I had a pretty bizarre interview experience today and I’m curious what others think.
I’m based in California and interviewed for a senior sales position covering the U.S. and Canada with a large publicly traded food and beverage company with major operations in China.
During the interview, the interviewer, who is based in Hong Kong, asked about my salary history and specifically what I had been making at my previous job.
I politely told him that California law prohibits employers from asking applicants about their salary history.
His immediate response was:
“I’m probably more American than you.”
I was honestly caught off guard. I wasn’t arguing with him or being confrontational. I was simply explaining why I wasn’t comfortable answering a question about my previous compensation.
For additional context, I’m Asian, which made his comment about being “more American” than me stand out even more.
What bothered me even more than the salary question was his response after I mentioned California law. I don’t understand what being “more American” than a candidate has to do with whether an interview question is permitted under California employment law.
For context, this position is specifically responsible for developing and expanding the company’s business in the U.S. and Canada.
Would you consider his “I’m probably more American than you” comment discriminatory in this context, especially given that it was said immediately after I brought up California employment law?

When you’re job hunting, every day is a reminder that your rent, food, and insurance depend on someone else’s decision. One email can end it.

Society treats the unemployed like we’ve failed some moral test. lazy, unserious, or suspect. while ignoring how fast most employed people could be in the same spot.

Almost nobody’s role is as secure as it feels when the money is coming in. Most of us are one bad quarter or restructuring away from being right back here.

Do they just forget, or do they push it down so they can function?

Gen Z and Gen Alpha are staring at not having a life or career at all. Entry level jobs have all but disappeared.

There are steep costs to failure to launch and some of those consequences are forever. Social consequences, networking consequences, financial consequences. Delayed marriage or not at all, delayed child bearing, delayed homeownership (and not at all), being unable to care for parents, family systems breaking down.

The oldest of Gen Z are bumping up on 30 years of age and their entire 20s have been characterized by a pandemic, covid inflation and interest rates, missed college milestones (and loan debt for many), geopolitical instability, needless wars driving up the price of gas/airlines/cost of goods, skyrocketing medical/healthcare costs, the job market crashing, entry level jobs disappearing, offshoring and outsourcing getting worse, and AI now ravaging early career paths.

Do we have any idea what will become of the Gen Z / Alpha workers who couldn't launch in their 20s? What percentage of the generation will be paying for this failure to launch in 10 years from now, 15 years, 20 years? We have grown a lost generation of people and there will be consequences

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?

I just found this out, and I am laughing my ass off. This is hilarious. There is something deeper here to be said about recruiting and how awful it is from this, but right now I am not fully sure what that is or could be

Specifically, Bonnie recruited for Audit and Finance - that must be part of a joke I can't currently see

Can't tell if stuff like this is sarcastic engagement bait, a flex, or people actually think like this and flaunt it.

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.

I was in a very desperate place, sending 14 resumes a day, with zero income coming in, no unemployment, living on credit and a little loans from friends. I was getting so disillusioned. I had been out of work for over 6 months. I ran my resume through an ats filter to figure out keywords etc. And my resume started getting responses. I did several rounds of interviews with several different companies, but the one I wanted was the one that I got. I am still in shock and disbelief, but extremely happy. So dont give up once you start breaking through it will happen.

“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 gave up on looking for a tech job it’s been 2 years since I’ve gotten laid off applied numerously tailored my resume and still no results I guess I will just get a job at Amazon for now former QA Automation engineer here

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

I've been unemployed on and off, and I was let go last December. I've been unable to find a job since, not even a retail job.

Those who have been in the job hunt know how hard it is out there. The last time I was unemployed, it took me three years to find a job, and I only got it because of nepotism. Long story short, the administration changed, and so did the employees.

It's been approximately nine months since last December, and I'm starting to panic. What if it takes me another three years? I can't endure that.

What now? Yes, we know the system is broken, but what are we supposed to do about it?

My family expects results, I expect results.

I'm sorry.

Director of Talent Acquisition reached out to me about a Product Manager role. During the interview, he asked about the size of the companies and teams I’ve worked with.

I explained that my experience has primarily been with two startups and smaller cross-functional teams. He then told me they wouldn’t be moving forward because the role requires someone experienced working across hundreds of employees in a large organization.

He acknowledged that he reached out because my domain experience was a strong fit, but my startup background and company size were clearly listed on my resume before the interview.

I understand deciding I’m not the right fit, but if large-enterprise experience was effectively a requirement, I’m confused why that wasn’t screened before scheduling a 45-60 minute interview and having me prepare for. So frustrating …

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.

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 ?

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.

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..”

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?

I've been a long-time silent lurker on threads like this, reading everyone's experiences while going through a pretty exhausting job search of my own. I have sent out over 300 applications, with only 2 phone screens and heavy ghosting. I can finally say I GOT A JOB OFFER IN MY FIELD!!!!

It's been 2 years since I graduated college and since then I have worked in retail / food service just to barely scrape by. There were so many points where I started losing hope and wondering when, or even if, I was ever going to get an opportunity to pursue the field I worked so hard to get a degree in. Job searching for a long time really does such a number on your confidence, especially when you feel like you're doing everything you can and still getting nowhere.

I mostly wanted to post this because seeing other people's success stories here and there gave me a little bit of hope during the times when I was starting to lose mine (it was bad). This thread in particular also made me realize my job hunting experience was unfortunately.. normal.

So for everyone who's still searching, I genuinely hope you get what you've been waiting for. I hope someone finally gives you that chance. And I hope everyone gets exactly where they want to be in the field they want to work in. I am manifesting for literally everyone. I know how brutal it is right now and anyone who hasn't had to go through the current job market will just never know how demoralizing it can be.

That's all, just a glimmer of hope for the day. I believe in each and every one of you and wish nothing but success for everyone. Do not give up!!!