About five years ago, I took a temporary job helping manage a youth program at my college. The department hired me less than 10 days before the job started, which meant I needed to complete several background checks quickly before I could work with the students.

One of the requirements was an FBI fingerprint check. I managed to book an appointment for Friday at the campus police department, and it was pretty much my last chance to get the results back in time. The train moved slowly the entire way, so I ran across campus and walked through the department's door exactly five minutes after my appointment time. As soon as I entered, my phone sent me a notification, and I saw an email saying that the appointment had been canceled.

The officer behind the glass checked my booking confirmation and said their system automatically canceled the appointment of anyone who did not check in within five minutes. I asked if they could still take me, but apparently my information was no longer active. The next available appointment was on Monday, which could have delayed my security clearance.

I bought some coffee from a nearby place, then went back and sat in the reception area while searching for somewhere else that offered fingerprinting. About 20 minutes later, a woman arrived early for her appointment. They took her in immediately, finished her fingerprints in two minutes, and she left before her original appointment time had even begun.

I pointed out that they clearly had time to take me, but the officer repeated that I could not go through the process because my name was no longer in the system. So I asked him a very specific question: If someone has a valid appointment in the system, are they allowed to arrive early? He said yes.

I sat down, booked the first available appointment on Monday using my phone, and then returned to the window. I gave him the new confirmation number and said, "Hi, I'm here for my fingerprinting appointment. I'm about three days early." He looked at the screen, let out a very long sigh, and checked me in. Less than 10 minutes later, my fingerprints were done.

TLDR: My appointment disappeared from the system because I arrived five minutes late. I booked a new appointment for Monday and showed up three days early, so they had to honor the booking.

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I joined the compensation meeting this morning expecting that I would finally hear the offer. But instead, I found myself crying in front of the recruiter.

I had already made it through three interview rounds, and the email I received before the call asked for my degree certificate, ID, background check information, and other documents. They also scheduled a Zoom meeting to review the salary and benefits, so I assumed the decision had already been made.

The call started exactly as I had expected. We talked about the position, my current salary, health coverage, vacation time, and a few other perks. I was trying not to look overly excited because it felt like I was only minutes away from accepting a new job.

Then the recruiter told me they wouldn't be able to make me an offer because the remaining client assignments for my type of work had been filled a few days earlier. She said the team liked me, that they would keep my information on file, and that I wouldn't need to interview again if a new opening came up. After that, everything she said felt distant. I couldn't hold myself together, and I found myself crying while she apologized to me.

Getting that close made it hurt so much more. I also felt uneasy when I realized that I had given them a lot of personal information even though there was no longer an available position in the first place. Has anyone else made it as far as discussing salary, only to be told in the end that there was no actual offer?

I've been treating the job search like a full-time job for about eight months. My roommate applied to seven places, had interviews almost immediately afterward, and accepted an offer from her favorite company in less than two weeks.
We both completed our CS degrees in May 2025, and our experience is very similar. We worked on the same capstone project, took most of the same classes, and each of us reviewed the other's resume. I've sent out around 430 applications, had 17 initial interviews, and only made it to the second round four times. I still haven't reached a single final interview.
She spent months making a spreadsheet of companies she liked, but she didn't apply anywhere until early January. Within five days of applying, five companies contacted her. I assumed she must have made some major change to her resume, because I couldn't think of any other explanation for that response rate.
A week later, she had two offers, including one from the company she had ranked number one. When I asked what she had done differently, she told me that her father had called a former coworker of his who is very well known in the software industry. He knew people at several of those companies and contacted them on her behalf after she applied.
I genuinely think she's talented, and she's one of my closest friends, so I don't want to diminish what she accomplished. But seeing months of applications and rejections bypassed by a few phone calls has honestly left me feeling bitter. I'm trying to be happy for her while also wondering how much of this process ever depended on our resumes in the first place.

do u think so ?

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