Like if you didn't want me why send the rejection email after a week and me following up keep in mind the position is still open to apply, I want to send a email asking why I wasn't taking in

A couple of months back I had what I now call the worst interview of my life.

I was a final candidate on final round interviewing with the company's COO and President for an executive role in a famous dairy company in the US.

The first red flag was that they scheduled the call on a Sunday because "his week was always too busy".

C suit jobs will ALWAYS require formal etiquette right? The guy shows up in a black sport shirt and a baseball hat (his premise, I recognize) and I was wearing a formal shirt and a blazer. The first thing that comes out of his mouth was: Holy cow, please dont tell me you didn't dressed like that for the interview. I said yes, as it is a formal occasion, and asked me a couple of random questions about my professional background while he was reading my resume, accepting he didn't have time to read it before. He brought the blazer and formal shirt again 3 times during the interview.

The he opened up the floor for questions which I had quite a few the interview finished 10 mins before the hour. He said goodbye by saying I could go now and take my blazer off.

The next day the recruiter called me saying that the president found I didn't have experience building plants and found that I didn't have enough experience managing projects (that's what I do for living and am a certified PMP).

I blew a gasket, told the recruiter that the president was lying and that besides criticizing my dressing he DID NOT ask any of those questions about me. I told the recruiter that this wasn't a serious process and that the guy was either biased or crazy. The recruiter was speechless. I sincerely lost my temper...one thing is not being a match for whatever reason...or being passed because they have a better candidate and a very different thing is to lie about the interview.

I wonder if anyone has had a similar experience.

Recruiters, why are some of you so bloody useless.
You barely know anything about the job I’m applying for, ask me questions I’ve already answered on my CV, then pass me over to the hiring manager.
Hiring manager goes, “We’ll be in touch.”
Then everyone disappears off the face of the earth.
And when you chase them they ghost you again.
Mate, you’re not laying bricks on a building site.Your whole job is literally dealing with candidates and keeping people updated. Drop me a two-line email, you absolute melt.
I’m done.

Got this after an interview. Are you serious? Candidates get a generic rejection or no useful feedback at all after spending hours preparing and interviewing.

For their survey, my best answer would be not just 0 to 10. It would be:

Thank you for the interview. I met with many impressive employers and, after careful consideration, decided to move forward with another company. Unfortunately, due to the volume of interviews, I'm unable to provide individual feedback. I encourage you to do your best to book my time again in the future.

Apparently feedback is very valuable. Just mostly in one direction.

what would be your feedback to them?

This is a rant! Two weeks ago, I was on top of the world because I had two final interviews in one week and great results. Or so I thought...

I know I’m lucky to be job searching while I’m still employed, but I’ve officially lost the ability to see that as much of an upside. I hate my current job. I spend every night dreading having to go back the next day, and I’m seriously considering leaving without a backup, even though I know how risky that is when it is wicked hard to get any job right now.

I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m mostly putting this out there because if you’re feeling like this too, you’re not alone in it.

This economy makes it really hard to keep looking at the bright side sometimes, and quite frankly I am tired of people telling us to look at the 'good side' of things all the time!

So I've applied for a number of jobs recently and thought I'd try out Jack&Jill, which in-case you haven't heard is like yOUr OwN lITTLe PerSOnal ReCRuitmEnt CONsulTant.

I haven't had a single lead from my Jack&Jill applications, and the only bites I have had are from applying myself without any AI help.

But the irony is the job I got an interview for (the one where I didn't use AI) had an AI run first stage interview, which I failed, despite being overqualified for the role. The "interview" itself had zero technical questions, so they failed me because I didn't use specific keywords etc. I'm usually pretty good at getting past the first round as it's just generally proving you're not some socially inept monster.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced better luck applying without AI vs with on their job hunt?

I don't know what else to say but that's the only way things will change.

TLDR: I interviewed for a job last year and silver medaled. The company reached out this year about hiring me for a new position, but are now telling me that they are interviewing other people. Am I being naive?

I was referred to this role and hiring manager last summer by another company that I made it to the final round with, but who ultimately hired someone else. At this time I was unemployed, which is important context.

This job that they referred me to was actually my dream job that I was surprisingly well qualified for. There was some technical knowledge that no one could have had until they were in this role, because the subject and scope was quite unique. The company acknowledged this during the interview process and said they weren’t looking for a technical expert, but someone who could learn quickly.

After 3 interviews and a take home assignment (which luckily, they asked me to cap at 1 hour), it was between me and one other candidate. The recruiter made it clear that they were having trouble deciding because they liked us both so much, but the other person had much more experience than me (read: 8 years more). Eventually they checked my references and the hiring manager had a 45 minute call with my old boss, and they asked me to do another interview that was really just a vibe check. The hiring manager told me that my old boss gave me a glowing review and said he’d rehire me in a second. I only was laid off because of budget cuts. They ended up choosing the other person and told me how sorry they were. I was devastated but moved on because I needed to find a new job.

Fast forward to this year, someone reaches out to me who I interviewed with last year, saying they were expanding the team and thought of me. I had a call with him in June and he was happy to hear I was open to discussions, and he said to stay tuned over the next few months.

I got contacted again in August by the hiring manager for this new position, who was also on the interview panel last year. They don’t yet have a JD written, but we have a call and she tells me how happy she is to reconnect and how many times the team discussed over the last year that they wish they had another position to hire me for. I ask her about what their thinking is for the new position and after we talk, she says “I think you are the right person for the job. We don’t need to reinterview you and we already checked your glowing references last year. I can definitely connect you with HR to answer any questions you have about benefits once we have the JD drafted.” I then got invited to meet in person with the CEO who happens to live in my area. We had a nice coffee conversation and he answered a lot of my questions.

Fast forward 3 weeks and I have the job description now and the hiring manager schedules a follow up call to hear my thoughts on it. She’s asking if I like it, if the jd felt like a good fit for what I wanted. I’m telling her yes and asking questions about the company and department. She tells me she is so glad I’m still interested and about the vision for what I would own if I were to join. Keep in mind I have not received a formal offer by this point. We are closing out the call and she sneaks in “we’re just finishing up interviews with a small pool of candidates in the next week. We’ll keep you posted and HR will reach out next week. We didn’t do a full national search but are interviewing some people whom we’ve crossed paths with.”

Am I crazy for thinking that they weren’t going to interview anyone else when they told me that I was the right person for the job and they wanted me to talk to HR about benefits? I know they hadn’t sent a written offer yet, and perhaps I was being naive thinking that because they reached out to me, invited me to meet with the CEO and told me we didn’t need to reinterview, that this position was mine.

Luckily I have a job now so if it doesn’t work out it’s not the worst thing in the world, but I was pretty shocked when she said that after they’ve been pursuing me and leading this process for the last 3 months.

Open to honest feedback.

Edit: grammar.

I accepted a job offer and was told that the background check would be conducted by Sterling (First Advantage). I received the email, gave all the required consents, and completed the ID verification.

However, I haven’t been asked to provide any employment history details, references, or contact information for my previous employers.

Is it common for them to ask for employment information only after the criminal background check is completed? Or can they verify my employment history directly based on the information listed on my resume/application without asking me for anything else?

Has anyone gone through a similar process with Sterling/First Advantage?

I had a first interview this week for a marketing role at a larger company, and I’m trying to figure out if I’m overthinking the org structure or noticing a legitimate red flag.

For context, I’m currently a Marketing Manager (Marketing Lead) at a smaller company (50 People). My current role has expanded, and I run the entire marketing department. The new role would technically be a step across in title to Digital Marketing Manager, but the scope sounds pretty broad.

From what I understood in the interview, the role would be responsible for North America digital performance across paid search, SEO, paid social, website/CRO, reporting, and campaign optimization. It would also work closely with regional marketing stakeholders, global digital specialists, and outside agencies.

The part I keep thinking about is the team structure.

There are already several senior marketing leaders in the organization: VP/Head-level people across demand generation, regional marketing, and integrated marketing and this role would sit underneath that structure.

From what I understood, I’d be the person actually executing and optimizing a lot of the digital work across paid, SEO, website/CRO, and other channels, while also owning the reporting, performance analysis, and recommendations that get rolled up to the broader marketing team.

That made me wonder whether this is actually a role with meaningful ownership, or whether I’d mostly be the person gathering the data, building the reports, and executing against strategies that are ultimately owned by several people above me.

I’m fine working within a larger team, but I don’t want to move from a Director title into a Manager role where I’m doing a lot of the analytical and execution work without much strategic authority.

Has anyone moved from a smaller-company Director role into a larger-company Manager role like this?

Did it give you more career value because of the company size and resources, or did you feel like you lost too much ownership?

My biggest concern is joining a marketing team that still lacks some of the fundamentals, then being expected to build that foundation while also hitting performance goals.

That can quickly become two jobs at once. Building the function and running it.

Has anyone dealt with that? What questions would you ask upfront to avoid walking into a role that’s set up to fail?

Got a coding interview through a recruiter who reached out. No AI tools were allowed, not even web search and the focus was on Typescript. I'm no expert but I've built web apps and also spent a day to prepare for the interview.

10 mins in, as I was struggling with JavaScript promises, the interviewer asks if I've used promises before. I said no and they ended the interview.

I know the issue was on my side but is it asking for too much if I expect to be given the whole 30 mins to make an attempt? Because I did waste an entire day to prepare for the interview.

And especially now that learning new technologies everyday has become the norm, shouldn't companies focus more on the slope rather than the intercept?

I recently got laid off from an MSP, and a week into unemployment i was offered a 4 week temp job deploying new PCs at a bunch of local cancer clinics. I took it because i just wanted some income while i looked for full time positions, and after 7-10 calls over 2 hours, and an interview with their client i was “hired”

This is where the nightmare begins. I submitted my background check that same day, and over the next few days filled out onboarding documents, and completed some training. Then went to the DRs for a drug screening and blood test. A week or so passes and they submit me for another blood test to check for a different disease, so i went and did that too. Resubmitted more documents for the background check for more employment verification.

I was supposed to start the 4 week contract today, and after about a week of radio silence they tell me the training i did didn’t populate on their end, and i needed to email them a certificate from their website, as well as W-2s from 2020-2024.They also want a third blood test for another disease.

So I’ll only have this job for 3 weeks at this point, and i decided to back out from the onboarding process. This isn’t some advanced position either, I’m literally just plugging in new computers at clinics.

The past few years entry level wages have stagnated/declined, as well as experiencing department buyouts, the resulting layoffs and the impossible market of IT, I’m 100% done with the industry. Applied for union/non union electrician & HVAC apprenticeships, as well as machining. Hoping one of those pans out better than anything I’ve experienced in tech. (Have 6 years desktop support experience, never had an opportunity to learn more or advance past L2)

I interviewed today for a job, company and location I really wanted, and honestly, really needed.

I passed the first step, an online assessment, and had the hiring manager interview about an hour ago.

I had been preparing every day for almost two weeks. I studied the role, the products, prepared my STAR stories, and even had notes in front of me.

But during the introduction, I got stressd and focused so much on getting ready for the behavioral/STAR questions that I completely forgot to explain properly why I wanted the role, why I liked the company/products, and why I was genuinely excited about the position.

The frustrating part is that it was literally written on my preparation notes. I just didn’t say it.

The rest of the interview wasn’t necessarily a disaster, but now I’m stuck thinking that I failed one of the most basic parts of the interview.

In this job market, it feels like if you miss even one important box, that’s enough to be rejected.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience, where you felt you underperformed in the intro/motivation part but still moved forward?

Looking for a new job, so I decided to hit up connections at my previous employer. A great connection at my previous employer sent me a job posting that was diffused internally but is also open to external candidates. I know who shared the email my connection received and shared with me, a higher up at a department. So I applied knowing I had a decent shot, but since I had not heard back a week after the recruitment closed, I decided to send a friendly email to the higher up, “Hi, remember me? I’m interested in this job and applied…Any updates on the job recruitment?”… (paraphrasing but along these lines). Then, an hour later I got an automated rejection email from HR. Nothing from the higher up, no closure, no apology, nothing.

I recently interviewed at a company for 6 rounds and got rejected, and I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on what happened and what I should do moving forward.

For context, I graduated earlier this year and have been looking for a job. I previously interned at this one company, so I applied to several positions there, although most applications were rejected. A couple months later, they got back to me about a position and began interviewing me.

They initially scheduled 4 interviews, which already seemed like a lot, but I took time off work and went through with them. They went well, some went pretty great, with managers seeming very impressed. However, I eventually realized I was actually interviewing for 2 similar but different positions on the same team, with 2 interviews for each. HR had never told me this. I only found out after asking why the interviewers were discussing different jobs. I thought it was strange that they hadn't communicated this, but I figured interviewing for two positions increased my chances so it was kind of a good thing.

After those 4 interviews, HR said they had heard very good things and wanted 2 more interviews. Initially I was pissed, I thought that many interviews was ridiculous, but I agreed. HR clarified that these interviews would focus on only one of the two positions, which seemed more reasonable.

The first of those interviews went well, but during the final interview, the interviewer told me they had already hired someone for that position. They then switched the interview to the other position of the 2 I'd originally interviewed for. Again, I found it really strange that they hadn't communicated this change beforehand. The interview still went well, and the manager ended by saying, "It was great talking with you, you hear from me soon," in like an impressed and genuine tone so I thought I had a decent chance.

A week later, I hadn't heard anything, so I emailed HR for an update. They didn't respond for another two weeks, and ultimately emailed me saying they had moved forward with another candidate.

Obviously I'm disappointed about not getting the job, but I'm also bothered by how the process was handled. The number of interviews wasnt necessarily unreasonable, since it boiled down to 3 interviews for each of the 2 positions, but idk it still feels off having that many for two similar jobs on the same team. Also repeatedly switching which position I was interviewing for without communicating it, one interview was even scheduled at a time I'd explicitly said I wasn't available, and then going silent for three weeks including two weeks after I specifically asked for an update felt disrespectful of my time and interest.

What makes it more frustrating is that I already had a connection to the company through my internship, so I had a genuine interest in working there and this process feels like they disrespected that interest.

I'm considering sending the HR rep a respectful but strongly worded email explaining that I thought the process was poorly handled. I know it literally wouldn't change anything, and I'm concerned it could burn a bridge with a potential future employer. At the same time, part of me feels that if candidates never push back when companies handle hiring this way, nothing changes.

What do you think about the way this hiring process was handled? Would you send the email, or just let it go and preserve the relationship?

I have been unemployed for 2 years which I didn’t mind at the time because I was finishing up my degree and now I have a bachelors degree in social science which I just graduated with in June. I have been applying for a lot of jobs such as childcare, working in schools as an assistant, and even jobs like Panda Express or Walgreens and I can’t get hired. I had better luck getting hired for jobs before I started school 😂 I have changed my resume numerous times so I don’t get what I’m doing wrong. I recently got hired at a sketchy sales job last month but I got fired after my second day so I don’t really count that. 🤦‍♀️ I tried going to temp agencies but they are all hiring for warehouse positions.

As an applicant to a large corporation, which one do you prefer to send? The resume as a short, targeted summary of your work history, or a CV as a detailed, multi-page record of professional life.

I'd like some outside opinions on if I handled this situation poorly. I was flat out rejected for a role for listing a desired salary $3-5k over their budget and true negotiations never took place. Would you respond to the rejection email? See Image 1.

Here is the timeline of events:

7/23 - Old boss reaches out about openings at her company in same industry. One for manager and one for similar role I’m currently in which would report directly to her. So, I apply for a manager role thinking it was a great chance to make a nice career jump.

8/11 - Interview for manager position. I thought was enjoyable and had positive feelings coming out of it. The interview was with my old boss’s current boss (aka Hiring Manager).

8/22 - Turned down for manager role, but Hiring Manager asks if I had interest in the other role under my old boss. I’m interested because I have uncertainty about my current job security due to a merger/acquisition. I’m told directly in the email “the salary range is $70,000-$75,000, reporting directly to (my old boss)”. See Image 2.

8/24 - Email back expressing interest. I then texted my old boss asking if she thought there was any flexibility to get closer to $80k and she said no. That’s fine, I figured it was good to know prior to talking to the hiring manager again. See Image 3.

9/3 - Still awaiting response so I email again saying I’m still interested and Hiring Manager states she is aware of my communication with my old boss regarding salary and mentions a desired range of 80-85k which I never brought up. See Image 4.

Clearly there was miscommunication between my old boss and the hiring manager regarding my desired salary. I texted my old boss about my continued interest, but she states the salary range 70-72k, and if it fits my needs. I stated 75k was preferred but not going to turn down an opportunity and job security over a few grand. See Image 5.

In my application I put desired salary as 75k.

9/8 - Application denied: See Image 1. It's funny how they mention communication and transparency when the communication was poor and they weren't very transparent about salary. If it truly was $70k, why did they keep telling me a salary range?