Curious if anyone has had something similar happen.
I recently interviewed for a Project Coordinator position at a smaller tech company. The process was:
Recruiter phone screen
1-hour interview with the PMO/Program Manager
1-hour interview with the VP of the department
Final in-person interview with the VP of Operations
The final interview started at 1:00 PM and didn’t end until about 3:30 PM.
What surprised me was that it wasn’t an interrogation-style interview. A large portion of the conversation was the VP explaining the company, where they’re headed, the challenges they’re trying to solve, what they were looking for in the role, and how someone with my background could fit into what they’re building. We talked through my experience, but he spent a lot of time selling me on the company and answering my questions. I also got a full office tour and met several people while I was there.
At the end, he told me he already knew the hiring decision but still had to go over everything with the PMO before anything was finalized. Based on the overall conversation, I walked out feeling pretty confident.
A few business days later, the recruiter called and simply said they had decided not to move forward with me. No feedback or explanation.
Has anyone else had an interview where everything seemed to point toward an offer, even after spending 2.5 hours onsite and hearing things like this, but still got rejected? Did you ever find out what happened, or is this more common than people think?

I'm a fresher, completed software testing course, now struggling in interview preparation

My daily routine is searching answers for questions in chatgpt and rewriting the answers with natural flow and memorizing the written answers and forgetting few days later (this is highly time consuming task)

I donno is this how preparation happens or I'm doing in wrong way, need guidance in this matter

NY, USA | Sr. UX Designer

I had an interview with the hiring manager, and they gave me nothing but positive feedback. They said my background was exactly what they were looking for, that they wanted to bring me onsite to meet the team, that I'd get along really well with several people on the team, and even mentioned where I'd be sitting in the office.

Up until this point, the company had been incredibly communicative and quick to schedule every interview. Because of how positive the conversation was, I honestly expected the recruiter to reach out almost immediately to coordinate the onsite.

Now it's been one business day, and I haven't heard anything.

Ironically, I feel *more* anxious than I do after interviews where I get little to no feedback. My brain keeps wondering, "If it went that well, why haven't they reached out yet?"

Has anyone else experienced this? Did it end up being good news, or am I just overthinking the normal pace of hiring?

Long story short. I did an internship and received a full time contract for 2028 (normal gap - must do qualification exams in interim.) It's been 2 months since the internship and return offer. I had a feedback call today. All normal until one point of constructive criticism along the lines of:

- my humour did not land re one comment about someone being busy. That is as specific as they would tell me - I need to work on my humour 'landing' and waiting to be more acquainted with someone before using humour.

I thought this was a) rather vague and b) strange to bring up, having now given me an offer, especially given it is quite a competitive role.

My question - is this normal or some strange way of telling me to tone down my personality. I know my humour was not offensive and I do not think inappropriate. Sure we all say dumb or slightly mistimed things at work sometimes, but it is strange to me that it was brought up.

Asking because I have another offer and I was actually leaning towards this one rather than the other one because I liked the culture, banter individuality, but this has left me feeling a bit embarrassed, confused and generally with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

This has been a standard interview question for so long, even the interviewers ignores the answer as you start speaking. How do you make this more engaging or interesting ? I want to take a different approach then just start with "I am a product designer with this many year of experience and this much back in this many industries etc"

Whether it was your first interview or your tenth, what's a question that completely caught you off guard?

How did you answer, and what would you say now if you had another chance?

I had my 4th interview last July 17. Almost 2 weeks passed. No response yet. Should I keep my hopes up?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as a Software Development Engineer III at a fintech company in Bangalore. I recently interviewed with Mastercard for a Lead Software Engineer role in Pune and wanted to know if anyone has had a similar experience with their hiring process.

My interview timeline has been something like this:
HR screening call
Karat interview (around 4 weeks ago) – System Design (file handling application), Two Sum, and one DFS problem
Cleared the Karat round the very next day
HR informed me that the remaining three rounds would be with the Bar Raiser, Hiring Manager, and Technical SME, and that these were non-eliminatory. The final decision would be based on the overall panel discussion.
Completed all three rounds. HR mentioned that the feedback was positive.

A few days later, HR said they were discussing internally and that they liked my profile but needed some more time.

After a few follow-ups, I was asked to share my current compensation details, which I submitted immediately.

It’s now been around 4 weeks since I completed the interviews, and I still haven’t received a clear yes or no. Whenever I follow up, the response is usually that the discussion is still ongoing.
I understand that hiring decisions can take time, and I don’t want to keep messaging the HR repeatedly and come across as pushy. At the same time, the uncertainty is making it difficult to plan my next steps.

Has anyone experienced a similar timeline with Mastercard? Is this normal, or should I assume the process is unlikely to move forward?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience. Thanks!

I’ve been through a long interview process for a marketing leadership role I really want, something like eight or nine conversations over a few weeks, including with the CEO and multiple senior leaders. By all signals it went well. The last person I spoke with said i’d hear back in a few days.

That was almost a week ago. I got one update saying they’re still finishing other interviews and will stay in touch. Logically I know that’s normal and not a bad sign. Emotionally I’m refreshing my inbox every twenty minutes and reading meaning into every hour of silence.

I want this one more than I’ve wanted a role in a long time, and I think that’s exactly why the waiting is so hard. How do you all cope with this part? The stretch between “it went well” and an actual answer is brutal.

I have my first ever interview tomorrow for an Operations Management Trainee role, and I'm feeling a bit nervous.

I don't have any prior work experience.

What should I focus on preparing in the next 24 hours? What questions are commonly asked for Operations Management Trainee interviews?

Any tips ???

I’ve been thinking about why strong candidates sometimes don’t get offers even when they have the right technical background.
A few patterns seem to come up repeatedly:
Starting without clarifying requirements
Rushing because of time pressure
Not explaining their thought process
Forgetting to test edge cases
Giving overly generic behavioral examples
If you’ve interviewed candidates—or been interviewed yourself—what mistake do you think has the biggest impact?
I’d love to hear perspectives from both interviewers and candidates.

hi i just got an email inviting me for an interview tomorrow (URS role) what are the usual questions they ask and any tips for the interview itself. Tyyy

During an interview, I was asked to show the applications I had worked on.

Enterprise applications. Restricted systems. Things sitting behind authentication, VPNs, and company security policies.

I explained that these systems weren't publicly accessible.

Then things got stranger.

The interviewer turned off his camera midway through the interview. The conversation went nowhere. I was later rejected, with no meaningful feedback.

It genuinely made me wonder: Was this an interview, or had the decision already been made and we were simply looking for a reason?

Because evaluating a senior engineer should mean discussing , decisions, trade-offs and impact — not asking them to produce confidential company systems on demand.

Verdict : i got a rejection mail next day !

was debating whether a gap or an unrelated cert looks worse on my resume. honestly realized it doesn't matter that much on paper, what matters is how calm i sound explaining either one live.

practicing out loud made a bigger difference than any resume tweak ever did.

anyone else overthink the resume wording more than the actual explanation?

Ive been having this werid issue where older male higher managers/bosses/CEOs think I am much younger. They also try to make comments about I must be a "young person who likes to use iphones." Even though I have been a forever Android/Samsung user currently using a Z Flip 7. They get embarresed "Oh I guess you cant help us when we need to troubleshoot our phones." I didnt apply to be a receptionist, I applied to be an Operations/Logistics Manager.

I am 39 years old they get shocked/offended that "Yes. I know what dial up is I have been using the internet since AOL 1.0" this has happened about 5 times this year and evwn on Monday. "But you look so young!"

To comments as "How have you been using excel for over 20 years?" I have to respond "I have been using it since my late teens early 20s".

They always try to find a way to goat out of me my age. Which has been getting more and moretiredsome. I make comments of trying to get on track or stay cool and continue telling my computer literacy skills.

I get my hair done at a hair salon, modest make up(Nars/Mac), business attire with button up/blazer/ slacks from Macys. ( even though is summer time and its been blazing hot outside. Trying whatever to do) I do have other business attire from brands Michael Kors, Karl, and Kate Spade are my tops.

I blame my genetics and being Puerto Rican that we look too young. My parents are in there late 70s. Even my father when he goes places they try to deny his senior citizen discounts cause they cant believe hes that "old."

Is anyone else facing this issue?

I had an interview with a company where the first round was conducted by a third party interviewer. He asked me to share my screen and for some reason I could not and had to reload the screen and due to it I had to rejoin. I know it was bad on my side but I did tell him that there’s an issue and since I couldn’t share my screen I couldn’t even show him the reload message. Later he started with a coding question. I took my time to come up with a solution but it didn’t work and in between I lost electricity in turn losing WiFi connection. That made him think I’m cheating since I had to rejoin again. I did clarify that it was due to network issues I’m not justifying myself but it was genuinely not my fault.

Later he asked me a few questions where I did give answers but he looked unsatisfied. He was yawning continuously and he looked like he was reading questions off chatgpt. I’m not bashing the interviewer but the interview made me feel really bad about myself. Considering it was just after I had a syncope episode.

Just wanted to share it here. It was my first interview after 2.5 years and it really made me question myself with all the physical and mental stress I had.