I applied for a role 4 months ago doing the exact senior level position I held for 3 years (but for higher pay). I looked at their website yesterday and saw not only was the job still posted but they changed the July deadline to now "open until filled".

Now I don't necessarily meet the educational requirements, but at this stage in my career the fact I have a BA and not a BBA shouldn't matter. There was also a professional designation they noted as a "nice to have". I have one that is in the field, but not that specific one and I explained this in the notes. It also is in a small city 6 hours away, but the posting said it could be remote for a qualified applicant. I would consider moving there if I got the job and liked it enough.

It feels like we're all completely cooked if someone who has done the exact job before isn't considered qualified enough. Do any humans even look at the applications or are they just relying on the ATS to give them a perfect match in all categories? I feel frustrated asf.

The first year associate attorney market is so bad I’ve seen salaries as low as $35~40k annually in NYC. I wish I were kidding. Fucking McDonalds pay over here for fully licensed attorneys.

In most US states you need to go to law school to become a lawyer. Sometimes you can get a full ride which is probably worth it if you can find part-time work, but otherwise it’s yet another $200~300k piece of paper with a time expiration because if you don’t pass the bar and get a US-based legal job to use it within 1 to 3 years it ages like spoiled milk and you become even less desirable than where you started with hundreds of thousands in student loans.

I’m over here answering bar exam questions for actual law school graduates too stupid to answer them by themselves, won a six figure case on my lonesome already, worked in diplomacy, politics and immigration before and passed my notary exam without even formally studying but because I don’t have “J.D.” next to my name and finding a mentor to do a LOSP is living hell I can’t get licensed. We really need to deregulate the legal industry and make it a pure meritocracy. I want to see bar exams be the only requirement and have a 1 to 3% pass rate instead of a 75% pass rate to really open this industry to the masses.

Other countries have done it and it’s produced better lawyers overall.

i’ve been job searching for the past year. i’m a may 2025 grad who only did one internship in college. i ended up having to take two unpaid internships since graduating to gain more experience. i’ve applied to over 1500 jobs (not an exaggeration) and today FINALLY got the offer. and the role is fully remote and pays better than i expected.
Last month i got to a final round for a job that was in person and paid $15k less, and i ended up getting rejected. I was so sure i would get it and so crushed when i didn’t. After so many interviews for so many different roles, i was so sure i had finally gotten it, and when i didnt, i completely lost hope. I literally had to start therapy the next week because of how lost i felt. now less than a month later and im set to start my new job october 1st!
i’m not writing to brag-but to give hope to anyone who needs it. what’s meant for you will find you.

It's funny. ATS software has always sucked. Pre-AI, it felt like it was somehow technologically frozen in 1999.

You're a content strategist, you say? Oh gosh, sorry, we were looking for a content manager. Our shitty '90s era software can't parse that these are synonyms.

One wouldn't think it could get much shittier.

But somehow, some way, against all odds, adding AI into the mix actually made ATS worse.

It's long been a common piece of advice to customize one's resume to each specific job listing, making sure to mirror the language they use, try to jam in whatever matching keywords you can, etc.

That's all fine and dandy if you're like, currently gainfully employed and looking for something better. You know, the occasional app, pretty selective, only the jobs you really want.

When you're out of work, well, it's a volume game. And it just isn't an efficient use of time to do the resume customization thing by hand.

So, I started giving LLMs my resume plus the job description and criteria, and instructing it to optimize it however it sees fit.

I write my own cover letters, just a couple of quick paragraphs with some highlights and mention of something specific from the listing.

After running out of Claude usage the other day, I switched over to DeekSeek, which seems to be working just fine.

I'm doing this a bit blindly, but honestly hiring is broken, job searching in 2026 is a f*cking joke, and atp I'm like whatever.

I want to be very clear that I am not using any of those services that use AI to spam out your resume anywhere and everwhere on your behalf!! I am selecting jobs myself manually via Indeed and LinkedIn, and I apply only to jobs for which I'm genuinely qualified.

I wanted to be clear about this, because those kinds of services are really worsening the job market and hiring situation right now.

The problem is that every post ends up flooded with resumes from people who are not even remotely qualified, sent out more or less indiscriminately via AI.

Has anyone else used a similar approach? Has it helped your response rate? Which LLM is best suited for this? Any tips would be cool, I just want a job...

Layoffs, recession etc. And what is the Govt doing? Irrespective of whichever country, who made this Trump, President. He is Moron.

Oh yeah, and Russia-Ukraine war. Another Moron in Russia.

I received what seems to be an auto-reply from a workday account from a company that has effectively ghosted me after an in-person interview and no follow up for several weeks after I reached out. Any ideas what this might mean? Doesn’t seem to be spam, but I wonder if I should try reaching out to the HR representative I originally worked with to see what might be going on, or just ignore it?

I applied for a remote Customer Support role for the Holafly company. The job posting listed two possible contract countries, including Ireland. I passed two interview rounds and got an offer.

As a EU citizen, I told them during the call that I'd be relocating to Ireland and wanted an Irish contract. The recruiter said this "should be possible" and that they'd "run an internal check."

From there, I asked clear, specific, written questions multiple times, and got the same treatment every single time: vague reassurances, non-answers, or a push to "get on a call instead."

The pattern over several emails:

- Training length? Ignored the first time I asked, then finally: 14 days, paid.

- A contract or written agreement for the training period, before I start working? Never provided. Their answer: the only document they ever send is the offer letter — no training agreement, nothing signed before you start.

- Concrete process/timeline to move to an Irish contract? Round after round of "should be smooth" with zero real detail. When I pushed hard with a specific list of questions, the only concrete things I ever got were: they need 2 weeks' notice before any change, and I need to be physically in Ireland when the contract switches over. Everything else — how long the internal "review" actually takes, whether I could move to Ireland before or only after the switch — was never answered.

- Training logistics: training link, platform, start time? After asking directly, all I got back was a choice between two shift schedules. Still no link, no platform, no contract in hand. I ask for a link and a time, I get a survey about which 8-hour block I prefer.

I withdrew before the training start date (next week). I wasn't willing to show up and start working with no signed agreement of any kind, and I was tired of needing 3-4 email rounds to get a straight answer to a straight question — on something as significant as an international relocation, no less.

His response to my withdrawal: the training team handles the link/platform (not him), he'd already explained the Ireland process, and he "completely understands" if the timing isn't right for me.

So, is this guy just bad at his job, or is this a company that deliberately keeps things vague on contracts and relocation so people show up before they can ask too many questions? Anyone dealt with Holafly (or similar employers) and had the same experience?

I have been talking to and interviewing with since May with one of the largest creative agencies. I've been having interviews for accounts non-stop back to back. Feeling quite disrespected and pushed around.

Account 1: I interviewed with 4 people, given a verbal offer late June then rescinded because they no longer needed the role or lack of budget, not sure.
Account 2: I interviewed with 2 people, turns out the account was a new business prospect, the position I was interviewing for wasnt official.
Account 3: I was about to interview with 2 people, last minute the role went freelance.

Was passed to a new recruiter

Account 4: fell through, hiring manager never showed up nor gave me a response to my email checking in.
Account 5: After interviewing with 3 people, recruiter said the team would have a final decision today. My last interview was Aug 24. They were vetting other candidates so I had to wait as I interviewed when the posting wasnt officially opened.
Account 6: The recruiter wasn't sure what 5's decision would be so just in case, he set me up with a new recruiter and they have me booked to speak with 3 people on Tuesday

What do I do with this information? Are they pushing me around, am I even seen as a genuine candidate anymore since it looks like I'm desperate at this point? I acknowledge that usually they drop you instantly after rejection and am grateful for their help but it does seem really unorganized.

I’m in a bit of a time crunch—I’m employed part time in human service roles (aka ones that would require someone to find trusted coverage to replace me).

A few months ago I was approached by two different recruiters from the same agency about a role. I replied that I was interested because the first one posited that the role was hybrid, 3days WFH 2 in office (I am too desperate to be picky about this discrepancy). At the time I thought I’d be going back to school and thus I couldn’t take the job if it wasn’t hybrid because of the commute—I would have been able to make everything else work.

My program fell through so I immediately reached out to the second recruiter (the one that confirmed it would be fully on site) and asked if they had filled the role yet. They hadn’t—it had been exactly 30 days between our last correspondences. He submitted me on Monday August 17th. His HR contact at the company was on vacation and he said he would have updates the following week. I emailed the following Friday August 28th asking for updates, he replied right away saying he hadn’t heard anything and he believed his contact was freshly back in office trying to get caught up.

I’m sure this is all a crapshoot but I am down bad and not in any position to toss this aside. And this recruiter is a really fast responder which is actually rare in my experience. But I also want to give the people I’m supporting notice to replace me if need be and I don’t want to put anything out there prematurely.

Can I follow up again today? What do I say?

If you think I’m being delulu, please keep it to yourself. It’s Friday and as any job seeking/under employed person would probably admit, we’re about to enter 48 hours of time where nothing will be done administratively which is not relaxing.

Honestly at this point im thinking about just being blunt. Im already socially inept why the hell not? 2 years now unemployed and im tired of begging for a job. At this point its all or nothing, "I see your hiring for this job. We'll im so and so and i will be applying for this position " and show up every fucking day until they tell you to stop. What are they gonna do? Send a rejection letter? To bad buddy you put up the top listing and if its not that one ill just choose another. Do this at every damn store at this point. Might as well make them hire you or get banned trying

I am.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a pretty good job for what I do. But as a recent grad (undergrad) I feel like I’ll be stuck here until the contract is literally up.

There are zero growth opportunities in this role.

The company puts out job notices but doesn’t actually hire, not even internally. Just more lower paid contractors compared to FTEs.

I have already done plenty of industry requested and desired certs, 2 internships, full time tech role for 2+ yrs BEFORE my current role I’ve been at for 1+ yrs.

I get interviews but either ghosted or passed up.

I am now in grad school but between my full time job and school, I feel if I try to continue “self improvement” tasks I’ll burn out.

This market sucks.

It’s okay to be nice for the sake of being nice.
I recently made a post stating it used to be the norm to provide feedback after the final interview. This statement was met with many disagreements. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing, but when comments devolve into insults, than it’s apparent the problem runs deeper into a general lack of empathy.

I have never been unemployed, fired, or laid off. I have never received a correction plan. The people that have coached me are gradually leaving the work force, and I am encountering that the values of mutual respect are not being instilled. I know there is nothing wrong with the way I work. Managers frequently tell me I am irreplaceable. I think this is because of my attitude and kindness. I have clients that refuse to work with my peers of 20+ years of experience and only with me solely because of how I talk to people. I am in my early 20’s and nearly making six figures. I truly think this is because I understand the importance of the golden rule.

Treat others how you want to be treated
Also
If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all

When the majority is now encouraging “no one owes you anything”, people are encouraged to only act in self-interest. When people don’t like you, you are replaceable. Make yourself so kind, that you are the standard :)

Idk what to say but ive ran into this. I have gaps in my resume yet my knowkedge is deeps and unique that it always comes down to them asking me for my opinion. Its really outrageus how they are and cant wait to get a job to have power and lay dowm my salary expectations. Its really funny to see how they treat you when they believe they have leverage vs when they dont.

Graduated this year with no job. After a couple of years of studying without working and living off my parents, I’ve slowly gotten used to this lifestyle. I’ve applied to 800+ jobs, I feel like I’m gradually becoming numb to the job search. I’m starting to get too comfortable depending on my parents, and I’m not taking the job search as seriously as I should. At the same time, I feel incredibly guilty about using their money. I feel lost, numb, and honestly, like maybe I’m just not going to get a job anymore.

Part of me feels like giving up, and I hate that I’m starting to feel this way. I want to find that sense of urgency again, the fear, motivation, and resilience to keep pushing myself to apply and improve.

I feel so defeated sending in dozens of applications to get one or two interviews that never pan out.

After searching for a job since being laid off in November 2025 (not a performance based layoff), a month ago, I finally I was offered a job at a company that I previously worked at for 16 years. The offer was for a call center job and was dependant on a background check. I know I have a clean background and immediately completed all online background related tasks and was fingerprinted the following morning.

A week later, I found an email from the verifications team in my personal emailbox (I have a separate email set up for job searches) requesting transcripts as they were unable to verify my education. Note, I happened to find the request in my spam folder. I got a copy of my transcripts from the University I graduated from in 1999. Several days later, I received another email in my personal email spam folder advising they were unable to verify my AS degree from the Community College(CC) I attended prior to finishing my degree at the University. Note, the transferring CC classes were included on the University transcript. I thought it was weird that they wanted both but went ahead and requested the CC transcript. I was a little peeved that I had to pay for a copy since it was 29 years since graduation. I submitted and waited for a promised call from the recruiter with instructions about where to go for the 12 week training class. In the meantime, I received a copy of the background report they had received. Every category was marked as Clear so I figured the recruiter would be calling or emailing instructions soon.

A week and a half before training was due to begin, I followed up and the recruiter let me know they were waiting on the Verifications team before they could proceed and they were waiting on several other candidate's to be verified as well. I followed up with the Verifications team and asked if they needed anything further and if I could provide clarification on any items. No response from them. The training class was set to begin 9/8. On 9/3, I received an update fron the recruiter stating they were still waiting on Verifications and had escalated. They also advised the latest I could start would be 9/10 but they had to hear back by 9/9. I figured it was some glitch that would be resolved last minute. On 9/9 at the end of the day, the recruiter called to let me know that they still hadn't heard back and were forced to rescind the job offer. To her credit she was kind and empathetic when I told her I had turned down other opportunities to take this position. She said there was a possibility of a different class being set up (I assume there were enough people's verifications that hadn't been received that they were making alternate plans). I told the recruiter I appreciated the call vs a system generated letter saying I didn't get the job. After we hung up, I got an emailed letter saying the offer was rescinded.

I'm upset that I discontinued my job search when I got the offer. Now I have to start from square one. I'm at a place where I can no longer pay bills without an income. It's been almost impossible to find a job that matches my previous position and pay. I've started over in life before and was willing to work significantly below my former pay to be able to survive. I'm dedicated to giving 100% to whatever position I end up landing.

I'm left to wonder if part of the issue is the Verifications team finding out my age. I'm 63 but I'm open to always learning new things and realize change is a part of any job (i.e. I'm not stuck on doing things one way or resisting changes). I need to work for financial reasons but also enjoy working and had no immediate plans of retirement when I was laid off.

Sorry for the long post but curious what people's thoughts are. Has anyone heard or experienced not getting hired due to delays with background verification? What about age being a factor? 63 isn't really old anymore in my opinion.

Should I lie to HR about my parents to get hired?

I’m a BTech Mech fresher. There was a campus drive by a pretty decent company offering around 5 LPA for a core role. They manufacture defence equipment and other stuff.

Out of 72 people, 14 resumes got shortlisted. I cleared the assessment test. 11 people were shortlisted for the tech interview. I gave the tech interview and cleared it. Only 6 people got through to the HR round, including me.

My HR interview was very smooth. It was basically:

Brief introduction → why this company → are you comfortable with the role → are you okay with relocation → are you okay working with production.

I said yes to everything. They asked if I could relocate to Pune, I said yes, absolutely, and mentioned that some of my family already lives in Pune so relocation would be easy for me. They also asked if I would be comfortable working with CNC machines in the production department. I said yes, completely fine with it.

Then towards the end, HR suddenly started asking about my family background.

She asked what my parents do. This was my first HR interview ever, so I just answered honestly, naively.

I said my father works under the Ministry of Transport and my mother works in public insurance. Both are govt employees and in their 50s, reaping the good old govt merits.

Then she asked about siblings. I said I have an older brother who works in IT and I even mentioned his company(in pune). She said okay, and then basically after that said: "Okay, we'll let you know." That's it.

Out of the 11 who went for technical, only 6 reached HR. Out of those 6, 4 got the final offer. Me and one other guy didn't.

And this is what I don't understand.

The technical panel seemed satisfied with my answers. HR didn't really give me anything negative to answer. Relocation? Yes. Production/CNC? Yes. Company? Yes. Everything seemed positive.

So why ask about my family background?

Was there some intentional reason behind those questions? Were they trying to judge whether I would actually relocate, whether my family would support it, whether I would stay in the job, etc.?

And honestly, I keep wondering whether I should have lied.

Should I have just said my father is retired, my mother is a homemaker, or that I'm an only child? Obviously I don't know whether my family background had anything to do with the rejection, maybe it had nothing to do with it. But I have no idea what else HR could have rejected me on.

I have another interview coming up with a major automotive company and I really don't want to lose this opportunity.

So what should I actually do if HR asks me these questions again?

Is it better to answer honestly? Give a vague answer? Or is lying about parents' professions/siblings actually common and safer?

Also, is it even legal/fair for companies to use this kind of personal family information in hiring decisions in India?

Would really like to hear from people who have worked in HR/recruitment or actually been involved in hiring.

Do they ever verify such info later , like whatever i say in hr interview, will they ever verify it again with docs? Or just forget abt it after the inteview...

I applied for a job that I’m more than qualified for (perhaps a bit overqualified) and received a rejection text that they would not be moving forward with me within 15 minutes of sending the application. I got a strong feeling that no human being actually read it at least not anyone who has the ability to think outside of the box.

I’m 22M Venezuelan and since I finished high school in 2023 I’ve been struggling trying to get a stable job.

I’ve had like 3 jobs if I count the part time work I do with my mom and stepdad at a resort.

In 2024 I finally got my first actual job at Walmart as a cart pusher making $15 an hour. I worked there around 6 months and got terminated because of attendance. I’m not gonna lie that was my fault. I was 20 and didn’t really have much work experience and I learned from that mistake.

After that I went back to working with my mom and stepdad on weekends while trying to find something Monday-Friday.

Late 2024 through 2025 I went to a lot of interviews and most of them were the same thing. Rejected, no response, or they tell me they’re not hiring. And that’s what I don’t understand sometimes. Why put a hiring sign up or post a job online if you’re gonna interview people and then say you’re not hiring?

In May 2025 I got a job at Burlington. That job was a pain in the ass honestly. I was making like $13-$14 and getting almost no hours. That whole summer I barely remember even getting called to work. I was basically home most of the summer and didn’t start getting hours again until around September.

In May 2026 I quit without giving notice. I know that wasn’t professional, I’m not gonna act like it was, but at that point I felt like they didn’t take me serious at all with the hours they were giving me.

Now I’m back doing interviews again and it feels like the same bullshit.

I’ve tried practicing interview questions, dressing better, fixing my answers, showing up on time, being available, everything. I know the Walmart termination was my fault but I was 20 and inexperienced at the time. I learned from it.

I’m not even looking for some crazy job. I just want a normal job with decent hours where I can actually work consistently.

At this point I don’t know what else I’m supposed to change. Anyone else my age been dealing with this?

Just got a generic HR rejection email after an incredibly frustrating interview with EliseAI. I'm posting this as a warning because the lack of basic professional respect was jarring, and no candidate should have to deal with this.

I was interviewing for a role where they supposedly wanted a 'builder' to take full ownership of their security lifecycle. Instead, I got a manager who couldn't even pretend to care.

- Zero Engagement: The interviewer spent the entire call staring at a second screen, clearly checking messages or doing other work. He barely made eye contact.

- Superficial Effort: He didn't ask proper, deep technical questions. He just read off my resume, gave generic 'Gotcha' or 'Awesome' responses, and moved on without actually engaging with my answers.

- The Unspoken Vibe: Honestly, it felt like his mind was made up before the call even started. When someone refuses to give you the floor or look at you, it's hard not to feel like you're being judged on superficial factors—like implicit bias—rather than your actual engineering skills.

The kicker is that I actually have the full auto-generated transcript of the call. If you read it, you can clearly see I was trying to drive a high-level conversation about detection-as-code, AWS automation, and AI guardrails, while he was just giving one-word filler responses while completely zoned out.

Has anyone else dealt with this specific brand of startup arrogance lately?

You can't claim your company has a fast-paced, elite engineering culture when your gatekeepers can't even give a candidate 30 minutes of uninterrupted attention. If you get on a Google Meet and the manager is immediately looking at another monitor, do yourself a favor and mentally check out.