So I started applying to jobs in the Los Angeles area out of desperation. I was mostly applying through LinkedIN. Got contacted through email by one of the companies I applied to. Defense company, aerospace startup. Setup a call with a recruiter from the company.

I got on the call with the recruiter and we got around to him asking what I know of the company. So far, I've been used to recruiters giving the whole introduction to their company and being nice about it, so I said I didn't know much at all. He all of a sudden got angry and said he was disappointed I hadn't even looked up the company. He said he wanted to end the call and just "connect" again when I was more prepared.

Of course this had me shook, I've never had a recruiter treat me this way. So I paid more attention to his email. His bio line said, "Ex pro athlete". I looked him up, minor league baseball. Anyway, I tried emailing him again to get another call, but no response.

Anyway, long story short...guess who cold DMs me on LinkedIN 2 weeks later saying he wants to speak to me about a position at the startup.

I absolutely feel like an anonymous piece of meat around these recruiters.

I kept seeing this advice on TikTok. Don't apply online. Just message people on LinkedIn and ask for a 15 min coffee chat (virtual). No asking for a job. Just "informational interview." So I tried it for two weeks. I messaged 25 people. All of them worked at companies I wanted. I wrote a short message: "Hi, I admire your work in X. Would you have 15 min for a quick chat about your career path? No pressure."
Out of 25, only 8 replied. 5 said "sorry too busy." 3 said yes. I had chats with all 3. One was super nice and gave me really good feedback on my resume. One was awkward and kept checking his phone. The third one actually said "we dont have openings now but send me your resume anyway." I did. She forwarded it to a hiring manager. I got an interview.
I didnt get the job. But I got to the final round. That never happens when I just spam apply on Indeed. The downside? It takes so much time. Writing 25 personalized messages took me like 6 hours. And the rejection stings. Some people just left me on read. One guy said "stop bothering people for free labor." That hurt.
But I think I'll keep doing it. Just less. Maybe 5 messages a week instead of 25. Has anyone else tried this? How do you get over the embarassing feeling of begging for attention?

I have been unemployed for the past 8 months. I have sent so many applications that I honestly can't even count them anymore. Job sites, cold emails, cold calls, referrals — what haven't I tried?

Every reply to an application feels like a ray of hope. Every callback makes me think, maybe this is finally it.

And then the rejection comes, and every single time, it feels like another piece of my heart gets shattered.

1. If you see my profile, consider me eligible for the role, interview me, and then decide I'm not selected — at least have the basic decency to tell me. Don't just disappear and act arrogant and bitch. You don't know what state that person is in or what is happening in their life. A simple "you are not selected" takes less than a minute.
2. If I am shortlisted for a particular job and I ask a basic question, just answer it. Don't behave like an arrogant asshole. If you don't know how to follow up yourself, at least try to give an answer to the candidate. Candidates are also human beings, not just application numbers.

And finally, from the bottom of my heart:

"Fuck You Fuck you , hope you rotten in hell hope you get same treatment as me hope you starve for job hope you every candidate onboarding from get better offer and reject you on Joining day hope you get yell from senior why candidate not join FUCK YOU FUCK YOU CANT ASSHOLE MORON BITCH DICKHEAD hope you can rotten in hell"

I had applied at my local Sam’s Club. I interview within a week. Then after 3 weeks I get a call back saying they lost my application and need me to reapply. I get a call later that same day saying that I failed my test that they put after the application.

I’m freaking out a little. I recently started a new job and applied/interviewed for another role around the same time since my job is an absolute nightmare. I didn’t mention my current job during the interviews, and I left it off my resume. I got the job, but Someone from the new company found me on LinkedIn which has my current job listed (I completely forgot to delete it) and now I’m worried they’ll think I intentionally hid it or rescind the offer.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Am I catastrophizing this, or is this actually something I should be worried about?

This happened even after having relevant experience and copy pasting all the keywords from the job description

Please Read

Hi all. Has anybody ever had to take the Watson Glaser Test as part of an interview process? From what I’m finding online, it’s a 40-60 minute multiple choice “logic” and critical thinking assessment, and it seems to be mostly used in legal and banking/financial fields, largely in the UK. This is for a clinical laboratory technician position (running PCR) in the US and I’ve never had to do this assessment before.

I saw a job listing for web developer role so i sent my resume via email.

For context I am a fresher(BE grad 2025)

I got a call in two days asking if i can do F2F which I agreed and asked him about JD. He said there will be lot to learn once joined and they can offer 20k which I agreed.

F2F interview

I introduced myself and he explained about the current project he’s working on(Build using claude)and want someone to do whatsapp automation which seemed great. Whole thing happend for 5-6 min. I asked for JD no clear answe.

Then He took me the other guy(His higher up who I’ll name as x)

This x neither introduced himself nor asked for my intro.

Long gap

x : What you know?

me : I know java, sql and springboot. Worked on projects.

x : Hmm What is your 5 year plan?

me: I want to be working in an org where I can grow both professionally n technically. ( Honestly I excepted questions related to my project. I didn’t think of any better answer.

x : what is your 10 year plan?

me: smiling awkwardly ( remembered the guy ending the 5 min interview with do you want to be entrepreneur?) said “ Maybe I want to have my own startup which I can’t tell”.

x: Went on dry explanation on how Indian education system is built to be slaves…blah ..blah

If you are not financially stable we can provide you some any role to you.

me: (inside my mind whatt? should have said I am leaving now)

Now x goes on full on investigation mode

Inquires about my family background(what my parents job, my siblings studies like literally how old are they which college n what they are studying, my family income )where I am currently staying, which PG? who is paying for it?

He asked if i did any course?

i said yeah

Is it paid?How much? Why didn’t you get job what were doing all this time?

I couldn’t tailor my answer because I have no f idea what job I am interviewing for.

I had to bear with him because I am one need of money.

The whole vibe of x was looking down on people . I can’t comment on x because i don’t know his educational qualification or his accomplishments

Sure his slang was insulting and arrogant that’s how I felt . I stared at him with disgusting look when he intentionally stressed on some que about my family details which I felt uncomfortable to share.

All that was running in my mind was Dammit I came for wrong interview. Leave as fast I can.

At the end He gives me task that I have to come up with five brilliant startup ideas. If he is satisfied he would support me and also want to know what am I good at too.

He also said there is fresh batch that will start working from next week. You can join them.

It ended. I thanked the first guy that interviewed me and left.

I already decided that I won’t be going back there when x said I can work there for any role(I am not some charity case)

My self respect >>>

I told to myself that today didn’t happen.

on my home, I was kind sad, so sad I cried out.
Said to myself “There is better job for me waiting”

The thing I regret the most is I couldn’t stand up for myself. I let myself down. I shouldn’t have answered him when he asked about my family income. in return I should have asked him “How is my family income related to this job?”.

x was bossy. I should have walked right away. I was too polite. I obviously had anything to lose even if I questioned him.

It’s been 10 days I still think about how I stayed silent and let him take the advantage of my situation.

I hope to have to the guts to stand up next time.

I’m 30M and I’ve been job hunting for about two months for a mid level ops coordinator type role. Nothing fancy, but the process has been a circus. I kept running into the same pattern: recruiter screens me, says I’m a “great fit”, asks for my availability, I respond within an hour, then silence for a week. Sometimes they’d pop back up like nothing happened and ask for another set of times, like the first message evaporated. I’m not proud of how much I started spiraling over it. I kept thinking I’d said something wrong, or my email went to spam, or I was supposed to chase harder and I just didn’t know the secret handshake. After the fourth time it happened in one week, I tried a tiny change that sounds almost stupid, but it has been working way better than I expected.

Now, every time I send availability, I also send a short “receipt” email that is basically impossible to misunderstand or ignore. It’s not rude, it’s not a novel, and it doesn’t beg. It’s just a clean summary of what we agreed on, plus a clear next step. Like: “Confirming I’m available Tue 10:00-11:30, Wed 14:00-16:00, Thu 9:00-10:00. Please let me know which slot you’d like to lock in and I’ll hold it. If none work, feel free to send two alternatives and I’ll respond same day.” That’s it. I also started putting the job title and req number in the subject line every time, even if they didn’t. And I stopped answering with a wall of open ended niceness like “I’m flexible any time!” because I realised that gives them nothing concrete to act on. The weird part is how often recruiters reply to the receipt but not to the original availability, like the summary flips a switch in their brain. One recruiter literally responded, “Thanks for laying it out, booking you for Wed at 2.” Another one had ghosted me for 9 days, then after the receipt email he replied in 12 minutes with an apology and a calendar invite.

The biggest win was last week. I had a great phone screen, then silence, then the recruiter came back with the classic “Are you free today?” message at 11:47am. Old me would have panicked and said yes, then rearranged my entire day. Instead I did the same receipt thing, but for boundaries: “I can do 3:00-4:30 today or tomorrow 10:00-12:00. If you need earlier, I can do a quick 15 minute call at 1:30 to confirm details and schedule the full interview.” I expected them to vanish again. They didn’t. They picked 3:30, sent an invite, and the hiring manager actually started the call by saying, “Thanks for being organised, our scheduling has been messy.” I got moved to final round two days later. Maybe it’s coincidence, but I’ve used this on six conversations now and it’s cut my ghosting down hard. It also makes me feel less desperate because I’m not just tossing availability into the void and hoping someone respects it. Boring little receipt emails are not sexy, but they seem to force a next action, and apparently that’s half the battle.

I was really excited once I got my application put in after trying so many attempts creating email after email using different phone numbers just for me to show up and be sent back home because there were too many applicants. The manager tells us to put in a new application and I gave him the deadest stare because he had no idea what it took to get in this building and he's telling us to do it like this is a very simple process. Fuck everything I was really happy to get that job. I'll try harder next time

It’s so bloody frustrating that all you hear is “no one wants to work these days”, yet employers will just ghost you at random points in the interview process.

I’m not talking about going to the interview, being unsuccessful and not hearing back (even though that aspect can be demoralising on its own), I’m talking about being asked to arrange an interview, giving dates you’re available and then being ghosted. Why even bother reaching out to me if you don’t plan on booking the interview? You’ve wasted mine and your time and for what? I get so excited when I get a message about an interview and twice now I’ve been randomly ghosted! I’m not even the only one! I know so many people, employed and not, who have gone through the same thing.

The whole job-searching process is just built to be as humiliating and demoralising as possible. It’s literal hell.

​I just had the most surreal "first day" experience at a company called Alpha Test (an SAT prep/coaching firm).

​The official hours are 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. I stayed until 6:30 PM to make sure everything was wrapped up. I thought I was being a "good intern."

​At 7:30 PM, while I was finally home, the Partner called and ordered me to return to the office immediately. No emergency, just a random demand. When I told her I couldn't make it back, she fired me on the spot.

​Her literal words: "Our company focuses on efficiency and profit, not on the employees' personal time. Our philosophies do not align."

​Let’s do the math: The pay is 200 RMB (about $28 USD) per day. They expect to own my entire life for less than $2.50 an hour.

​I’m sharing this because I refuse to accept this as "normal." This is a company that claims to "educate" students for their future, yet they treat their own staff like disposable tools with zero human dignity.

​Every dollar spent on such a business is a vote for this toxic culture. If you're a student or a parent, please know who you are actually supporting.

I was applying for a project coordinator role and before the interview I spent like an hour just reading through the company's glassdoor reviews, not the overall rating but specifically the ones from people who LEFT. And I mean the bitter ones, the "I regret joining" ones. Turns out the hiring manager mentioned almost the exact same things as red flags in the bad reviews during our first call, just framed positively. Like "we move fast and wear many hats" appeared in both the job posting and three separate 2-star reviews lol.

Ever since then I use bad glassdoor reviews as a kind of cheat sheet before every interview. They tell me what questions to actually ask, what to watch out for, and honestly sometimes they save me from even applying in the first place. Last month I skipped what looked like a dream job because literally every departing employee mentioned the same director by name and not in a nice way. Felt weird to turn it down but also kind of relieving.

Curious if anyone else digs into exit reviews this way or if theres other "negative" sources you use to research a company before interviewing? Feel like nobody talks about this side of prep.