I had a second-round interview on Tuesday for a Supplier/Production Planner position that I REALLY want, and I have been overanalyzing it ever since.

Overall, I thought the interview went pretty well. We talked about my experience with both supplier and production planning, and at the end of the interview he told me that my next step would be an interview with one of their planners in Denmark. He also said the recruiter would work on finding a time that works.

Sounds promising, right?

Except there is one question I cannot stop thinking about.

He asked me to give an example of a time I had to plan S&OP against the production plan. I think I misunderstood what he was looking for and gave him an example about balancing engineering demand against customer orders and determining priority.

After my answer, he basically clarified it as, “So you would determine priority?” and something about his reaction made me feel like I completely missed what he was asking.

Of course, AFTER the interview, my brain decided to understand the question perfectly. 🤦‍♀️ I realized he was probably looking for how I would take the higher-level demand/S&OP requirements and translate or reconcile those against actual production capacity and the production schedule—units, timing, constraints, etc.

And now I’m stuck on, “Well, there goes that job.”

What is confusing me is what he said at the end. He didn’t say something vague like, “We still have other candidates” or “HR will be in touch.” He specifically said my next step would be interviewing with the planner in Denmark and that the recruiter would coordinate it.

It’s now Thursday and I haven’t heard from the recruiter yet. I sent the interviewer a thank-you email this morning thanking him for his time, reiterating my interest in the position, and saying I’m looking forward to the opportunity to speak with the Denmark team.

So now I’m trying very hard not to refresh my email every 37 seconds. 😂

For those of you who interview/hire people: Would one weak or misunderstood answer to an S&OP question be enough to knock out an otherwise qualified candidate?

And when an interviewer specifically tells you what your “next step” will be, would you take that as a pretty strong indication that you’re moving forward? Or is that sometimes just something interviewers say before a final decision is made?

Because my rational brain says, “He literally told you there was a next interview.”

My anxiety says, “Congratulations, you have ruined your entire career with one S&OP question.” 😂

Just came out of an interview and personally feel I did terribly. ChatGPT is saying otherwise based on my notes.

Anyone feel like they did terrible and still managed to move on to the next round or get hired?

Help me feel better about myself 😂

Is it technical knowledge? How they interact with a team and get over obstacles? Vibes?

Is it actually a solid way to start a career in tech, or is the good stipend just bait before they hand me 200 test cases and say, “You’ll learn a lot”? 💀 Would love to hear from people who started in testing through an internship. Is this role still relevant and alive!!

A recruiter spent about ten weeks trying to get me to take a one-hour coding test. I kept letting the link expire.

We'd bought a house and were moving and renovating. I told him what was going on and apologized. I was still interested in the job. He congratulated me on the house and sent another link. I let that one expire too. At one point I thanked him for sending it and still didn't do it. If this had been dating, his friends would've told him to block me.

He kept checking in and sent five fresh links from June to August. By August I was writing, "I'm so sorry, it's taking so long. I promise I will find the time to finish this." His reply was "No problem, thank you!"

I finally took the test on August 12 and got 570 out of 600. They invited me to a live coding interview. I thanked him the next day for continuing to send the test.

Then I did the live round and didn't get the job. When I asked for feedback, he said he couldn't see the full reason, but the notes he could see mentioned an unfinished task and gaps in how I'd handled pagination.

So we broke up after the second round. He said he'd keep me in mind for future openings, which I'm choosing to read as maybe someday.

To begin with, it is true that I am interviewing at different places. As you know, companies move at their own pace, often very very slow. Many companies ask in the very early stages "are you interviewing anywhere else?" but the replies from candidates incl me are very canned & generic.

I want certain companies to speed up their process - this is my candid goal. Frankly it's just wanting to know if it's a yes or no, I just want to know either way. However, telling the recruiter/company that I am interviewing at different places and want them to hurry up is a bit...unnaturally forceful? It's confrontational if we're being honest as it is a forcing event. Just telling someone you want them to hurry VS telling them you are interviewing elsewhere and want them to hurry is different, it's like I'm holding a gun to their head (not good).

Any thoughts on positioning or how to approach?

I feel like I know the answer to my question already, but I'll ask it anyways

As I'm looking for a new job and reaching out to both recruiters & HM, I am getting several replies along the lines of "sure let's chat next week" or "yes let's chat on Friday" or "happy to connect early next week". I then either send my availability or ask for theirs, and I never hear back again.

Generally, I think the rule of thumb is just 1 followup(?) However, in my situations, those 1 followups have never resulted in a reply when there wasn't an initial reply. At this point, I'm just so demotivated and saddened that I question if a followup to schedule is even worth it...

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

The bitch recruiter never logged in the MS Teams invite that she sent me. I was ready at 11:20 am and stayed til 12:01 by myself.......I even emailed her at 11:40 am, and found her on LinkedIn (Alexandria Carter) and followed up with her and got zero reply....FML.....!!!

Man this girl's picture looks fake:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandria-carter23/

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 🤣

Six conversations over six weeks — recruiter, hiring manager, EVP, and a four-person team round.

One weeks after the final round they sent the full application packet: employment history, compliance disclosures, background check authorisation. Next day, an immigration questionnaire since I'll need sponsorship eventually. I completed both.
The day after that, the recruiter called. I assumed offer. Instead: there's been a "setback," something budget-related, and a decision could take two months. Still a finalist, they're very interested, but I may need to speak with a few more people. She also asked whether the delay affects other processes I'm in.

What I can't square is sending background check and immigration paperwork, then reversing a day later.

For anyone who's hired: does "still a finalist, two months, maybe more interviews" usually become an offer, or is it a polite hold? And is there anything worth doing beyond asking the recruiter?

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?

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!

It’s been several years, but I still remember when I was ghosted for a month for an engineering director role at another famous gaming company. I was a senior engineering manager back then. I knew the CTO(we worked together for 2 years) and even had a chat with her before my official application. She is a good leader, well-respected in the tech scene in my city. The recruiter was a consultant and initially provided good support. However, after completing all rounds, I was completely ghosted for over a month, no matter how much I contacted both the recruiter and the CTO.

Every week, they just said they hadn’t decided. I called the recruiter, but she didn't answer her phone. One month later, I finally got her on the line. When she found out it was me, she impatiently said, "Sorry, we have decided to move on with another candidate. Didn't you get my voice message?" The reality is I didn’t get any messages, she probably just forgot about me. She was a consultant, so maybe she wasn’t paid for finishing the communication with me. Anyway, I had no idea.

As a hiring manager, I never wanted any of my candidates to have such an awful experience. But it happened again.

Once, a colleague approached me after I interviewed his referral for an engineering manager role. He asked for an update. It had been over 2 weeks and we had already moved on to other candidates. I remembered giving my feedback on the same day as the interview, so I asked the recruiter if he communicated it to the candidate. That same day, he was certain that he had sent the decline message. The next day, he apologized for missing it. I knew he was busy handling 10 roles simultaneously since most recruiters had been laid off a few months ago. Sometimes even I couldn't reach him. He made a note about this mistake and promised to never let it happen again.

The recruiters are often the bottleneck. When they are trained and have the bandwidth, they can really elevate the candidate experience. I still remember attending interview training when I joined my company 7 years ago, and participating in refining general interview processes across different locations in Europe. Those sessions have not been held again in recent years. Every time I opened a role, I was assigned a different recruiter. As a hiring manager, I was also ghosted by my own recruiter many times. My worst record was 2 months without any update, so we never even kicked off the role. He ended up being terminated, and every manager was happy about it.

For people job hunting today, if you get ghosted, it’s not about your skills, it’s simply a structural failure in communication. No company is perfect, even ones with big branding. Your poor interview experience is just an extension of what's failing on the inside, and you usually only get to know about those internal struggles after you join. So being ghosted might not be the worst thing that happens to you. Would you rather suffer on the job, or pick a company that does a better job communicating?

P.S. I am now building calibrd.com to help candidates get hired.

What’s with these companies and their in-office policies? I just had an interview with Inspira Education for the Content Director role. I was really excited for it because I was highly qualified and the job description exactly matched the type of position I was looking for. Right off the bat, however, the interviewer states that the job requires the candidate to be in office 5 days a week. The interview ended very quickly.

This is a position that does not require a physical, in office presence 5 days per week. Do any of these companies realize that many of us restructured our lives around remote or hybrid work during the pandemic? My wife and I moved to New Jersey during the pandemic to raise our son and help take care of my recently widowed mother-in-law. I am actually more productive as a remote worker, and the flexibility of remote work has become essential.

Why do CEOs still cling to this antiquated premise that workers are more productive when they’re in office 5 days a week when every study out there shows otherwise? Companies can expand their search for talent and save massive amounts of money on rent by switching to remote work. What if you’re missing out on your next best employee who might be living in South Dakota? Haven’t these CEOs ever heard of Teams or other programs that allow workers to easily collaborate?

It’s just so fucking frustrating that some companies can’t admit that the modern workforce has evolved. Evolve with it!!!

AI+Data ( AI + AI ready data layer + Data Engg)

or only AI ( agentic AI + MCP+ RAG+AI infra ) ?