Two months waiting for a place still undecided
A candidate says an internship provider asked them to wait for its November cohort and send documents, then introduced a review and interview before acceptance.
Stories
An open archive of what candidates go through: the ghosting, the seven-stage processes, the take-home tests nobody read, the roles that were filled internally before the advert went up.
Some are found in public. Some are sent in. Contributors choose whether to be named.
The interview moved from the role to the wedding budget
A candidate says an e-commerce interview turned from the role to marriage plans, availability until 11 PM and compensation that remained unclear.
Rejected, then recruited for the same role
A senior engineer reconstructed 96 days of recruitment from LinkedIn and email records. Fourteen days after one rejection, a recruiter from the same company approached them for the same title.
Seven interviews, with more still to come
An entry-level compensation-analyst process reached seven interviews, with time off work and a drive to offices an hour away. The employer still wanted more.
Four rounds, a paid take-home, then silence
A candidate spent nearly a month on four interview rounds and a paid take-home project that took about six hours of a weekend. The recruiter promised an answer within a week; none came.
Seven interviews, then no reply
After seven interviews, a candidate expected an offer. More than a week later, their follow-up had received no reply.
The interview with nobody to follow up
A candidate reached a telephone interview and found that every question came from AI, leaving no room for a real exchange.
The verbal offer that never became a contract
A recruiter relayed a verbal offer and requested references before senior approval was settled. The contract never arrived.
A great process without an offer
An anonymous candidate described a two-week, employee-referral process with clear advice throughout. They did not receive an offer, but still called the interview process "great."
When on-call became a question about children
An engineering candidate says an interviewer made marriage and children part of an on-call discussion while male candidates were asked situational questions.
The trial shift would start at 4am
A bakery-vendor candidate reported being asked to load a truck, set up and work a farmers' market, and tear it down during an unpaid trial lasting about ten hours.
The rejection that arrived before the interview
A manager scheduled an interview for a senior-director role. Recruitment then sent the same candidate a rejection before the scheduled meeting.
The interview before bed
A candidate started a first AI interview before bed, expecting job-specific questions to wait for a human interview. The questions came sooner.
Seven interviews, then a survey
A candidate for a remote commercial-counsel role went through seven interviews in six weeks. After a form rejection, the employer asked for feedback on the recruitment experience.
Four technical rounds, then no reply
An anonymous candidate reports four technical interviews, pressure to name other recruitment processes and former managers, and a template rejection. When the recruiter offered a follow-up call, the …
The accent requirement arrived in the interview
A candidate says a recruiter introduced an American-accent requirement during a 15-minute interview for a remote junior tax-accounting/data-entry role.
Invited to apply, rejected two days later
A recruiter invited a software engineer to apply. Two days later, the same email thread delivered a rejection that did not explain the reversal.
The second email, one minute later
A junior Solutions Engineer applicant tailored her materials around practical experience. A rejection followed about one minute after the confirmation.
Fifteen years of proof
After multiple onsite interviews, a technology company asked one candidate for employment records reaching back 15 years, including a paystub. One former employer had been acquired and another had …
Eight years of retail, read as a gap
A recruiter read eight years of retail as a gap because the page did not connect that work to two shipped Linux projects.