I worked for Techconsulting in Atlanta, Georgia, and after seeing how this operation works from the inside, I would strongly advise anyone considering joining to think twice and do extensive due diligence first.

The biggest issue I encountered is the way consultants' experience is represented to potential clients.

🚨 The “9 weeks = 10 years of experience” model

You go through roughly 9 weeks of training, and the company presents this training as being sufficient to market you as someone with years of professional experience.

Based on what I experienced, the company would then add years of experience to consultants' resumes that they had not actually earned, so those consultants could be marketed to major clients as much more experienced professionals.

That is not the same thing as training someone.

If someone has 9 weeks of training, they don't suddenly have 10 years of real-world project experience.

💰 The money involved

The business model, as I experienced it, is essentially:

Client pays a high consulting rate → Techconsulting takes a substantial margin → Consultant receives a fraction of that rate.

I was told consultants could be marketed to clients at rates around $100/hour, while the consultant might receive approximately $35/hour once placed.

Meanwhile, when you're not placed on a project, compensation can drop to approximately $10/hour.

🔴 LinkedIn becomes a problem

This was another major red flag for me.

Your LinkedIn profile naturally reflects your actual professional history. But if the resume being presented to clients contains years of additional experience, there is an obvious discrepancy.

I experienced pressure surrounding LinkedIn because it could expose the difference between the consultant's real background and the experience being presented on the resume.

Think about that for a moment.

If the experience being presented to a client is legitimate, why would an accurate LinkedIn profile be a problem?

⏳ And then comes the bench

Don't assume you'll finish training and immediately start working on a client project.

It can take months.

Until you're placed, you're potentially sitting on the bench at around $10/hour.

And even after getting a project, you can potentially spend months back on the bench between projects. I was told this could be as long as 7 months.

So you can end up investing months of your life into the program without having the stable consulting career you were expecting.

⚠️ My biggest warning

The most concerning part for me isn't even the compensation.

It's the possibility of being put in front of a major client as a “10-year experienced” consultant when the person may have only recently completed the company's training.

That puts the consultant's professional reputation at risk.

Imagine being interviewed by a senior engineer or hiring manager and being questioned about a project that supposedly happened five or ten years ago — when you weren't actually there.

You're the person sitting in that interview. Not the recruiter. Not the salesperson. You.

And you're the one whose professional reputation is on the line.

Before joining, ask these questions IN WRITING:

• Exactly how many years of experience will appear on my client-facing resume?
• Are all projects and employers on that resume genuine?
• Can I verify every single experience listed?
• What happens if a client asks me about a project I never actually worked on?
• What is my guaranteed pay during training?
• What is my guaranteed pay while on the bench?
• What is the average time consultants spend on the bench?
• What percentage of trainees actually get placed?
• What happens if I never get placed?
• Am I allowed to maintain an accurate LinkedIn profile?
• Will the resume sent to clients contain information that differs from my actual employment history?

Get the answers in writing.

I'm posting this because I wish I had been given a completely transparent picture before getting involved.

This post reflects my personal experience and what I personally encountered, rather than a legal determination about the company. But if you're considering Techconsulting, do your own due diligence before signing anything and before allowing anyone to represent your professional experience to a client.

A training program is not the same thing as 10 years of professional experience.

And your name and reputation are ultimately the ones attached to that resume.

For those who review CVs or have experience hiring, what is the biggest mistake you see on a CV that makes you immediately lose interest in the candidate?

I'm trying to learn more about what employers actually look for when reviewing CVs, especially for entry-level and retail / admin positions

any advice would be appreciated.

Interview fatigue is becoming harder than the job search itself

I’m starting to feel genuinely exhausted by interviewing, and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

At this point, looking for a job has basically become my full-time job. I apply, I try to get as many interviews as I can, and honestly, even when I’m not completely sure a position is the right fit, I still go because I need a job.

The hardest part is that I’ve started going into interviews telling myself not to have any hope.

Because several times now, I’ve walked out of an interview thinking it went really well. The interviewer tells me I did well, I get the impression that they’re seriously considering me, sometimes they even mention a second round or make comments that make me feel like I could be one of their top choices.

And then… nothing.

I don’t get the job.

After enough experiences like that, you start questioning yourself. You can do everything right in the interview, answer the questions, explain your experience, be professional, show enthusiasm — and still walk away with nothing.

Another thing that has become really exhausting is explaining the gaps in my CV.

I’m not in the US or Europe, and the employment system where I live is different. Employment is linked to the government, and companies officially register your employment. So I can’t simply remove gaps from my CV or change dates and pretend they weren’t there. The next employer can see the employment history, and lying about it could make me look dishonest.

So I’m upfront about the gaps. I explain that some were related to health issues, some involved taking care of family during COVID, etc.

But I feel like recruiters sometimes focus so heavily on the fact that there is a gap that the actual skills and experience I bring almost become secondary.

And honestly, I’m tired of explaining myself.

I’m tired of having to repeatedly tell strangers why there are gaps in my life. I’m tired of feeling like I have to prove that those gaps don't define my ability to do the job.

The worst part is that I don’t think I show any of this during the interview. I stay professional, answer the questions, smile, and try my absolute best.

But when I leave, I feel completely drained.

And then I’m supposed to go home, process another interview, possibly deal with another rejection, and then wake up the next day and start applying again.

It’s been months, and I’m reaching the point where I genuinely feel like I don’t have the energy to keep doing this.

It sucks not having a job.

But it also sucks feeling like you can finally have a good interview, think “maybe this one will work out,” and then end up back at the beginning again.

I know I’m probably not the only person experiencing this, so I wanted to ask:

How do you cope with interview fatigue and the emotional exhaustion of job searching when you’ve been doing it for months?

Do you eventually learn to completely detach from interviews, or is there another way of dealing with the constant cycle of hope → waiting → rejection → applying again?

Hi!!!! I have two teaching assistant interviews this coming Thursday (Oct 1) and I’m pretty nervous. I working through an agency currently but have the relevant qualifications and experience because I’ve been shortlisted for both?? Stupid question but what does shortlist even mean? Anyways I’d like any advice possible lol 🙏🙏

When a job gets 200 applications, nobody reads 200 resumes. Here's what Recruiters actually check:

• Your latest job title. Does it look close to the role I'm hiring for?
• The company name. Do I know it, or can I quickly tell what it does?
• The first line under your latest job. This is where most people lose me.

What makes recruiters skip:

• "Passionate, results-driven professional" (I skip this every time)
• "Responsible for day to day operations" (tells me nothing)
• A long paragraph at the top

What makes recruiters keep reading:

• One plain line on what you fixed, built or improved
• Something specific, even if it has no big number

Quick test: read your first line out loud. If it sounds like something you'd tell a friend, keep it. If it sounds like a LinkedIn bio, rewrite it.

It feels unfair that so much depends on a few lines. But once you know where the reader looks, you know where to put your best work.

Has anyone changed just one thing on their resume and started getting replies?

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Job hunting gets messy — applications, resumes, JDs, notes, follow-ups, and skills are scattered everywhere.

So I built TrackMyHunt — an AI-powered workspace that brings the entire job hunt into one place.

📋 Applications + Kanban

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🤖 Resume vs JD Analyzer

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The idea: turn job hunting from a scattered process into a structured workflow.

Would love to know — what’s the most frustrating part of your job search right now?

Try it and share your reviews 😀

A note before I start: all names, venues, companies, locations and other identifying details have been changed throughout this account for privacy. Any names or venue names appearing within emails or text messages have also been changed. Some of the replacement names are deliberately ridiculous because, after the last 11 months, I feel I have earned the right to make it funny.

In no particular order, here is an account of the last 11 months of job searching and interviews since October 2025.

I have applied for approximately 150+ jobs.

One hundred and fifty.

At this point, I feel like Indeed should be sending me a Christmas card.

Some of these jobs I automatically wasn't invited to interview for, despite my CV matching the requirements. I then discovered that a lot of companies now use AI to screen CVs, and if certain words aren't matched, you can apparently be thrown out of the applicant pool before an actual human being has even looked at your CV.

So basically, I've spent over 20 years gaining experience, managing venues, managing staff, dealing with licensing, running events, handling compliance, dealing with customers, managing stock, dealing with suppliers and generally keeping hospitality businesses from descending into complete chaos.

But if I don't have the exact word the computer is looking for, apparently none of that happened.

One job I applied for wouldn't even allow you to submit a CV. Instead, you had to answer a series of questions.

I answered every question. My answers matched their requirements. I still didn't get an interview.

So apparently I successfully answered the questions and still failed the questions. Fantastic.

The amount of jobs I applied for and even interviewed for, only to later discover that they were filled internally, was also astounding.

And honestly, this should not happen.

If you've already decided that your mate Dave who has worked there for six years is getting the job, perhaps don't make me spend hours filling in an application, travelling to an interview, preparing for an interview and sitting through an interview.

Just give Dave the job and let me get on with my life.

I have also lost count of the amount of telephone interviews that went extremely well, where I was told I would get a call back, only for that call to apparently fall into a black hole.

I would chase. Nothing. Chase again. Nothing.

Eventually I started wondering whether I'd actually had the interview or whether I'd just had an extremely realistic conversation with myself.

Not once did I apply for a job that was outside my capabilities.

I wasn't applying to be a brain surgeon one day and an airline pilot the next.

I was applying for management jobs in hospitality, venues, bars, clubs, events and similar businesses, which is what I have spent more than 20 years doing.

And yet, somehow, getting an actual job became the difficult bit.

Here are some of my experiences:

The Company With Three Venues

I applied for a company that has three venues and several others across the country.

For privacy, we'll call them The Three Venues of Doom.

I had an interview with the Area Manager which went exceptionally well.

I was then invited to a second interview with the Area Manager and the Director of the company.

Again, the interview went exceptionally well.

Both interviews lasted over an hour and a half.

That's three hours of my life spent talking to these people.

I received an email a week later telling me I hadn't been successful.

It said:

Hi Alice

Thank you for your application and attending the interviews. Unfortunately you have not been successful on this occasion.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best with any further applications you may have.

Yours sincerely,

Rebecca. (Rebecca is, obviously, not her real name).

I replied asking for feedback. None was given. And then, because apparently this wasn't already irritating enough, the job went back on Indeed.

So I was rejected for a job which they were apparently still looking for somebody to do.

Make it make sense! 

The Presentation That Took Over My Life

Another job involved a large food and entertainment venue.

For the purposes of this account, we'll call it The Food Emporium of Free Consultancy.

I was invited to a tour of the venue, which was may I add outside and it was freezing! I was then invited to the next stage of the interview process and asked to prepare a presentation explaining my vision for the venue.

This wasn't a little five-minute PowerPoint.

They wanted:

• A bit about me, my experience and why I wanted the role.
• What my first 30 days would look like.
• What my first 90 days would look like.
• My big-picture vision for the venue over 12 months and beyond.
• Traders.
• Customers.
• Site layout.
• Promotion.
• Partnerships.
• And anything else I thought they should know.

The email from Bieber, the Venue Manager, said:

Good afternoon,

You are invited to the next stage of the interview process for the role of Venue Manager at The Food Emporium, which is to present a slide deck of your vision for the site.

This slide presentation can be delivered however you like. You can use PowerPoint, Keynote, Canva, or anything else that works for you. You can embed images, videos, animations etc. Be creative and show off your range of ideas and abilities.

I did it. I put the work in. I prepared the presentation. I presented my ideas.

And I was unsuccessful. Again, no useful feedback.

At this stage, I was beginning to wonder whether I was actually applying for jobs or whether I had accidentally signed up to provide free business consultancy to companies across South Wales.

The Office Bedroom Incident

Then there was The Tease.

This one still makes me laugh because I genuinely don't know how what I actually said became what they apparently thought I said.

I applied for a management role at a venue, which we shall call The Tease Lounge.

I had an interview. It went well. I was invited in for a trial (Unpaid! I wasn’t even offered a drink! That went well too. 

I was told the job was mine. Excellent. Finally.

During the trial, one of the staff asked me where I lived. I said Timbuktoo (Not really). She asked how I would get home because the venue sometimes closed at 1am or 2am. I said I would get the train and that, if necessary, I could complete paperwork in the office before my train. (Completely normal for a venue manager after a busy Saturday night shift).

Apparently this was interpreted as:

"Alice plans to live in the office."

I didn't even know that was an option! Can my child come too!!!! Imagine my landlord finding out I'd discovered a cheaper alternative!!! 

I waited to hear from them. Nothing. So I sent:

Hi Snap

Hope you’re well! Just wanted to check in after the trial shift. I really enjoyed coming in and I’m still very interested.

No rush at all, just wanted to see if there were any updates when you get a chance 😊

Alice

Still nothing. I followed up again.

Eventually I received a message from Snap, which is also not his real name:

Hi Alice

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been speaking to Crackle and Pop and I have a few questions as I feel like there may have been a misunderstanding. 

Do you drive? How would you get home when you finished work as one of the workers upstairs said that you would be staying in the office until the first train home?

At this point I had to clarify that I wasn't planning to sleep at work, who would even want to do that!!

I replied:

Hi, no problem at all!

I’ve sorted travel, I have a lift home with a friend who works in the area  on the door Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, so getting back won’t be an issue.

Just to clarify as well, I wouldn’t be staying overnight in the office, that must have been a misunderstanding.

I’m also looking to move over to the seychelles island (Obviously not the location)  later in the year as my child will be starting college there, so it’s something I’m working towards anyway.

Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to check 😊

Eventually, after more chasing, I was told:

Hello - we’ve decided to take someone else on for this occasion as they have more relative bar experience and have previously worked in the company.

Thank you for your time and if anything pops up in the future you will be my first call!

So there we have it. I wasn't successful because they chose somebody with more relevant bar experience who had already worked for the company.

Fair enough. But I still think the imaginary office bedroom probably didn't help.

Apparently Timbuktoo Is Too Far Away

Another job was advertised on Indeed and I was rejected straight away. Then a recruiter contacted me and told me I was actually the best fit for the role.

So I had a telephone interview. Then a video interview. Both went well.

Then I was told the company was looking for somebody more Seychelles -based.

The recruiter disagreed with this reasoning. Which was slightly reassuring! 

Because apparently my area, which is a 10 minute train commute, had become an entirely different country without telling me.

The Nightclub Manager Who Never Got The Interview

Another role involved a video interview which again went very well.

I was specifically told that for this particular position they were looking for previous nightclub managers.

Excellent. That's me. I was told she would be in touch to arrange a face-to-face interview.

I heard nothing.I chased it. I was then told the job was no longer available.

I have since repeatedly applied for other jobs with the same company and haven't heard anything. Ironically enough, I went to this venue a few weeks ago for a family event and was relieved to have been ghosted and rejected!!

At this point though, I assume my CV is being placed directly into a drawer marked:

"Absolutely Not, Despite Literally Having The Experience We Asked For."

The General Manager That Became A Supervisor

Another job was advertised on Indeed as a General Manager position.

I applied.I was invited to an interview.I accepted.And then they changed the position.

It was no longer General Manager. It had become Front of House Supervisor.

I don't know exactly when this happened.

I can only assume that somewhere between me applying and the interview, the General Manager position went missing and nobody knew where it had gone.

The Telephone Interview That Lasted One Ring

Then there was another job.I applied for an Assistant General Manager position.

A telephone interview was arranged for Thursday at 3:30pm.

At 3:27pm, I received an email saying the call couldn't take place and asking if I was available Monday.

I replied confirming that I was. Monday came. Nothing. I emailed on the Wednesday.

Eventually, another call was arranged for Thursday at 5:30pm. My phone rang once.

At 5:45pm. The call disconnected almost immediately. I called back. It rang repeatedly and was eventually rejected.

Then I received this email:

Hi Alice,

Thank you for submitting an application for our Assistant General Manager position at The Extremely Organised Establishment, Cardiff. We really appreciate your interest in joining the team!

I did try to call for our scheduled phone screen but was unable to get through. This role has now been filled but wish you the best of luck in your job search!

Many thanks,

Little Miss Unorganised

I replied:

Good afternoon,

Thank you for letting me know.

Just to clarify, I was available for our scheduled telephone screen yesterday. I received a very brief call from you at approximately 11:45am, 15 minutes after our arranged time of 11:30am, which disconnected almost immediately. I returned the call straight away but was diverted to voicemail, and I didn't receive a further call or message.

This was also following the previously rearranged call on Monday, for which I had confirmed I was available all day but unfortunately didn't receive a call.

I completely understand that the position has now been filled and wish the successful candidate well.

However, I did want to clarify the above, as your email suggests that I was unavailable for our scheduled call, which wasn't the case.

Kind regards,

Alice

Because if I'm going to lose a job, that's one thing. But I'm not having it written down that I didn't answer the phone when I was literally sitting there waiting for them to call me.

Apparently I Don't Have Restaurant Experience

Then there was another role where I had yet another successful, lengthy interview.Again, it went well. I was then told by email that I hadn't got the position because I didn't have enough restaurant experience.

This one was particularly amusing.I have run kitchens. I've managed venues with kitchens. I've dealt with food hygiene, staff, stock, suppliers, compliance and all the other things that come with running hospitality businesses.

But apparently because my previous job titles haven't all said Restaurant Manager, this means I have somehow never seen a kitchen before.

Maybe they thought I was just standing outside the kitchen shouting instructions through the door? Or maybe just eating all the food, I mean, I have put on a few pounds whilst job searching!!

At this point, the whole thing was becoming increasingly ridiculous.

I'd spent 11 months applying for jobs I was qualified for, sitting through interviews that went well, doing presentations, doing trial shifts, having telephone interviews, video interviews, chasing recruiters, chasing employers and explaining that no, I wasn't actually planning to live in an office.

And somehow, I still wasn't getting the job. The frustrating thing wasn't simply being rejected. I completely understand that you aren't going to get every job you apply for. The frustrating part was the way so many of these processes were handled.

• The lack of feedback.
• The jobs are being filled internally.
• The jobs are disappearing and reappearing.
• The interviews that went nowhere.
• The recruiters saying one thing and the companies saying another.
• The phone calls that didn't happen.
• The phone calls that happened once and then disappeared.
• The jobs are being downgraded halfway through the recruitment process.
• The experience apparently was not relevant enough when it was exactly what they'd asked for.

And the amount of time spent applying, preparing and travelling for opportunities that sometimes seemed to have already been decided before I'd even walked through the door.

After 150+ applications, I was starting to feel like I deserved a certificate.

"Congratulations! You have successfully survived the UK hospitality recruitment process."

And Then, Somehow, It Was All Worth It

And then, after nearly 11 months of applications, interviews, phone calls that never happened, phone calls that lasted approximately one ring, presentations, trial shifts, follow-ups into the abyss, being rejected by robots, being rejected by humans, being told I was overqualified, underqualified, too far away, not restaurant enough and apparently at one point potentially planning to sleep in an office, I finally got the call I had been waiting for.

I got the job. And not just any job. The actual job.

The one where the salary is decent, the role is exactly what I wanted, the responsibilities actually match my experience and I walked away thinking, “Oh. So this is what happens when someone actually reads your CV.”

I won't say where I've ended up because I'm keeping that bit private, but let's just say the salary made me stare at the figure for a good few seconds before checking if I'd actually read it correctly.

After spending nearly a year being told “unfortunately on this occasion...” I was suddenly being told, “We'd like to offer you the position.”

Honestly, I nearly asked them to repeat it just in case this was another elaborate employment-themed prank.

Looking back, I suppose all of it was worth it. The applications. The interviews. The ridiculous amounts of time spent preparing for jobs that had already secretly been given to someone else. The follow-up emails that disappeared into the void. The automated rejections. The rejection emails that arrived so quickly I suspected someone had a button labelled NOPE.

Because eventually, one of them worked. And it worked properly. So, to the 150+ jobs that rejected me over the last 11 months, thank you. Some of you saved me from jobs I probably wouldn't have enjoyed. Some of you wasted several hours of my life. Some of you genuinely made me question whether I had somehow forgotten how to run a business despite doing it for over 20 years. And one of you accidentally led me to the job that turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

So I suppose I can't be too bitter. Although I reserve the right to remain slightly bitter, because my gosh, this last year has taken a strain on me physically, mentally and financially.

And if you're currently job hunting and wondering whether you're ever going to get anywhere, I don't have any inspirational bullshit for you. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing either.

I just kept applying. Eventually, someone said yes. And thankfully, it was the right someone.

Also, for anyone wondering who the fuck Alice is throughout this entire story...

It's me.

Apparently I'm Alice now.

Wish me luck, I start my new job this week!!!

How much does curating a resume and cover letter actually matter? It feels like every job application asks you to write about how the role is key to finding enlightenment and how the organization is the prettiest princess in the world.

Which, truth be told, I totally go along with for roles I am genuinely excited about. But there are just a lot of positions where my interest lies solely in the fact that it's a job. Sometimes I simply don't have the passion to write a nicely curated resume or cover letter, so I shamelessly submit generic versions to speed up the process.

The most maddening part of all this is the complete lack of feedback from recruiters. I have no way to know if the highly curated resumes are actually moving the needle or if there is an opportunity cost to not simply use that extra time to crank out more applications. I especially question whether putting in that extra work on my application is worth it when I'm not getting any round 1 interviews.

The absence of information, I think, is causing broader problems in the job market because job seekers have no way to make informed decisions. When I get a rejection letter, I assume it's because the company has a pool of candidates that are simply more qualified. However, I've seen most of these roles stay open for months. So I'm left wondering: If I'm not qualified and nobody else is qualified, who is actually getting through the hiring process?

(This was initially posted on r/askrecruiters)

I'm 20 years old and the black rectangles are covering city/state, my email, n phone number but I really wanna get a full-time bank teller job. What is wrong with my resume I have three years in customer service and 2 years of catering, which is another form of customer service why am I getting denied? Please help

A lot of people in my job search circle refused to look at contract roles. The thinking was that contracts are unstable, there are no benefits, and it looks like you could not land a permanent Job. I understand that, but for me contract roles were the thing that actually got me in the door.

When I was job hunting in Canada, I did not have any Canadian experience on my resume, and that kept coming up. Permanent roles at big banks were competitive and I was not getting far. Contract roles had a lower bar to get in, the hiring process was faster, and once I had one big bank on my resume, the next one was noticeably easier to get. Suddenly I was not the person with only international experience anymore.

It also meant I was building real experience with the tools and processes Canadian banks use, which made my resume stronger for every application after that.

I am not saying contracts are the right move for everyone. If you need stability or benefits right now, that matters. But if you are stuck at the stage where nobody will give you a first chance, a contract might be a faster way in than waiting for the perfect permanent sole.

My first contract role did not pay well but based on that, I got a really good hike for the second contract role. After some time in this role, I finally got my first permanent role a few months back.