Got another rejection today (and to top it off I already knew the team I would have been working with and had worked with them before). Been searching for jobs since I graduated in May this year with zero bites. I’m in a position where I’m either over or under-qualified for everything and because I have no choice but to list my master’s degree on my resume since my past three years of work experience is directly tied to having been a grad student I feel like its barring me from consideration for any of the barista-type jobs I’ve applied for because I’d be seen as a flight risk. What do I do??? Am I screwed?? Is anyone else with an advanced degree feeling this way?? :(

I hit the point in my job search where I'm also looking at fast food and retail work just to pay the bills. A fast food chain asked me for an interview the day after I submitted my application. They asked if I wanted a seasonal or permanent position, defining permanent as "at least one year". I said permanent.

But in truth, if I get an offer in my field, I'll take it. This is a place that constantly has a help wanted sign in their window. I don't think they'll be hurt if I give them a two weeks notice and handle everything professionally.

Should I act like I'm going to stay there forever or be more realistic?

I'm 27k in student loan debt, homeless, have no job, no savings, two SWE internships on my resume, projects, and a useless cs bachelor's degree from 2025.

Given how much I have on my resume, and that not being enough for initial entry level interviews... I don't see why I should be going back.

Internships are only becoming more difficult to get as time passes, and what would I even go back for? Just "learn a trade" only for that to be oversaturated by the end?

Even if I still had a roof over my head with more forgiving parents, I'm not sure if I'd be willing to go back. I just don't see what the fuck more I could do. Working deadend minimum wage jobs only gets so far. It's not enough for a roof.

I'm not looking to be making fucking six figures straight out of college. I was desperate to even make 50k a year. It's 2026. That should not be so difficult to obtain.

This world doesn't feel worth living in.

Not that many of them ever really did, but I just got back into job searching after a long break and am noticing that barely any jobs these days are listing salaries anymore? It used to be that at least maybe 30-40% or so would list the salary and you could even filter by salary. Now the salary filter also seems to have disappeared?? Personally I dont even bother applying unless the salary is listed. Anyone else noticing this sharp decline lately?

I was working through a few recruiters when I was looking for a job four years ago. One of them presented me to a medium-szied healthcare centre close to where I live. I'm a CPA and finished my work experience requirements at a large healthcare organization so there was a fit.

The recruiter told me that the clinic insisted on a long case study. They planned on doing two interviews. I asked the recruiter why they wanted the case study before the first interview. He told me "I know, it doesn't make sense but they insisted upon it. I tried to fight them on it."

The first interview was a gong show. A one-hour panel interview of three. Two of the three stepped out for 20 minutes because of some emergency at the office. We never really got going. They didn't want to do the second.

Unknown to the recruiter my buddy's ex-girlfiend was the Executive Assistant to the CEO of the clinic. After my first Interview I took her to lunch to find out what I could about the clinic hopoing I would get a second interview. When I brought up the case she told me "We told the recruiter we were only going to look at the cases of people we wanted for the second interview."

I spent a legitimate ten hours on the case. Pissed me off so much that I wasted time because the recruiter flat out lied to me. But I couldn't call him out for being a liar or my contact would get in trouble.

I had a conviction in July for an OWI conviction for having THC metabolite in my blood. I was offered a job today for a Systems Engineer position.

My interviewer sent me a text saying that I can't start soon because they are picky about background checks and drug screens. I disclosed my conviction and told them it was Delta 8 (which it was) and that I hope it doesn't disqualify me. It is a felony that will be treated as a misdemeanor after I complete my probation.

I should probably add that they said the job includes some driving to clients.

Is this likely to disqualify me?

Hey everyone, navigating through this hell hole of unemployment and i’m experiencing everything y’all are describing (so much fun).

Something new is happening however…

I am no longer getting rejection emails - say I applied to about 30 jobs this week and last week and no response whatsoever to any of them.

Does it mean they’re that backed up they can’t even reject anymore?

Ive applied to remote (high applications) but also local jobs (“less than 10 applicants”)

*i do receive “thank you for applying […] your application has been submitted” email

I am considering taking the SIE to maybe help me get a job in finance? Also considering take the Wall Street prep financial modeling course. Do you think this will help me land an offer or it won’t matter?

New to this subreddit, and I hope this kind of post is allowed. A bit of a rant, but also looking to spark genuine conversation and possibly offer advice to job seekers along with gaining insight as a recruiter.

I work for a small business and one of my many, many duties is recruiting. For the past couple years I've noticed a really daunting lack of professional communication from the candidates that I reach out to for initial phone calls.

I'm using Indeed primarily, and when I message people, I use somewhat formal language and formatting. I understand that most people are viewing these messages on their phones and seeing it as text communication, but I'm still shocked at the responses that I get.

I'm talking incredibly poor grammar, no punctuation, no capitalization, misspelled words, and just generally very casual language. It would be one thing if I was hiring for a job where communication wasn't important, but that isn't the case. Excellent verbal and written communication is a prerequisite, and most of these applicants have communication skills and attention to detail listed on their resume.

So my question to job seekers out there is this - when a recruiter or hiring manager reaches out to you, do you tend to analyze their tone and formality and match it? Do you think of your communication throughout the interview process as a preview of the kind of communication you're capable of?

I'm trying to wrap my mind around what is happening. Am I just getting so many unqualified applicants, or am I not recognizing a larger trend? Are job seekers so burnt out that they don't consider professional communication worth it? I totally get it that a lot of people are mass-applying, but if you're not displaying basic skills that are requirements of the job, why apply at all?

Wondering if anyone has any insight here. Again, new to this subreddit and I know a lot of the posts are highlighting how horrific recruiters can be. I'm hoping I can offer some insight on what small companies with in-house recruiting are experiencing on the other side of the job market.

I follow these formatting rules with my resume:

- Avoid 2-column layouts
- Don’t use tables for layout
- Keep contact info in the main body
- Use standard bullets (• or -)
- Use simple indentation
- Use consistent date format
- Don’t put important text in images/icons
- Make sure the PDF has a real text layer (copy/paste into Notepad should read cleanly)
- Use standard section headings

I have a truly plain-Jane, simple AF resume. Despite this, I still get weird line breaks when I upload my resume into Workday specifically.

Anything I’m missing? Is it a line spacing issue? Should I stop using bullets altogether?

why do you have to ghost people after initiating a conversation with them? Why? Just say no we're not moving ahead with you. How hard is that.

end rant

Hi all,

My 15-yo boy wants to get a part-time job outside high school hours. He's applied to the fast food chains but have got no response. Any suggestions on how to land a part-time gig at this age?

Thanks in advance.

Sometimes I like to peruse the job postings on Craigslist just to see what’s out there. 90% of the time the postings don’t suit what I’m looking for.

This time I reached out to a recruiter who posted a job description for an entry level sales position in medical testing services because the details listed full time employment with an up front salary ($50k), along with other benefits.

It didn’t seem too terrible, so I sent my resume in.

Having done research on the company and what reviews employees have left on Indeed, it’s not a great feeling coming in—high turnover and aggressive sales expectations were frequently mentioned.

When the recruiter reached out to me a week later, he left generic comments “I like your resume”. But didn’t say why.

It’s plausible that they outsource the recruiting to a third party company that screens candidates before passing them on to the hiring manager.

I had the screening call earlier today. They asked how many years experience I had in sales, if I would be open to relocating (I’m married, so that’s iffy), if I’m comfortable with the territory, talking to people who run doctors’ offices, my mode of transportation… and told me point blank that the $50k salary was non-negotiable. For someone like myself who faces the choice of either that or an extended period of unemployment, it’s hard to turn that down.

That was the gist of the call. The recruiter told me he would pass this information along to the hiring manager and would go from there.

I’m not too keen on the job itself, but I hear that medical sales isn’t a bad gig overall. It doesn’t usually require that much school, and if you can stomach and deal with constant objections and rejection, then it can be stepping stone towards something more substantial.

That being said, if they turn me down, I won’t complain. There’s stress from being broke… and then there’s stress from being overworked… hard to say which is worse!

I have been desperate to switch industries for a few years. I work in pharmaceutical as a lab auditor with an advanced degree in environmental science. I finally saw the perfect opening: an environmental lab auditor position. I meet 95% of the required qualification, this is the perfect chance to pivot and get my foot in the door. I had an interview that was decent, but they called me today to say they went with another candidate because they had more environmental experience. 🫠
How does anyone switch industries?

I spent almost a month going through their hiring process. Four interview rounds, including a panel with the whole team. The final step was a paid take-home project. It was time-consuming, about 6 hours of my weekend. I finished it and submitted on time.

The recruiter said they’d get back to me within one week. One week passed, nothing. I followed up twice, no reply. Total ghosting. I moved on, assumed the role was filled.

Fast forward two months. I get a LinkedIn message from the same recruiter. They act like we never spoke. They ask if I’m interested in this exact same opening again. No apology, no explanation for the radio silence, no mention of the project I already completed.

I replied politely and told them I already did their take-home work and got ghosted. Their response? Just “oh okay, good luck with your search.” That’s it.

What frustrates me most is how normalized this is. They ask candidates to sacrifice personal time, then ignore us. Then they circle back months later like nothing happened.

Has anyone else had recruiters reuse the same job opening and pretend they never ghosted you after a full interview loop? I’m curious how many people have wasted hours on take-home assignments just to get ignored.

sent from Jerkday at 3 in the morning as part of a "daily update" that I didn't ask for. When I click the unsubscribe link I'm prompted for a Microsoft account? Yeah, no.

Has anyone gotten a job contact through an initial Jerkday application? Anyone? Bueller?

I recently had one of the most disappointing interview experiences of my career, and I just need to vent.
I was interviewing for a Senior Product Analyst position at a fintech company. Before the interview, the recruiter sent me a detailed breakdown of the 60-minute session:
10 minutes of introductions.
15–20 minutes presenting a case study I’d completed beforehand, followed by questions.
Product problem-solving and scenario-based questions.
5–10 minutes for my own questions.
I spent hours analysing the data, building visualisations, developing recommendations and preparing what I was going to say during my presentation.
Then the actual interview happened.
After around five minutes of introductions, the interviewer told me I wouldn’t need to present my case study. Instead, we went straight into a live SQL exercise.
I was working through the question, building my query step by step. I wasn’t as quick as I’d hoped (I got nervous) and I fully understand that technical skills are important for the role.
However, after approximately ten minutes, the interviewer ended the assessment. The feedback felt quite dismissive of my SQL abilities, and the remaining interview sections never happened.
I completely understand that companies have technical standards and that not every candidate will meet them. I’m not arguing that I deserved to pass.
What bothers me is being explicitly asked to invest hours preparing a case study and presentation, only to have that work completely skipped.
I walked away feeling incredibly deflated. I’ve been working in analytics for years, and I don’t think I’ve ever left an interview feeling quite like this.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is it common for interviewers to abandon the scheduled format and end an interview early after a technical exercise?

I need to vent about a wildly unprofessional bait-and-switch and free consulting extraction I just went through with Insight Global recruiting for a contract at BMO (Bank of Montreal).

They pitched me an incorporated Senior Data Architecture contract targeting $70/hr. That's a low wage for this role but it sounded like a solid fit, so I went through multiple interview rounds. Then, they asked me to do a massive, time-consuming case study and present my architecture recommendations directly to the bank's hiring manager.

This wasn’t a simple technical assessment. I spent hours building a complete 24-slide enterprise architecture deck (a 16-slide core strategy presentation plus an 8-slide technical appendix). I mapped out their data ingestion, ETL/ELT pipelines, audience segmentation rules, privacy compliance controls, incident response playbooks, and a full 4-week rollout plan.

During the video call, I noticed the BMO hiring manager immediately reaching for her keyboard the exact second I transitioned to a new slide. She was very obviously taking screenshots of my core presentation step-by-step as I walked through my strategy.

The presentation went perfectly. The feedback from the BMO Director was glowing. Then the Insight Global recruiter reaches out: "You were the strongest candidate, but they're going with someone whose rate aligns with the budget."

I was confused because I had never asked for more than the $70/hr listed on the job description. I emailed the recruiter back and said, "I really liked the team and the architecture challenge. If the other candidate falls through, I'll take the role at the original $70/hr rate."

The recruiter’s response? They admit the actual approved budget from BMO was only for a $50/hr T4A contractor all along.

Here is the part that really pisses me off. The recruiter explicitly told me they knew the budget was $50/hr T4A, but deliberately pitched me as a $70/hr incorporated consultant because they wanted to prove a point to BMO about current market rates. They used my unpaid labor as a free bargaining chip to educate their client, without ever telling me I was participating in their experiment. I wasn't looking to help an agency prove a point to a bank. I was looking for a job.

When the bank predictably said no, the agency just shrugged and walked away. Insight Global gambled with my time, and the BMO hiring manager walked away with screenshots of a free senior-level architecture blueprint.

If an agency ever asks you to do a massive presentation or a take-home project, demand written confirmation of the actually approved budget first. And if you do present, watermark your slides. Do not let recruiters and clients use your interviews to test budget elasticity and harvest free consulting.

I have been looking for a PT internship in NYC in the proptech startup field this past month. A lot of time spend on LinkedIn got me absolutely nowhere. I ended up reaching out to a family member who put me in contact with somebody they know at a startup I would have been interested in interning by.

This contact and I spoke over the phone and really hit it off and he asked that I’d prepare some example work. I did so and I got very positive feedback and then he connected me with the head of the company who is in charge of making the final say.

This CEO, who is very busy took some time to respond and had to reschedule nearly 3 times before we actually had our time to talk over zoom. However while we were emailing it seemed that he was interested in an intern (I mean hey, who doesn’t want free labor from somebody hungry for work). He even told me that he was looking forward to talk and that he apologized for postponing our meeting.

I join the meeting and he is looking down at his keyboard the entire time clearly working on something else. It didn’t feel like an interview, more like a confrontation. I felt like I was at my principals office in elementary school where he guilted me into confessing to what I did.

After explaining the role I’m looking for, he took two steps back and looked around the office and turned to me and said: unfortunately, we currently don’t have the resources to have an intern at the moment.

Like… ugh. I totally understand that this is reality but damn, I really thought I had this in the bag.

So now I’m back to square 1, reaching out via LinkedIn and cold emailing.

I then decided I’d use another resource I had by being in the city and I printed the attached flyer and mamilla envelopes and decided to go around the city to some startups and drop it off by them.

The first startup I went to, the doorman let me in and I went up to the HQ. And omg it was insane. Just a huge space full of people working. I felt like I was intruding on something, I mean I was.

I walked into the office and see a guy coming out of the restroom and I ask him if there’s a secretary I could drop off my envelope by and he told me to give it to a person he pointed to.

I went up to her and very nicely I said “excuse me, sorry to bother but I have some mail to deliver. I was told you would be the one I could hand this off to.” She was very kind back and took it and I went back downstairs and left the building.

I never have ever had the confidence to do such a thing but I don’t think I’ve ever felt more alive before in my life.

Happens to be I also emailed a somebody there today and they responded that they aren’t hiring for PT/internship roles.

But I’m still proud of myself for doing something extremely ambitious.

Anyways I’m still on the hunt for an internship in NYC. DM me if y’all have any leads. Curious to know what yall think of my story 🙃

Some of the assessment questions were weird, for example:

Do you work too fast without thinking about safety more, or do you miss deadlines more? WHAAAAAAAAT. I DONT DO EITHER.

i’ve literally been without a job for the past 5-6 months because nobody is hiring me. I’ll do countless interviews and applications and nothing ever comes of it. u genuinely have to beg for a job nowadays or know someone in the company to get the job. i’m basically homeless right now and sleeping at friends houses because i lost everything. this is genuinely horrible. i am able to do gigs every here and there but i dont make enough to survive on my own at ALL.

27k in student loan debt, homeless, no job, no savings, two SWE internships on my resume, useless cs bachelor's degree from 2025.

My parents kicked me out when I approached a year post graduation with no job. I wasn't getting any interviews, at all. I was working as a part time barista for $16/hour to bide my time but I abandoned that job when I was kicked out. I'm in a city where rents are 2000+ for closets. No reason to stay at that place.

My loans have obviously been defaulted on by now, I don't even have an active phone number for then to contact me with. No money.

I've been staggering, stumbling around gagging on nothing like a drug addict in the last week or so. I had a bike but someone broke the lock on it while I was sleeping outside one night.

Idk what I can do now. I can't get a tech job or use my degree for much of anything. I've been diving into trash cans for plastic bottles. I feel uncomfortable in my skin, I have no pride in myself, in my existence. I have no confidence anymore.

I'm sitting near a Starbucks curled up on a bench just watching the night go by. My life is over. I have no control but my future any longer. I want to end this.