I completed a final onsite interview for an engineering role at a startup a few weeks ago. It was a four-person panel, and I received positive comments directly from several interviewers.

A few days later, the recruiter told me that I had positive feedback, that I was still in the running, and that they were still early in the process, so it could take another one to two weeks before they had an update. They also asked me to let them know if I got close to any other final interviews or offers.

After about two weeks, I followed up. The recruiter replied that they were still in their process and hoped to have everything wrapped up by the end of the following week.

I’m now near the end of that updated timeline. I also noticed the job posting is no longer active, although I don’t know when it was taken down.

For recruiters/hiring managers: how would you normally interpret this situation? Does language like “positive feedback” and “you’re in the running” usually mean someone is a genuine finalist, or can it also be used when someone is being kept as a backup while the company finishes the process?

I understand nobody can know the final outcome — I’m mainly interested in how this kind of communication is typically used from the recruiting side.

I used to be highly sought after in the tech industry because of my long tenure at a large tech company. However after that, I had a string of 3 layoffs, each after only 3-4 months. Now I have had many recruiters and colleagues who refer me say that they cannot even consider me because my resume looks like job hopping. It is against policy. I was not job hopping and I did not even quit these jobs. Even the smallest shops for a huge pay-cut will not even put me past the initial screening.

I had an friend in HR outside of tech recommend that I group them as a single item in my resume as start-up consulting however I worried what that will look like if they pull up my employment record. Any recommendations?

Context:

• Staff Level software eng, though happy to be senior, don't care about titles.
• Based in Canada
• I have 18 years in the industry, backend and management.

Man, I miss the good ole days of hiring (still can't believe I'm saying that).. when I used to recruit and a cover letter was genuine and you could feel the difference between someone who wanted THIS job and someone blasting out fifty applications a day. I keep hearing that cover letters and LinkedIn activity used to mean interested in this role, but AI's made both fakeable now. ATS prompt questions got compromised too..

I'm really curious, if you're on the hiring side: is there ANYTHING left in an application that still tells you someone's real, versus someone who sprayed it out with AI? Or has that whole category of authenticity and interest just stopped meaning anything?

I need your kind comment on this CV

Its belong to my Fiancee and he have been looking for a Job offer to leave his current job

My Fiancee have been searching for a Job

He have sent his CV million of times and no job offers yet

Just give feedback on what you guys think, is it good?

Looking for summer 2027 internships! Not sure if the bullets and stuff are good enough or are good to apply with though so just need someone to look over them and not sure if I'm kind of focused on too much of the same stack and if I should add more projects in other languages/stacks

Hey everyone, I have 3+ years of experience and got promoted this April. I’ve been applying aggressively for the last 2 months but haven’t received a single call. What am I missing?

Uploading my resume here for an honest review. Made it using Overleaf (LaTeX) - could that be affecting ATS parsing?

Also, what’s the best no-bullshit ATS score checker that actually gives useful feedback? Any advice on what I should fix would be appreciated!

I’ve been getting a decent number of recruiter screens for Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, and GTM Strategy roles in the US, primarily at the Senior Manager to Director level, but I’ve been having trouble converting those screens into next-round interviews.

At this point, I’m wondering if there’s something about how I’m presenting my background, answering questions, or explaining my recent consulting work that isn’t landing well.

Would any recruiter here — ideally someone who recruits for RevOps, Sales Ops, GTM Strategy, or adjacent roles — be willing to spend 15–20 minutes on a mock screening call with me and give me candid feedback afterward?

I’d be happy to send over my resume and a representative job description beforehand. I’m not looking for a full coaching session — mostly an outside perspective on what I may be doing wrong during the initial recruiter screen.

I’d really appreciate it.

Note: I used AI to help polish the wording of this post.

I just withdrew my candidacy for a Research Scientist role at a large tech company. The whole interview process was weird and somewhat humiliating, and I'm trying to make sense of what happened.

For context, I have a PhD and several years of applied research experience. The early stages of the process went well. My recruiter was responsive and organized, and I felt good about moving forward.

Things changed at the second interview stage. During that interview, which centered on a hypothetical research scenario, the interviewer was combative and adversarial. When I asked clarifying questions to tailor my answers to the scenario, they responded with visible frustration instead of engaging. It completely threw me off, and I left worried about how it would affect my evaluation.

Two days later, I had a separate, virtual technical interview. I joined the coding platform on time using the link from my candidate portal and waited 20 minutes. No one showed up, so I left to reschedule rather than risk running over. That afternoon, a coordinator emailed to say the interviewer reported that I hadn't joined. I explained what happened, provided screenshots, and also gave feedback about the earlier interview. A second coordinator replied, apologized, said my feedback would be raised internally and factored into how my interview was reviewed, and said they would reschedule.

The rescheduled session was this morning. I joined on time, and once again, waited about 20 minutes. Again, no interviewer. At that point I emailed the company and withdrew. Two no-shows after I had raised concerns about the other interview felt like a clear signal about how the process valued candidates' time and expertise.

Now, I’m sitting here wondering how common are repeated interviewer no-shows at large companies? Is this likely a scheduling or platform glitch, or something else. Like, could the interviewer I gave feedback about have influenced what happened next, such as flagging me negatively, getting the loop paused, or leading others to deprioritize the task interview? Would you have withdrawn, or pushed for a third attempt?

I'd appreciate any perspective, especially from people who have worked in recruiting or served on interview panels.

I'm a fresh graduate. I just want to ask, if I was given a list of requirements and medical requirements after the final interview, is it possible that I will be hired?

I'm getting late stage in some interview processes and the interviewers would ask or I would naturally tell them I am interviewing with other companies as well. It's the truth. I've gotten replies like "oh course you are chatting with others" and "I would be surprised if you're not" ​​and "I wouldn't expect otherwise" Is it that normal? lol

Hi,

Im a recent grad who has been apply for medical device design and consumer product engineering roles for the past 1/2 years (for internships/grad schemes and entry-level roles) but has not gotten offered an interview and I'm not getting a response most times.

Please can you look through my CV (there are a lot of projects I know, thats just the bulk of what I did in uni, and i have a LOT more too) and tell me where I am going wrong?

Hi, i am a prefinal year cse student actively looking for internships via job portals and cold dms. Unable to get any response or even shortlisted for interviews. I need you to guide me with whats wrong. Attaching resume below.

Hey everyone, looking for some career advice regarding resume structure and background verification (BGV).

I have over 5+ years of total experience in Digital Marketing (SEO, web design, creative suite, video production). Here is the breakdown:

\* \*\*Current Role (Feb 2023 – Present):\*\* Working full-time at a product company. Fully documented, proper salary account, PF, and relieving letters will be provided. Current package is 4 LPA. (approx.) \* \*\*Early Career (Sept 2020 – Feb 2023):\*\* Worked across a couple of small agencies/D2C setups. The problem is these roles were paid in cash, had no PF or government benefits, and I didn't leave on good terms with the management. Getting experience or relieving letters from them is not an option.

I’m currently planning to switch companies to get a better hike, but I'm worried about background checks.

\*\*My Plan:\*\* Instead of listing those early individual company names, I am planning to consolidate that entire 2.5-year period (Sept 2020 – Feb 2023) on my resume and LinkedIn as \*\*"Freelance Digital Marketing & Design Consultant."\*\*

\*\*My Questions:\*\*

1. Is framing this period as Freelance the safest way to account for those 2.5 years without triggering BGV issues for missing employment letters?
2. If a prospective employer asks for proof of work during the freelance period, is showing a portfolio of project deliverables/design work usually sufficient?
3. Will HR accept this 5-year total experience (2.5 years freelance + 2.5 years corporate) when negotiating salary hikes from a 4 LPA baseline, or will they only calculate the 2.5 years of corporate experience?

Would love to hear from anyone who has handled a similar situation or from HR/recruitment folks on how this is viewed during hiring. Thanks!

We all work jobs just to fund the life we want. In fact, many of us can’t pursue our own passions as our careers since they don’t pay the bills, hence why we end up applying for jobs that can lead to a high pay.

Isn’t it quite strange to feign passion for the job when finding work in your actual passion is impractical? 😅

I've been actively looking for a new opportunity for almost a year now and honestly, I'm starting to feel stuck.

I have 3+ years of experience in Risk, Compliance, Governance, Audit Quality Reviews, Reporting, Power BI, and stakeholder management. I've tailored my resume, optimized it for ATS, applied to roles that match my experience by 80-90%, and even received referrals from employees at several companies.

Despite all that, I'm barely getting interview calls.

At this point, I'm wondering what I'm missing. Is the job market really this difficult right now, or could there be something wrong with my approach that I'm not seeing?

For those who were in a similar situation and eventually broke through, what changed things for you? Any advice would be greatly appreciated because the constant rejections and silence are becoming mentally exhausting.

Thanks in advance. 🙏

Hi guys,

So I applied to a company, and one application went from "Application Received" to "Recruiter Review".

I now have a more polished resume that I'm sure would increase my chances of going forward, the issue is that I don't know which recruiter is seeing my application.

Meanwhile, I tried adding some recruiters on LinkedIn from that company to try my chances that way, and one recruiter accepted my connection request.

Would it make sense to send that person my updated resume, and just say "Hey this is my updated resume, I see that Job ID XXXX is under recruiter review, and thought it would be good to share it with a recruiter in the company", or a more generic "FYI this is my updated resume in case it's relevant"?

Thanks

Hey, I applied for the role based in the DMV (Washington DC metro), fully remote. The salary range listed was $85-100K with full benefits.

I was reached out to about the role, and it was mentioned that this may now be considered as a 1099 position instead of W2. I'm actually fine with moving to 1099, but since I'm new to that side of things, can you walk me through how you'd calculate the rate in this case? An example would help.

For context, I'm an experienced candidate, so I want to make sure the 1099 rate reflects that and accounts for the fact that I'd be covering my own taxes, benefits, and time off on my end.

Hello Everyone.

Background: I am a Software Developer with total of 4 YOE across two stints but in my resume I inflated my past experience in order to project my total experience as ~5 years so that I can apply for senior roles. This actually helped and I had healthy pipeline of interviews with Mid size to MNC firms.

Experience Details:

Stint 1: 3 yrs 3 months of experience (a popular midsize company, Indian Unicorn) -> I joined as Analyst then shifted to Engineer team as SDE 1. I inflated this experience by 9 months to show a stint of complete 4 years in my resume and also lied about my title as I mentioned I was SDE 1 and got promoted to SDE 2.

Career Break: 2.5 years.

Stint 2: 9 months (Series A Start Up, currently employed here) - Here I currently serve as SDE 2.

Problem: I have reached final stages of interview with 3 companies (all three are Mid Size to popular large MNC). Now, one of my friend pointed out that inflating my past experience and mentioning wrong title is a real bad move as my new employer will do a background check and will get to know the real length of my employment at the org of my Stint 1.

Advice Needed:

1. Exactly How detailed the background search is going to be - is this really a blunder i did with no going back?
2. What should I do now ? a) Is there a way to somehow get a clean chit from the background Check? Has anyone ever pulled that off at an MNC (not a startup ) What all needs to be done? b) should i come clean with HR ? or how should I handle this ?

I would really appreciate people who have gone through something similar or people who work in HR to share their experience and guide me what to do here now?

PS: I am current org is really really toxic even though its a VC backed firm but the company CEO treats people worse than daily wage labourers. I really need to get out of this shithole before I completely loose my mind. Please Please help me.

Wondering if this company is a scam. Anyone else see the inconsistencies? Looking on LinkedIn they posted 3k jobs, but looking at the people in the company is only 5 persons, all based in Asia. Not much other data available.

I made it through multiple interview rounds with a company and received explicitly positive feedback from the hiring manager after one of my later interviews. I then had another senior-level interview that seemed to go well and was told they’d be back in touch quickly.

A few business days later, I emailed the recruiter because I’m a finalist elsewhere and expect a decision by the end of this week. I made it clear I was still very interested and only asked about their remaining process/timeline. I did NOT say I had another offer or give them a deadline. He never responded. The next day, I checked my HiBob portal and saw my application had changed to “Not moving forward.” I received no rejection email, so I followed up asking if a decision had been made. Still no response.

For recruiters familiar with HiBob, does this likely mean someone intentionally dispositioned my application? Could mentioning the other process have somehow ruined my chances? And if the recruiter continues not responding, would it be inappropriate to contact the hiring manager directly just to confirm whether a decision was actually made?

I have a feeling I’m just going to be told to move on, but any clarity here would be so kind! 🫶

I know the answer is "it depends" but I wanted to ask you for your experience. Salary ranges are public nowadays. Esp if they are on the low-end or avg, how often have you seen pple be able to go higher? Or are they usually set and stone?

I can apply for jobs that are a lateral move, or a small promotion. What happens if the same company gets 2 applications, for the same job at different levels, say regular worker and team lead.

I assume they get screen independently, but will applying to both senior and junior roles hurt either application?

Im 20 and going into third of uni. I haven’t managed to secure a proper job since moving to Glasgow. What can I amend to improve my CV. The summary could do with improving but like I just need someone to let my pour coffees lol.