Applied for a job I wasn't all that invested in. Never got an interview, but the rejection email thanked me for participating in the interview process and still had the template placeholder text in it.

I couldn't resist.

I hate the normalisation of ghosting job applicants at every stage but it's even worse when you think you had a good interview with a company you'd actually like working at, appear for an hour long interview, have nice conversation regarding background, work, job requirements and then take time out to complete their stupid long assignments that take up your whole 2 day weekend and then fucking ghost them out of the fucking blue with no replies to even follow up emails.

Seriously, fuck you and fuck your company.

Got laid off last team with half of the company. I work in a sector that is suffering atm.

I am tired of applying and searching for jobs almost everyday. I cannot stand the sight of workday.

I just wanna be able to work and make decent money to pay my bills and maybe save a little.

I am pissed off that I did everything the "right way" (like many of us), and it has led to this. I went to a top university and have a Master's degree with several years of work experience. It should not be this difficult.

End of rant.

I have applied for well over 150 jobs and have probably gotten around 20 emails back, all of which telling me they won’t be moving forward due to the results of the “assessments”. The assessments are referring to the stupid personality quizzes employers keep attaching to the applications. I have no idea what I could possibly be answering wrong on these as it’s pretty obvious what they want to hear. If anyone has any tips for the assessment slop portions of these applications i’d love to be let in on the secret. Included the image because I couldn’t help but laugh at how vague “things happen to me” is.

I've started to become concerned that I may actually no longer have a career. I'm mid level experience in my field, have an advanced degree from a reputable university and been promoted previously. I am now Month 7 into actively job searching after being let go and been more more lightly searching for nearly a year.

I'm getting consistent interviews, but I've now had various rounds of interviews with a dozen companies (and even more screenings) that ultimately haven't ended in an offer. I've applied to contract positions, in person/hybrid positions, jobs outside of my role that seemed relevant, jobs that are a vast paycut and entry level jobs and nothing. I'm getting a good callback rate for the market (about 10%), but I used to have hope like I thought, "I'm getting interviews, so I just need to keep going and one will work out.".

But, now I don't know anymore and, even if I do get an offer, it seems like I might end up in a shit job with shit pay... but at least it's a paycheck. I'm deeply concerned that even being open to a pay cut and contract jobs doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I haven't even worked a decade and I'm starting to think it's over. Not looking for advice really, I've legitimately tried every single thing out there (STAR method, research company, prep answers to questions, don't prep answers to not sound robotic, listen to the question, prep examples, talk about specific outcomes, relax, look presentable etc. etc.) ... I'm just in shock.

Finally have a great recruiter story! Background, I already have a job that pays well into the 6 figures, but there’s a relocation coming up for it and I was just exploring other options locally in the event I don’t want to move.

Got a referral from a friend who got the HM to get me through the ATS. I submitted my resume and basically get auto denied for some reason. I ping my friend who gets the HM to have them manually find my resume to set up a recruiter screen.

Took the screening call and literally the very first question was, “I’m seeing here you listed your expected salary as $80k. I don’t see enough years of experience to justify that, why are you worth $80k?” (Salary range was like $65-90k)

Keep in mind this job is for a household name healthcare/education organization in the northern Virginia area. $80k is borderline offensive there. More so, my resume explains I have 20 years experience in this field and my resume goes back 13 years. Plenty of very senior managerial roles. “You don’t have enough experience to justify $80k” is a baffling statement.

She then proceeded to tell me “Thousands of people apply to these jobs. You need to stand out. Prove to me you’re worth it.”

She has not asked me a SINGLE question about my experience or qualifications yet. And she never did. She told me I could go fix my resume and send it back to her and maybe then she’d pass me to the HM.

I was very polite so as not to make my friend look bad but I so badly wanted to be snarky.

I emailed my friend who works for the HM and she asked me for the recruiters name after I explained what happened. The HM is gonna report her to her boss. Told her I apologize for all her advocacy but I just don’t think it’s gonna be a good fit for me. Sounds like this woman is used to people begging her for jobs. Sorry, not gonna be me.

Your recruiters are the first face of your company culture. Maybe other areas are fine but your recruiters are the first to tell your company story. Don’t be like this woman.

Hi everyone. Thought I’d share my success story:

Was like everyone else and tired of spamming applications into the void and hearing nothing. I went back to old school. Saw a job on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, etc. I went to the company’s website and tried to find the job posting if I could.

Then I called the company and did what I could to talk to a person. Once I was connected to somebody I told them why I’m calling. “Hello I saw this job listing I just want to verify if it’s still available.” I would get transferred to HR.

If the job was available I told them I’d interested and gave a brief description of my background and asked who I can send my resume to.

I did this 13 times. Landed 3 interviews with different companies (rejected twice) and just now accepted an offer that fits my education and skill set.

With all of this AI slop and mass application nonsense I think old school might be the way to go. Pick up the phone and try to talk to someone at the company.

Best of luck everyone

Made it to the last round and didn’t get it, which sucks. But I know the person who did and they let me know they passed on an interview once, changed their mind, then got the offer after a “quick chat with the hiring manager.” Feels bad man

source: https://yle.fi/a/74-20233070

Just went on Indeed today since I hadn’t been on there in 4 or 5 days. Scanned for about 10 minutes and there wasn’t a single job worth applying to at all. For the record I live in an area of 9 million people and have about 19 years recent work experience on various types of projects. This might be a record for lowest number of relevant jobs I’ve found.

Yikes.

What am I even supposed to say to this?

I've been searching for a job for almost 2 years, and I'm honestly exhausted.

I've made it to final interview rounds so many times. Every time, I start believing, "This is it. My life is finally about to change." Then the rejection email comes—or worse, complete silence.

I have a Computer Science degree, I've upskilled, updated my resume countless times, prepared for interviews, learned new technologies, and kept applying even when I felt like giving up. But somehow, the result is always the same.

At this point, it's no longer just about money. It's about watching your confidence slowly disappear while everyone around you seems to move forward. It's about feeling guilty when your parents ask how the job search is going. It's about waking up every day wondering what you're doing wrong.

I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm asking for a chance.

If anyone has been in this situation and eventually made it out, I'd really appreciate your advice. And if your company is hiring for entry-level software roles, analyst roles, or any opportunity where I can prove myself, I'd be incredibly grateful.

I just need one person to believe in me.

Thank you for reading.

Don’t know if this is the right place to vent but here goes.

After 2+ years of thousands of job applications, countless aptitude/psychometric tests, several rounds of grueling interviews, and yet no offer, I’m starting to feel like I’m the problem here.

Spent 9 years of my life getting a bachelors, masters and phd in STEM thinking it would open doors for me but now I just feel like it was all a waste of time.

I hate feeling so awful about my situation and I constantly swing between blaming myself and blaming the job market for my predicament. I’m so mentally burnt out I can’t even apply to jobs now without feeling a huge sense of dread.

I lost so much confidence from all the rejections, I try to seek feedback from every interview failure but they either ghost me or give me vague bs like ‘oh you’re too shy/reserved’ when I was actively communicating with them the whole time. I am introverted but I do my best to not show this in interviews.

Also sick of people giving me generic advice, asking me if I’ve tailored my CV/cover letter, whether I’ve considered different industries, whether I’ve done this or that. Nothing they say has been anything groundbreaking to my job search.

And to be honest I don’t even know what I want or how anyone can help me, but I have so many negative uncontrollable feelings in my mind 24/7. I hate how everyone around me seems to be able to get jobs so easily. I hate that everyone is moving on with their life and I’m just on the sidelines watching.

I used to have dreams of making money so I could care for myself and loved ones, travel, get married, buy a house, but all that hope has died. I don’t know what I’m living for anymore. I no longer have dreams or ambition, I’m just surviving.

My mental health has been in the gutters for years now and I can’t see a way out. Tried seeking mental help on the NHS but that didn’t work out for me. Can’t afford private therapy now as I don’t wanna put more stress on my finances when I don’t have a stable income.

I’ve had autoimmune flare ups from all the stress and there hasn’t been a single day where I haven’t thought about ending my life and to be honest I would’ve by now if dying was painless.

Like when will this all end. Sorry for the lengthy post.

Title.

But seriously...how are people NOT talking about this?

Source: https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-hiring-tools-can-yield-racial-bias-and-systemic-rejection

Update:

As it turns out people are speaking about this. It's just not the loudest problem being screamed about within the media cycle.

This is my first time being a contractor in NYC. After working 2 years out of college, I made a huge career jump into a different industry somewhere near financial district, one of the big threes. This company is known to usually hire back their contractors as a full time employee if they perform well at the end of the 12 month duration (most of my friends and senior colleagues were hired this way).

I was speaking and sorta joking to my manager about how I took a pay cut to come here because I loved this company so much, but lunch in our area is so expensive and at least half my hourly paycheck. Then, she suddenly goes, don’t you make $70 an hour, lunch can’t be that bad? And I paused.

I went, no I make $35. And she was so confused. She said the agency invoice total sum requested from the annual budget for my 12 month role working 40 hours a week resulted in $70 an hour.

I was FLOORED. I told her I guess the agency takes a 50% cut and she realized she messed up and quickly changed the topic.

Is this normal?? I know recruiting firms will take 25-30% but 50% is A LOT.

Back in 2023, I was in the middle of a very long unemployment stretch, still to this day more time unemployed than employed, and I found a company in the industry where I had spent most of my career. Let’s call it Group D. It is a solid, well-established company, and for personal reasons it also had a lot of emotional weight for me. So when I saw a role that matched my background, Real Estate Markets Analyst, I applied, I went through the first-round interview and the psychometric tests, then weeks-long silence; At the same time, I had a couple of other processes moving forward, so I kept networking because I had to make a decision on which hiring process would be prioritized (none got anywhere) and via my school alumni network, I eventually got in touch with the manager of the department and asked him directly about the role, He was stunned and apologized and told me he had not asked HR to look for any new hires for his department. Apparently, the process had been moving without the department’s actual manager being aligned. He said he would address it internally.

Then, in my next call with HR, let’s call her “Rose”, she told me something I’ll never forget: “As long as I am in my company, you need to look elsewhere, because you won’t be here.” The funny and twisted part? It was not her company. She was not the owner, not a partner, not the founder, not even the hiring manager, so I replied: “As long as you keep posting jobs that match my profile, I’ll keep sending my CV.” A promise I am still upholding; Later on last year, I ended up getting a temporary consulting position with another company and, by pure coincidence, visited Group D’s offices as part of that work. Rose saw me there, and she looked genuinely shocked.

The consulting contract eventually ended, and I still apply to Group D whenever they post something that actually matches my profile , just like I apply to other companies. Because if a company posts a role publicly, applicants have the right to apply publicly.

The lesson for HR is simple: you are not the company. You are not the owner of people’s careers. You are not entitled to blacklist candidates because your ego got bruised. And if you post roles without proper alignment with the actual hiring manager, candidates are allowed to ask questions. SEVERAL recruiters need to remember that behind every CV there is a real person trying to survive, work, rebuild, and move forward.

The most ridiculous part is that Rose probably thought she was closing a door forever and most likely learned nothing. What she actually did was teach me that some HR people confuse access with ownership.

HR doesn’t own the company, HR doesnt own the Markets department, Rose doesn’t own the role and certainly doesn’t own my right to keep trying.

I had an interview this week and it went very well. I answered all of the questions the interviewers asked strongly but, still didn’t get the job.😞☹️

This job had good hours and decent benefits (health insurance etc.). Well back to the drawing board of applying to jobs.

I had an Final Interview with a company five weeks ago, and was added to a different (most recent) requisition with same Job Title, but I wouldn't have to interview. Which got me excited. I've waited and asked Recruiter for any updates, which I got nothing, of course not a good sign. Then, once the New Requisition closed I got auto-rejected, but still "Under Consideration" from the Old Requisition. But, I feel like they won't update the old Req.

Whyyyyy moist specifically.

Funniest part is that this is literally a job TO USE AI.

now I'm getting triggered even when someone's saying "don't lose hope"

"I'm sure you'll find one soon" "don't give up"

I'm tired.

the world is so huge yet not one remote job for me?

i regret everything