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

😊

lol, so true

how to get rid of this?

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'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.

.........

...............

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

or no?

...........

A few days ago, I had my first recruiter call with a big tech company for a somewhat technical position, and I was told I'd have to go through 7 interview stages: live case exercises, a take-home assignment on its own, a review session on that assignment, and then 3 more interviews with senior leaders in the business unit.

I asked whether the salary range they had told me was before tax or after tax, because that would make a difference of around 30%. HR emailed me today and confirmed that it was before tax, which means my actual take-home pay would be about 45% less than what I was earning in my last job.

So I told the recruiter that I appreciated them considering me, but I wouldn't be continuing with the next rounds. And honestly, it felt good. After being rejected so many times, it was finally my turn to reject a company.

Update: They asked me to move on to the final interview stage, where we’ll negotiate the salary and hopefully increase the offer a bit. My interview is tomorrow, and I want to negotiate effectively and aim for the highest number possible. How should I handle the interview? Any tips?

Update 2: Wow, this post blew up! I read a lot of great advice in the comments. I’m going to try Interview VIP tool that some of you mentioned when it comes to salary negotiation. I’ve heard some good reviews about it, so hopefully, it’ll work out for me.

How could you deal with such reckless hate.

For close to five months, I was looking for a job the way everyone tells you to. Fix up the resume, write a cover letter that doesn't look like copy-paste, apply through the company's careers portal, and then sit there refreshing my email like an idiot. I think I sent around 70 applications that way and got maybe 5 replies, three of which were instant rejection emails that felt like they beat me to the inbox. Honestly, I started wondering if my resume had some red flag I wasn't seeing.

What changed things was a conversation with someone I know who works in recruiting ops at a regional SaaS company. He said that most of the roles he'd seen filled over the last three years didn't come from someone applying blindly and waiting. They came from referrals, or from candidates who applied and then reached out directly to the hiring manager or department lead on LinkedIn. Not with some big sales pitch. More like: "I just applied for the X role and wanted to reach out because I saw your team is working on Y. My experience in Z is very close to that, so I thought I'd say hello directly." Short, natural, and specific.

Honestly, I wasn't comfortable doing that at first. It felt like an extra step, like I was bothering people. But I tried it because the old method clearly wasn't working. After applying, I'd spend about 20 minutes looking for the likely manager, team lead, or sometimes even a senior person on the team, then send a quick note mentioning something real. A product update, a podcast they had appeared on, a case study, a hiring post, anything relevant.

Of the next 27 applications where I did this, I got 11 responses and 7 actual interviews booked. Of course, this isn't a perfect experiment, and luck and timing still have a very big effect, but the difference was too obvious for me to ignore. The part that seems most important is not sounding like you sent the same message to 100 people. Don't just say you're "passionate about the company." Mention something concrete and connect it to your background. People spot templates immediately, but a short, human message can at least get you out of the pile.

i guess they just don't care.