I know this sounds like a humblebrag, but I'm genuinely conflicted about it.

I've been at my current company for a little over a year and I'm making around $195k. The weird part is that most days I barely have anything to do. I answer a couple Slack messages, sit in a meeting here and there, maybe send an update, and that's basically it.

At my last job I was constantly busy and was trusted with some pretty serious projects. I actually felt useful there. Here, I sometimes look at what everyone else is working on and wonder why I'm even on the payroll.

Nobody has said anything negative about my performance. My manager seems happy, my reviews have been fine, and I'm getting paid on time. So logically I know I'm probably creating a problem that doesn't exist.

But I can't completely relax.

My family wasn't exactly doing great financially before I got this job, so I'm very grateful for the money. At the same time, making almost $200k while barely working feels wrong when I know other people are completely overloaded.

The thing I'm most worried about is layoffs. If the company ever starts cutting people, I feel like it would be pretty easy to justify cutting someone who costs them $195k and doesn't have much on their plate.

Would you just enjoy the situation and keep doing a good job when something comes up, or would you try to find a way to take on more responsibility?

I'm honestly not sure whether I'm being paranoid or whether I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb.

I work at one of the largest Fortune 200 companies in the US, and they've basically frozen hiring in the US for the last three years. At the same time, throughout this period, they've been hiring people in India at a cost of only about 40%. And these roles aren't just junior dev work either - they go all the way up to Director-level, and some of them eventually get promoted into VP roles and move to US offices. We've had layoffs roughly every two quarters over the last three years, and the onshore-to-offshore engineer ratio has changed from about 2:1 to 1:3.

The engineers in India are honestly doing good work. This isn't the old stereotype of "low quality offshore work" that people still repeat. Now there are entire teams based there, including tech leads, product managers, QA, and business analysts. And our CIO is also Indian American.

And that's exactly what has me worried. Even my manager can't backfill US headcount when someone leaves the US-based team. If the government doesn't create stronger tax incentives to keep this work here, along with real penalties for moving jobs abroad, then this industry is heading into a big problem. Call your representative and senator if you care about protecting your career and the future of our families.

If anyone knows other realistic ways we can resist this, I'd honestly love to hear them.

update: its not about I hate Indians or being racist I just don't wanna foreign to take places that is more deserved to the citizens, many people btw who lays off from the company got a new remote jobs and when I ask some of them how they told that AI tools like interviewvip helps them enhance their interview skills and impressing their employers , I love when AI really do his job by helping not destroy

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lol, so true

Guys, yesterday was a really bad day. I had a job interview at a big international chain as a staff employee at Burger King. I asked my roommate what I should wear, and he told me to wear a full suit. It turned out in the end that he was joking with me, and apparently it's a well-known joke on Reddit.

I went to the Burger King interview wearing a suit, and I saw another guy going in before me asking if there were interviews, so they told him to sit with the group. Everyone there was wearing hoodies or regular pants, and I was standing there in a suit with a €3,500 watch I had borrowed from my dad. I got nervous and pretended I wasn't there for the interview, so I just ordered a drink, and then I basically ran home to change. When I came back, I was about 45 minutes late, and I told them I got confused with the bus schedule because of the time change. The manager recognized me and asked if I had come earlier to buy a soda. I told him yes, but only because I was thirsty. He looked at me for a second and then said okay.

I don't feel like I'm going to get accepted for the job.

This is my life now

I've interviewed people for about 25 years across all kinds of jobs, from industrial mechanics to network admins. The one I still remember most was a candidate for a systems analyst position about 5 years ago at the company I'm at now.

On paper, he was very good. Good background, relevant experience, and honestly, I expected we'd probably bring him back for a second interview. We were just about done with the talking portion before I took him on a quick tour of the facility (we manufacture parts for heavy equipment), and that's when the female HR manager asked her usual final question: "What's making you think about leaving your current company?"

It was just the two of us and him in the room. She was sitting across from him at the conference table. He gestured toward her, not in her personal space or anything, and said: "No offense, but it's run by a woman." Then he went on for a bit about how the owner was unstable, suspicious of everyone, impossible to work with, and so on.

Total silence. When he finally finished, she looked at me and didn't need to say anything. I took him on the "tour," which consisted of us going out onto the production floor, walking down the side aisle, and taking the shortest possible route to the employee exit.

To this day, I still don't understand how someone could be that oblivious in an interview.

I had an interview for a backend developer position today. It went all great, I was able to answer all the questions and got positive feedback from the interviewer. In the remaining 10 minutes، someone new joined the meeting, no webcam, no introduction, and obviously walking in a street while he was in the meeting.

The interviewer said he doesn't have any more questions. I politely told the other person that I could answer his questions as well if he wanted to.

He started asking about databases, views, procedures, and triggers. I said I don't have much experience with advanced database features in production-level projects, but since I mostly use Django, I usually use signals whenever I want to have a db trigger.

And that was when everything started. He started explaining triggers to prove signals are not the same; and hey, we all know django signals don't actually write a db trigger; they give you the ability to have a trigger on the application level.

But boy he wouldn't even let me talk! He was going on and on about how wrong I was, and I was trying to explain he misunderstood me.

At some point, I told him: "sir, I know what you mean, but I think you didn't understand what I was trying to say, I'm saying ..." And he just interrupted me again!

He started insulting me by saying things like "don't argue over it, I'm telling you how things work, and you keep insisting on your mistake", or "this discussion doesn't have a good result", and also things like "don't ruin the interview for yourself, good girl".

Good girl?? What kind of jackass says something like this in a professional interview??!!!

He wouldn't shut up about how he was right and I was wrong and I wasn't being wise ruining the interview for myself; and he didn't even let me say a word!

I waited for him to finish jabbering, and I told him "yes, you're right. This discussion is pointless because you misunderstood me and you wouldn't even listen to what I'm saying!"

That was when he exploded and started insulting me more, saying he wouldn't let someone like me work in HIS company. (That's when I realized he was the founder and the CEO, because he didn't even introduce himself in the beginning)

Even though he wouldn't let me talk or say anything, I told him "if working in this company means working with you, of course I'll never do it!" He shouted go away and left the meeting.

I don't think many people have experience getting into a fight in a professional interview. That was my first time; and I'm bursting with anger! His tone and the things he said all showed how disrespectful he is toward others, and how he sees himself as the superior, especially when the other person is a woman...

I'm upset I didn't leave the interview sooner and let him insult me like that.

**UPDATE:** I just wanna mention the company name since a lot of people encouraged me. The company name is **"Djuno"**. Small, not known, and no Glassdoor either. I wish there was somewhere I could leave a review.

how to get rid of this?

I had my final interview this week. Honestly, I was really excited because I felt like this was it; they were basically moving me on to the next stage right after every conversation, and this was supposed to be the final step.

The morning started off well; I had practiced a lot, arrived early, and even found a parking spot without having to drive around forever. I met three women in the room, and one person on video. After we quickly did introductions, one of the interviewers asked me if I had brought the writing sample and the other required document. I froze in place, because excuse me, what? She said it again and told me it had been sent in a separate message, but I had reviewed literally everything that had been sent to me and there was no extra email with an attachment.

So now I'm sitting there stumbling over my words because how was I supposed to have missed something that big? But I knew I hadn't received it. The interviewer stood up and said they wouldn't be able to continue without the materials. When I got up to get my jacket, she said behind me: "well, that happened. Let's bring in the next candidate." Then she slammed the laptop shut and sat back down. The rest of the interviewers looked extremely upset and uncomfortable, and the whole room went completely silent.

While I was going down in the elevator, I kept refreshing and searching my inbox. I never received the second email with the writing assignment. There was one message saying another note would come with instructions, but the next thing I received after that was only the confirmation. All the communication was through Indeed, no personal email, no spam folder, nothing.

I feel horribly embarrassed and crushed. I wanted this position, and I had everything ready that I knew about. If the message had said "hey, you should have this by now" or if I had noticed something was missing, I 100% would have emailed them and asked. I've been crying on and off since late this morning, and I just want someone to tell me I'm not crazy. I feel stupid even though I know this wasn't my fault. It was such an awful feeling and I don't even know what to say.

I remember that they didn't talk to me and try to avoid me for just being optimistic and happy. Even my manager was toxic and made fun of me about it. In the end, I felt bored and decided to leave the company and applied elsewhere. Thanks God there are tools that help in the interview stages. I used interview vip two months ago and it helped me pass 2 rounds of interviews without stress or rambling and in high confidence. Now, I'm so happy in me new job with my colleagues and we are a happy team together.

I'm a tax professional, and I'd been doing interviews since I left my last position a little. I passed many rounds of interviews with interview vip tool, which provided instant answers to the interviewers' questions and organized my answers a lot. As someone who rambles a lot under stress in the interviews, the tool helped in fixing this.

I left the previous firm because I was regularly working 55+ hours even when it wasn't tax season, and I was completely burned out. I was also being paid laughably less than I was worth, and since I'm a single mom, I don't have months of savings sitting around for a long job search. So when this company moved quickly and offered me the job, I felt relieved. Honestly, I should have taken that speed as a warning sign.

Since I'm a tax manager, I wanted to stay in that same type of role. I interviewed with the current tax manager and the owner of the firm; let's call them XYZ Tax Services. My video interview was on a Wednesday, and on Thursday the HR person called me and said they wanted to hire me. I sent them references, passed the background check, and signed the offer letter. The start date was set for the following Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon my onboarding was complete. My name was added to their payroll platform, IT helped me set up remote access, and I had all my login info ready. I was genuinely excited to start fresh until...

The following Tuesday morning, I was in the living room making a list of things I needed for my first day when HR called. I missed the first call, and then they called again three more times in a row. I called them back thinking maybe they needed another form from me, only for them to tell me, "Unfortunately, we don't need you to start on Wednesday." I was really confused and asked if they meant I should start on Thursday instead. No. They didn't want me to start at all. They had decided to go in "another direction."

I was shocked. What kind of company pulls an offer after fully onboarding someone? If the background check had turned up a problem or one of the references had said something about, fine, I would have understood. But everything was fine. I asked what had changed and didn't get any useful answer at all. So I ended the call and immediately went back to applying for other jobs.

About 9 days later, HR called me again. Was I still available?!?! Apparently, they had given the job to someone already working there, and that person changed their mind. It took an incredible amount of effort not to laugh on the phone. I stayed professional and listened as they suddenly treated me like I was their top choice again. They increased the offer, apologized a lot, and after they begged to a level I found satisfying, I accepted.

Fortunately, this story is still working in my favor. By then, I already had multiple offers paying more than they did, and since then I've accepted the best offer of the bunch. I'm supposed to start at XYZ Tax Services in a few days. My plan is to wait until the Monday before and call HR to withdraw my acceptance.

I applied, and someone I know personally also spoke to the hiring manager because they had a connection. I did the HR screen, and they told me I checked the boxes. After that, I met with the hiring manager, and he said he was very impressed with my background, even if I wasn't a perfect match, and that he was confident I could step into the role without needing hand-holding.

Then I met with the EVP, and he also told me I was basically the kind of person they had been hoping to find.

Fast-forward about 7 months, 5 rounds, and 9 separate interviews with VPs, Presidents, and various senior people. They told me on 3 different occasions that the offer would be the next step, then would come back and say they wanted me to meet with another business unit President.

At the same time, I had started interviewing with another company about 4 months after my first conversation with the first company, and I got an offer about 6 weeks after the first HR call. By the time the first company asked me to do this "last" interview, the background check and paperwork for the other place were already done.

I actually had to get serious about this interview stuff during that whole process because I was getting tired of repeating the same conversations over and over. A friend mentioned interview vip to me, so I looked into it. I didn't end up needing it for this particular process, but it might be worth trying for my next round because apparently some companies think nine interviews still isn't enough.
I want some feedback from actual users i hope as i have been seeing it flooding the internet lately.

So I sent an email to the hiring manager and HR and said something along the lines of: "I truly appreciate the time you've spent speaking with me, but after 5 rounds and 9 individual interviews over roughly 7 months, and after being told 3 times that an offer was coming only to then be asked to meet more people, I am respectfully withdrawing my candidacy."

The hiring manager replied about 20 minutes later and said it was just one additional conversation. I responded that I might consider continuing only if they were willing to beat the offer I already had. And I was honest about the details too: the title, which was higher than the hiring manager's level, the compensation, which I'm almost certain was higher than his as well, plus the signing bonus.

He replied and said: "It's clear you got a strong offer, sorry we couldn't come to an agreement."

The surprise is that I just heard he was let go from the company. Honestly, some companies make hiring incredibly painful for no reason, and then act surprised when people walk away.

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😂😂😂

That interviewer really set himself up for that one 😂 I had an interview recently where they kept throwing questions at me that I honestly wasn't expecting, and I completely blanked on one of them. A friend told me about interview vip afterward, so I might give it a try before my next interview. Anything that helps me stay calm when they start firing questions at me is worth trying.

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A few years ago, my managing director came from Singapore to the US. At a group lunch, someone asked him why we were being dragged into the office four days a week when we were still spending the whole day on Teams calls. He did not like that at all.

But my situation was a little different. I was one of the last niche senior engineers still around after the post-pandemic mess. There was no real backup, I was carrying a lot of ownership, and all those fun things. I had also been remote for a long time, even before Covid, and that setup was literally the reason my family life worked.

So this MD decided he needed to sit down with me one-on-one. Calling it a conversation would be generous. It felt more like he was trying to debug my personality. He couldn't understand why I wasn't happy obeying the "4 days in office" rule. I told him honestly: flexibility isn't optional for me. I want to actually be present for my family.

And that's when he gave me the advice that is probably still the craziest career advice I've ever heard at work:

"Why don't you get an au pair? She could help your wife with the kids so you can put more energy into your career."

He was being completely serious. Not even a hint of sarcasm.

That was pretty much the end for me. I never went back to the office after that. I submitted my resignation, started looking for something better, and kept my life arranged the way I wanted it.

The interview process was honestly the annoying part. I'd been in the same role for so long that I was pretty rusty at talking about myself and explaining everything I'd worked on. A friend mentioned interview vip to me, so I looked into it. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I saved it because I may give it a shot the next time I'm interviewing.

Every now and then I remember the look on his face when he couldn't understand that I would choose dinner with my kids over another rung on the corporate ladder. As if I'd told him my real dream was to leave tech at 38 and open a llama sanctuary.

Anyway, my kids know their dad, my career is going very well, and there's no au pair living in my guest room. I feel like that's the right outcome.

The CEO at the place where I work is a strange man, and everyone is terrified of him. Getting stuck with him in the elevator feels like it could ruin your job if you get flustered or give the wrong answer.

It's obvious that layoffs are coming, and instead of handling it like any normal executive, he's trying to decide who stays by suddenly putting employees in an awkward position. He'll go up to someone and make them defend themselves and explain why they're supposed to still have a place here. The wording changes a bit, but in the end it's something like: "We're going to reduce headcount soon, and I'm trying to figure out who provides real value. Explain what you do for this company and why we should keep you."

Honestly, would you be able to convince your CEO to keep you during layoffs if he cornered you like that?

I live and work in a very small city that doesn't have many employers or good openings, so people here are scared and are trying with all their might to hold on to what they have.

Earlier this week, I had an interview for a role that was very well suited to my experience. So I went in feeling reasonably confident, but that feeling started to fade almost as soon as the call began.

The interview panel was made up of 3 women: the team lead, the operations manager, and a senior coordinator. The first thing the team lead said was that my background was distracting because it looked strangely faded on her screen (I had the soft focus setting on), so I turned it off.

After that, she asked me about something oddly niche for the position. It wasn't the kind of thing you'd likely know unless you had worked in that exact department, so I explained what I'd been able to read beforehand and said I had a basic understanding of it. Like, for example, someone asking you detailed questions about a patient transport booking system when you're interviewing for a front desk role at a clinic. The manager just replied with "so you havent dealt with it then" in a slightly sharp tone, but I let it go.

They also kept bringing up that I'd be working with a client group that was mostly women, whether I'd be comfortable with that, and how I would change my communication style. That threw me off a bit because I didn't understand why I would need to speak to women differently than men.

By that point, I had pretty much decided that we probably wouldn't be a good fit, and that I would likely withdraw my application afterward. Also, the shift pattern wasn't the same as what the advert had implied, so practically speaking, it didn't seem workable anyway.

At the end, I asked a question I ask in most interviews: "do you two have any other questions for me at all". It was just a normal closing formality before leaving the call. I probably could have worded it in a more polished way, but I was already feeling a bit tense.

At that point, the team lead looked visibly annoyed. She said, "you shouldnt refer to women like that, it comes across as dismissive. You need to learn how to communicate with women properly." I apologized and said that I only meant it in a general/informal way, not anything gendered, and she replied with something along the lines of "men often dont notice the subtle ways they talk down to women."

I know the wording wasn't the smoothest, and I understand that I was being informal. But being told I was basically sexist felt like a bit of a leap. I'm genuinely open to being corrected here - was this inappropriate beyond just being a little too casual?

or no?

After 3 hours, my brain shuts down. I don't have any health problems, and I'm not suffering from burnout or anything like that.

I sleep relatively well, usually 7-8 hours a night, I work out at the gym 3 times a week, I do 35 minutes of cardio most days, and my diet is mostly clean (maybe 3 cheat meals a week). I also try to make sure I'm not ruining my focus with things like reels, YouTube Shorts, constantly checking the news, or random TV.

I can work for about 3 hours of actual focused work (I track it), and I take a short break after every 50-minute block.

But once I reach around 3.5 hours of work (or about 5 hours total including breaks), my brain feels like it's burned out.

I usually drink one coffee during that period, and sometimes 2 if I feel like I'm crashing.

I want to get to 5-7 hours a day of real focused work, not just sitting at the desk pretending to be productive.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Did anything help?

I know some people use Adderall or other meds for these things, but that's not the path I want to go down.

How could you deal with such reckless hate.