Jobseeking is genuinely one of the most degrading things. You’re lucky if you even get told that they decided not to hire you because most companies decide you’re too worthless to even deserve a followup message.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
94 points (100.0% liked)
chat
8531 readers
129 users here now
Chat is a text only community for casual conversation, please keep shitposting to the absolute minimum. This is intended to be a separate space from c/chapotraphouse or the daily megathread. Chat does this by being a long-form community where topics will remain from day to day unlike the megathread, and it is distinct from c/chapotraphouse in that we ask you to engage in this community in a genuine way. Please keep shitposting, bits, and irony to a minimum.
As with all communities posts need to abide by the code of conduct, additionally moderators will remove any posts or comments deemed to be inappropriate.
Thank you and happy chatting!
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
I have never in my entire adult life gotten a job without a referral from somebody I know at the company. This is not a new phenomenon. It's always been nepotism and cronyism in a trenchcoat.
Yep, and I don't really know anyone who can function as a referral for me except this one woman who was a customer at a previous job I worked.
She has been trying to advocate for me at her job, but it's been a very slow process. It's a hospital job that has been needing people to be hired for quite some time now, and I even called the hiring manager just to follow-up multiple times. He decided to write down my number as a reminder and noted that he knows the woman who referred me.
I'm gonna call again tomorrow, as the last time I called him was 9 days ago. The job still appears to be posted, thankfully.
Good luck comrade. I really don’t envy you because I know exactly what it’s like when your connections are limited. I got super lucky with the connections I made that ended up landing me a job (actually, my job was gotten from someone who was connected to someone I met a career fair; career fairs suck but they’re way better than just applying online). You have to push your luck and impress/chum it up with the right person just once.
btw, the manager for this job has "dick" in her surname
nominative determinism
You’d have a better time skipping interviews and going out to bars and talking to people, and I’m barely kidding
I mean nepotism and cronyism has been far and away the best way to get a job. Get out there and "network" aka make light friends/acquaintances with a ton of people. Make sure they know (or at least think) you're good at your job and dedicated, and sooner or later someone will be at a company that needs to hire someone.
Can I just say fuck cover letters. I understand the purpose of a resume, and it's easy enough to write one up and use it for all the applications I send out, but cover letters are just another arbitrary hoop to jump through and I won't fucking do it.
The one valid use-case of AI: to write a cover letter that I can't be bothered to write and they can't be bothered to read.
Why do I feel like this is a case of them already having picked a candidate but still wasting time anyway?
I've seen behind the scenes of these kinds of things, it's possible that they already had a really good candidate but decided to interview everybody in case somebody surprises them and is better than that person. From their perspective (at least what they tell themselves and each other) they "gave you a chance" even though they were pretty sure they already had the better candidate. Whether that's a bullshit reason or not is up for interpretation I guess, in the end for most jobs it boils down to how much they liked your personality, provided you actually have some qualifications for the job.
Being late is mad disrespectful tho fuck them.
what often happens is they know exactly who they want to hire and might have even tailored the post to fit that candidate. they might be required to be seen making a job post and interviewing candidates but it's strictly to say they did it
Is the job post a requirement for private companies in the US? Never seen that happen in a private company in Europe unless maybe it's like a large multinational one where they need to fudge the internal company paperwork, usually if they want to do a nepotism they just straight up do it.
its a public sector thing in US afaik
It's one of those things that falls under affirmative action, but companies do things to get around it anyway. They have to provide "equal opportunity" to all candidates, which includes things like not asking your religion or making you disclose your ethnicity. But if they actually did provide equal opportunities, it would mean they, their friends, and their family members are unqualified.
It's like you can't say "We want whites only for this modeling job," so they say "Looking for person with light, straight hair for Oktoberfest-themed photo shoot." Technically, you don't have to be white in order to qualify for this position. But who do you think they're going to hire? A non-white person with bleached hair straightened or a blonde haired, blue-eyed white person?
It do be feeling more and more a who you know kinda game, I remember hearing it's a combo of shit already lined up with them feeling out salary expectations and having positions on hold so they can pitch for more funding. The last one I applied to a pretty good weatherization job and got a this position in limbo email.
I don't think I've had a single job interview where the other person wasn't late.
it's a lottery. buying a ticket doesn't affect your chances very much
Definitely sounds like they just needed to interview some quota of candidates before giving the position to the preferred candidate.
This seems to be the common process now. If you don't have an insider to vouch for you, it seems really hard to get through the filtering.
The main thing keeping me in my job that I hate is dreading the job search
It's so bad idk what to do. I struggled for a long time to find a job that could support me and was tolerable. Four years of that and they shut down. Now I'm trying to find something else but can't. It's hard to even find jobs that pay more than $15 an hour. I feel like I've seen wages fall over the past 6 months on top of scarcity.
I'm doing seasonal work now just to stave off defaulting and being unable to afford car insurance. My savings are gone and using credit will just make things worse.
I've had one in person interview that went well but the company decided to not hire me. The position is still open. I had one phone interview. I have a video interview next week but I expect it just to be something for HR to keep busy rather than hire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhOmCYmEkvU a relevant bop to get you thru these troubled times comrade
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: