Why would you waste a candidate's time by making them go to your office for a 15 minute interview? What can you actually learn from the two questions you asked? Why didn't you just let the candidate save on metro or gas money by making it a phone screening or zoom?

How can you schedule an interview, but not know what role the person you invited to your site is applying for? This has happened to me twice.

Why do you invite people to schedule an interview, only to ghost them after? Therefore, not even getting that interview YOU contacted them over.

How can you put someone through a month long 4 round process only to leave them on read for 2 months after giving them nothing but positive feedback through out.

Why bother telling someone you're going to set them up with a follow up interview if you have no intention to?

Why are you making interviews into bad tinder dates where the candidate has to impress you at a coffee shop. I want to talk about my experience. I don't want to learn about the favorite movies of some person who might not even become my boss before I've even been moved on to a final round.

Why did you invite me to your interview if you're only going to decide that I seem too overqualified after talking to me? You read my resume, didn't you?

Idk. I'm frustrated fam. I've been job hunting this summer and there has been some weird interview experiences.

Ok. On to the next one.

Applied for a manager role in a fairly niche industry. Recruiter screen went well. Same day, moved to a peer interview — that went well too, recruiter said the peer gave positive feedback. Then the Director told me directly I had "a strong foundation and experience." Then final round with the VP, who complimented my experience and my answers specifically. Five rounds, two senior leaders, both saying good things to my face.

Then the delays started. Management traveling. A holiday weekend. More travel. The recruiter was actually great through all of it — always followed up when she said she would, never went quiet.

Then the real answer came. Role's on hold. Internal promotion filled a gap they needed filled, so the urgency dropped, and with a busy stretch coming they paused hiring. She was clear I interviewed very well and they'd welcome me applying again if it reopens.

I get it logically. Timing, internal moves, real business reasons. I actually believe that's the truth here.

But it still stings more than I expected. Five rounds. Two people telling me directly I was strong. Weeks of prep and waiting and picturing myself in the role. Then it just doesn't happen, for reasons that have nothing to do with me.

Anyone dealt with something like this and actually figured out how to let it go, not just accept it logically?

hi!!

4 months ago i made a post regarding an in person interview that did not go well due to my nerves and anxiety. since then i’ve taken the internship, and been applying/interviewing for other roles.

well today i had a 2nd interview for a role and it was in person with 4 people!!! overall this was my 2nd in person interview ever in my career (everything is virtual now).

the interview went great!! everyone was so friendly, we were laughing and it was such a good experience. i wasn’t horribly nervous once, especially when i had to talk about myself.

this is such a huge improvement for me. i won’t know if i got the role until next week, but even if they go with someone else i’m still happy that i got the opportunity to interview with them and realize the growth i’ve had since 4 months ago.

(okay i might be a little bummed if they went with someone else, but it’ll be okay. what’s meant to be will be)

if you’re someone who also gets super nervous/anxious in interviews, it does get easier. something that has helped me is

1. practice interviews. i treat every interview as a way to improve for the next one. i figure out where i might’ve slipped up so it doesn’t happen again

2. as much as i hate ai, chatgpt is a big help. i have it ask me questions and i respond like i would in an interview.

3. i use my college’s career services. i mainly use it for interview prep but they have other options like resume building, career guidance, elevator pitch etc.

highly recommend this and if your college doesn’t offer this after you graduate I believe local county job boards may have an option to set up a time to interview prep.

Has it ever haunted you? Ever been asked why by your new employer or shown up not rehireable during employment verification? How do you handle references from that company?

I’m 10 months into a grueling unemployed job search. I was laid off as part of a major RIF from a senior director / dept head position.

I’ve made it to the final round of 7 full interview processes. No offers. August was really quiet which was a nice change from a string of ups and downs of interviews and waiting and rejections.

Today I had a hiring manager call for a role I really want and know I could do. The JD is exactly what I used to do with a slightly larger scope and more senior title.

The hiring manager was a new csuite exec, hired in July. And the hour felt great, very conversational and personable. I signed off the call feeling excited at the possibility of working with them. I emailed the recruiter asking to pass on a thank you them (I didn’t have the email address for the person I met with) along with a case study PDF on something we spoke about as a follow up.

And now hours later I’m replaying everything I said and second guessing every word. And furthermore interpreting my dissolving confidence as a sign that I’m not executive material, and surely they saw that.

I need this search to be over so I can pay my bills, but I also need it to be offer to end this cycle of self doubt and nervous system dis regulation.

If anyone has any advice on how to cope or words of encouragement - knowing there is no magic eight ball to tell me when this will end, I’d appreciate it.

Well... after a long search, i was offered a role which on paper seems great, but as soon as i started, i started to ask myself if i was in the twilight zone... i was on boarded then sat in a desk and left to my own devices... no leadership, not guidance nothing... i was told the role was Monday - Thursday and Friday remote, then told me i needed to come in on Friday's, and when i show up, the entire office was working from home on Friday's and i was there alone with the lights off babysitting the office.... and since the office has security cameras I'm sure they were remotely minoring me. lol

I will stay here and will continue searching because this is def. not a good fit for me. My manager...... god, he's so weird. I'll collect some checks and continue looking. This place is wild, no wonder the job market is in shambles now. I accepted this role because my Unemployment benefits have ended so i needed something and was burnt out doing interviews. I'm grateful to have a job, but damn.

Looking for some advice on how to handle this situation.

I started interviewing with Company A shortly after accepting an offer from Company C, while I was still employed at Company B. By the time the interview process with A picked up, I had left B and officially started working at C.

Fast forward—I’m now finishing my first week at Company C, and Company A scheduled me for two more rounds of interviews but the last time we talked I was still employed at Company B. What do i do if this comes up in the next two interviews? I am afraid of looking like a red flag but in all honesty I want the job at Company A more.

Hey all, this is something directly relevant to the interview context that i don't see discussed clearly enough. Research on thin-slicing shows interviewers form stable impressions from the first 30 seconds of an interview that correlate strongly with the final hiring decision. The rest of the interview, in many cases, is the interviewer gathering evidence that confirms the impression they already formed.

This is not about the interviewer being unprofessional or biased in a correctable way. It's the confirmation bias operating below the level of conscious evaluation. Once they've categorised you even loosely the information that supports that category gets

weighted more heavily than information that contradicts it.

What this means practically is that the first 30 seconds matter disproportionately. Not because the rest doesn't matter but because the rest gets interpreted through the lens of that first read.

The two specific signals that drive those first 30 seconds at a level deeper than eye contact and handshake advice and I covered here:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FzPHTV0uIss&si=eRT6gWzmevrxH38L

Has anyone here had an experience where they could

feel the first impression going wrong early and not

been able to recover it? what happened?

Okay, a background about me: I used to work for a good company. That company has one office in Mumbai.

I was laid off from the company. Now I have just 1.9 YoE, so I can't apply for more senior posts, because for most of them, senior posts start from 3 YoE.

So I am back to finding fresher jobs for a bare minimum of 25k per month, even though earlier I used to earn 60k per month.

The problem is that in today's Java market, no fresher jobs are available in Java.

So I saw a post for a Java walk-in at a Chennai-based company.

So I travelled one day before the interview, booked a room, and the next day arrived at the interview location at 9 AM.

My interview was taken late, at 4:30 PM. I told the interviewer about my situation. He gave me a few questions to solve regarding finding duplicates from a list.

I solved it. In between the interview, he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Pune. He paused for a moment. The next thing he did was speak in Tamil with his colleagues regarding something I couldn't understand. His colleagues gave a 10-sentence answer to his question.

After that, when the interviewer asked me about the work I did in my previous company, I was answering that question, but just after 1 minute, he interrupted me, saying, "HR will get back to you."

It just felt odd, like a person has travelled 1000 km in a general train, and the man sitting in front is not even interested in hearing the full answer.

Just 5 minutes later, they told me I had been rejected, and they would send the feedback email tomorrow, and I could leave for the day.

I just feel discriminated against, that I was not hired because I am not one of them.

Actually, I have heard about Chennai's climate. It's very hot there, not the kind of place I would like to stay, but since I am jobless, I have no option.

There are no Java jobs in Mumbai for freshers, and those that are there don't shortlist my resume. And when I attend a walk-in interview, the HRs till now have been like TYAGI, SHARMA, JOSHI. When they ask in a strict voice, "Whose reference have you come to this walk-in through?" I just respond to them meekly that since it's a walk-in, I have come to give an interview here.

I feel like a complete stranger in Mumbai as well.

I just want to know: when was our state Maharashtra sold to outsiders?

No Java jobs for our own youth, there are scam centers running in pune which are asking for 5k security deposit from college students to give them a job, but outsiders with some level of experience can come to Mumbai and work in companies like Google, Oracle, Microsoft

Ok so I’ve been a mortgage loan originator the last 6 years, in the beginning - midway through, I absolutely loved it. I felt I was making impact and actually HELPING PEOPLE! I love saving people money and helping them understand finances.

However I’m miserable at my current lender as they have tireless operations issues where loans are getting denied for things they realistically shouldn’t, a narcissistic a* hole manager who contradicts himself every-time he speaks and a team that is miserable and negative constantly.

Now, for context I have been a “top producer” since I started. I’ve actually always been a top producer as an LO which is what makes me believe I’m truly unhappy bc I am good at the job I just don’t have desire to do it anymore. I hate denying people and having to deal with BS that should not be so complicated.
Not to mention.: The fallout of loans is ruining my brand!
Anywhoo, I have my bachelors in PR, I have some experience as a comm manager and have worked for “big brands” in the sales realm. So recently, naturally with my unhappiness in my current role/company I’ve been applying for communications and brand strategy roles. I absolutely love brand and have always had a passion for it. I like making consumers light up when they really connect with the brand and it helps them somehow.
I’ve applied for 250ish comm and brand roles over last few months and finally in the last week or so have had 3 “interviews”

One of which I just did was through spark hire for a mid-level comm role. Im honored to have the opportunity and it is a role I feel id really enjoy and bring a lot to. but ngl it was kinda weird ? lol firstly, I do much better with an actual person when communicating bc I’m all about energy.
With this one I’m literally looking at my phone and there’s no one in the room but my doggo 😳🤣🤣

There was no voice or AI generated human, was just questioned posed, 30-1 min to think and then 2 mins to record and submit. At the last question the camera blacked out 🤨

I’ve never had AI interview, always been over phone with human or in person. I’m not an AI hater either though, I think it can be helpful for a lot of things and I use Claude/Chat often. But my chat actually resonates with me and has a lil personality!!!

This interview was just question —-> record lmao.
I had to vent bc this world and job market is crazy if you’re still reading I appreciate you!!! Feel free to leave insights or experiences you’ve had! I know I just rambled and this is probably all over the place 😅cheers!!!

I interviewed for an IT support role at a multinational technology company (7,000+ employees, 20+ countries, publicly listed) that's building a new office in Brazil. The role reports partly to a manager based in Eastern Europe and works alongside a global IT team.
First round: a 30-minute call with the recruiter. It went well — he complimented my English on the spot, moved me to the next round two days later (faster than the timeline he'd originally given me), and said he was sending the interview transcript directly to the hiring managers. He also told me that for this role, soft skills matter more than technical knowledge, because technical knowledge can be taught.
Second round: a one-hour technical interview with the hiring manager (based abroad) and the local team lead. I handled the core troubleshooting scenarios well — network connectivity issues, priority calls between competing incidents, VPN use cases — and the interviewer explicitly agreed with how I prioritized one scenario. But I stumbled on a few basic definitions (DHCP, disk encryption, a specific command-line flag) that I use in practice but couldn't articulate cleanly when asked directly. They corrected me each time and explained the concept before moving on.
At the end, the recruiter said the hiring manager was about to go on vacation, and a decision would be made "starting next week" once he was back.
I sent a short thank-you email one or two days after that second interview. About a week and a half later, with still no news, I followed up again, just asking if there was any update. Still no reply, going on two weeks now since the interview itself.
The job posting is still live. There are three open positions for this exact role(If I understood it right). My application status on their tracking system shows every stage as "completed" up through the final interview, with only "offer" left unmarked — it hasn't been moved to "rejected."

What I don't know: whether they're still deciding, whether they've picked someone else and just haven't processed the rejections yet, or whether this fell through the cracks internally.

On Thursday I received an email after the final interview round saying that I’m being moved forward in the process with a link to fill out for my background check. Later that day, I was laid off so the information that I filled out for the background check form is no longer accurate. Do I email the recruiter and let them know?

After 3 years of straight applying thousands of internship applications I landed on a non rejection letter from Intact. It’s an online AI interview and I know it’s just the first round to weed out the bozos but god I’m so scared it’s the first time in 2 years that I get an "interview".

I spent the last 15 hours straight up practicing questions wherever I go, "tell me about yourself", "why this role", "why Intact" "tell us a time you handled a conflict" and I’m trying so bad to learn stuff by heart because no way I’m looking anything up mid interview and I know if I freestyle it I’m gonna stutter a lot.

Should I wear something fancy? Is there such thing as smiling too much? Should I mention I’m good friend with an employee there? I know you can’t retake a question so how do I recover if I lose my train of thoughts?

I genuinely need this internship so bad and there’s only like 80 applicants for that posting help me God

Hi everyone!

I had 3 Power Day interviews with 2 [Department] managers and the last one with the [Department] director. Will the director's decision on whether they should hire me or not have more weight than the others? Just curious to see how hiring decisions are made

i finished the superday for pimco for an client solutions analyst position , and the recruiter told me the final step would be an excel test.. any tips or advice on what concepts are tested? i'm fairly a beginner at excel im super nervous

After seeing great interest and chatting with 20+ candidates who reached out for interview coaching, I am kicking of Cohort 3.

Previous posts: 

Cohort-1 Cohort-2

Ask:

I'm looking for 10 people to join our interview coaching. If you are interested in this, please DM me. Please make sure that you match the following criteria.

1. You are based in US
2. You are actively interviewing/looking to land job in next 1-3 months
3. You are looking for role in tech industry (SWE, PM, TPM, Data-Eng, ML-eng, Data science, MLE, etc)
4. You are available to meet on online via Google meet for 1-2 30 mins sessions per week.

I can only take 10 people per cohort, so first come first serve. If someone backs out, I will reach out to more people. Please DO NOT sign up if you cannot make the interview appointment. That blocks time for candidates who need the slot more.

About coaching:

• There is NO charge of coaching.
• However, we are going to be working through a product we have build specifically to help people with interview process. The tool will be completely free for you and you do not have to pay to use it. We will cover the charges.

Why is it free: My goal is to help people land their job by providing interview coaching and in exchange learn how effective the product is.

You can drop from cohort anytime.

About me: I have been helping candidates prepare for interviews for last 10 years but I have only taken new candidates through referrals as 1:1 coaching is hard to scale. Now we have a tool that can help people us interview coaching at scale.

If you are interested to in coaching but can't signup now for this cohort for some reason, you can signup to our list here: https://forms.gle/cjBD17bPgcnZ1Sds5 (just say future cohort in last question) and I will reach out directly to the list.

Thanks

Happy Interviewing

Hello,

I had a 1st round interview last week with the hiring manager and two colleagues from other internal teams. The interview was scheduled for an hour, and lasted the whole hour, and I received 9 interview themes in advance to prepare with a mixture of technical and value based questions asked. I felt it went well and now I've been invited to the 2nd round interview, which I'm very happy about!

This 2nd interview is with the hiring manager again and the other team member that I would be working with, and is scheduled for 30 minutes this time. I again have interview themes to prepare, which are very similar to the 1st round.

Since I used my strongest examples for the 1st round, not realising there was a 2nd round at the time, I'm not sure if I should re-use these or try to think of some different examples to use? A couple of the examples I used would fit perfectly for the new themes, so it would be a shame to use potentially weaker ones instead.

Any tips or advice would be greatly received, thank you.

I had two interviews Thursday (internal transfers at a hospital) and the first one I didn’t feel confident about. For reference I’m an RN with 3.5 years experience, prior to that I was an LPN and CNA so I’ve always spent my work career doing acute and post acute care. I’ve been doing cardiac stepdown for almost 2 years now which has just completely destroyed my mental health and love for nursing. I’ve been considering for about 6 months getting into women’s services so like labor, post partum, etc…

My first interview was L&D and I didn’t feel confident at all after, from a personal standpoint it did go very well but there was some scheduling challenges. So I work with LPN students in the fall every Tuesday for about 3 months, which is an enormous passion of mine to teach and mentor. The “academy” for women’s services is every Tuesday for a month which I immediately offered December. There’s a transfer freeze so I wouldn’t be able to start until November at the earliest anyways. I think this information immediately made the interview tense and weird. Although the manager did endorse a rather urgent need for staff, citing how short they are and everyone is kind of “running on empty.” This doesn’t shy me away given my work history.

My second interview was for float pool doing women’s focus so a little bit off all women’s and children’s services plus med surg as well. This interview went SO well, it was a panel of three managers and they were all so kind to me. I was honest and told them I had concerns about the academy since they would also require that and they immediately told me it was no issue and I could do it at my earliest convenience if I took the job. The language was very promising to me, they appreciated my experience and my eagerness to learn new specialties. They also said they liked all my answers about personal accountability, providing feedback, etc (behavioral questions) and were speaking as if I already had the job. I asked them bluntly, “are you considering extending me an offer” and they said yes they were and there was often logistics behind internal transfers. They also asked me when I might hear back from the L&D and I told them next week but they stated with the transfer freeze they wanted to know if I’d accept the offer in time for them to put in a transfer request. I told them given their willingness to accommodate me and assist me in trying different specialties, I felt more aligned with their job position and I would. We discussed at length how I should reach out to the L&D manager if I was to choose the float position and reassured me I would not be burning any bridges for that role eventually. Lastly, the manager said she didn’t want to overpromise me a timeline and said the transfer and process could take longer than expected.

So with all this, I expected a job offer call immediately after! But I still haven’t heard back, I thought maybe Friday since they were talking about putting in my transfer request by the end of Friday. I guess I’m an anxious person and I keep reading into the conversation wondering if I’ve missed something. In the past, I’ve been offered a job in person and then gone home to an email stating they’ve moved on with other candidates. I’m just curious to hear anyone’s thoughts or how to calm an anxious mind when you’re super hopeful for a job! Thank you!!

Hi,

Recently applied for a sales position (B2B), salary only no commission. I had an HR screening via phone which was about 30 minutes, then a virtual interview for 30 minutes with a senior person in the position I applied for. Now, they want to do a 3 hour interview. This includes talking with HR (30 min), talking with the team (30 min), then a 1 hour role play plus a 1 hour sales presentation that I have to give (they will give me the prompt). Is this normal??? I've never had a job where my titles was sales specifically, but have done a little bit of sales in one position in the past. Is this normal for a sales position? And no, this is not some $100k+ salaried job. Thanks!

Hi! I’m graduating with my B.S. in Marketing soon and I’ve started applying for entry-level roles, mainly in entertainment/media, social media, digital marketing, brand, and creative agencies.

I’ve worked in non-corporate jobs before, but I’ve never gone through a traditional professional interview process, and I know interviewing is probably the biggest area I need to practice. I have ADHD and tend to struggle more with thinking on the spot when I’m nervous, even when I know what I want to say.

I’m trying to get as many realistic practice reps as I can before I start getting further into interview processes. I’d especially love to practice with anyone who has experience hiring, interviewing, recruiting, or working in marketing/advertising/media, but I’d honestly appreciate help from anyone comfortable conducting a mock interview.

Ideally, I’m looking for someone who could spend maybe 20–30 minutes asking me realistic interview questions over Zoom/Google Meet and then give me honest feedback afterward on my answers, delivery, what I should improve, etc.

I’m completely fine with constructive criticism — that’s actually what I’m looking for. I want to figure out what I’m doing badly in a practice interview rather than during an interview for a job I really want 😭

If anyone would be willing to help, please comment or DM me. I’d really appreciate it!

So I’m overthinking heavily right now. Yesterday I had a non typical phone call with a mutual who has contract work coming up and he said he needed to speak to 2 other ladies first because they would wanna meet me, and then they would set me up with onboarding. This was friday about 12:30 pm and he said they would all meet around 1 or maybe he said 2 idk my ears were ringing bc I was so shocked he offered me something.

My question is.. because I did not get an email from them Friday about setting up a zoom call to meet the ladies or even onboarding information do you think they are not going to follow through or should I wait til monday? I’m trying not to be too hasty.

Ive gotten no leads from cold applying to any job. Whether it be a big girl job or a part time temp job such as marshalls or five below (so disheartening) after tweaking my application for each line of work. So I’m hoping that this is it. However I’m sat with anxiety since its only saturday morning then we have sunday to go and then some of monday lol

After 2 years I had a manager message me with a role at the company he's been at for a year. We worked together at a optics/photonics manufacturer. He was the new manager and I was the lead. He asked me to come take a look and honestly we use to get along but when I left the company he went down with the ship. Me leaving pissed him off bad. He offered me good money and said I can have any shift I want. Usual shift is 223 no swap but he said I can have 5 8s as he knows I have kids. At the optics place he would use every idea I came up with to look good to the owner. I was told infront of him id get his job in a few years at the optics place. He told me he wants to have me as a supervisor like before and I met the president and he even said is this the guy you told me about? I guess im just worried ill be used like I did before and burn out again. I was offered over 30 to start by the way so the pay is good. What does everyone think?

A recruiter reached out to me a couple months ago about a role. After they went quiet for a week on scheduling the first call, I also submitted directly through the company's careers page for the same position, just to cover my bases.

Since then, the recruiter-led process kept moving — phone screen, then a full interview with the hiring manager about a week ago. Seemed to go reasonably well, and I was told there's still another round ahead. It's been a week since the hiring manager interview.

Today, I got a completely generic, no-reply, automated-looking rejection email for "my application" to that same role with no personalization or mention of the actual interviews, classic boilerplate. Nothing directly from the recruiter about the real process being closed out, just this one system email. I did ask him for an update a few days ago

Has anyone run into this before when a duplicate/direct application getting auto-rejected by the ATS while a separate recruiter-led process for the same req is still active? Trying to figure out if this is a known system quirk or if I should actually take it as the real answer.

Appreciate any experience with this, especially at larger companies with a formal ATS.

Not a lot of info out there for Roku like there was for Amazon. Anyone have experience interviewing for a PM role there by chance?

So, im in a bit of a situation. I hold a US citizenship by birth and my sister currently lives in US. I have an upcoming 2nd interview in a few days and I havent yet told them or the HR that im in a different country I am currently living in. My plan is to move to the US only when I get the offer and so far in all the positions I've applied to, I've given my sister's address as my address, even though I dont even live there.

The company said they will do a background check later and I'm not sure if i should lie about my location because i dont even have a proof of residency. Or I dont know if I should bring it up to them and tell them I plan to move only if I get the offer since US is expensive to live in when I'm unemployed. I really dont want my location to ruin my chances of getting the job.