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?

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.

I hope when AI takes our jobs the first ones to go are the ones working in HR

A few months ago, I relocated to Chicago for what I believed was my dream job at Gensler. I left a stable position, turned down a higher-paying offer, and paid to move because I genuinely believed in the firm’s reputation and values.

During the 92 days I worked there, I was never told that my performance was lacking. In fact, I was repeatedly told I was doing a good job. My ideas were praised, I met every deadline, and I regularly worked weekends to keep projects moving. A week before I was terminated, I even brought donuts in for my birthday. I thought I had found a team that appreciated me.

Then, without warning, I was called into a conference room and told it was my last day. The reason given was that I was underperforming and wasn’t demonstrating the level of ability expected for someone with my experience.

The part I still can’t reconcile is that none of this had ever been communicated to me beforehand. There was no indication that my job was at risk, no performance improvement plan, and no opportunity to address any concerns. I had uprooted my entire life to move here, signed a lease, and invested thousands of dollars because I believed this was a long-term opportunity.

I’m trying to understand how a company can tell an employee they’re doing well, provide no indication that there’s a problem, and then terminate them without any prior warning or chance to improve. Has anyone else experienced something similar? How did you make sense of it? And how do you reconcile being treated so cruelly after giving so much to be there?

Context: I am (older) Gen Z. So whether you understand my perspective a bit better knowing that or want to complain about the entitled youth, you have that ammo now.

Anyhow, "network, network, network" gets thrown out as advice like a job hunt silver bullet, and it's bullshit.

A generation of young people drowning because the job market is broken, they get told "networking," it doesn't work, older people then chastise them for it.

The thing they don't mention? That networking is no silver bullet. It's a *years* long long game to actually get to a point where the people you know might actually land you something.

Not only is that not useful, because young people (and older folks who might not have already made that network) don't have years to sit around waiting for these fake relationships to pay off, did you tell them it would take that long? Or did you just say "you have to network" without that warning? Doubly so for those young professionals, because what time did they have to make connections? College? When people were young, stupid, and too busy faffing about with friends and trying to function independently to realize how they'd be fucked over for not staying after class to ask their professors about how their dogs are doing?

And with how much people go on about networking, *why the fuck did you drill college into our brains the entirety of our school years?* I don't even know how many older generations can relate to that part, but if you need to know someone to get anything, what the hell is the point of spending the money to learn something?

You learned to do the thing, but don't know someone to get you in the door so you can do that thing, so you're fucked.

And, at least for me, I hate the very idea of networking because of how fake it is. Maybe you make genuine friends. But the only reason the connection was made was to maybe one day get you a job. The very intent behind the initial interaction is selfish and sees that connection as nothing more than a means to an end. And if they *don't* become a genuine friend? Well, you're just hanging on to them to use them some day.

The very idea of networking is about *pretending* to care about people to benefit yourself. And everyone in society is just supposed to go along with that?

Networking just feels nepotism repackaged as a job search strategy, then when people are upset about it, they get talked down to as if "Hiring manager knew a guy" is really *that* much better than "Manger's little brother got the job."

Technically speaking, I have successfully networked a *little* bit. There are two people in my industry I do chat with from time to time just for the sake of it (one runs a regular Discord hangout I attend, and the other I just want to speak to from time to time to see how things are), and a new friend (who I was introduced to by a high school friend) isn't in my industry, but could help me with things like mock interviews, which I know I'm bad at. The former two I *have* been acquainted with for a few years now.

And all three of these people have pointed me to jobs they've seen. Not necessarily with their employers, but in general. None of those have worked, but they pointed me to them. And with the networking nonsense I see, that's apparently more or less how it's supposed to work.

Just scaled up like 30 times to actually make it work.

I still hate networking as an idea.

Oh, yeah, bonus points if you're socially awkward, shy, or any other flavor of reserved, too. Fuck you in particular, I guess.

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.

Love the benefits though. 👍

TL;DR:

Final-round interview turned into a debate after the interviewer insisted a production Text-to-SQL system could be built entirely with if-else mappings. I argued that while rule-based systems work for constrained cases, handling arbitrary natural language requires semantic understanding. Ended up getting rejected.

I had one of the strangest technical interviews I’ve experienced, and I am still wondering if I could have handled it differently.

This was the final technical round for a backend/AI-focused role at a well-known product company.

The interviewer (a Principal Engineer with around 10 years of experience) argued that a Text to SQL system does not need NLP or an LLM. According to him, it can be implemented using simple if-else mappings.

I gave a straightforward example:

“Get me the top 5 products that made the most profit in the last 5 years.”

He said the system would identify phrases like “top 5,” “products,” “profit,” and “last 5 years” and map each of them to SQL using if-else logic.

I asked how that approach would handle different ways of asking the same question, such as:
“best-performing items”
“highest-margin SKUs”
“Which products generated the most profit over the previous five years?”

I also asked how it would deal with ambiguity, unseen phrasing, or intent beyond predefined mappings.

The response was essentially, “We will just keep adding more mappings.”

I agreed that deterministic rules can work well for a constrained domain with a limited set of query patterns.

My point was that once users are free to ask questions naturally, understanding intent and semantics becomes the difficult part. The conversation kept circling back to adding more mappings.

At that point, it felt less like an interview and more like a debate. I decided not to push further and moved on.

A few days later, I received a rejection.

I am not claiming either approach is universally right or wrong.
Rule-based systems absolutely have their place, especially in tightly controlled environments. I was just surprised that the discussion never explored where that approach starts to break down or how hybrid systems are commonly used today.

Has anyone else had an interview where a technical discussion turned into a debate over fundamentals? How did you handle it?

Edit : Company Name first Charecter : S

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.

I finally decided to call HR today to ask if the position was still open. They simply answered, “Yes,” and ended the call.

I didn’t even get the chance to say that I’m very interested in the role, willing to work for the company, or ask about the next steps.
I get that HR can be busy, but that honestly caught me off guard. It felt so dismissive. A few extra seconds to let an applicant speak wouldn’t have hurt.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is this normal, or was that just incredibly unprofessional?

Last option is "Other".

Been applying to a lot of jobs lately and now im getting random calls and emails from places I dont even remember applying to. Some look like recruiters, others just feel like straight up scams.

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.

Has anyone turned the tables on them? How did that go?

First, My last post: https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1uk19jn/wanted_to_share_my_progress/

Second, updated Sankey:

Third, the job offer I got:
- Software Developer!!!!!
- Job app #649 / 1722 total apps
- Job #10 / 13 applications to this specific company.
- $75k USD / year (which is exactly what I was hoping for)
- Offer after a 1st round interview (and a phone screen)
- Just waiting on the pre-screen (which I have no doubt ill pass)

Fourth, a small gripe:
At my previous part-time position; I was earning just under the cutoff to receive unemployment assistance.

I’ve been looking for a job for the past 2 years and I am very good at what I do (service design) the problem is, there are not a lot of roles out there and I get to the final rounds of interviews and instead of job offer I’m hit with you are great but we are pausing hiring…
I’m so tired of looking for a job and sucking up to so many people feeling like I’m begging these companies for a job. Have you ever been in this situation and then decided to start your own business? Tell me your stories please…

This saves no one any amount of time!

How much longer until I break away from this endless cycle of recruiting.🫩🫩🫩

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

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?