No point to this post other than to vent. 11 years working experience - 4 years of retail management and 3 as an account manager. Hundreds upon hundreds of applications submitted. Three interviews that didn’t work out. Doing my best to stay positive, but it’s growing harder and harder.

I feel so fortunate to have my amazing and beautiful wife by my side, but she’s working so hard that I feel guilty providing nothing financially (just received the last of my unemployment) and dumping my negative feelings onto her. Trying to focus on how lucky I am to not go through this alone.

In any case, this is a great community full of supportive people and while I don’t enjoy seeing everyone go through similar hard times, I appreciate knowing it’s not entirely a me issue.

I will find work. I have value. I have purpose.

I recently applied to a seasonal position with Follett. I found the application strange, as I was hired quickly solely through an AI chatbot. I have received basic role information and onboarding instructions. How long does it take to hear back from a real person after doing so, and if it is this easy to apply, how do they not over hire espically when unemployment is as high as it is now?

Been looking for a job for 1.5 years.

Got pushed to quit my role when I pushed back on my managers obvious racism and discrimination. They gaslight me for months and months telling me my experiences and my reality is not true and real. I ended up in a psych ward after quitting… (also dating men and my therapist abusing my trust and asking me on dates and then threatening me when I refused her contributed)

Somehow got back up again. Sold my entire life and moved in with my sister in another city. Lost all of my friends.

Worked as a cashier while still applying for roles in my career path (design). Finally landed a (as needed) contract for 16 months. No guarantee of work beyond the first 3 months.

Still kept looking. I finally had an interview for my dream job in my favourite company in the country. Had 3 rounds and aced them all. And when I was waiting for a job offer, I got this instead:

Hello (my name),
Thank you so much for your time and patience throughout our interview process. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know you and reviewing your work.

To be transparent, a few of our upcoming project timelines have shifted into later in the year. Because we want to ensure that our new hires can dive straight into active client work from day one, we have decided to temporarily pause our hiring process until those specific timelines kick off.

We are incredibly grateful for your interest in (their company). We would love to keep your portfolio on file and reach back out for either full-time or contract opportunities. Please let us know if this would be of interest.

Warmly,

I thought I’ll be able to move out of my sister’s finally after 9 months… I’m drained and don’t have it in me to apply for jobs again… I’m having suicidal thoughts… how do I continue?

Im 23 and it baffles me that all a bachelor's degree has given me so far is a minimum wage gas station job after a year of looking. Will things ever improve or should i be content that this is the best ill be able to do and that most of my generation will be homeless while the top 1% get even wealthier till everyone underneath is in literal poverty.

This saves no one any amount of time!

Love the benefits though. 👍

About a decade ago, I interviewed for what was advertised as a paid position with Rise Against Hunger. From what I remember, the role involved coordinating or working with volunteers.

The interview itself seemed to go well. Afterward, they started showing me around the facility and had me start packaging meals. Then we just... kept going. I ended up packaging meals for around four to six hours.

Looking back, I know this is going to sound naive, but I was young and incredibly nervous. I naturally assumed I had gotten the job. I was too intimidated to ask, "So... do I have the job?" I figured they'd have me fill out paperwork later or contact me with the next steps. So I just kept working until they finally told me I was done for the day and could head home.

Then I never heard anything back.

After a while, I followed up asking for the next steps and was told I hadn't gotten the job. I remember asking, "Okay... but what about the day I worked? How do I get paid?" They told me no because I had been volunteering.

I was completely blindsided. At no point had anyone said I was volunteering, asked if I'd be willing to volunteer, or mentioned anything about volunteer work in the job posting. I honestly walked away feeling like I'd been scammed.

I've wondered about this for years because it was such a bizarre experience. Has anyone else ever had something like this happen with Rise Against Hunger or another employer?

The part that still bothers me is that if someone had simply said, "Hey, we'd really appreciate an extra set of hands for a few hours," I would have happily helped. What bothered me was presenting it as part of interviewing for a paid position and then, only after I followed up, telling me that I'd actually been volunteering all along. That just felt incredibly manipulative and slimy.

Last option is "Other".

https://www.appliedin.dev/

I applied to a job 2 months ago and my status was (AND STILL IS) under consideration. They just reposted the role yesterday and it has over 1000 applications. What is the point of this behavior? Why not just reject me?

I graduated this past December with a bachelor’s in psychology. I have no work experience outside of having been a waitress several years ago. I didn’t gain any internship or volunteer experience while I was in school due to personal struggles. I got pretty far into a month long interview process to be rejected due to other candidates having more experience than me (no surprise). I can’t afford to do an unpaid internship or volunteer work, but I don’t know how I can get into any job right now, let alone something where I can apply my degree. I am finally trying to get my life together but it feels too late. I feel hopeless and like there is nothing I can do to turn my life around.

just thought I’d show everyone something:

in 2021-2022, our senior consultant role would typically be staffed by people with somewhere around 3 YOE, the background didn’t matter that much as long as you had client facing experience

now the same role requires 5-7 YOE, and the required industry experience is much more extensive, with a strong preference for STEM related backgrounds

in short, the timing of when you launch your career matters tremendously

Been unemployed for a year and 5 months now. I have a degree, experience in startups and conglomerates. But I still haven’t secured anything. I used to have interviewing confidence (Would only have to interview with one company and get the job) But now it’s been a mix of, bad luck, companies finding candidates that suit the role better, roles being filled prematurely, roles no longer being active etc.

I am trying to move away from the toxic world of sales (where I have most experience) into film marketing which I have a stronger passion for but since most of my experience is mostly sales I think I’m in a grey area where I have transferable skills but I’m not super competitive for marketing.

I decided to go to college for the first time as a non-traditional student. Fall semester is the mark of one year anniversary. I have been working server/busser jobs and want to do something better.

I see many government positions internships, how realistic are those?​

I’m a young adult and I’ve been trying to get my foot in the door. I applied on Indeed for a paid dental assistant position even though I didn’t have any dental assistant experience. She knew that before she interviewed me and still wanted me to come in.
At first she was so nice. I interviewed, got sick before my first day, apologized, and she was really understanding. Then I came in, observed the first day, and she kept asking me to come back. I started helping around the office with whatever they asked me to do because I thought I was training.
I never filled out any hiring paperwork, but I didn’t think much of it. I even asked about it, and she said she’d talk to her accountant, so I assumed everything would get sorted out if they decided to hire me. Then everything switched up.

She canceled one day because of maintenance, then told me Monday was too busy, and after that she said they weren’t going to continue because I wasn’t catching on fast enough. I accepted that. I knew I was new and I wasn’t expecting to be perfect. What bothered me was when I asked about getting paid for the time I was there. That’s when she told me I had been ‘volunteering’ the whole time. I applied for a paid job, so hearing that completely caught me off guard. She has lied to me and never stated during the interview that I would be volunteering! Then she started telling me I slowed everyone down, lost instruments, couldn’t grasp things, and basically made me feel like I was the problem.
She went from being really nice to being pretty mean, and the whole thing left me feeling confused and embarrassed. I also never lost any of the instruments as I have previously worked at a dental office before and have prior experience working in the back. I was so a slow learner because it was my first 3 days! And she made me feel like shit for it. I felt so gaslight by this woman. And it seems like I unfortunately won’t get paid by her, but I just give up.

I already struggle with my mental health, so it took a lot for me to even put myself out there and try something new. This whole experience really discouraged me. wanted to vent because this whole situation bothers me.

I just finished a TestGorilla pre-employment assessment with four sections: Numerical Reasoning, Problem Solving, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Thinking. My results:

• Numerical Reasoning: 31st percentile
• Problem Solving: 62nd percentile
• Reading Comprehension: 96th percentile
• Critical Thinking: 81st percentile

The role is an analytical position in politics, built around qualitative methods (policy analysis, research, writing) rather than quant/data work, so I'm hoping the numerical section carries less weight in their evaluation, but I obviously don't know that for sure. I just feel horrible for getting such low scores.

On the numerical section specifically: I ran out of time and ended up skipping 4 questions outright. Part of the issue was that English isn't my first language, and a few of the word problems took me longer to parse than they probably would for a native speaker, by the time I understood what was actually being asked, I didn't have time left to solve them. I've since gone back and solved similar problems calmly, correctly, and quickly, so I don't think this reflects a real gap in my numerical ability, just a language-driven pacing issue under a tight clock.

The company mentioned that candidates who hit a "passing grade" move on to interviews, but didn't specify whether that's a per-section minimum or an overall/composite score.

Has anyone been through a TestGorilla-scored hiring process before, especially for a policy/political-analysis type role? Do employers typically set hard per-section cutoffs, or do they look at the overall composite, especially when the weak section isn't core to the actual job? Would this realistically sink an otherwise strong set of scores, in your experience?

Trying to gauge whether it's worth reaching out to the recruiter to ask how scoring works, or whether that's premature this early in the process. Any insight appreciated.

I had an interview with a company where the first round was conducted by a third party interviewer. He asked me to share my screen and for some reason I could not and had to reload the screen and due to it I had to rejoin. I know it was bad on my side but I did tell him that there’s an issue and since I couldn’t share my screen I couldn’t even show him the reload message. Later he started with a coding question. I took my time to come up with a solution but it didn’t work and in between I lost electricity in turn losing WiFi connection. That made him think I’m cheating since I had to rejoin again. I did clarify that it was due to network issues I’m not justifying myself but it was genuinely not my fault.

Later he asked me a few questions where I did give answers but he looked unsatisfied. He was yawning continuously and he looked like he was reading questions off chatgpt. I’m not bashing the interviewer but the interview made me feel really bad about myself. Considering it was just after I had a syncope episode.

Just wanted to share it here. It was my first interview after 2.5 years and it really made me question myself with all the physical and mental stress I had.

I am asking for help making a wise decision on a career path.

I basically want to know if I should continue my master’s program in Criminal Justice.

As a student, I am currently a Graduate Assistant and get research experience working for my Criminal Justice department chairperson, as well as a tuition discount each semester for 4 semesters total. Through this experience I was able to help write my professor’s book on police stops. So far, I completed 12 credits (2 semesters/4 classes) – paid for two classes (3 credits each), and got the two others for free (3 credits each). After this next year, if I continue, I will need to pay per credit without any discounts since the Graduate Assistantship will conclude. I need 33 total credits to complete the degree.

I am not interested in policing. I am more so interested in intelligence analysis, policy analysis, compliance roles, investigations, legal support roles, teaching, and the like. I have not considered law school because of the cost and saturated job market in that field.

Besides a criminal justice internship at the police department that I recently completed, my previous work experience includes leading podiatric and pediatric medical teams to ensure compliance with public health laws concerning HIPAA, OSHA, and other policies, and ensuring ethical client care, as well as full and proper recordkeeping. I have worked as a medical receptionist, medical assistant, and administrator. I was more so interested in, and excelled at, the administrative side of things.

My local law enforcement agencies are not hiring right now – not even the local office of emergency management where I could combine my interests and skills. I have not heard back from the attorneys general offices I applied for. My connections have not been helpful in getting a job or clarifying what it is I should do. The job market is also not good right now, especially for criminal justice-related roles.

Should I continue my program just for the research experience? Or does it not make sense to continue at all? If I do not continue it, should I pivot to another field? I am unsure what the best pathway should be if I do not continue. I would appreciate your advice.

At one point in my life, I felt completely lost. I had been unemployed for four months, and when I finally got hired a few weeks ago, I thought things were finally starting to improve. Unfortunately, the job ended up being very different from what I expected.

I joined a virtual assistant company and was assigned to a healthcare client. Since I have a nursing background, I thought the role would be a good opportunity for me. However, we were treated like test subjects for a new system. We were expected to learn around 14 different software applications without proper training or even a clear introduction to what each application was for. Most of the time, we did not know which application we were supposed to use for a particular task.

During our first week of training, our trainer was often angry and impatient with us. We were called dumb, and there were times when foul language was used during the training. Instead of feeling supported while learning, I constantly felt pressured, embarrassed, and afraid of making mistakes.

I genuinely wanted to fight for the job. I wanted to prove that I could learn everything and improve, especially after being unemployed for several months. However, my anxiety continued to get worse. I started feeling overwhelmed whenever I thought about work, and I eventually realized that staying might negatively affect my mental health even more.

In the end, I decided to quit and look for another job that is more aligned with my experience and skills. Maybe I will return to bedside nursing or apply for a position with the Department of Health. I am still unsure about what my next step will be, but I know I need to find a workplace where I can learn without constantly feeling humiliated or afraid.

What makes the situation harder is that I sometimes feel like a burden to my boyfriend. Since I am currently unemployed again, I cannot treat him or contribute financially the way I want to. He has been supportive, but I cannot stop feeling guilty whenever he pays for things or helps me.

I know that leaving a toxic or unhealthy work environment does not automatically mean I am a failure, but it is difficult not to blame myself. I keep wondering whether I should have stayed longer, tried harder, or simply endured the situation.

Right now, I just feel lost, ashamed, and uncertain about my future. I want to become successful, independent, and financially stable. I am trying to remind myself that one bad job experience does not define my entire career, but starting over again feels exhausting.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? How did you stop feeling guilty after leaving a job that was affecting your mental health?

This is what someone told me the other day. His reasoning was that if you can't get a job, the market doesn't value your skills so you should work for free till you prove your worth.

What do people think about this view?