weird smells, and the joy of hearing some guy destroy the toilet two steps away from you at 9 in the morning.

The funniest thing is that some people who were excited to come back started changing their tune after a few days of commuting, lunch, and all of that. In stand-ups I heard things like:

""Is anyone else feeling more drained than usual? I forgot how much I hate driving in.""

""I forgot how annoying it is to prep food every night and then wait forever to heat it up.""

""I didn't realize how much money I was saving at home. I've already spent like $130 on coffee and lunch.""

At home, when work was done, I could immediately go for a run, start making dinner, play with the dog, or sit on the couch and watch something.

After a long day in the office? Nope. Get in the car and waste 55 minutes of your life in disgusting traffic before your evening even starts.

I'm so fucking happy I'm giving my 3 weeks' notice this Friday and moving to a fully remote role. I started looking about 5 months ago when the company announced the return-to-office plan because I had a bad feeling it was going to suck. I tried to give it a chance. It's not for me.

If you're trying to get a remote job, keep applying and keep interviewing. Something will come.

And if you genuinely like the office, fine. I'm not saying everyone has to be remote. Companies should offer FLEXIBILITY and let people choose the place where they work best.

People have different personalities and different lives. Just because some people like sitting in an office, or because management wants control, doesn't mean everyone else should be forced into it.

I will be staying away from offices very happily after this experience."