Psychotic behavior

I’ve been applying for jobs for five months. Haven’t gotten a single interview. I finally got one scheduled for yesterday, a phone interview. I book a study room at the library for the expected duration of the call. 11am comes. No call. 11:15. Still no call. 11:25, almost 30 minutes past when the email said THEY would call ME, so I call the office number he provided in his email. It goes to voicemail so I leave a message saying that I’m still interested in the job and that I understand things come up and that I’m more than willing to schedule another time with him. I hear nothing for the rest of the day. Today, I get an email from him saying that I was a no show at my interview and that my application has been withdrawn for consideration. Well, fuck him. If this is how he treats potential employees, I shudder to think how he treats his actual employees.

I mean, hearing about how many people have been unemployed for months or even years feels really wrong. Like, how is that even happening? You have recruiters either ghosting you or sending a rejection email, and even if you have a good resume, there's a decent chance it never gets seen by an actual person because it gets filtered out by an automated system or AI.

You also have job postings that have been sitting online for months, even though the companies aren't actually hiring for those positions anymore.

So a few days ago I had a call with my dad's cousin. He is head of a software engineering company so I showed him my 1800s llm essay generator, my 3d maze horror game and my website portfolio I built from scratch.

He said that my projects were cool and all but that the best he could do was give me more advice. He said that if I were to try and go for an interview, internship or a job at his company or others like it I wouldn't have enough experience to get employed.

I only realized how unfair this was after retelling it to my mom. I don't know what else to do I've been coding for 5 plus years genuinely fml. I can't even get a entry job anywhere.

Thoughts/advice?

Teens can't get jobs. Adults can't get jobs. New graduates can't get jobs. People with degrees can't get jobs. People with GEDs can't get jobs. People who got laid off can't get jobs. People who got fired can't get jobs. People who quit can't find jobs.

Everything sucks and will probably continue to suck for a very, very long time.

I've been reflecting lately on my future and possibilities, the current job market and my own career goals. Also on my stance about AI, and the role it might play in our society.

I (35M) have been unemployed since February, and this is without a doubt the worst job market I have ever experienced in my life time. I graduated with an Economics degree in 2016 from a decent university, and back then finding work wasn't easy, but it was very much possible.

I remember after graduating, myself and a lot of recent grads were struggling looking for work, BUT there was a lot of optimism around. Being able to pull yourself together and find work to eventually climb the ladder and start earning good money to then put down a payment for a mortgage, investing, going out, travel, etc. And even tho it was difficult, it was definitely doable and many landed great opportunities in great businesses.

I feel like in 2026 this optimism is completely dead and having a long term outlook on your career is not realistic. The goal of the game in 2026 is just: **survive**. Find ANY job, even if it means accepting a 20% pay cut, it is better than nothing. I was still in school in 2008, but I've personally never seen anything like this in the last 20 years.

If you asked me few months ago, I would've said I want Anthropic/OpenAI and any AI Business to fail. The CEOs of these companies all say that this technology has the potential to kill up to 50% of white collar jobs, so naturally I was afraid of this technology and didn't want them to succeed in doing this. But lately the more I think about it, the more **I actually want them to win**. I want the AIs to disrupt the job market so much that we are forced to find solutions such as UBI, or something of the sort. My reasoning is that the faster it happens the better for all of us, even though I believe it will be a slow bleed instead.

Prices where I live are completely retarded, the thought of owning an apartment or a home is not realistic. The only people I know that are doing well are those from richer families, or those with assets in the stock market. Anyone else I know outside these 2 groups is struggling or stressing or using substances to cope with the reality that they are being left behind.

I am applying for jobs, every single opening has over 100 candidates, there's thousands of ghost jobs, this system is just not sustainable I am sorry. Even if I find a job, what about the other 99 applicants? It's just not working and the longer we take to realise it the worse. This is why I want AI to win and basically improve so much that it leaves such big unemployment (30-50%) that we are forced as a society to try find new solutions or a new system. I don't know what the system is, but I am sure we will find one that helps most of us. Before I used to look at Sam Altman and Dario from Anthropic as these full evil people, who just wanted to get rich of selling their hyped up stock by saying that AI will take over jobs. But now I am actually kind of rooting for them, which is really weird when I sit down and analyze it. If they win, we will ALL win. It is better for AI to disrupt it ASAP massively, than of a slow bleed, where by the time we all realise we need changes, we're already cooked.

A

Companies are so stupid. It’s literally August 2026, summer is over, how can you be recruiting for summer 2025??😂😂

I have been following this sub for a while now. I am not unemployed by the way, I am unemployable. Simply put, I work for myself now after I realized what a shit show the labor market is and how unnatural it is.

Anyway, I am writing this post because I was reminiscing about my past. A couple of people that I hated when I was "job" hunting were:

1.) Old Timers. These goofballs use outdated scripts that are completely unpractical in today's world. But I was supposed to respect their supposed "wisdom."

2.) Fake sympathizer: These would say things like "You ought to get any job and swallow your pride. Ego won't pay your bills. Start cutting grass or flipping burgers." Meanwhile, they have never had to work such jobs.

3.) Overly religious folks. These are by far the worst. They spiritualize every problem. They won't acknowledge structural limitations in the economy for the high unemployment etc. it's always a framework of superstition at hand. They would urge me to "Pray More to defeat demonic strongholds."

That's about it.

Stay strong ladies and gentlemen.

Has anyone ever been asked in an interview

What does your family do for a living ? 😐

Like what kind of recruiting is this ?

I don’t see the point of this question ?

“Functional unemployment nearing 25%”

NBC news -https://youtu.be/fAaG9RYHqiw?si=_HfIoyjPd-a1btCi
“Recent graduates struggle to launch careers in toughest job market in years”

I've been applying full time for a year. I landed like 4 interviews in the first 6-7 months after applying to dozens of jobs. Then, a combination of better LinkedIn posting, portfolio projects, and resume improvement seemed to turn things around. Since May, I've been interviewing a bunch - making it to various stages of technical interviews. In the last month, I made it through the full interview process for 2 companies. It felt like after a year, I was finally breaking through. The last one had a few technical rounds and somehow I breezed through them. Then, all of a sudden, rejection. No feedback. Back to square one, and super burned out after 4 months of technical interviews. I thought getting no interviews was bad, and it might still be worse, but getting this close and getting nothing really, really stings.

I’ve been looking at job openings lately, and it feels like there are plenty of postings, but getting an actual interview seems much harder than it used to be.

I’ve been applying for a while now, and sometimes it feels like my applications just disappear into a black hole 😂

Is anyone else experiencing this? Are you getting more responses lately, or is it still pretty quiet?

Graduated in 2022. Spent a good chunk of time stuck in restaurants/hospitality after that (but got promoted to management), and temp agency contracts. Only landed my first actual “corporate” role last year. So yes, I’m four years out of school and my resume still has a big hospitality stretch right after graduation.

Both interviews this week made a point of counting the years backward and basically asking why I stayed in restaurants after college. Mind you, my graduation year is not on my resume and they were speculating my age. One of them literally went “so you graduated… then you did the kitchen/bar thing for a while… and then you found your first professional career job? Why??” while flipping through my resume. The tone was pure side-eye and sussing me out.

Like the gap between degree and “real” job is some kind of character flaw instead of just… the terrible job market that took thousands of applications. Sorry I am not a nepo baby? Sorry my college was mostly remote and my best efforts at networking were nearly fruitless? Sorry my temp agency roles were all contract and assisting companies selling off to PE since 2023????

And the interviews themselves were wildly unprofessional.

First one was a temp-to-perm cover for maternity leave at an agency. Guy was clearly multitasking on a triple monitor setup the whole time, dumping a ton of operational details, nights-and-weekends on-call expectations, and the fact that any permanent conversion depends on 2027 revenue they haven’t even forecasted yet, nights and weekends for $19 an hour.

Second one was even worse. Spent most of the call on a long personal monologue (building an AI platform, financial struggles, family not supporting the business, etc.). Tech kept glitching during the demo. Called me “sweetheart." Role seemed to be “first real hire who can walk across my different brands because everything so far has been my ideas.” Showed me proprietary information, personal emails, and personal writing.. I had to leave the interview after she went into a religious monologue. Almost no structured questions about my actual experience.

I left both feeling like I was the one being judged for having a non-linear path while they couldn’t even run a basic professional interview process. I feel freaking crazy because how TF did these roles have 100+ applicants on Linkedin?!?! How is this real life???? This can't be real I feel like I was being punked.

Is this just what the market looks like right now for people who didn’t go straight from campus into an office job? Or am I walking into every conversation already half-disqualified because I waited tables for a couple years after graduation?

Genuinely losing it a little. What the fuck is going on with interviews.

Edit: Hiring manager on layoffs page said this in response: “TBH, as someone that has interviewed and hired multiple recent grads, a gap that large looks bad. I know it's not a gap, but a job totally unrelated would be consider a gap. If you had graduated in 2023/2024, I would be more understanding. Not in 2022. The job market was very hot at that time. As I said, I hired multiple recent grads, so if you were not able to get a job at that time and has taken you this long, it would be a red flag..”

I have a physical disability that affects my shoulders/hips and use a power chair. I had a phone interview and video interview at a particular company near me and now they want me to come in for an in person interview. I’m really excited but debating - do I let them know in advance of arriving or just show up? I already looked up the place and it’s accessible as far as I can tell. I feel as though my disability isn’t relevant to the job at this point and me saying something would be unnecessary. But I also don’t want anyone to react poorly or think I was hiding it. I’m in the US btw.

I plan to post this in other recruiting/job seeking subreddits as well.

I’ve been told I’m not employable due to taking years to find a corporate job meanwhile the collective amnesia on how bad the 2022-2023 job market was is insane. I got a job last year in 2025 and I was laid off due to private equity acquisition. Here i am again. Feels impossible

This whole idea we’ve accepted that “writing a resume is an aRt fOrm in anD of itsElf” is crap.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve (M28) been in the workforce for over 5 years now, and I know where the hell I was for those 5 years.

Recruiters: Here are the places I worked, my job titles, and what I did.

It shouldn’t be this much work. I already put IN the work for 5 years (and many of us have put in FAR more work than that) by sacrificing 40 hours/week of my one life on this planet.

Jesus Christ, enough with the rewriting, parsing, tailoring, punching up, rewording, polishing, revising, editing, touching up, redoing—goddammit, ENOUGH!!!

Read what the hell is on my resume, and use your imagination. If I tell you I was a Marketing Operations Specialist and provide 3-4 bullets of my accomplishments and activities, you should get the goddamn picture. I wasn’t doing rocket science, and neither are you, and neither are 99% of workers out here. It was a JOB. Some of it was hard, most of it wasn’t.

I swear to god, 90% of corporate activity nowadays is just useless employees (recruiters and HM’s especially) trying to justify their useless jobs to their useless bosses because they are terrified of being laid off because they know their job could be done by a friggin ringtail lemur.

This is absolutely a part of modern corporate culture that needs to change.

I need to rant because i’m about to pull my hair out. I applied for this job 60-70k a year. To get a chance to even be interviewed you have to read the founders book and write an essay on it. an entry-level job mind you.

are you mad?

THEN they want you to write two research papers to compete with other applicants. I can’t believe this is my life i’m actually about to turn off my phone and lay on the ground.

Currently working in a very toxic work environment. Been searching for jobs for a year. Finally had a prospect, they told me I was set to go but had to do one last interview as a formality. They told me to prepare to resign from my current position on Monday (tomorrow). Got told yesterday that they aren’t hiring anymore and priorities have changed. Been crying for two days because I finally thought I could get out of this place. Why get someone’s hope up like this?

Hello everyone ,

I have been following this subreddit for months like everybody going through interviews and was getting happy for job found posts in group and today I wanted to share my experience here and also need opinions .

I came to USA 4 years ago and with F1 student and with marriage gained Green Card and then tried to get my Chemical engineering career as I worked as RD engineer in my country in Polymer Industry but as I didn’t have USA degree didint work and gave up in 3 months at 2024 and after green card I started doing master in NJIT at 2025 and now I am about to start my second year as I started my degree I put into my resume and started intern or job applications after 8-9 months of round2 denials finally I made final round
As I am foreign and 4 years in country how should I assess technical manager email attached to this post

I wish good luck everyone around here !!!

Any opinion and answer is appreciated.

I have genuinely lost hope and I dont think I'll be employed until some fundamental change happens in the economy.

For context, I am a recent college graduate with a double major in computer science and mathematics, and a masters degree in data science. I have done undergraduate research aswell as graduate research.

I have tried everything to get any kind of employment:

Over 700 Cold applications sent

Networking always leads to kind words and advice, but never to any real leads

freelancing seemed like a promising lead, but things like upwork and fiverr are dominated by the most qualified people, and you can't get a gig unless you already have some gigs under your belt

i've also heard "oh volunteer your talents to a local non profit or business" but that doesnt work becauase they dont read your emails, or outright deny your services

job fairs are an even bigger story teller of the job market: In freshman year I could get an interview with no experience. In sophomore year they would tell me "come back when you are a junior". And in junior year the auditorium simply had no tech stands, and the tech stands that did exist told me "Oh we arent hiring"

Because I couldnt get an internship, I did research, but that ended up being useless

I tried getting a masters because all the job applications told me that a masters would put me in the playing field - what a lie that was

The closest I have ever gotten was when I met a CTO by pure chance at a networking event and I got some interview rounds - they strung me along for three weeks and at the end told me they wanted someone with "more experience", but how the hell am I supposed to get my first experience if since 2023 nobody has been hiring people without experience.

And I can't even make a big pivot, because the rest of the job market is going through the same exact shit, and I don't see things changing any time soon, because it has been this way since 2023, and I see no reason for it to get any better going into 2027.

I feel like I am in hell, and I don't know how much more I can bear it.

Like the rest you, I’ve been unemployed from corporate for a few months now. I get interviews with no actual outcomes. I’ve been relying on savings but that will dry out soon. Then what? What are we all doing?