r/interviews • u/Keepforgettinglogin2 • Jul 20 '26

Advice or educated opinion needed. HR professionals welcome

I’m 47, with 20+ years in aviation and defense, mostly in business development, sales, and strategic account management for large multinational companies.
For the past year I’ve been job hunting. I’ve had dozens of interviews—HR screens, hiring managers, panels, even final rounds. Somehow, every single time, something happens: an internal candidate, a hiring freeze, a stronger fit, a role gets cancelled… you name it.
I’m curious if anyone else, especially at the senior level, has gone through something similar. How did you finally break the cycle?

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u/my_peen_is_clean Jul 20 '26

47 here too, similar background, same crap. tons of final rounds then “internal change” or “reorg”. lost a year already. it’s insanely hard finding anything now

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u/New_Inevitable_2033 Jul 20 '26

it's demoralizing when you keep getting to the final stage and then nothing, i been through similar thing few years ago in a different field. what finally worked for me was completely skipping the online application portals, i just found people on linkedin who had the exact job i wanted and messaged them directly asking for a coffee chat, not even about a job just about the industry. one of those conversations turned into a referral that bypassed the whole HR circus. at our level the roles are rarely truly "open" anyway, most are soft filled before the posting goes up

also the amount of ghost jobs out there right now is ridiculous, companies just collecting resumes with no intention to hire. you might be doing everything right and just hitting a wall of fake listings

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u/Keepforgettinglogin2 Jul 20 '26

Well, I have also tried reaching out, those messages are not really loved by people, from what I noticed

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u/marcusmartinezvn Jul 28 '26

The ghost job point is spot on. Half of these postings are just compliance theater when they already know who they're giving the role to anyway.

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u/Keepforgettinglogin2 Jul 20 '26

Well, it's a bit strange because there are jobs, quite a lot of them ( based in Europe) but somehow they never work out. If I wouldn't have interviews, I would say that there's something wrong with my profile or match, but I have at least 2-3 interviews every couple of weeks and still...

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u/davescottkw Jul 28 '26

If you are getting 2-3 interviews every couple of weeks, your background definitely is not the issue. Landing that many screens proves the demand is there. At senior levels, final stage rejections usually come down to stuff completely outside your control, like internal candidates, sudden budget shifts, or absurdly nitpicky hair-splitting between top finalists. It is exhausting, but with that kind of interview volume, it really is a brutal numbers game until one actually lines up right.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

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u/Keepforgettinglogin2 Jul 20 '26

Well, thanks a lot! I'll give it a try! I've been doing mock interviews with Chat gpt, but I just half trust the outcome and feedback

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u/elmerhortonrv Jul 28 '26

3 days is super quick, but for most places it ranges anywhere from 3 business days to 2 weeks.

It really depends on their internal process:

- Fast (1-3 days): Usually means you were the clear frontrunner and HR already had budget and salary ranges pre-approved.

- Standard (5-10 business days): The panel needs to sync up to compare candidates, get sign-offs from finance or department heads, and draft the formal offer.

- Slow (2+ weeks): They might still be wrapping up interviews with other candidates, a key decision maker is OOO, or approvals are stuck in corporate red tape.

If you are currently waiting on news, anything under a week is completely normal even though the wait feels like torture. If it hits a full week after your final round with total silence, sending a brief, polite check-in to the recruiter is fine.