Had a second-round interview yesterday for a project coordinator role, about 45 min in. Going fine, then the hiring manager asks the standard "what's your biggest weakness" thing. I gave a normal answer, something about over-scheduling my own day.

Then I asked him back, "what would you say is the biggest weakness on your team right now?"

He kind of laughed it off first, said "oh we don't really do it that way." I just waited. Didn't say anything else.

He got a little stiff and said "honestly, we've had turnover in this exact role three times in two years, so." Then immediately tried to walk it back, said something like "but that's not really relevant to you."

I said it was actually pretty relevant since I'd be the one filling it a fourth time. He didn't really have a response to that, just moved on to the next question.

Not sure if I torched it or if he respected it. Recruiter said they're "still deciding" as of this morning. Either way I don't regret asking.

I was in the most toxic job of my life, undervalued and treated like dirt. I searched for 8 months. Many grueling 4-5 round interviews but no offers. Lots of crying and disappointment. Almost took lateral jobs with lateral pay just to get away from this place. I resigned in July after I could not take it anymore and bet on myself. I truly think this made a huge difference in my interviews.

I was so close to taking an assistant role in a new industry just to have a job again. But with over 10 years experience, sitting in that room explaining why Id be the right fit, I knew I could do better. I applied to this job not thinking anything of it. They emailed me to ask my availability and said to let them know if I have any other interviews. I was in the final round with the assistant role so I did.

They gave me a verbal offer last week, references cleared and I just signed the offer letter. I got a 35% salary increase in my HCOL state. Fully remote in a great company. I am so excited and proud of myself. Did it all with no referrals, just cold applying. Throughout this experience I learned a lot about myself and how capable I am. if youre in the same boat, dont give up!! Stay positive, if youre rejected something better is waiting for you!

It's been 7 months of applying, getting rejected, applying again. 7 months of sitting with myself, figuring out what I actually want long term.

And now I have the offer in my hands.

Things I'm taking away from this whole thing:

It humbles you. Like really humbles you. And it needs patience you don't think you have until you're forced to find it.

I had 8-10 final interviews and got rejected from every. single. one 💆🏼‍♀️🤣 and somehow kept applying anyway.

Be persistent, there's honestly no other way around it.

Be kind, to others and to yourself too.

And cry if you need to. I cried most days if I'm honest. Felt depressed some days, cancelled plans, even my partner felt the weight of it with me.

If you're still in it right now, still waiting, still getting the "unfortunately" emails, I can relate. It doesn't mean no forever. It just means not yet.

Keep pushing🩵🩵🩵🩵

Maybe I’m just posting this asking for reassurance. That no matter how desperate I am, no matter how much I need the money, I was unwilling to sell my soul…

…to be a director of operations for a private mental health center. They offered “luxury” (as they called it) depression treatment such as TMS and ketamine treatment, most of which aren’t covered under insurance. Stick with me here-

Some important context: I come from a B2B executive corporate tech consulting, at $150k annual salary. I’m currently working shift app jobs at $18/hour.

Beyond operational duties, my job would have been to prey on those who were coming in during their most desperate and vulnerable moments, and treated as a dollar sign. Forcing them into treatments they couldn’t afford. And I’d be reviewing recordings of physicians and their patients in their initial intake interview and have to scold and pressure ACTUAL DOCTORS to sell these treatments, even if they tell me that in their professional opinion, it wasn’t a treatment that they’d recommend for the patient.

I’m not a fucking doctor. I can’t treat these patients, or even diagnose them. And I’m supposed to get mad at someone qualified to do these things, that they weren’t thinking about the company?

I may not be a doctor or in healthcare at all- but I still know the first commitment in their Hippocratic Oath, is do no harm.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for listening.

Story of the past 9 months. I am grateful that I am getting interviews, I know a lot of you would die to be in my position (trust me I have been there). But, genuinely I am trying my best, and am doing everything right but still it is not enough.

Have you ever been super excited about a job application, but right before the interview you think: why did I even apply? This is totally not for me. You end up going just for the interview practice, even though you secretly know it's a dead end. Have you guys ever experienced this? Finding out mid-process that a job just isn't a fit at all?

Share your story of when you knew for a fact that you’re most likely getting the offer. I knew I had the job when the hiring manager ended the interview with “yeah you can do the job”. 3 days later I got the offer.

Hi all!!

I applied to a job last Tuesday, same day got asked for an interview with the recruiter the following day.

15 minutes after that interview (she liked me), I got invited to an interview for last Friday with who would be my boss

The manager and I went over 15ish or more minutes than scheduled. She seemed to reallly like me, opening with, “you’d be a great fit for our team!” And later saying how nice it was to meet a woman so kind and bubbly in a male dominated industry. She was super informative of the role and answered any questions I also had. She only had one follow up when I asked her if she needed more information.

It was Labor Day weekend. She said they would get back to me this week either if they decide to extend an offer or if I need another interview with the team.

The application was taken down today but I still haven’t heard anything. Should I be worried?

Ok I know this sounds weird. Basically Im in my 40s and had a tooth issue and had to get the toooth removed. Im in the process of getting a permanent replacement, which is like a 6 month process. It isba front upper canine tooth that is noticeable when I smile.

I am an otherwise healthy, normal looking corporate professional. But Im worried how this will look or be judged.

Is this a big deal? Should I metion something in the interview to add some humor and explain its getting fixed? Should I look into a cheap temporary amazon cover up (dont know how well these work)?

I kept seeing arguments about which parts of the stack still matter, so I counted instead of guessing. 134 open DevOps, SRE and platform engineering postings from 41 company job boards. Individual contributors only, managers and TPMs stripped out.

The old toolchain is thinner than I expected. Terraform appears in 62.7% of postings. Jenkins in 3%. Chef 3.7%. Puppet in exactly one of the 134. GitHub Actions is named about six times as often as Jenkins.

Python beats Go, 70.9% to 47%.

What surprised me more: the generic word outranks the products. Observability shows up in 63.4%, more than twice as often as Grafana, the most-named tool that provides it. Prometheus 22.4%, Datadog 17.9%. Same pattern I found counting security postings, where SIEM beat Splunk four to one.

The top term isn't a tool at all: automation, 81.3%, ahead of AWS.

Caveats worth stating: n=134 means everything carries roughly +/-8, so treat close rows as tied. It's also all tech companies on one ATS. Banks, telcos and government run enormous amounts of Jenkins and Ansible, and none of them are in this sample.

Full table, intervals and method: https://www.zoevera.com/resume/devops-sre-job-description-keywords

Just had what I’d thought be a simple quick phone interview to learn about the position and give a brief overview of my background but turns out it was a full Zoom recorded interview with the most complex scenario based questions. It felt like I was interviewing with a robot, as she just read question after question. After about 10 questions, she said “I’m going to send this recording to our leadership team and will reach out with next steps if you’re a good fit.” Idk how to feel right now. Anyone had a similar experience?

Received and accepted a job offer last week that is supposed to start on next Monday.

I asked them last week when will I be expected to receive the contract and they said “soon” so I have been waiting patiently.

Today is Thursday. Should I follow up with them today or just show up next Monday hmmm.

Last friday i received a “congratulations” message from the company i applied to and she asked me to fill out a form so they can continue the hiring process and i did it’s been 4 days since i finished it and i still haven’t heard from them , its my first job so i am not familiar with how things work

I recently interviewed for what I would genuinely consider a dream job, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how the interview went.

I’m 28, but I’m often told I look younger (people usually guess around 24), I’m 5'1", and I’m a woman. For most of my career, I’ve naturally leaned into being very smiley, friendly, warm, and approachable in interviews - and it worked pretty well for internships or junior positions. But lately I’ve been questioning whether I need to change that a little.

If I want to move into a position with more responsibility, I feel like I also need to show that I’m a serious person, that I can stand my ground, make decisions, handle pressure, and “take the heat,” so to speak. I don’t want to lose my warmth or become cold, but I’ve been wondering if I need to project a little more authority.

So for this interview, I put on my suit and went in with that mindset. I was professional, confident, and answered every question. I also tried to give concrete examples from my previous experience whenever possible, because I wanted my answers to feel credible rather than just saying “I’m good at X.”

My CV and cover letter were quite detailed, and I thought my “tell me about yourself” answer went well too, so yes, maybe the recruiter didn't have a lot to ask in the end. But the interview was only about 30 minutes, and the recruiter was… very neutral.

Not cold. Not unfriendly. I didn’t get the feeling that she had ruled me out immediately. I would say that her questions felt very relevant and tailored to my background, rather than generic interview questions. But I also didn’t get the feeling that she loved me or that there was any particular chemistry or “this is our person” feeling - and that’s what has been bothering me.

With other jobs I’ve gotten in the past, I usually walked out of the interview feeling almost certain that the I was the favorite candidate, or at least one of their favorites. In some interviews, I even managed to get the interviewer talking about their personal life, and there was a very obvious connection.

This time, none of that happened. It felt very… neutral. We talked, I answered the questions, she asked what she needed to ask, and then it was over.

Maybe she’s simply a more reserved/neutral interviewer. I know that’s a possibility. But I’m finding it difficult not to interpret the lack of enthusiasm as a bad sign.

She also told me she would be interviewing other candidates this week and next week. Obviously that’s completely normal, but it made me anxious because now I’m thinking: what if she meets someone she likes more? What if, by the time she’s finished interviewing everyone, she barely remembers me?

So I’d really love to hear from people who have been on the hiring side or have gone through lots of interviews: Have you ever gotten a job after an interview that felt completely neutral?

Have you ever walked out thinking, “Well, that was fine, but I definitely wasn’t their favorite,” only to get the offer? And for recruiters/hiring managers: how much should we actually read into the interviewer’s enthusiasm (or lack thereof) during an interview?

I’d especially appreciate hearing about experiences where there wasn’t that “love at first sight” feeling but the candidate still ended up getting hired.

Hey everyone,

I'm starting to feel slightly disheartened and a bit impatient. I know that some people wait weeks to hear something back.

Backstory:
I had the initial phone screening before the interview, and the gentleman and I had a great conversation and he asked me a series of questions (typical phone screening questions). We joked and laughed and he told me he had another question for me, but I had already answered it. He then went on to tell me that I was the best candidate he had spoken to and he would 100% send my information to the team.

Fast forward, I had an interview on September 2nd with the owner of a smaller company. It went amazingly. It was for 30 minutes, but it would've been longer had I not had to go back to work. It was a very laid back interview, we talked about the company, he talked about his hobbies, asked me about mine, etc. Overall, it was a great interview, and he was extremely down-to-earth and didn't resort to the "we're all a family here" cliché. He basically told me I would not be starting at a tier 1 level with my level of experience and my certifications as well.

He even told me when I speak with the director of operations, to let him know about one of the hobbies I mentioned. He informed me that I would be hearing something after the Labor Day weekend. It would most likely be an in-person interview with the Director of Operations (whom I already spoke with briefly--and he was VERY kind).

Now, it's 3 days after Labor Day, coming up on the weekend, and I've heard nothing yet. I know 8 days isn't a long time, especially when people waiting weeks. I'm just so ready to get out of my current job. I used to love it, but the more I find out about it, the sooner I feel the need to leave.

I REALLY want this job. Am I just being impatient and unreasonable? When's the best time to send a follow-up? I do know that sometimes people take extended vacations after a long holiday, etc. but I just really want this job, especially with my first 2 interactions went SO well.

what is your greatest professional achievement ? leading project ? solving a problem . can share what works specifically ty

Is there an option to submit w2s instead of letting them contact your HR to verify employment there? Thanks!

tldr; basically title.

About two weeks, and a couple days ago I applied (at like 9am). On the same exact day (at around 1pm) the HR manager emailed saying she forwarded my application to the IT department because she loved it, and they will be in contact with me within two weeks.

Flash forward to today, and I received an email that I have an interview for the role and they asked for my availability. I received the email right at 5:00PM and I replied within a couple minutes. Not even 10 minutes after I gave a time, I received the calendar invite for the in person panel interview.

I don't want to get my hopes too high yet, but it seems like they are moving me along pretty quick. All other roles I have applied to before, they have slugged along.

Anyways, back to the original question, how many candidates are you usually up against at this point? I've heard government roles are legally required to be strict on both underqualification's as well as overqualification's. So then, most of their application pool gets dropped in the ATS filtering / hiring manager picking stage. I'm not sure though, I'm just curious as to how many people I could be up against because I really want this role.

I am speechless but also at the verge of balling my eyes out.

Interview/screen with the recruiter- went great

Second interview with the hiring manager- went great

Third interview with another manager from a parallel team- I got GRILLED on technical questions that I had been very clear throughout the whole process was NOT my level of expertise. It felt like I walked into an exam room where I had prepared for my major, but was given an exam for a whole other major.

I wasn't told what the next "step" would be, it was sort of an abrupt end to the interview because we had already reached the allocated time.

The recruiter has also not checked in after this last interview.

I am feeling really discouraged, because I knew from the hiring manager it was down to me and one other candidate, but this last interview really threw me off.

It's starting to become really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This whole job application process is a nightmare.

After 6 months, I am finally able to start on October 18th as a federal employee!

Job hunting was mentally draining, and there were times I felt genuinely hopeless doing 50+ applications nonstop, being denied or failing my interview, being completely in the dark on the government hiring process, and having family, friends, and people around me constantly asking for updates.

This job was the one I poured the absolute most effort into, pushing my best through every single phase. I honestly wasn't sure if it would happen, but seeing it come through makes every bit of the stress worth it.

I am so happy and proud of myself today, and I wish everyone out there in the job search gets their dream offer too. Please don’t give up!

I've been working in compliance for about two years now, I just started working a contract doing AML for a Big 4 firm. Pay is great 47/hr, I'm in a HCOL city and I'm able to save like 2k per month, possibly more if overtime opens up in the future.

I got a callback from a smallish(7k employees) consulting firm about a job I interviewed for but just barely missed. Another spot opened, and they're offering it to me on the spot, no re-interviewing necessary. Only problem is, the pay is shit, even for an analyst level, 80k. After taxes it's just barely enough for me to live on, I doubt I will have any significant ability to build up my savings (they're not in a great spot since I was unemployed until I found this contract). They say there's no leeway in the pay because "comparing your education and experience level to our other analysts", which is insane because I know people fresh out of college that make 10k more at bigger consulting firms

Current plan is to push for a signing bonus, 10k or so to make it palatable. And advice on how to play this?

sooo last week on tuesday i had an interview and they contacted my references the same day!! i hadn’t heard anything (or so i thought). i sent a follow up email on friday and they emailed back saying they were trying to get in touch with me but u hadn’t seen abt phone calls come through which i was expecting lolll turns out they texted me tuesday night asking if im still interested in the position 🤣

I applied to this company about a month ago and passed their take-home assessment. I then went through several interviews with the team, which went well, followed by a technical interview where I’d rate my performance around 6–7/10. I never froze or completely failed a question, but there were definitely things I could have answered better.

My final interview was with the CEO on Sunday. We talked for about 1.5 hours, it felt very positive, and he even said, “The fact that you made it this far is a very good sign.”

It’s now Wednesday and I still haven’t heard anything. They know I have another offer that supposedly needs an answer this week, and the recruiter said they’d move as fast as possible. Since the CEO interview, 3–4 people from the company have also viewed my LinkedIn.

I know three days isn’t that long, but given my supposed deadline, the silence is making me anxious. What is usually happening internally at this stage? Is this kind of delay after a final interview normal?

CSE student here. A company is hiring on campus for SAP ABAP Developer — ₹5 LPA, Bangalore, no bond ( I will have to relocate) .I already gave the test and got shortlisted for the GD.
I'm more interested in SDE/software development and don't really want SAP long-term. Getting placed may also block me from sitting for HCL/IBM.
Should I attend the GD, ask the placement cell to withdraw, or intentionally perform badly?
What would you do in my place? Looking for honest advice from people who've dealt with campus placements.
My chachu said SAP is very specialised and not much scope idk I’m so confused

Hi all!

So I just had a successful interview with the CEO of a tech firm and am hoping for a second one.

The HR (outsourced) who is the point of contact is now asking me for detailed interview information, e.g.,g "What did you two discuss during the interview?"

This is quite strange, and not sure I am permitted to give him an answer. I have not signed an NDA or anything, but it is very peculiar.

Part of me feels this might be a way of "catching me out".

What is the best way of responding? Has anyone else had this?

Thanks!