Months of applications and unexpectedly a recruiter reached out to me via LinkedIn. Job looked good, aligned very well with my background/current role for way more money. She gave me her email to schedule an interview. We interviewed, I answered her surface level questions—everything went fine. Today I received an automated rejection email saying the same bullshit—“many qualified applicants —> we decided to go a different direction. We’ll keep your email on file!”

I’m no stranger this, but SHE scouts ME, tells ME that I’m a fit for the role then asks me surface level questions, the answers to all of which can be found in my resume and then she can’t even send a personal email back? I’m humiliated enough at my current job, why humiliate me further by reaching out to me in the first place just to ask nothing questions and not interview again. Every day at my job is an exhausting nightmare. Job hunt sucks just as much.

I’m at a job at that makes me wanna die inside. My own stupid fault I had such a nice easy job before and fucked it up. I’m planning on quitting in a month (if I stay here longer I‘m not joking I don’t know what I’ll do so don’t tell me to stay) I have no savings and have so many bills to pay so I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve been applying to jobs like crazy and recently I’ve only been contacted by scam jobs. I’m so tired. I spend my days dissociating, playing the lottery and day dreaming about winning 250 million dollars so I never have to work again.

I recently got approached by a recruiter about a quantitative investment analyst position. This happened as I in parallel interviewing somewhere else (still currently employed).

I had a great call with that recruiter. He put me to the tech lead. Then went to their office and met the managing director, then the CIO.

They scheduled a case study with me later in the week. Stayed in the office for 4 hours. Met another CIO of a different division. Gave my presentation, and they told me that I was the leading horse (told me it was between me and one other candidate) and that I would hear back by Wednesday (today) the latest.

Well, it’s almost EOD Wednesday so I called the recruiter, he didn’t pick up, and emailed him, no response. I’m pretty frustrated after giving this so much effort and time (used PTO for the interview) and now I feel like I’m getting ghosted.

I definitely didn’t perform perfect in the case study, but I made it very clear I know how to problem solve and have the tech skills needed for the job.

Anyone else with a similar experience? Any hopium for me to inhale or some hard truths telling me I’m cooked are both appreciated

Does anyone else feel like they wasted their college years by not getting an internship? I never had a license and I lived in a small college town so I never got a chance to get one.

Now I can’t find anything entry level, because every position needs experience. I can’t even move past my part time retail job because I only have a year there and no where is hiring full time and again, not enough experience for management.

I've been on edge all week because I thought my interview went really well and I was proud of myself (it was my last chance to not lose my apartment)

They're gonna ghost me aren't they 😭

May have strict OR requirements, but freaking Ridgefield, WA is in the Portland Metro area. Thanks for splitting my nutsac.

More or less anti-social media aside from some communities on reddit (obviously), but I'm really trying to find a new opportunity by end of year. I HATE using Linkedin and my only colleagues are college friends and a few coworkers from a job 7 years ago.

I know it may be my only shot to expand but my network is really limited. I also hate the pity feeling of basically looking desperate for work.

Has it helped for you? How simple if your profile?

I recently applied for a senior leadership role at a small not for profit organisation.

The recruitment process was originally described as having two stages. I completed the first interview and was then invited to the final interview, which took place on a Friday.

45hrs before the second interview I was set an unexpected task to do. There was no forewarning. It landed at gone 6PM on a Wednesday evening. The interview 1pm Friday. had to reschedule plans but made it work.

I spent at least 30hrs of this 45 hours working on the project. I presented the at the interview, everything seemed to go well.

The day after (Saturday late afternoon), I was unexpectedly asked to attend a third interview with the panel, they wanted to meet on the upcoming Tuesday, they also insisted on getting my referee contacts upfront (I normally don’t give these until an offer has been made).

The discussion appeared to go well, and some of the language used felt closer to an appointment-stage conversation “you blew us away with your interview and presentation”, “are you sure this role is big enough for you”, although no formal offer was made.

I was not given a clear timetable for the decision and heard nothing afterwards. One week after the additional interview, I sent a polite email asking whether there was any update and when candidates could expect to hear the outcome.
It has now been more than a day since that email and over a week since the third interview, with no acknowledgement or response.

I appreciate that trustees or panel members may be volunteers and that recruitment decisions can take time. However, the process has already extended beyond the two stages originally advertised, and the complete lack of communication is beginning to affect both my confidence in the outcome and my enthusiasm for the role.

Would you regard this as fairly normal, or as an indication of how the organisation communicates and makes decisions? At what point would you mentally move on?

Got severance 2 months ago and since then have been applying for jobs like mad. All I’ve gotten is rejection emails - no interviews and am really getting worried now.

I have 10 years experience working in cybersecurity, most of that is in the private sector and some federal contact work. I am fortunate to have a job after getting laid off from a toxic workplace about a year ago, but I've been struggling to land new roles. A referral doesn't help you anymore, had referrals for a few places but at the end of the day the hiring director makes the final decision.

My background is in cyber threat intel and digital forensics & incident response. Should I make a lateral move or leave this industry entirely?

I know people who used to be C-suite taking lower level IC roles only to stay in the industry.

For those offering genuine advice, please dm me.

Has anyone here tried creating an alternate résumé where you basically don’t listen to things you’ve done over the last 30 years. Any of your professional accomplishments certification, college degree etc.?

And created a completely bogus résumé with 30 years of bullshit retail/warehouse/door greeter work so you don’t appear “overqualified”

Oh, and dyed your hair and started listening to Taylor Swift?

I had just finished a round of interviews that I felt incredibly confident about. About five days had passed since the final interview.

Yesterday, my fiancée took me out to lunch, and the attached photo is the fortune I got from my cookie at the buffet. The moment I opened it, I looked up and showed it to her, and both of our jaws just dropped and we laughed and said we hoped so. I couldn’t stop talking about this particular interview because of how well it had gone.

Lately, I haven’t even let myself get my hopes up. It’s been nearly 10 months since I lost my job, and I’ve been searching for stable, full-time, permanent employment ever since.

Today, I finally signed an offer letter.

These past 10 months have been some of the hardest of my life. Hundreds of applications. Rejection emails. Instant AI-generated auto-denials. Countless rounds of interviews that led nowhere. Destroying my credit just to survive. Finishing a degree that seemed to get me nowhere. And far too many nights spent crying, overthinking everything, and honestly feeling like I didn’t want to keep going.

But it’s finally fucking over.

I don’t start for another two weeks because of onboarding and orientation, but for the first time in a long time, I can finally breathe.

To everyone who’s still stuck in the job search, I know how exhausting and defeating it can feel. Please don’t give up. I truly hope your opportunity comes soon, because I know how much this moment means when it finally does.
I’m beyond grateful. I’m paying forward my fortune because my good news came a day early so it’s still valid 😉

Some good news! After 9 months of job hunting, I've finally got an offer nailed down. Now for the damning stats. This should ABSOLUTELY be a condemnation on the job market and what employers have done to job seekers as a whole.

I kept statistics of all the jobs since October of 2025 that I applied to, which ones were converted to some sort of screen or interview, which ones went to final rounds, and ultimately which ones I got an offer for. Keep in mind, I'm an 8-year HR pro and I was exclusively looking for HR-specific roles that fit my abilities, experience level, background, and values. This isn't a spray-and-pray, it was highly targeted.

Since October of 2025, I had applied for 761 jobs out of the 952 I sourced and reviewed. Of those jobs, only 30 got to some kind of phone/video/in-person interview of some sort. That's a 3.94% conversion rate. Out of those 30, only two jobs got to final rounds and one got an offer, meaning even though I was highly targeted in my approach to job hunting, there was only ever a 0.1% CHANCE that I could land a job in this market.

Even though I'm grateful for the offer, FUCK this job market. It shouldn't be a statistical wonder to land a job, and yet here we are.

Rug pull after 9 interviews….
Bay Area AV company, month long process, mid level systems eng role

Intro call -> tech screen with coding-> 5 interview loop (3 technical, 2 managers) -> another coding round -> 2 more slt -> offer to fly out for another coding, slt -> trip never got booked and rejection after the weekend

Most interviews were ok-solid, get to final slt round and dude clearly doesn’t want to talk to me. Get accused of using AI during a 30 minute get to know leadership 1 on 1??? How would I even cheat on a why should we hire you question, and why start in the final rounds.

More offended that they offered to book me a trip to come see the site and conduct a 10th+ interview, then rug pull with a basic rejection letter and no context

I've had a job offer made on a self employed basis - I have never been paid any way other than the PAYE system before. The role is admin heavy, sharing an office within the business itself, 2/3 days a week.

The advert stated 'flexible working arrangement' under working pattern/hours - the person who put me forward didn't seem to know about the 'self employed' arrangement until I gave feedback from the interview.

Has anyone had a similar experience, working in what is essentially a '9 to 5' but on a self employed basis?

I am worried I am missing something on what I'd be signing myself up for but, don't want to throw away an opportunity since the only responses I've had so far the past few months are polite rejections from job applications to a variety of fields.

Any advice appreciated, TIA!

I've been invited to an interview with a company and my first interview with them is next week on Monday. I have no idea (yet) how long the interview process lasts and how long to hire. BUT I'm going on vacation Aug 16 for a week! They emailed me asking about my potential start date if I was offered the role.

I'm worried my vacation would impede with a) my start date and/or b) the interview process. Also granted, I haven't even spoken to them yet and low-key don't want to give up my vacation if a job is not guaranteed. (Would hate to cancel my vacation only to be rejected from the job)

I've been applying for jobs ALL year and I finally decided to book my first vacation this year. And now this happens 😭

What should I say in response to them asking about my start date?

It's so frustrating to hear that getting a job in 2026 boils down to who you know. But even then that hasn't helped much in my case I've had ins with three different jobs in the past month, but despite having decent to strong connections with employers, that still isn't enough.

It really just feels like dumb luck at this point.😣

1st interview: 30 min HR

2nd interview: 1 hour hiring manager

3rd interview: 3 hour presentation and panel

4th interview: 45 min interview with CEO

5th interview: 1 hour interview with the person who would be direct supervisor.

Now I am waiting to see about an offer since the person is on vacation this week.

I would love to have this job, but gosh this experience has been so off putting. I'm so sick of the waiting I almost want to pull out, but at this point its not worth it to do so, especially cause its a good opportunity.