I recieved an offer for a job recently but the pay is extremely low and the "full time" hours are misleading as they only want offer 30 hours "until the business grows"... I am accepting the offer because I need some sort of income and they are the only offer so I have continued to apply for other opportunities in the meantime.

I applied on Indeed for a Assistant Manager position at a Yoga Studio where their salary range aligns with my expections. The job listing stated that it's primarily an Operations role with some sales. I have a lot of experience in Operations and sales but I want to completely divorce myself from sales jobs. I don't mind being responsible for some sales and keeping up with metrics an the ASSISTANT manager.

I get a message from the recruiter who I believe is a Regional Manager, she ask a bunch of questions through messages (this is via Indeed). I was little annoyed with all of these questions and it is not a formal interview. They want to set up a phone interview. Ok cool.

I had to follow up with lady THREE TIMES to solidify an interview and I am convinced she forgot about my application.

The first round is a phone interview with the Regional Manager that is somewhat informal at first. They asked about my professional history and why you would want to work for the company and where you would see yourself professionally years from now. She then explains that the job is primarily / heavily sales focused.

The expectation of multiple sales every single shift with NO COMMISION STRUCTURE, which is bonkers to me. She asked how I would deal with staff that aren't performing well and added they struggle with retention and I would have to fire staff that don't meet their goals. I roll my eyes over the phone. It's like she is trying to deter applicants from this job.

You mean to tell me that the only motivation for a staff to put effort into sales they don't get commision for is by threatening their job??? It's no wonder the turnover is abysmal.

I addressed that the job listing stated that the role is primarily "operations" focused just for her to tell me "Sales is a big part of operstions in this role". I wanted to end the interview right there but I stuck around.

Next, she wanted to go into a sales role play and I somewhat entertained it. Mind you, I have no information on the specifics of the services and no background for her character other than a difficult sale with so many objections which essentially made it not possible to immediately sell "this person" she was posing as. My best sales approach is actually getting to know the prospect and having clear knowledge on the services to best serve their needs. I have enough experience in customer service and sales to recognize that the prospect she was posing as in not realistic nor common. She just wanted to push how far I can work through objections.

Right as she was about to "critique" my roleplay I stopped the interview and told her:

"I'm sorry but I have to stop the interview right here. This position is NOT for me. I don't feel comfortable with the structure of this role and it's apparent there is no real care into the customer service and client experience aspect of operating a HEALTH and WELLNESS facility. I understand money / sales are needed to operate but from what I am hearing it seems exploitive of entry level employees who actually want to grow. Having such a ruthless sales structure in THIS ECONOMY where people are not investing in expensive luxury health and wellness services is a recipe for disaster as a business. Thank you for the consideration but I can't continue to entertain a role like this. My application can be withdrawn."

She attempted to give me this generic response like "Thank you for your transparancy, this is why we have the phone interview and roleplay..."

I cut her off told her thank you for your time and godspeed on the search and hung up. Since I have accepted an offer, luckily I am not desperate. Onward with my search!

Just want to share a success story for those who need a little motivation!! I spent like every day scrolling this sub between my final (third) interview on Sept 18 and this week—so over a month. The interviews went super well, the hiring manager loved me from the start, and overall just had really positive phrasing about everything. But then my final interview came and went, weeks passed, I got I think one email check in that was like a week and a half after the final interview and then crickets after that……. I was fully convinced that they were “keeping me warm” while waiting to hear back from their top choice, because that’s what everyone in this sub says (for good reason—it’s definitely probably the most common occurrence) and was disappointed because I really felt like I would be the top choice, but figured they probably just talked positively from everyone.

Well I’m happy to share that yesterday, 5 weeks and 3 days after my last interview, I received an offer. And it turned out that the reason it took so long was because the hiring manager was advocating for me with higher-ups to be able to offer me a senior analyst role, even though the open position I applied for was just a standard analyst level. She was also able to get me in the salary range I had mentioned I was looking for—even though I did make it clear I was motivated to leave my job and would have accepted the slightly lower range they were initially advertising the job as.

I was literally in tears because I had really kinda given up on this opportunity. So I just want to encourage everyone that’s still waiting to hear back—yes the job market is an absolute hellscape right now, and obviously if you’re not hearing back you should always keep applying and keep interviewing, BUT it’s not always as hopeless as it feels!!💛 You never know what’s happening behind closed doors. Hang in there!!! You guys got this!!! 👏🏼🥳

EDIT TO ADD: no idea if it actually made a difference, but this was for a HRIS role at a moderately-sized healthcare system (they have I believe one hospital, a surgery center, and three clinics). My hours of desperate internet research told me that hiring processes can take longer at healthcare facilities because there’s typically more approvals/red tape, even for non-clinical positions. Again no idea if that actually had anything to do with it, but may be worth noting!

In my 40 plus years working I've always been told, never burn bridges, ya never know. Always give notice. I've never in my life gone back to a company I once worked for. Couple years ago I was out of work. Months of applying like everybody else and few interviews. It's exhausting. I know. I was sitting there feeling down one day and thought about a company nearby that I worked for 9 years ago. I busted my butt there and only left at the time because they were outsourcing IT which was only me and a programmer. I gave 2 weeks notice and gave them all the info about IT they asked for and left gracefully. So I reach out to see what's going on, and they tell me the owner wants to meet with me. I'm thinking perfect timing. So I go in and meet with the schmuck. I sat there for 45 minutes while he told me how much the company has changed in the past 9 years. I was about to interrupt him after 45 minutes like WTF do you have a job or what? Finally he said, so, you're out of work? I said yeah that's why I'm here. I knew this guy well. He said ok, well if anything comes along, I'll let ya know. I walked out the door like what the hell just happened? I really don't think it matters if you burn bridges. I did it right and got kicked in the gut for it. He was just messing with me is my feeling.

After months and months I'm happy to report I signed an offer letter. This was a long road that started off optimistic- someone with a law degree from prestigious school and 20 plus years of experience should have no problem finding a job.

Wrong.

I got plenty of interviews. I mostly worked with recruiters. I always advanced to the final round but came up short with offer.

45 interviews which is a lot for my profession. Our jobs take 4-5 interviews before a final decision. I spent so much time in airports, I never want to see another carry on suitcase.
Three of the jobs required 7-10 interviews.

Here is what's broken in my opinion:

-It used to be that a person could do 1-3 interviews and get a decision fast. The culture of virtual interviews has made it too easy and financially affordable to schedule virtual interviews with candidates from all over - candidates they have no intention of flying in or relocating. It also makes it too easy to schedule multiple unnecessary interviews with anyone from the CEO to the mail room clerk. I was in interviews with people who said to me they have no say in the hiring decision. I thought, then why are we meeting?

-Recruiters are not honest with employers or candidates and waste people's time. I stopped dealing with large recruitment firms and concentrated on jobs that were either handled by the company or smaller boutique recruiters. That was what got me a job.

-Companies are positing job ads without little idea of who they want and what skills are best for the job. They are hiring based on who they like- which is also skewed because virtual interviews IMO give far greater advantage to people who can finesse their way through them without being able to do the job. I was in several interviews where the hiring manager was clueless on what the job ad asked for. "Why do we need someone with a law degree?"
I responded the posting prospectus said JD preferred...(shrug).

-Interviewing is a skill that interviewers need to develop. Too many bad interviewers who have no idea how to interview and many are rude. One kept his camera off during my interview and said they needed to concentrate. Didn't turn it on to say good bye. Same person admitted having no qualifications to interview for the position. "I'm standing in for X but will ket them know who I like."

Game changers that helped me:

-Use AI software to help refine your resumes and cover letters. Let it customize your resume to every job you apply for. I got more interviews that way.

- I decided to get another degree four months into my job search period. It gives you something to do that you feel you can control and is productive. It adds skills to your experience and you can list the degree as "expected" which gets your foot in the door. Being a student also taps you into discounts and resources for stuff when you are low on money. You can also use the university career services.

- Find a hobby, exercise, meditate, treat yourself - do something that makes you feel valuable and worthy of a great opportunity. I don't care if it's an espresso or watching a movie. Every Tuesday, my local deli did $2 subs. I was there. It was cheap and a treat.

-Dedicate one day a week to job hunting. I kept my sanity this way. It was a scheduled day for applications, follow ups. Yes I checked for jobs daily but limited that to one hour a day.
Don't make your very waking existence about the hunt.

- Don't complain to friends/family. It makes it worse. Don't tell them about every interview. It makes it worse when you don't get the job and embarrassing. I waited until I signed the final paperwork to tell anyone about the new job.

- If a job doesn't meet your pay range but seems like a good fit, don't rule it out. I did that the first six months and regret it. I found a job I liked - it was 40K lower than what I wanted. I got the offer and negotiated the salary to almost what I was looking to make and it has less travel than the higher paying jobs. Another friend took a $70K payout but is in a higher position with more autonomy. There are trade-offs to salary.

- Once your interview is done, be done with it and move on. I stopped sending thank you letters. They never mattered and the job I got, I didn't send any. I never contacted the recruiter again. If I heard from them fine. If not I moved on. One job took three months to let me know I didn't make it to the next step. I never responded. When I got a rejection, I never responded. Until they hire you, they are not invested in you. Why give them more time than needed? They know how to find you. Go on to the next position and never stop applying no matter how good you feel you did or how much they praise you. I had a job all but say I was the best candidate and they chose someone else.

-Never lower your self-respect or basic standards because you are unemployed. If a place or boss looks toxic don't hold your nose and take the job. Rejection can be a good thing sometimes.

Good luck everyone. Thanks for supporting me. Your posts kept me going.

For those of you still looking, this bump in the road will end. I promise you. This was my 2nd time dealing with this in my career. This period was shorter than the last time it happened.
If you are in a job you hate, don't quit it unless you are at your mental wits end That was my situation. I don't regret it because it gave me more time to dedicate to my own well being and a search for a better job.

I had an interview this morning for a position that I truly want and I was so nervous I caught myself rambling more than once. I even apologized to the interviewer and said I am sorry but I feel like I rambling a bit because I am so excited about this opportunity and I am quite nervous! He laughed and said he understood, but I am worried I may have blown the interview because of it.

At the end he said I could reach out if I had any more questions etc while he finished up doing 1st round interviews. I said, please feel free to do the same. I said if you feel like I didn't explain an answer or provide enough information, feel free to reach out to me and we can either chat again or I can answer by email if you prefer. I apologized again and said its just that it isn't often a position comes along that you feel you are perfect for and you could make an immediate impact and I think that made me even more nervous.

I talk fast anyways and when I am nervous, yikes, even moreso!

I rehearsed and had my answers all prepped but feel like I made a mess of the interview :-( How do I stop myself from rambling?

When I was asking one of my questions at the end, the more senior person said “ohh the typical question” like excuse me?? I had asked what does success look like in 90 days, which I didn’t realize was a bad thing to ask. It was a Zoom panel interview and the other man was talking to me like I already got the job and he loved all my answers (they all did but especially him), and a woman was saying “good” and “awesome” and nodding at my responses. It was just the senior person who was the one who invited me to interview that was offputting. He even mentioned a possible second interview when the job is paying a measly $19 an hour😵‍💫😵‍💫 this is for an internship btw

So recently I had an interview . I performed well in the technical round.

My final round was going pretty well & the interviewer was impressed too until her last question ... Where when she asked if you are interested in exploring a new domain or want to continue with the domain you are still working on because you have expertise in that?

& I said the latter.

After rejection i realised what blunder I said, as the former could have added a significant advantage to my resume.

What the heck was going on in my mind that time that I didn't understand that she was interested in taking me maybe placing in some other project if not in the project she was hiring for .

All she wanted was a yes from me.

I know it's not the end, but 😭

Exactly as the title says, I moved on in the process for a position I thought I flunked in the recorded interview stage and will now be completing a 6-hour-long assessment on PowerPoint. Has anyone ever encountered something like this? I'm hoping it won't take the whole time but I really want this job.

I was fired from my previous position for using Claude Code. The company was way behind in technology so I took matters into my own hands to produce and innovate for the company. Not trying to defend my actions, its just frustrating.

So now I'm searching for jobs and am having a hard time explaining to the HR screener why I don't have a job. I was in Data Science and am upskilling and looking for jobs in the AI Engineering field. So every position I am applying for will use some sort of AI coding assistant. Once I get to further rounds in the interview process it will be easier to be more open because the technical people might understand my frustration at my past position. However, the HR screener will just hear that I was non-compliant and that is a red flag. What do I say here? Do I lie and say I quit?

Hi OPs! I’d like to ask for your opinions or insights regarding my application.

Here’s my timeline so far:

October 19 – HR Interview: It lasted around 15 minutes and was pretty chill. HR mainly reconfirmed my work experience, background, and salary expectations, with a few technical questions.

October 20 – Hiring Manager Interview: The interview was also conversational and focused mostly on my experience. There were a few technical questions, but I actually asked more questions about the company’s processes and controls.

October 22 (Morning) – Senior Manager Interview: I consider this my final interview. She asked about my management capabilities and some technical questions related to the company. I felt that the interview went smoothly, and I was endorsed to HR right after the interview.

October 22 (Afternoon) – HR Email: HR contacted me and asked me to accomplish a Compensation and Benefits form via email, which I submitted.

As of today, October 28, I haven’t received any updates from HR. It’s been three banking days since I submitted the requested information. SHOULD I BE WORRIED IF I GOT THE JOB OR NOT? HUHU

I was invited to a super day for an internship at a bulge bracket firm for a math heavy role. I was interviewing at the same time as 2 other candidates and had time to speak to them in between interviews and afterwards. They were both asked maths and coding questions, whilst mine were entirely about my projects and behavioural / situational questions. During my second interview, the interviewer talked about his role for 20 minutes and didn’t ask any questions, and ended the interview a little early.
Is there any chance they were just happy with my math credentials from my CV and were just looking to see if I was a good fit? Or am I cooked?

Looking for perspective from people who’ve been on either side of this.

I recently went through a 3-round process for a post-sales technical consultant role:

1. Recruiter screen: standard, went fine.
2. Hiring manager interview: honestly didn’t feel great walking out of this one. Not a disaster, but I knew it wasn’t my strongest.
3. Technical interview: a take-home where I had to show how I’d solve a problem through code and diagrams, then walk the team through it. I felt I really clicked with the panel here. Good back-and-forth, they engaged with my approach, and I left feeling good about it.

A week later I got this:

“While the team agreed you have a relevant technical background, we’re going a different direction with the candidate we’re looking to hire at this time.”

That’s all. Nothing about the hiring manager round, the technical, or anything I could work on.

I emailed the recruiter asking if the team could share anything more specific and got no reply. I messaged the hiring manager on LinkedIn and heard nothing there either. Two days later I followed up with the recruiter again, and I have a feeling it’s going to get ignored too. To be fair to everyone, this recruiter seemed to do the bare minimum the whole way through. He was even slow to pass my technical deliverable to the team before the interview.

To be clear, I don’t think I’m owed detailed feedback. I know companies don’t have to give it, and plenty have legal reasons not to. But after three rounds and a take-home project, a one-line form response feels pretty cold. You put real hours into this, and you walk away with no idea whether it was your skills, your interview style, or just that someone else had a better fit.

So, genuine questions:

• How far have you gone to get real feedback? Did it ever work?
• Is messaging the hiring manager directly normal, or does it cross a line?
• Hiring managers and recruiters: what actually makes you willing to share honest feedback with a rejected candidate?
• At what point do you just let it go?

As the title says.
I get so anxious in interviews and find my voice wavering or faltering when it comes to talking about myself. Never do I have issues talking with strangers. I work in healthcare and have no issue talking with patients. It is literally just interviews and when I have to talk about myself or WHY I want something or WHY me?

What can I do? I have watched so many videos on interviewing and I have practiced questions and have answers prepared. I tell myself to imagine they’re patients. I take a moment before answering. But to no avail.

I think it’s that I hate being perceived, I hate feeling and knowing they’re judging my every move and answer. I want it so bad and I have good answers and thoughts, but my mind goes blank and or I start to feel like I’m saying the wrong thing.

In the past, I have kept it to a point of just nerves and my voice wavering. Today, one of the interviewers asked me “question, are you super nervous right now?” And for some reason tears started to fall.

I am SO embarrassed, I currently work at this hospital in the department and I feel like I can’t even come back lmao. They were incredibly nice, said I’m not the first and I won’t be the last, that’s why tissues are on the table etc. They said I had the heart for it. Idk, I’m hoping I didn’t totally blow it, I know I had good answers when I got them out.

Just suuuuucks. Advice?

Hi everyone! I'd appreciate some outside perspectives on my recruitment process, as I'm getting increasingly anxious about the lack of an update.

Here's my timeline so far:

• September 8 – Initial interview: Went well, and I progressed to the next stage.
• September 21 – Practical assessment: The team was really happy with my performance and contacted me immediately afterwards to progress me. We also discussed potential start dates and the possibility of me joining in December and attending the company's Christmas event if I were to start then.
• September 29 – Coffee chat with the hiring manager and a senior team member: This went well, and the recruiter later told me the team loved me and that I was roughly 90% of the way there, pending the final interview.
• October 13 – Final interview with the MD: The interview lasted around 30 minutes. The conversation flowed naturally, we got along well, and we both asked each other personal questions alongside discussing my background, current role, experience, motivations, and future goals. I came away feeling positive about it.

Since then, I've been waiting for a final decision. The recruiter initially said they were discussing things internally and that it sounded like the interview went well, so they were hopeful it would be good news.

More recently, the recruiter explained that the team had been extremely busy over the past couple of weeks because it's their financial year-end. They said they hoped to provide an update ASAP and specifically reassured me that the delay wasn't for a negative reason.

It's now October 28, and I still haven't received a final decision.

I was previously told I was the only candidate at Stage 3, but I don't know whether there were other candidates at the final MD stage.

I'm trying to work out whether this kind of delay is normal at a large firm, particularly around year-end, or whether I should be concerned that they're considering other candidates or may not intend to make an offer.

The role is also in a different city but i have expressed that i am willing to relocate and excited about the possibility.

Has anyone experienced a similar wait after a final interview? How did it turn out? I'd really appreciate honest opinions!

I had an interview last week. It went so well that when I asked at the end if they had any reservations they said no. And the whole process was full of green flags.

But this morning, I got the email from them, the HM that I didn't get moved on to the next step.

Second rejection after interview since I've looked for a new job a few months ago.

Tomorrow I have an interview for Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s. I need a job desperately but I am bad at interviews. I also haven’t got much experience with them as I’m only 17. I’m really not sure how to prepare, what questions they may ask etc. Does anyone have any tips?

I've been interviewing for a new job recently. Was messaged by they're internal recruiter on LinkedIn to see if I was interested in leading a new function in EMEA. The role would have doubled my salary and my company is doing layoffs, so worth a shot.

I had:

Recruiter screen

Hiring manager interview

Case study

5 person panel interview (30 minute individual interviews)

Final interview with senior exec

The final interview was last Monday. They said they'd get back to me last week, even sending a holding email on Thursday.

Hear back today that after a load of discussions, they've decided to 'focus on US priority' instead. All of that time and effort on both sides, wasted, and they're not even going through with hiring for the role.

Absolute farce.

I had an interview yesterday 10/26. The job starts on 11/9. Orientation is 11/5. Given how soon the job starts, if I didn’t hear back today, does that mean I didn’t get the job? Or could there still be a chance? Should I follow up tomorrow? I know it’s only been a short while but I just assumed that a decision would be made already considering how soon the start date is (literally next Thursday) and they said they’d be doing background checks as well which I know can take time.

Hello!
I have my first interview tomorrow (like a legit interview) for a job as clientèle service.

I'm really stressed about the type of questions they're going to ask.

Can someone sort of give me an example of what type of questions will be asked ? Will they focus primarily on what I did at my last job or more questions about ME as a person? Or are they going to throw a curveball?

Thank you in advance! :)

I was given a hireviu due the same week of a round of a live behavioral and live case interview. I got moved to the final round but recently found in my spam folder a hireviu invitation due about a week ago. Should I bring up to recruiter or drop it?

Hello everyone! I wanted to make my first post here as tomorrow I have an interview. I’m a 22 year old out of high school with just a high school grad. While it’s not my first interview I haven’t worked before and my previous interviews haven’t landed me a job so I wanted to be extra prepared for this one. I’ve noticed in my previous interviews they asked questions more specific to the job but I think that was mainly due to them being in animal care so they needed to know certain things like if I understood canine body language so I’m not sure if it’s the same for this job. The interview is for a restaurant photographer. I’d love some help on knowing what they are likely to ask and how to respond especially with no job experience.

I have been in sales for a few years and recently lost my job. I’ve been taking about 2-3 interviews a week for nearly entry level SDR or BDR jobs with over a year as a SaaS SDR and a year in full cycle consultative sales.

I am not sure what I am doing or saying (if anything) that is not even getting me to the 3rd round of interviews. I can do these jobs with my eyes closed yet I am sitting here unemployed and feeling defeated that some kid fresh outta college with zero experience is getting a job over me.

I’ve redone my resume, LinkedIn, and research the company a decent amount to know the product enough for the initial interview but still no dice.

I’ve gone as far as to reach out to the hiring manager directly to show initiative, and even had reached out to someone in seat and offered to put in a good word for me. I seriously don’t understand.

The only worry I had was I was fired from my last job for some politics and guidelines to what I said. I cleaned up and fixed how I worded that and don’t see it as big of a problem as I initially thought.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Any and all advice is welcomed as I am exhausted at the moment and feeling ultimately defeated by the situation.

TLDR

1. Non-Discretionary Bonus: Is it realistic or a red flag to ask an employer to make my performance bonus non-discretionary in my initial offer letter?

2. Prorated Bonus on Layoff: Is it unheard of to request a clause that prorates my bonus if I get laid off prior to the payout date through no fault of my own?

3. Guaranteed Severance: Has anyone successfully negotiated a standard minimum severance (like 4 to 8 weeks) directly into their initial job offer letter for an IC / mid-level ($80k–$100k) remote role?

Context
I'm Gen Z in corporate, and I was laid off about three weeks ago. This marks my 4th layoff in under 4 years, and none of them were performance-related. At my latest role, my manager actually got laid off a month before I did.

Because of this, I've completely stopped drinking the corporate Kool-Aid. I've dealt with companies artificially inflating total comp during offer stages by dangling a "discretionary bonus" to justify a base salary below what I asked for, only to change goalposts or lay people off right before bonus season. At my second-to-last role, I was laid off right before performance reviews while essentially doing the work of two people, and I had to fight like hell just to get the bonus I earned. At my last layoff, I tried pushing for the same thing and couldn't get it, though I managed to negotiate one extra week of severance (looking back, I still feel like I could have gotten more).

I'm currently deep in interviews and expecting an offer soon (possibly late this week or early next month). I was making six figures at my last role, but I'm looking at $80k roles now because they're remote and that's best for my family right now. Given how burnt I've been, I'm considering asking for these three things in my next offer letter:

1. Non-Discretionary Bonus: Categorize my bonus as non-discretionary, meaning it's treated as part of my total comp rather than just a discretionary policy.

2. Prorated Bonus Protection: If there's a no-fault layoff before the bonus payout, the company must prorate what I've earned.

3. Pre-Negotiated Severance: In the event of a layoff, the company is obligated to pay 4 to 8 weeks of severance (4 weeks minimum).

I'm expecting some pushback, but frankly, given what I've been through, I don't feel like I'm asking for a lot, especially for an $80k remote job.
Am I doing the most by asking for these three things, or is this reasonable risk mitigation? Has anyone actually gotten clauses like this added to an IC offer?