u/JoeYi1999

To HR professionals, much weight you carry in the screening process before a candidate reaches the hiring manager? Especially from those working in corporate or MNC environments.

A few things I’ve been wondering about:

How much influence do you have in deciding whether a candidate progresses to the next round?

Are you mainly filtering for baseline fit, or do you actively advocate for or against someone?

If a candidate appears visibly nervous during the interview but still answers questions competently, does that get flagged as a concern? Or is it generally overlooked as long as their responses are solid?

For the second round with the hiring manager, is that decision entirely in the hiring manager’s control, or does HR still play a role in who gets shortlisted?

What are some red flags that immediately stand out to you during HR interviews?

Hey everyone, I’m feeling pretty burnt out and could really use some objective advice. I’m a marketing professional , and I’ve recently hit a wall in my job search. Out of 800+ applications, I’ve only landed 3 interviews and no offers so far.

Here’s a quick overview of my timeline: Bachelor’s Degree: Jan 2023 – Dec 2025 Full-time Work Experience: Aug 2022 – Oct 2023 (1 year 1 month) Dec 2023 – Oct 2024 (11 months)

On my resume, I’ve placed my work experience above my education because I assumed recruiters would prioritise real-world experience, even though I’ve just recently graduated.

To clarify, I stopped working from late 2024 through 2025 to focus entirely on completing my degree. Balancing full-time work and studies simultaneously led to significant burnout, so I made the decision to prioritise finishing my education properly.

One concern I have is that my full-time work overlaps almost entirely with my degree timeline. I’ve been told that this could raise red flags for recruiters or ATS systems, potentially making it seem like I’m misrepresenting my experience or that my roles weren’t truly full-time.

At the same time, I want to clarify this without unintentionally underselling my degree, especially since I’m targeting competitive roles where perceptions matter.

I’ve been considering a few options:

Adding “(Part-Time)” next to my degree Keeping the degree title unchanged, but including a bullet point explaining I worked full-time concurrently

Mentioning this context briefly in my professional summary at the top

My intention was always to position this as a strength. I saw working full-time while studying as a sign of discipline and resilience but I’m starting to wonder if it may be creating confusion instead.