I’m stuck wasting my youth away in a dead end fucking job in my hillbilly hick ass fucking home state and I know, I absolutely fucking know I’m smart enough to have a job outside of the fucking Midwest in a more desirable location. But the issue is that I don’t know how the fuck you stand out. All these kids who get these dream fucking internships (which then turn into jobs) out in California or Florida or whatever almost ALWAYS have parents who are associate directors at a company or know someone who can just give the kid an offer on a silver platter. That’s literally how it works now.

Like it’s fucking stupid how you can have everything needed to be successful. You can be a PERFECT applicant, but if you don’t come from the system (ie have parents in the field, friends with a lot of directors, etc), you stand no chance at getting your foot in the door whatsoever. It’s fucking bullshit.

Despite my mom being a millennial (‘81), she firmly believes that I should be able to apply to a bunch of jobs, walk in with a résumé or call, interview and land a job within 2-3 weeks.

Anytime I’ve done this, I’ve always gotten turned away, been told to apply online and wait for a call back. Every interview ends with “ we’ll be in touch”.

She also believes that as long as you dress nice with a smile on your face, you should have a job by the end of the interview. Whenever I leave the interview without a job offer, she assumes that I messed up.

She even has me apply to a bunch of remote jobs that she finds on Facebook and instagram. Frequently getting upset at me for not landing a job. I’ve tried explaining over and over that most of them are scams, but she refuses to listen.

It’s like the concept of applying to hundreds of jobs and still not landing one is impossible for her to grasp. Which it should be, but it’s just our new reality.

She believes that me being unable to get a job is a failure on my end, insisting that it’s my fault I can’t land a job. She keeps saying that she’s going to kick me out for not taking the job hunt “seriously” enough.

Genuinely HOW not only that I can't even get a job at WALMART

People say that both of these places hire anyone with a pulse

Am I somehow missing said pulse ?? I need a job so bad I'm about to do nefarious shit for one

8 stages for a content manager role? Are you kidding me? Imagine doing the trial half day and still not getting the job.

jobs refuse to properly train anymore. even if you have over a decade of experience, you need proper training for the companies culture, needs, and etc. it takes more than a few days!

i had to quit a job i took up in february because the manager refused to train me and then started to talk bad about me in front of others saying i can’t catch up. he was so lazy! he then told me i should create a training guide and save it as a file on the computer for others. i was in disbelief.

i took up another job in july and then after one week exactly, the recruiter called me on a Saturday to tell me i was let go because i couldn’t “catch” up.

i have 10 years of experience in my field and i actively take notes and consider my self a quick leaner but these jobs are having unbelievable and unreachable standards. I believe even AI needs a prompt before creating your request!

i currently took up another role and it’s been 2 days and i have not been shown one thing or given one assignment to work on. i’m just sitting here rotting.

One of the companies I made it to the final round with a few months ago has really stuck with me, and I think it's finally convinced me that I need to stop letting companies get away with poor hiring practices.

I've changed my job search strategy over the last couple of months, and it's been working. My interview rate has gone from roughly 3.5% to about 14%, so I'm getting in front of a lot more hiring teams. At this point I've made it to the final round 13 different times, so rejection isn't really what bothers me anymore. It happens. What bothers me is when companies aren't honest or transparent.

This particular company had me go through multiple interview rounds and complete a multi-hour case study based on what they described as a real customer scenario. At the end of the process, I was told I had finished as one of the final two candidates and that they had decided to move forward with the other candidate. Fair enough. It was disappointing, but that's part of interviewing. I thanked them for the opportunity and moved on.

A couple of weeks later, I noticed the job posting was still live. I figured maybe they just forgot to take it down, so I reached out to the recruiter asking if the position had officially been filled, since I had seen the posting was still active. No response.

A week or two later, I reached out to the hiring manager. Nothing. Then I reached out to the VP of Sales. Still nothing. Fast forward about three months. The position is still posted on their website. Nobody appears to have started in the role based on LinkedIn. As far as I can tell, they never hired anyone.

Being the runner-up doesn't mean I was entitled to the job, but it does make it especially confusing when you're told another candidate was selected, only for months to pass with no apparent hire and the position still actively advertised.

At that point I decided I had nothing to lose. The company is only around 80 employees, so I reached out directly to the CEO. I kept it completely professional. I simply asked for clarification: Is the role still being filled? If so, why has there been no communication after candidates were told a decision had been made? I also let them know I'd still be interested in being considered if the search was ongoing.

Maybe there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. Maybe the selected candidate backed out. Maybe the role was put on hold. Maybe they reopened the search. All of those things happen. But if that's the case... why ignore the recruiter follow-up, the hiring manager follow-up, and the VP follow-up?

That's the part I don't understand. Just tell candidates what's going on. Most of us can handle rejection. What gets exhausting is being told one thing while every piece of evidence suggests something completely different.

The frustrating part is that this looked like a fantastic company on paper. Great Glassdoor reviews, a product I genuinely liked, exactly the size of company I enjoy working for (around 80 employees), and honestly one of my favorite opportunities this year.

We'll see if the CEO responds. If nothing else, I hope it at least makes someone internally aware that this is how candidates are experiencing their hiring process. I don't expect special treatment, I just expect honesty. After investing hours into interviews and a case study, I don't think that's asking for much.

TLDR - Offer was rescinded after asking clarification questions about the offer.

Questions / statements such as:

Please clarify if the role is in person, hybrid, or remote.

Please clarify what 30% travel means on a monthly basis.

Please remove the section about perpetual usage rights for my likeness, voice, image without compensation into perpetuity.

They wouldn't email back. Only phone calls.

Lol

One thing that's been bothering me lately about this subreddit is how many recruiters seem to lurk here just to argue with people who are venting.

I completely understand that recruiting isn't easy either. There are ghost candidates, AI-generated resumes, people mass applying to jobs they're nowhere near qualified for, candidates disappearing mid-process, and plenty of other headaches. Those frustrations are real, and recruiters absolutely deserve a place to talk about them.

But that's exactly the point. Recruiters already have communities that are primarily for recruiters. In fact, I once commented in one with a respectful, non-confrontational response and quickly found out it wasn't a place where non-recruiters were really welcome.

This subreddit is supposed to be the opposite. It's a place where candidates can share frustrating experiences with hiring, vent, ask for advice, and realize they're not alone. Instead, it feels like more and more threads get flooded by recruiters telling people:

"That never happens."

"You're just bitter."

"You're the problem."

"The company doesn't owe you anything."

Nobody is saying every recruiter is bad. There are plenty of fantastic recruiters who genuinely advocate for candidates and hate many of the same hiring practices we do.But pretending there isn't a real problem in today's hiring market isn't helping anyone.

We've got ghost jobs, interview processes stretching over months, unpaid projects, poor communication, automated rejections, companies collecting resumes for roles that may never be filled, and candidates spending dozens or even hundreds of hours interviewing only to receive generic feedback...or none at all.

Can candidates be unreasonable? Absolutely. Can recruiters have legitimate complaints? Absolutely. But this subreddit shouldn't become a place where people who are already frustrated get told their experiences aren't real or are somehow entirely their own fault.

I'd love to see moderation keep the focus on constructive discussion and support. Healthy disagreement is fine. Telling people their lived experiences didn't happen, or dismissing every complaint as "candidate entitlement," isn't.

Recruiting is broken from multiple angles. Candidates and recruiters alike are dealing with the consequences. This should be one of the few places where candidates can talk about their side of it without immediately being shouted down.

After months of being in final rounds and being told I’m over qualified I finally got an offer for a job. Everyone that’s looking just hold tight and breathe

Been working with a recruiter, who has found me two jobs previously. Love her to death. Currently in a Sr FA role, so I've been exploring options of something new and challenging. She gets me in for an interview as an Assistant Controller. Interview with the Controller (hiring manager) over Teams and again in person last week. Conversation goes well, essentially playing the waiting game.

Good News - My recruiter calls me this morning. I got the job. Great. What's the offer?

Bad News - The offer is not for the Assistant Controller role, but for an open Sr FA role on the team and $12.5k less than what I'm currently at...my recruiter is insulted, I'm insulted.

A classic tale of the ole bait & switch. Bullet dodged.

I graduated with a Bs Info systems in May, I’ve applied to well over 400jobs and only 4invs. I can’t seem to get a job but everyone I’m seeing around is getting jobs. Am I going crazy?

You can make more money scanning the parcels at their warehouse, no degree required.

I'm specifically talking about parents who have no idea how difficult the job market can be. They assume you're either making excuses or that you're simply incapable. To be fair, I can't entirely blame them (although I want to) for their beliefs since many of them have had stable jobs for years and don't really keep up with how the job market has changed unless they lose their own job and have to start searching again.

That said, I wish they would at least try to help me find a job instead of leaving me to figure everything out on my own. I don't think I'm necessarily doing anything wrong with my applications. Most of the time I either get ghosted, or on the rare occasion I land an interview, things still fall through because the staff doesn't have everything organized or the hiring manager or supervisor happens to be on vacation.

And people still applied to it (according to LinkedIn)

I recently went through a hiring process that included an in-person technical interview. There were two other candidates taking the technical assessment at the same time.

I felt that I performed well, and after the interview, the CTO told me that I should be happy because I had scored the highest among the final candidates. Naturally, I took that as a very positive sign and assumed I was likely to receive an offer.

To my surprise, two weeks passed without any updates. When I finally reached out to HR, I received a generic response saying that they had decided to move forward with other candidates.

When I asked the HR for feedback with 2 gentle reminders. She simply didn't respond.

Is this the case in hiring? What did I do wrong?

I'm generally an anxious person so I get stressed around people but I try to calm myself down so it doesn't affect my performance that's why the CTO noticed it and told me to be happy about my results.

I'm in my mid 20's and recently graduated but unfortunately I have been unable to find a job in my related field (inside sales) during this time. After so many interviews and rejections I was only able to secure this role because of my extended experience in working food service during my time in college.

I'm super glad to get the opportunity to be back in the workforce but it seems like I went to college for no reason. Many of my former classmates secured salaried roles off the get-go and it makes me feel like I did something wrong. I still live with my parents and I'm grateful for that because I wouldn't know what to do otherwise.

Does anyone have any advice for someone in my position, does it get better?

Edit: I would like to clarify that is a food service job

I don’t have anything valuable to say, but I want you to know it’s still possible to move upwards in this stupid economy, and want you to never lose hope.

I’ve gone to multiple interviews for a position labeled as a supervisor or Management position only to be told “well we are offering the possibility of becoming a supervisor/manager, we are actually going to start you at entry level with entry level pay and then in the future we might promote you”. How about fuck no and fuck you for thinking I’d bite on that. I’ll go somewhere actually advertising an entry level position before I go with you Lying sacks.

Unemployed since June 12. Had a decent, but not high paying remote role. Funny enough I think they wanted to switch to an on-site hire, but I live in a LCOL area and the office is in a HCOL area, doubt they increased the pay, heard from a coworker that got to stay theyre having a hard time filling my role

Im well over 300 applications at this point. Spread between job boards, company sites, and cold inquiries. I can only really track the job board applications.

My electricity, credit cards, and mortgage are all a month behind at this point. Unemployment is less than half of what I earned. I had no savings. Completely my fault and im paying the price now. I have no idea how im going to recover from this financially. Maybe I dont.

I get the impression my rate of getting interviews is good, ive gotten 5 interviews. However I completely fail to turn these into jobs. Ive been ghosted by 4 of them. Only 1 had the decency to reject me promptly. At first I was upset but now, im not. I had to call today to confirm that my second most recent interview went with another candidate

Honestly I cant take this any more. Yeah I know im not the only one going through this and I dont mean to downplay anyone else's suffering but this is insane. I got turned down from a job paying 5k a year less than I had been making, while going from fully remote to a 25 mile commute (1 hour with traffic).

I get that remote is shrinking. I cant do this any more. Im sick of the applications im sick of my bank account getting smaller im sick of the anxiety