u/MainStock8156

I'm sitting at my desk trying not to scream right now so I need to vent here before I do something stupid.

Three weeks ago I got rejected from a senior product manager role after making it to the final round. I was disappointed but moved on.

Yesterday I'm on LinkedIn and I see the company posted about their "exciting new hire" for that exact position. I click out of curiosity.

It's this woman Sarah. Her LinkedIn says she was a "Senior Product Manager at Google for 4 years" before this.

Something felt off so I clicked through to her experience section. It says "Senior Product Manager, Google, 2020-2024."

Here's the thing though - I have a friend who works at Google. We were in a group chat yesterday and I mentioned seeing this, sent him her LinkedIn as a joke like "damn I lost to a Googler."

He goes "That's weird, let me check our directory."

Five minutes later: "Dude, she never worked here. I searched every variation of her name, checked with HR. She's not in our system and never has been."

I'm like what the fuck.

So I dig deeper. Her previous role before "Google" says "Product Lead at Amazon, 2018-2020."

I have another friend at Amazon. I ask him to check. Same thing. She never worked there.

This woman completely fabricated her last two jobs - 6 years of fake experience at two of the biggest tech companies - and got hired for a senior role making probably $150k+.

And nobody checked. They just... believed her LinkedIn.

Meanwhile I've been busting my ass for years building real experience, have references, a portfolio, everything. And I lost to someone who just straight up lied.

I want to report this so badly but I don't even know how. Do I email their HR? Do I stay out of it?

Part of me thinks karma will catch up when she can't do the job, but part of me is furious that she's getting paid six figures for experience she doesn't have while I'm still job hunting.

The job search is already hard enough without competing against people who just make shit up.

Has anyone ever discovered something like this? What did you do? I feel like I'm going crazy.

I need to tell someone about this because I'm so furious I can barely type.

Remember a few weeks ago I posted about interviewing for this senior analyst role? Four rounds of interviews, took half a day off work for the final one, whole presentation, the works.

Got the rejection email two weeks ago. Standard "we've decided to pursue other candidates" bullshit.

Today I'm getting coffee near their office and I run into one of the guys who interviewed me. We chat for a minute and he seems kind of uncomfortable.

He finally goes "Hey, I'm really sorry about how that went. For what it's worth, I voted to hire you."

I'm like "Oh, thanks, I appreciate that."

Then he says something that makes my blood boil: "The whole thing was BS anyway. They'd already decided to promote Rachel internally but HR made them interview external candidates to 'validate' the promotion. You were never really being considered."

I just stared at him.

He keeps going: "Yeah, they needed to show they looked at outside talent before promoting her. You and the other external candidates were basically just there to make the internal promotion look legitimate. Really messed up, sorry you wasted your time."

I did FOUR interviews. Took time off work. Prepared for hours. Turned down other interview opportunities because I thought this was promising.

All so they could check a box for HR and justify promoting someone they'd already decided on before they even posted the job.

I was never a real candidate. I was a prop in their internal politics.

The guy could tell I was pissed and tried to backtrack like "well you never know, maybe it was close" but it was too late. He already told me the truth.

How is this legal? How is it okay to waste people's time interviewing them when you've already made your decision? Just so you can tell HR you "considered external candidates"?

I want to blast them on Glassdoor but I'm worried it'll hurt me professionally. But I'm so angry I can barely think straight.

Has anyone else been a "fake candidate" like this? Is this a common thing companies do?

I'm having a full panic attack right now and I don't know if I'm overreacting or if my gut is right.

So I accepted a job offer on Friday. Marketing manager role, $92k, good benefits. I was so relieved after months of searching that I signed the offer letter same day.

This morning I'm excited and can't sleep, so at like 6am I'm googling the company just reading about them, getting hyped for my new job.

I click on their Glassdoor page.

3.2 stars. Okay, not amazing but not terrible.

Then I start actually reading the reviews.

Every. Single. Review. From the past 12 months says some version of the same thing:

"High turnover, people leave within 6 months" "Toxic management, everyone is miserable" "They're always hiring because everyone quits" "Don't be fooled by the good salary, you'll earn every penny" "This place is a revolving door"

I go to LinkedIn and search current employees. The entire marketing team has been there less than a year. Every single person.

Then I search former employees. There are 14 people who left the marketing department in the past 18 months.

The role I'm taking has been filled by 4 different people in the last 2 years.

I'm sitting here realizing I'm about to be person number 5, and all those people left for a reason.

But I already signed the offer. I already told my current job I'm leaving. My last day is Friday.

Do I back out? Do I try it anyway and hope it's not as bad as the reviews say?

Part of me thinks maybe I can handle whatever it is, the money is good. But 14 people leaving one department in 18 months? That's not normal right?

I feel so stupid for not checking Glassdoor BEFORE accepting. I was just so desperate to end the job search that I didn't do my due diligence.

Now I'm trapped between a job I'm leaving and a job that might be a nightmare.

Has anyone ignored red flags like this and regretted it? Or am I overreacting to online reviews?

I genuinely don't know what to do and my start date is in 2 weeks.

I'm so angry right now I literally need to vent to strangers on the internet because if I don't I'm going to lose it.

Remember how I've posted about my job search struggles? Well I just discovered something that has me absolutely fuming.

Back in February I interviewed for a marketing coordinator role at this tech startup. It was perfect - good salary, hybrid work, exactly what I was looking for.

The interviews went amazing. I did a whole case study presentation, met with like 5 different people, everyone seemed excited. The hiring manager even said "you clearly understand what we need here."

Two weeks later: rejection email. "We've decided to move in a different direction." The usual.

I was disappointed but whatever, you move on right?

Today I'm scrolling LinkedIn and I see the company posted about their "growing team" with photos of new hires. I click on it out of curiosity to see who they brought on.

There's a guy tagged in the marketing coordinator role. I click on his profile.

23 years old. Graduated college 8 months ago. His only work experience is a 3-month internship at a local coffee shop's social media.

I have 5 years of actual marketing experience. Proven results. Portfolio of successful campaigns.

I'm about to close LinkedIn when I notice something. I click on his connections to see if we have any mutual ones.

His last name is the same as the CEO.

I go to the CEO's profile. Sure enough, in his bio: "Proud father of two."

I check the new hire's profile again. His previous post is a photo with an older guy. Caption: "Dinner with dad."

It's the fucking CEO.

They made me do three rounds of interviews, spend hours on a presentation, get my hopes up, all while knowing they were going to hire the CEO's son who has zero relevant experience.

I feel so stupid and used. Why even waste my time? Why string me along through this whole process when you already knew you were giving the job to your kid?

The worst part is this probably happens all the time and we just never find out about it.

I want to comment on their LinkedIn post so badly but I know that'll just make me look bitter and hurt my chances elsewhere.

But I'm SO tired of playing by all these rules and doing everything right just to lose to nepotism.

Has anyone else discovered something like this after getting rejected? How do you not become completely cynical about this whole system?

I need to share this because I'm still processing what I just learned and it's honestly insane.

So back in March I interviewed for this amazing role at a mid-size company. Three rounds of interviews, everything went perfectly. The hiring manager literally told me "you're our top choice, just need to finalize some things on our end."

Week goes by. Nothing. I follow up. "Still working through the process." Another week. Same response. Finally after a month I get the rejection email. Standard "we decided to go with another candidate" thing.

I was confused because everything seemed so positive, but whatever. Moved on.

Today I'm at a coffee shop and I overhear these two women talking at the table next to me. One of them mentions the company name and I perk up because it's not a huge company, kind of random to hear it mentioned.

She's telling her friend "Yeah so my brother finally got the job after they kept stringing him along. Apparently there was this other candidate they liked better but she asked for too much money, so they just waited her out hoping she'd take another offer. Took like 6 weeks but she finally accepted something else and then they offered it to him."

My stomach dropped. I asked when this was and what role. She describes my exact interview timeline. Same position.

They wanted me. I was their first choice. But instead of negotiating or telling me the salary was an issue, they just... waited for me to go away. Strung me along for a month hoping I'd get tired and accept something else.

Which I almost did. I had another offer during that time but turned it down because they kept saying "we're still very interested, just finalizing details."

I wasted a month of my job search in limbo because they were too cheap to either pay what I asked or have an honest conversation about budget.

The salary I requested wasn't even unreasonable. It was market rate for the role. They just didn't want to negotiate like adults.

I'm sitting here feeling so manipulated. How is this an acceptable way to treat candidates? Just ghost them for a month hoping they disappear instead of having one honest conversation?

Has anyone else experienced this? Companies just wasting your time instead of being upfront about salary issues? I feel like I'm going insane.

I keep seeing this advice all over Reddit and TikTok: “Apply to jobs within the first hour they’re posted, you’ll have way better chances before hundreds of other people apply.”

Sounded logical so I decided to actually test it.

For 2 weeks I set up job alerts and literally jumped on every posting the second it went live. I’m talking applying within 5-15 minutes of the job being posted. Did this for 15 applications.

Then I applied to 15 similar jobs that had been up for 3-7 days already.

Results after 3 weeks:

“First hour” applications: 2 responses, 0 interviews

“Late” applications (3-7 days old): 7 responses, 3 interviews

The exact opposite of what everyone claims.

So I asked my friend who works in recruiting what’s actually going on.

She laughed and said “Yeah that advice is terrible. Here’s what actually happens:”

When a job first gets posted, we get absolutely flooded with applicants in the first 24 hours. Mostly people using “easy apply” who aren’t even qualified. Our ATS is overwhelmed and a lot of good resumes get buried in the noise.

After a few days, the spam dies down and we actually have time to properly review applications. Plus by then we’ve usually refined our search criteria based on what we’re seeing.

She literally said “I barely look at day-one applications anymore unless they’re referrals. I start seriously reviewing on day 3-4 when I can actually focus.”

The whole “apply immediately” thing is apparently a myth that keeps getting repeated but doesn’t match how recruiters actually work.

What DOES matter according to her? Having a resume that matches their keywords and actually shows you read the job description. Timing is basically irrelevant.

I wasted so much time stalking job boards and rushing applications when I could’ve just applied normally and gotten better results.

Anyone else bought into this advice? I feel like half the job search tips on the internet are completely backwards.