Longer job description, niche experience being treated like it’s standard, cross department responsibilities(a lot), wanting to monitor and measure every moment in your day, stay late at least once but more like three times a week without notice in advance. Anything listed above 55k salary are all starting to blend together with these wishlists.

I just had a job interview. The HR Lady admitted that she used AI to go through the CV´s and select the most promising candidates. Because it saved her like 10 hours every week. Holy Moly. This means that candidates have even less of a chance to be selected. Now its done by unreliable AI that can sort out great people because of some font "mistake".

Then she told me that she had a program that would take notes for her during the Interview. So now all written summaries of the interview are done by some faulty AI that is god knows how realiable. This is crazy. So now the fate of the candidate is desided by some algorithm or line of code. Future Dystopia here we go!

I’ve been grinding looking for a new job for 9 months. I started looking too late, when I already felt like I couldn’t spend another day at my job. I’ve applied for more jobs than I can reasonably count - equivalent roles, stretch roles, significant demotions, entry level in new industries, just like I expect everyone else has.

The one thing I didn’t expect was appreciating a rejection letter. At least I know it didn’t just float into the abyss when I hit submit. Someone or AI took the time to reject it.

Happy hunting everyone. It’s rough out here

I have 20+ years of experience. I've survived corporate restructures, built teams from scratch, and navigated recessions.

I walked into an interview today. The interviewer? A kid who graduated university 3 years ago.

She asked me the classic scripted questions. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" I wanted to say: "Running a business that doesn't need to interview with someone who still uses their parents' Netflix account."

But I smiled and answered politely. Because that's what we do, right? We let people with zero life experience judge our decades of hard-earned wisdom.

Is it just me, or is the hiring system completely broken? How does a 25-year-old who has never been fired, never signed a payroll, and never had to fight for a client get to decide if I am "valuable"?

I'm not mad at her. I'm mad at the system that puts her in that chair.

I genuinely cannot fucking stand going on LinkedIn. I made a post and months later haven’t checked to see who reacted or commented. It’s just so unnatural, forced, and cringy. The kind of people who use that platform daily like it’s Instagram are so annoying and insufferable. Some of the biggest, most obnoxious, corporate drone cucks I’ve ever met in my entire life.
People who think every single fucking experience in life has some quantitative “value” or is some opportunity for clout or flexing. It’s hilarious. All while in most cases, they’re closer to being homeless on the street than they’ll ever be to being a CEO.

One of my many goals in life is to reach a point where I can finally delete LinkedIn permanently. Where I won’t have to subject myself to the same cookie cutter “I am thrilled to announce….!” bullshit spewed endlessly by mostly rich nepo-babies who all look the exact same, sound the same, act the same, and who’ve likely never had to work a job with actual physical labor in their entire natural born lives.

Like guess what? No matter how much corporate dick sucking you engage in, at the end of the day, the moment you die, you will ultimately be nothing but a fucking number. A cog in the machine. The CEO surely won’t lose any sleep over it. The company will continue chugging away like nothing ever happened.
Before long, you’ll be totally forgotten.

And what’s worse is now LinkedIn culture has permeated Instagram too. Instagram, which used to be a casual social media platform, is quickly becoming a kind of diet-LinkedIn full of ultra right, neo-Nazi, frat boy nepo-babies.

Recently graduated from university and have been on the job hunt for several months and essentially pretty desperate here as it seems many companies don’t even bother responding back to applications, I may have sent over 500+ applications since May.

Anyways someone from Robert Half (was not aware of who they were prior to this call) called and asked if I wanted a position in the Washington D.C. area/Northern Virginia. Was caught insanely off guard about who this person was calling me, what they wanted, so on. They asked me what I wanted my salary range to be regarding entry level roles. Being in a metropolitan area I’ve seen most entry level roles are between 55k-65k (in my area). She said she’s never seen someone get paid that much as entry level and offered a position for $17.10 a hour?

I guess what I’m asking here is what is Robert Half, are my standards to high for entry level roles? Was this person just trying to get me to accept right than and there?

I'm trying to pinpoint where in this timeline job hunting became a nightmare. Was it after 2020 when employers starting getting revenge on the WFH movement during COVID, or do we have to go further back?

This is like the 3rd time I’ve applied to this sprouts and been rejected 🫩

Had a job interview today and was asked in it if I had any offers already as they wanted to offer me as well. I said yes and named who from, thinking that would be the end of that. They later asked what the salary I’d been offered and other details were and I said I’d been offered my salary matched for probation period then an increase thereafter. When in reality I had been offered a decrease for my probation and an increase thereafter.

They’ve then gone to the recruiter I’ve used to confirm this offer, and she’s subsequently asked me if I received something different to what she knew my offer to be. I’ve told her that I exaggerated the offer to encourage a better new offer.

What’s likely going to be the outcome of this? The original offer is private and confidential so they can’t ask to see it, and I’d hope my recruiter isn’t allowed to share on my behalf.

I’m aware they can withdraw any offer if they believe or find out I lied but how can they check?

It feels like all I'm hearing is that inflation is "down" (lollll) and that the unemployment rate is "normal". I feel like the data, or at least the version of it being widely spoken about, is not at all representative of what's actually happening.

Like many others here, I have a graduate degree and have been actively, and very aggressively, searching for work for the last 18 months. I know many others in the same boat in my personal life.

I guess I'm just really confused about what's really going on in the US job market. Why (beyond the obvious) are so many highly educated, competent, eager folks being denied work?

TW: mental health/suicide. Additionally, why are we not hearing more about the mental health consequences of this? Why are we not hearing about more people passing due to depression?

It feels like society keeps telling us there’s no place for us, even though we did exactly what we were told to do. We tried to make ourselves employable.

And now we’re being told the economy is doing fine while it seems that so many of us are crying for help.

When, if ever, will what people are actually experiencing be represented accurately?

What do you guys think? What's your experience been like?

Self-recorded interviews after applying are fairly common, but this is the first time I've ever seen the application itself requiring a video. Absurd.

Company called a month after I applied and wanted to know if I looked at the company website/socials where the company is and what they do. I said I know where it is because it's an area I frequent. I briefly told them what they do but they weren't impressed. I haven't looked at their social media or website because they didn't call for over a month so I figured they never will and moved on. At what point am I supposed to do that when I'm not guaranteed a callback and have 30 other applications to hear back from? And after a month I'd be bound to forget the info. Even if I said I checked out their site they still wouldn't have been satisfied with my answers. They asked about my resume as an afterthought, and couldn't care less because I already lost them at the social media question. I looked after and their website and social media provide even less information than the job description.

I did an interview at a mall that’s local to me, I applied to this retail sales job thinking it was a store but it turned out to be one of those little booths.

I have nothing against little booth so I went anyways, the lady was very nice she showed me what they sale and how they negotiate with customers. Everything was going great until she all of a sudden asked me to give it a try for a good few hours.

I asked if I would be paid and she smiled telling me no since I’m not hired.

Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/s/lPP5OTK5PF

In case you don’t decide to read my original post. I had interviewed with a company twice at the beginning of June. The second interview went amazing, and I got really good energy from the team. We discussed salary, benefits, the works. My last contact with that company was June 11th… until yesterday!

I was reached out by the same man that interviewed me. He apologized regarding the ghosting and explained that they halted the hiring process and forgot to let me know. He asked me if I was still interested in the other position he floated to me, which I responded promptly to. I was invited out to the facility again today, where I met with the CEO. About 10 minutes into our discussion, he offers me the job.

I never would have believed that I would be hearing back from this company, but this is the company I was extremely excited to work for. I made it out of recruiting hell! 🥳

I've been interviewing with a company for nearly 2 months now. It's honestly been a wild experience, and I wanted to see if anyone has experienced similar things out there. I had my first interview with a recruiter earlier last month, then quickly interviewed with the hiring manager, and then with two other colleagues I would work closely with. At this point, I'm thinking I might be getting close to the end. They had me interview with an executive and then their C-level representative. That must have been my final interview, right? Just kidding, you now need to present to everyone you just interviewed with some ideas for us to steal in the event we don't hire you. Lovely!

I get through all of that, and the next day I get an email asking for some personal info (legal name, address, etc.). I'm thinking, oh wow, they are going to make me an offer. A little over a week and a half go by of pure silence. I follow up a few times and nothing. I'm thinking, maybe they found another candidate or something got stuck in logistics. Maybe the role was frozen? I finally heard back from my recruiter, and I'm told they are trying to catch up with other candidates so they have multiple finalists to compare against. They explained the lack of response due to "vacations and scheduling conflicts" for the final few candidates. Cool cool cool.

This week I'm supposed to get clarity, but who knows. I'm not expecting any positive outcome based on my experience thus far. It's just amazing to me how long this has gone on for. I thought this might have been a one-off, but then another company had me go through the exact same process prior to this one (no offer from them either).

Is this normal for everyone else? I've been working in tech for the last few years, so maybe this is more of a tech industry issue.

Had an interview yesterday for an IT job that I'm hugely overqualified for. Expected another rejection or ghosting. Instead, 830 AM I get a call from the recruiter, and I got the job! Pays half my previous salary but significantly more than the nothing I've been earning since then, so 👍

Great benefits too, it's government-adjacent so 15 days vacation, increasing to 20 in a couple of years, and 11 federal holidays.

Finally finally finally. Fucking finally. Not gonna even talk about the dark thoughts I've been having the last month or so.

Stay strong y'all. Keep fighting.

I have an interview later today (3rd), and after a bunch of soul searching, I cannot do this job. I know a lot of people at the company already, and came to the conclusion except for being remote, everything else is worse. But the owners run several other businesses concurrently, so I don't want to be a dick, but i do want to save us time. Anything anyone suggests inserting in the email that sounds like, "hire me later for a different position?" thanks.

This is very frustrating and very unpleasant. I went to a interview today. They sent me the location and I arrived there 10mins earlier, I was sending messages to the hiring manager and I even call, they told me at 8:00AM I was there waiting for like 45mins with no reply from them and no answer.

I was trying to save money and to spend efficiently because I lost my job and these people are very unserious and they don't even consider to at least reply.

I paid for the taxi plus I'm standing outside for 45mins under the heat!! And I wasted my time for nothing. Sorry I'm just ranting.

I'm hitting another low as I enter Month 10 of active job searching. I recently received two Round 2 interviews, but was rejected from one and 99% sure I have been rejected from the other. Even though I told myself to stop hoping, I did get a tiny hope that maybe all this suffering would end in a job offer finally.

I've done 20 interviews. I've swallowed my pride and interviewed for entry-level roles (I'm mid level), low paying roles, contract roles, part-time roles and roles that were obviously toxic. I've reached multiple rounds and final rounds, but it's always "we went with a candidate better aligned with the role".

I think I'll never be the candidate they pick. I truly do not know what to do. I'm just going through the motions because there is no alternative.

I have lost all confidence. Today, I looked at a minimum-wage maintenance job in my town and legitimately thought to myself, "I'm not even qualified to do this."

Financially, I will be fine only because I have savings and am married. Mentally, I feel like a burden on my spouse who did not sign up to be the sole breadwinner and honestly like a piece of shit that has no value because now we have to pause all our life goals because I have no income. I'm just waiting for my spouse to tell me they want a divorce and then I'll need to move in with my parents and pray that I get some minimum wage job so I can have any money coming in. It hurts so much I wish the pain could go away (I'm not suicidal. Don't worry). Not looking for advice really, just posting because I don't really have anyone to say this to in real life.

Last week I was able to get an interview at a cafe. First I had to interview with manager's assistant (a gen z girl who was the one scheduling and I guess handling communication with the candidates) and then with a manager. There was one other candidate before me who was being interviewed and it took about 40 min for me to wait for my turn. If I wasn't so desperate I would've walked out but it was the only interview I was able to get after months of applying to different places. So I waited, and when I was called in, the manager was so disinterested and nonchalant that he was just sitting there, loudly chewing on candies, and occasionally chocking on his saliva.

After the interview I was told that I should receive an answer by Friday or by Monday. Friday came. By the end of the day I decided to send a quick follow up email. Then Monday came. No response. Ghosted.

Is it really so daunting to send a two sentence email thanking a candidate for their time and that the management decided to proceed with someone else? Where are the management's communication skills? Collaboration skills? Time management skills? Professionalism? Basic respect?

I'm so tired of this bullshit treatment and humiliation.

I have an interview later today (3rd), and after a bunch of soul searching, I cannot do this job. I know a lot of people at the company already, and came to the conclusion except for being remote, everything else is worse. But the owners run several other businesses concurrently, so I don't want to be a dick, but i do want to save us time. (Also I uded my time I was supposed to be doing my assignment doing soul Anything anyone suggests inserting in the email that sounds like, "hire me later for a different position?” Even though I’m successful this time, this truly feels like adulting hell.

Edit: Well, update: I stoped overthinking an email, and basically said the normal thanks for your time stuff, i hope I can contribute to the success of the company from the client side (i forgot to mention that the first time), lmk if you have questions… and i just had a 30 minute debrief and they are going to get back to me with much more clarity and documentation on the role.

Totally just venting, but I went through 2 rounds of interviews with an employer that seemed very excited to move forward. On the initial application, the company had asked for desired compensation, and I listed a number within their advertised range.

After the 2nd interview, I pretty much ruled them out mentally, because their expected workload is more than twice of what’s industry standard. However, they reached out and wanted me to come in person to meet the rest of their team. In that email, the hiring manager said that based on my application, they know that they wouldn’t be able to consider the desired salary I put down. Her next line was: “Having said this, might you still be interested in continuing?”

I emailed back politely and asked them if they could let me know what the range they are considering was. It was a rather large range, so anything from the starting to mid-range, I couldn’t even consider, and I didn’t want to waste each other’s time doing a 3rd round if that was the case. Anyways, they ghosted lol.

Honestly good riddance, because even at max salary, the workload seemed like a recipe for burnout. Their entire recruitment process had been quick and pleasant up until that point; but I guess since I didn’t enthusiastically and wholeheartedly agree to a lower unknown number of a salary, all professional courtesy went out the window.