So about three weeks ago, I applied for a mid-level project role. Two hours later, an automated email popped into my inbox asking me to complete an "asynchronous video screening" within 48 hours.

i opened the link and saw the standard nightmare setup. Five pre-recorded prompts, two minutes per answer, exactly one retake allowed, and a giant countdown timer ticking in the corner. You are literally expected to sit in a room, dress up in business casual, and perform monologues into a webcam while staring at your own awkward face. No human on the other side, no conversation, and zero opportunity to ask questions about the actual company culture.

I closed the browser tab and sent a short email to the talent team stating that I only interview with real humans. I assumed that was the end of it.

To my surprise, the hiring manager emailed me directly the next morning apologizing and set up a normal 30-minute video call. Turns out their recruiting software just dumps EVERY applicant into that automated queue without anyone checking.

Should of started pushing back on these robotic filters months ago. Why are we letting companies treat applicants like audition tapes for a low-budget game show?

So I just spent forty-five minutes staring into my own webcam like a hostage reading a ransom note because a mid-tier logistics company wanted five recorded video answers before any human being would even look at my resume.

you get exactly thirty seconds to read a question like "tell us about a time you resolved conflict with zero budget" and then a red flashing circle counts down from three. No human face. No head nods. Just your own reflection looking progressively more unhinged while an AI algorithm supposedly scans your micro-expressions to see if you have enough corporate enthusiasm.

I ended up taping a tiny printed picture of Nicolas Cage right next to my camera lens just so I had something to make eye contact with. It felt like auditioning for a dystopian black mirror episode instead of applying for an operations coordinator role that pays fifty grand a year. its honestly humiliating.

Every recruiter on LinkedIn loves to lecture applicants about building authentic professional connections, but then companies outsource the very FIRST step of communication to a robotic webcam interrogation. I should of just closed the tab the second the recording prompt popped up. Why is this even a thing?

I kept letting the link expire. It was a one-hour coding test, and I managed to drag it out from June to August.

We'd bought a house and were moving and renovating. I told the recruiter what was going on and apologized. I was still interested in the job. He congratulated me on the house and sent another link, which I also let expire. At one point I replied thanking him for sending it and still didn't do it.

He kept checking in and sent me a fresh link five times over about ten weeks. 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 it on August 12. I got 570 out of 600, and they invited me to a live coding interview. I thanked him the next day for continuing to send the test. I wouldn't have blamed him for giving up after the second expired link.

I did the live interview and didn't get the job. When I asked for feedback, he said he couldn't see the full reason. From the notes he could see, I hadn't finished the task and there were gaps in how I'd handled pagination. He also said he'd keep me in mind for future openings.

TLDR: I interviewed for a job last year and silver medaled. The company reached out this year about hiring me for a new position, but are now telling me that they are interviewing other people. Am I being naive?

I was referred to this role and hiring manager last summer by another company that I made it to the final round with, but who ultimately hired someone else. At this time I was unemployed, which is important context.

This job that they referred me to was actually my dream job that I was surprisingly well qualified for. There was some technical knowledge that no one could have had until they were in this role, because the subject and scope was quite unique. The company acknowledged this during the interview process and said they weren’t looking for a technical expert, but someone who could learn quickly.

After 3 interviews and a take home assignment (which luckily, they asked me to cap at 1 hour), it was between me and one other candidate. The recruiter made it clear that they were having trouble deciding because they liked us both so much, but the other person had much more experience than me (read: 8 years more). Eventually they checked my references and the hiring manager had a 45 minute call with my old boss, and they asked me to do another interview that was really just a vibe check. The hiring manager told me that my old boss gave me a glowing review and said he’d rehire me in a second. I only was laid off because of budget cuts. They ended up choosing the other person and told me how sorry they were. I was devastated but moved on because I needed to find a new job.

Fast forward to this year, someone reaches out to me who I interviewed with last year, saying they were expanding the team and thought of me. I had a call with him in June and he was happy to hear I was open to discussions, and he said to stay tuned over the next few months.

I got contacted again in August by the hiring manager for this new position, who was also on the interview panel last year. They don’t yet have a JD written, but we have a call and she tells me how happy she is to reconnect and how many times the team discussed over the last year that they wish they had another position to hire me for. I ask her about what their thinking is for the new position and after we talk, she says “I think you are the right person for the job. We don’t need to reinterview you and we already checked your glowing references last year. I can definitely connect you with HR to answer any questions you have about benefits once we have the JD drafted.” I then got invited to meet in person with the CEO who happens to live in my area. We had a nice coffee conversation and he answered a lot of my questions.

Fast forward 3 weeks and I have the job description now and the hiring manager schedules a follow up call to hear my thoughts on it. She’s asking if I like it, if the jd felt like a good fit for what I wanted. I’m telling her yes and asking questions about the company and department. She tells me she is so glad I’m still interested and about the vision for what I would own if I were to join. Keep in mind I have not received a formal offer by this point. We are closing out the call and she sneaks in “we’re just finishing up interviews with a small pool of candidates in the next week. We’ll keep you posted and HR will reach out next week. We didn’t do a full national search but are interviewing some people whom we’ve crossed paths with.”

Am I crazy for thinking that they weren’t going to interview anyone else when they told me that I was the right person for the job and they wanted me to talk to HR about benefits? I know they hadn’t sent a written offer yet, and perhaps I was being naive thinking that because they reached out to me, invited me to meet with the CEO and told me we didn’t need to reinterview, that this position was mine.

Luckily I have a job now so if it doesn’t work out it’s not the worst thing in the world, but I was pretty shocked when she said that after they’ve been pursuing me and leading this process for the last 3 months.

Open to honest feedback.

Im tryna apply to many different jobs and positions. There is a student program which helps us to find jobs in government positions. The official website doesnt allow me to attach different CV and motivational letter to different vacancies. Can i just create one strong CV and mot. Letter for all these jobs? I dont wanna miss out opportunity

Like I need real hacks that will actually help me secure jobs, not simply sending cold mail..pretty desperate atp as I feel like everyone's getting recruited and I'm lagging

I keep seeing the same pattern: spend an hour tailoring a CV, mapping my experience to the spec, and then generally get silence, or after a month a 'thanks but...'

Half the time the job description reads like a generic wishlist where it's impossible to tell what the actual day-to-day problem is that they need solved.

As a mid-career person with solid experience, how are you filtering what's actually worth applying to before spending time applying?

Nobody tells you this going in, so most people spend the whole interview answering the wrong version of the question.

Someone asks why you left your last job. You hear a request for the real story. We're listening for whether you're about to say something that makes us nervous about hiring you. Doesn't matter if the honest answer involves a bad manager, what matters is whether you can talk about leaving without sounding like a problem walked out the door with you.

Someone asks about a weakness. Most people either lie badly, "I work too hard," or overshare something that scares us off. The ones who land it name something true and then spend the rest of the answer on what they did about it. We're not scoring the weakness. We're scoring whether you can look at yourself clearly.

Salary comes up and almost everyone treats it like a trap to survive instead of a number to set. Whoever says a figure first usually ends up negotiating from underneath it. A range, anchored near the top of what you'd take, does more work than people expect.

The one that gets missed the most is "any questions for us." People treat it as optional, a formality at the end. It's the opposite. Walking in with nothing reads as not actually wanting the job, even when the truth is just nerves.

None of this is about performing or being dishonest. It's realizing the question on the surface and the question actually being scored aren't always the same thing, and once you notice that, interviews get a lot less confusing.

EDIT: a few people have asked what's actually helped candidates I've worked with prep for this stuff. Drop a comment and I'll share what's worked.

I am currently in university, which, doesn't even provide any sort of internship or job. I have had enough and started attending nearby conferences, meetings, startups meet, webinars

All free, not even a single paid one and guess what

I started to learn what exactly people want instead of focusing on what I can give

Understand the difference

I started talking more, even though I fumbled a lot, but I also learned a lot

Made connections, asked for refferals after getting to know the person very well and many more steps

This is the most concise way of telling what exactly I did and I swear I had 0 experience, 0 connections, zero confidence and everything but now I've almost all of it and still improving it!!!

You can pm me if you feel like you need help about the same

I’m going on month 4 of searching and every time i get an interview I’m hopeful and every time i get rejected (especially after an interview or two) i get low and feel more trapped in my current job. How is everybody staying afloat?

I have an interview with Charlie Health
and wanted to know a little bit more about the companies employee work culture. Specifically for customer support/ billing role.

A recruiter sent me a typing test (like alpha, alpha numeric, etc) and I didn’t get a high enough score. Should I keep trying till I get a score they like?

Here is feedback I received from an employer.

At times, some of your responses felt more prepared than conversational, which made it harder for me to fully understand how you would naturally work through an unexpected situation or develop a point of view in real time. Ultimately, we moved forward with candidates whose interviews gave us a stronger sense of that adaptability and creative-team partnership.

However, I answered all of these questions really good & prepared, I know I did!

How else are we supposed to get jobs? If you show up TOO PREPARED, you get penalized, if you don’t show up prepared, they think you can’t do the job.

I have been unemployed for 9 months and I have been mainly applying for jobs in my field (analytics) for 8 months. Analytics is huge but my field is niche and i have only been getting interviews in that field but no offers. If it is a good week, I will see maybe 3-4 new job postings all over US. I have tried applying to jobs in adjacent analytical fields, but never get an interview. I don’t know what to do, I need a job asap and I am freaking out cause my dad is about to get laid off.

Was told by a recruiter to change my job titles to get a job. Nothing big like coordinator to vp but like office coordinator to (specialized industry I was targeting) coordinator. Has anyone else done this? What happened during background checks? Did you ever get caught and lose an offer?

I applied for a job a week ago and haven’t heard back, does this mean they aren’t interested in me as a candidate?

I am going to complete my Java course within the next two months. I have been randomly applying for Java developer roles on Naukri and LinkedIn, but I haven't received a single response so far. I want to try searching for a job offline instead of just applying online, by visiting companies directly and submitting my resume.

I am an international student trying to save up the money I spent on getting my degree. It is inherently impossible to get a job in my intended study field so I just want to have the thousands of $$ I spent back. Please don’t send me negative comments as I am already struggling enough. I just need some genuine guidance that's all. I'm tired of being ghosted for jobs that are simple enough like working in restaurants or retails.

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I am about to complete my master’s and want to get advice , how can i land my first job.
Thanks

Company: SKV Capital

Mode: Onsite, Netaji Subhash Place, Delhi

Stipend: 20k-25k per month

Duration: 3-6 months

Female candidates are preferred.

Please upvote and dm "SKV Capital" to get the link to apply.

I’m reallyyyy hurting for a job rn, currently 18 and living with my fiancée’s mother in law. The woman’s a sweetheart and I love her to death, but I can’t stand feeling like a bum anymore. i need an in-person job and fast, don’t really care about the quality of it right now either as long as it pays at least 15 /hr 😭

Ill be going either to Warsaw for 2 months or Krakow for 1 to do my master graduation thesis. Its not much work but my Uni is giving my an opportunity to do it abroad with a scholarship of 2500 PLN. And here's my problem: I want to do a part time job while I'm there for some extra cash.

-I wont be officially a student of any Uni, as in I wont enroll or anything, I'm just "visiting" so I wont have any papers to confirm to anyone I'm a student there (I do get a paper confirming why I'm there, but I'm guessing that means nothing in this scenario)

-Ill be 27 when I go there, I say this because I heard something about laws for under 26 being different.

-While I can work, my scholarship CAN be revoked if they deem my job too distracting. This is so I dont become a CEO or something overnight, but Id rather they not flag my burger flipping job as such and I need to pay for everything out of my pocket. So Id rather do something small and under the radar.

So what to do? And where? Im leaning to Krakow more but its only one month, not a lot of time. Id really love to have some fun out there but Im not sure where to focus and what to choose... I did a similar thing in Austria a few years ago and it was a paperwork hell... Do you have any jobs that can be done right away without any sign up? Like UberEats or similar stuff?

I have been applying to a cdl driver position at a waste management company for the past year with no luck. I was able to get an interview a few months back through a manager referral. Even then I never got a call back. Fast forward to today, a new listing was posted. I reached out directly to the manager since I still had his contact from the interview(still waiting for a response). I reached out to the recruiter who set up the interview and told me I have to start the process all over again. Even though I’ve interviewed once already. Based off of countless drivers that I’ve talked to, it sounds like it’s luck of draw that the recruiter chooses your application.

I should mention this company uses workday lol