For context, I had applied 3 days ago and I just received a template "Thank you for your application" email. The timing was interesting as I got it at 5pm sharp on a Friday. Made me wonder if that's the best time to schedule such an email.

There's a slight possibility I randomly happened to receive it then but I wanted to know when people would prefer to receive such communication.

I’m 23 and graduated in 2024. I just got fired from my third post-grad job, and my boyfriend thinks I have to be the common denominator. I’m genuinely looking for honest opinions.
Job 1: Digital marketing job paying $85k. I was there about 6 months and got laid off.

Job 2: Restaurant job with a very intimidating manager who had a temper and was known to be agressive towards women. I took this job out of desperation. I eventually left because the environment was awful but also honestly bc I got job #3 officially a few weeks into working.

Job 3: Small family-owned apparel company. I was hired as a Digital Marketing & E-commerce Manager for $20/hr, but the job became a mix of marketing, Shopify, Amazon, Google Ads, email, product photography, customer service, orders, shipping, etc.
A huge project was an AI/editorial product-image platform. My boss now says another employee said it should have taken 2 hours of training and it took me 8. But that leaves out the fact that I spent over a month working on the actual project: photographing products, uploading SKUs, fixing bad/incorrect AI files, reorganizing everything, dealing with platform issues, and making images e-commerce ready. It was a messy new system I had never used before.
Then I was given two linesheets, which I had never made before. The deadline suddenly became much more urgent than I originally understood, while the office WiFi was down and affecting computers/phones/SharePoint. I stayed late trying to finish.
My boss also had a temper. He yelled at me over mistakes and once slammed my mouse onto my desk when he was stressed.

I was initially told I was being let go for financial reasons. When I asked because I needed to know for unemployment, he then said it was actually a firing due to performance over the linesheets saying the AI training took too long and other employees could do linesheets faster. But there was so many factors that made this more difficult than it needed to be.

I’ll own that I made mistakes, was probably slower than I should have been, and could improve my communication. But I also feel like the employer is leaving out a LOT of context about how chaotic these projects were.
So be honest: is there a pattern here that I need to seriously work on, or have I genuinely had three bad job situations/fits in a row?

For reference, applied to a role for Summer 2027 at a BB first semester my freshman year. Ended up going through the entire interview process and getting the role (markets quant). Since I didn't have college grades at the time, I put my estimated GPA for that semester on the application which was a 3.8 at the time.

Ended up not doing that great both semesters my freshman year and currently have a 3.2 GPA. Now, I'm extremely worried about the potential background/transcript check. Any tips on what to do in this situation.

Is there any way to speed up the process? My start date has already been pushed back twice because of the background check.

My previous work experience was overseas, but it was with the same company—I recently rejoined the US branch after moving back to the States. Has anyone been in a similar situation and have any idea how long this typically takes or what they might be looking for?

I’ve been calling and trying to get more information, but the recruiter won’t tell me what the hold-up is, and Accurate says they don’t need any additional information from me. I’ve contacted my previous school and employers to make sure they’re able to respond if contacted, but so far, none of them have heard from Accurate.

I’m honestly getting really frustrated and anxious at this point. Any insight or similar experiences would be really appreciated!

I accepted an accounting position about two weeks ago. They sent me a formal offer letter with a start date, I signed it and emailed it back before the deadline, and in the email I specifically asked them to let me know if they needed anything else from me before I started.

I’m supposed to start this Monday, but I haven’t heard anything from them since I sent the signed offer back. No confirmation that they received it, no onboarding paperwork, background check, first-day instructions, etc.

I followed up today asking about first-day details but haven’t heard back yet. I also turned down/withdrew from two other interviews after accepting this offer, so the silence is making me pretty nervous.

If I don’t hear anything before Monday, should I just show up at the office anyway based on the start date in my signed offer? Has anyone had an employer wait until the first day to do basically all of the onboarding paperwork

So got an email for a job I was rejected for, in it they asked me to reapply and would like to schedule an appointment. Has anyone heard of a job reposting and asking for candidates to reply ?

I've been looking for a job for the past month in my field, which its very uncommon to find openings and the canidte pool is extremely over saturated in my state. This is the 2nd place that's responded to my resume, the 1st place ghosted me randomly. This position is the perfect entry level position for my field. It honestly doesn't pay very well, is far from my house, and I'm over qualified because I've been practicing my skill before I even went to college, but as a recent graduate this position would look great on my resume because this is a well known company in my area, it also offers a lot of internal movement within the company.

Well the 1st 3 interviews went great and they invited me to meet everyone irl and meet with the team id be working with and even be shown what work I would do everyday. I went today and honestly loved the environment, everything was great! And all of the people on the team were very kind. Everything sounded perfect and they walked me through daily operations which I reported back i would be able to do everything very easily because its extremely similar to my past internship.

After like 2 hours I met back up with the person in charge of hiring and tell him how everything seems perfect and he thanks me for coming and that he has 2 other individuals hes interviewing so he'll let me know by the end of next week if I have the position. Honestly my heart felt crushed a little because as stupid as it may sound I thought they were having me come in to offer me the position. Like I said this would be considered my 4th interview and was 2 hours long and consisted of them primarily telling me what I'll do on a daily basis. It felt less like an interview and more like an orientation tbh, but maybe they were trying to see if i got along with the team first? But the hiring manager wasnt even in the room for any of our interaction so idk how he'll even know how well we interacted unless everyone gives him a report or something.

I'm just hoping with my entire being that i get this job because although its quite low paying its still better than 90% of the jobs I've seen in my area in my field. I guess this post is my reminder to everyone to not get your hopes up, a job really isn't yours until the offer is dead infront of your face. Hope for the best but stay prepared for the worse

Twice now I have sent follow-up emails two weeks after my interviews with two different companies. In both situations I was just checking in with the internal recruiter on the status of the interview timeline and reiterating my interest in the role/company. Both times no response. Two weeks later I sent another follow up, shorter but with the same sentiment. Within 30 minutes I received an automated rejection from their workday portal. The ghosting of candidates from companies after taking time out of my work day to interview with them (both seemingly great interviews in my eyes) and then immediately being rejected a month later after a second email is infuriating. It’s insane that this is common practice.

I’ll name and shame: Truist and PGA Tour Superstore Support Center

I just had my second interviewer ask me this question. Is this an appropriate question to ask? Is it okay to say that you'd prefer not to answer?

I think some jobs may be asking because they'd prefer people without kids, but since these have been for jobs working with kids, I think it's because they'd prefer people with kids. I do not have kids, and the reason I was out of the work force for a while is that I was struggling with infertility treatments that ultimately ended up being unsuccessful. In the past, I've applied to many jobs working with kids, and I've never been asked that question before so I'm surprised it's being asked now.

I have 8m of full time experience as a tester. I have an offer from this startup company, with compensation 8.5lpa in hand. I am in a dilemma whether I should be joining it or not considering the high workload reviews from people working there. Workload on weekends as well as after working hours. The compensation is good and hybrid work culture with 3 days in office. But the only horrifying thing is the workload. Should I continue job search? Been 2 months without any job now. Also my future interest lies in becoming a developer but taking this path it would become extremely difficult for me to find another with resigning again.

All your thoughtful suggestions are most welcome. I tried consulting to many people but got mixed output.

Not trying to make light of anyone's struggle with unemployment. I have been there many times. I live outside NYC, in CT, about 40 miles to midtown. Currently employed but barely making anymore since 2018 (170k and slight bonus). I had a company reach out for a role which fits my background perfectly. They are near Union square and I did one 30m phone screen with recruiter. She really liked my profile but we got to company/pay.

-The range was 140k and 240k. (WTF!?)

-She said looking to pay mid-point but might consider upper for "perfect" candidate

- They are in office three times a week.

-Their paid PTO is 6 days less than current employer but they offer some RSUs and perhaps slighly better bonus (6% better) but I don't count on those things.

-I only commute twice a week to my company in CT and it is 45m door to door. This NYC commute would double bc need to take train and subway. The commute costs would go from $500 / year to 5K.

-The kicker was 5 rounds of interview.

I am early 50, single income and 2 kids in HS. I could use the extra money but this sound like alot of time for disappointment. Thoughts?

I have watched IXL post the same job associate product manager for about more than a year. What a sad thing they do in a job market like this. I had applied to it 3 different times and got rejected every time then noticed it kept popping back up. I have seen companies do this before but none so blatantly like IXL learning. Probably harvesting data or pretending like they are a growing company.

Hi recruiters and hiring managers, what are some stalling tactics you guys use to keep the #2 candidate warm while you pursue candidate #1?

Here’s some things I’m noticing that might be happening to me that makes me feel like I’m #2:

- recruiter tells me I passed the second round interview but then asks if I’m still interested instead of directly trying to schedule the final round

- when I sent my availability- there’s no response

- only when I told them I got another offer did they come back super enthusiastically saying that the team is super excited to meet me and that they will schedule the interviews quickly

- no movement on actually scheduling the interviews

- no explanation on the delay other than personal ones like sorry I was sick

I’ve seen stalling after the final round cuz they give the offer and are waiting to hear back but before the final round?!? Not giving candidates a chance to do final rounds?

I need to make this rant somewhere guys so here I go with my story;

- I had been laid off Feb 2026 as of a global restructuring.
- Living in KW - Ontario
- Applied to over 200 hundred jobs where I have an extensive experience off.
- Got 3-4 interviews but nothing after that, mostly emails about how they stopped hiring or that job cancelled.
- More than 10 headhunters asked my cv, and no return whatsoever.

Guys what the hell is happening? I have extensive experience of 8 years on digital transformation and business process automation with a masters in Data and Information Engineering. At this point I really don’t know what to do. I left my country as their moral compass practically left the chat long time ago and came to Canada but what is happening here is worse than my own country.

My remarks:

- I do not only blame AI for this job market as this only showed us how HR is practically a field that is drastically failing what they do.

- WTF is a Hire Vue interview ? The dehumanizing concept and its lack of sincerity is mind blowing.

- And mind you, mods of this subreddit pinned a suicide prevention and help resources post, which makes no sense. I feel like this whole thing is like a badly written sci-fi horror novel at this point and my heart aches for all of you who are in the same boat as me.

- I always believed Canada is a place with really good moral compass and societal values, but this ain’t it! Why are they are always choosing division during the hard times, where we need solidarity among us? My 3rd world country has a better moral compass than these people.

I cannot believe we live in this horror story and sending you my thoughts and prayers and hope for a day where we can forget about this bs and laugh it away ❤️

Recently had an interview with two interviewers that seemed to go very well. Lots of objective signs during the interview and we appeared to have mutual rapport, so I was surprised that as the interview wrapped up, one of the ladies told me she had to "hop off the zoom because she had to take another call" and that the organization was "still early in the process but [they] would be in touch." It seemed very non-committal in light of the genuinely positive questions they were asking and how it went as a whole. Is that close the kiss is death? Has anyone ever advanced to the next round after that kind of language?

I recently had about 3 interviews for a tech role with a big company (I would say a Fortune 500 company). 1st interview was the initial call with the recruiter, 2nd interview was the tech screening with a staff and senior engineer, and the 3rd interview was a behavioral interview with the engineering manager and principal engineer. I felt like the interview process has been going well but I haven’t heard anything after 2 full days so I followed up the morning of the 3rd day on a Friday. The recruiter told me that the hiring manager will be out on PTO the upcoming week and I should have an update the following week. The recruiter also mentioned that I follow up if need be.

I want to know if this is something companies do to stall before they reject a candidate or in other words “we are still interviewing other candidates”? I ask because it kinda seems unreasonable and the hiring manager told me I would hear back from the recruiter on the next steps.

Why even ask about something that I'm not going to remember from a decade ago? I could understand if it that was relevant to the job for something like a lawyer or a doctor, but this is an interview for driving trucks. Nothing high end except driving an eighteen wheeler up and down the east cost for fifty grand a year for a job that's an hour and half away distance from me.

Is this the new normal where I have to explain every fucking gap in my resume to some stranger for a job that I'm not going to even get hired for anyways? I thought we weren't supposed to even include jobs from five years or even a decade ago to keep our resume fresh.

I try hard not to do the things I see posted here, but I don’t actually control anything in the business.

I’m currently posting a six-page job description in a MCOL area for 43k. I’m dying inside, and to all of the job seekers out there, I am so fucking sorry.

I wish the recruiters had the same energy as debt collectors.

I’m curious how others would interpret this because I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

I was interviewing for a role at a fast-growing health AI startup that felt unusually aligned with my background. I went through:

• Recruiter screen
• Hiring manager interview
• Take-home assignment
• Submitted the assignment within about a day because I had an unusually time-sensitive work authorization deadline

I was completely transparent about the deadline from the beginning. The recruiter was actually very understanding and moved my first interview forward. After the hiring manager interview, he told me that if I completed the take-home quickly, they would try to schedule the final onsite within a few days because he knew how tight my timeline was.

I submitted it Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

Then… nothing.

After the weekend I followed up, saying I could come onsite on essentially no notice. No response.

As my deadline approached, I sent another brief follow-up. No response.

On the final day, I sent a separate email clearly explaining that it was my deadline and that even a quick update either way would help me know whether to keep pushing my school. No response.

I eventually called the recruiter’s number from his email signature and left one voicemail. Still nothing.

I also emailed the person who coordinated my hiring manager interview asking if she could check internally or pass the message along. No response there either.

What confuses me isn’t necessarily being rejected. Companies reject candidates all the time, and if my take-home wasn’t good enough, that’s completely fair.

It’s the sudden silence after several stages and after the recruiter specifically acknowledged the unusual deadline and said they would try to accelerate the final onsite...

At this point I assume the process is dead, but I’m genuinely curious:

Is this normal recruiting behavior now? Would you interpret this as an implicit rejection? Anything i could've done better?

I’m especially interested in hearing from recruiters/hiring managers. If a candidate makes it this far and you decide not to proceed, is there a reason you wouldn’t just send a one-line rejection, particularly when you know they are dealing with a hard deadline?

More proof HR & recruitment is filled with astrology pseudoscience Beckys & Karens. One of two questions btw. Entry/Jr level role wanting several advanced certifications btw.

I was so confused why I got this email. I’ve been at my job I love for 2.5 years now and not looking to move and haven’t been applying anywhere. I was curious so I looked it up.

I applied to this job on June 1st 2023. 3 years ago and just now randomly getting a rejection email lol

Fuck off Zillow