u/WaffleNebula42

I’ve conducted a few initial screener interviews to get a sense of the diverse personalities I encounter. Some interviewees are seasoned professionals, while others are inexperienced but appear to be there solely because of their looks. Yesterday, I had an interview with someone who exemplified these traits.

She arrived 6 minutes late and offered minimal apology. She joined just as I was about to send an email to confirm if the call was still ongoing. Additionally, she was new to the job and struggled to recall the name of the company I was interviewing for. I believe she was about to pronounce the name of her previous company and then corrected herself.

The most frustrating part was when audio from her laptop interrupted me while I was discussing my experience. It seemed like she was browsing websites and an ad with audio took over. This disruption forced me to stop talking until she figured out how to mute the audio.

Finally, when it was my turn to ask questions, she didn’t seem engaged or interested in the interview. It felt like she was rushing through it. As a result, I felt pressured to limit my questions.

I haven’t yet found out if this interview will progress to the next round. I don’t have to be overly pessimistic about it, but it would be unfortunate if it didn’t move forward, especially since I’m qualified for the role. It seems like the incompetence of the screener might have ruined the interview.

It bothers me for two reasons. First, I live in Camberville and happen to be in my 40s. I was biking along Broadway around 10 PM, and there were so many bars with long lines of young people. In contrast, other nightlife spots in other areas are sleepy, especially if you consider Central Sq Cambridge. It didn’t have the same energy as Southie. Why is it that everyone in Southie seems to want to party harder? I actually used to remember a time when Central Sq was like that too, but it seems to have gone downhill over the years, not only that that I’ve gotten older. Has anyone else noticed what I’ve seen? Maybe I’m not seeing what else is out there, especially since I live in Somerville, where Davis Square has nothing. Maybe today Burren only has a pulse, but nothing like what the area used to feel like a decade ago.

This interview cycle has really done a number on me. I’m in my 40s and have always held customer-facing technical roles, ranging from post-sales consultant to support engineer to demo engineer. My dream is to land a Sales Engineering role, but none of the companies I’ve worked at have given me the opportunity, not that I deserve it, but I want to learn and grow. Unfortunately, no one has the patience, despite my passion and zeal to get into it.

Some people consider me unlikeable because I’m neurodiverse. I could stand to improve my soft skills such as storytelling and address speech pathology errors like filler words, repetition, and rambling. For Sales Engineering interviews, I’m failing mostly at the hiring manager’s behavioral interviews. I must have answered one question not the way they liked or didn’t follow the STAR method in my storytelling.

To make matters worse while interviewing for Post-Sales roles somehow they’re grading me on the same criteria as Sales Engineers. I’ve landed these roles in the past and surely I haven’t regressed in my skills.

To redeem my dignity after all these rejections, I’ve started applying for more technical roles, like support engineering positions. Hopefully, I’ll be given more grace on my soft skills since technical problem-solving should be more important for these.

I’m not saying that soft skills are unimportant. I’m trying my best, but the world has been harsh on me. What I’m discovering in the more technical job interviews is that they’re looking for DevOps chops, which I don’t have. Sure, I’m familiar with cloud technology, Docker, and AI, but I operate more on the app layer, dealing with APIs, JavaScript, webhooks, databases, and apps. I never needed deeper knowledge of the underlying tech stack for my roles up to this point.

It seems like you can’t win in this market. Am I just going to keep chipping away at my savings and keep interviewing until all the jobs run out? What else can I do?

This is a pathetic attempt to exploit freelancers through a highly opaque process. While I receive invitations and they are preceded by Boost credits, the last few interactions have been completely useless. The person on the other end never responds to any of my messages, and this has been the case for several Boost invitations.

Looking for a sanity check from people who've been on both sides of this.

A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn for a presales/SE role — I didn't apply directly. I already knew a guy I used to work under was at that company, but I wasn't sure whether he was the hiring manager for this particular role. Brief stint together about 10 years ago, and I reported to several managers during that time, so he was one of a few. I thought we left on good terms. He's since moved into a completely different industry, and he's always been on the presales side.

Two days before the interview I sent him a short, friendly WhatsApp asking if he was the manager for the role. No response. The screening interview then happened, and it came up in the conversation that I used to work for him and that yes, he's the hiring manager.

My background: I'm post-sales and stronger on the technical end. I'm making a deliberate move toward presales and actively working on the sales side of the craft — MEDDPICC, discovery, demo storytelling. I'm not pretending to be a polished SE yet.

Honestly, this role wasn't at the top of my list, so I'm not tearing my hair out over the outcome. And if industry experience is genuinely essential for what he's building, I'll take that hit — that's a legitimate call and I won't argue it. What I would have appreciated is a bit of humanity: a two-line reply, or a word to the recruiter on my behalf. Ten years is a long time, and I'd hoped for at least the benefit of the doubt from someone I thought I'd worked well with.

Questions:

1. Was messaging him on WhatsApp two days out a mistake?

2. Is ignoring it a signal, or is it just normal hiring-manager behavior?

One thing that really bothers me is how many people I try to connect with are terrible communicators, especially online. For instance, when I send them a message, they take their time responding, if at all. It’s frustrating because people feel so comfortable ignoring and forgetting about something someone else asked for without any guilt or remorse.

I’m not saying I’m perfect and always respond to everyone. There are times when I just don’t want to respond to certain people. But I find it hard to understand why I did something wrong to deserve the silent treatment. I don’t overtext, either, in case my message needs a response. The most I’d be comfortable with is one more time before I give up, assuming there’s an unspoken rule that we should be relentless in our communication. It’s amusing how I’ve found myself on the receiving end of people who I ignore and they continue messaging me despite my lack of response for a while. I can’t imagine repeating contacting someone while being ignored.

Overall, it upsets me that people are so casual about responding to questions or messages, especially when it’s evident that I’m expecting a response. 

Just interviewed for a Solutions Architect role at a ~130 person SaaS company and I'm confused why such a small company has so many specialized positions.

They already have a Sales Engineer who works with AEs on standard implementations. The SA role is specifically for scoping custom integrations, and the work is basically just writing SOWs — could be for new customers or existing ones. To make it more confusing, there are even more roles beyond that: a services team that does the actual implementation work, alongside project managers.

I just don't get why roles get sliced up like this at that size. Feels like you could scope AND implement as part of one role. Is there something I'm missing about why companies structure it this way? Curious if anyone's worked somewhere like this and whether it actually works well or just creates handoff headaches.

I understand that it’s almost a parody of the unchallenged lie by legacy media that Trump is 6’3”. However, when you see him with a slouch and wearing shoes with pads. This is especially noticeable when he’s embarrassingly taking the field among the World Cup champions and the FIFA president, who’s trying to steer him off. Some sources claim Gianni Infantino is shorter than 6 feet.

I subcontract for a marketing agency as a solutions architect. I'm the specialist for one marketing automation platform and that's why I was brought in. Agency runs discovery, hands me the use cases, I show up and explain how the tool solves them.

We game-planned the day before. Went through the use cases, prepped how I'd walk through the platform. The competitor's name never came up once.

Ten minutes into the call, it's not a solutioning call. It's a full pros-and-cons debate between my platform and a direct competitor — feature-by-feature benchmarking, the works.

Turns out the agency had floated that competitor to the client earlier, then walked it back and pivoted to my platform, all before I was brought in. Nobody told me. The client never let go of the comparison.

To be fair, the agency was on the call and fielded the competitor questions. I wasn't hung out to dry. But I couldn't contribute since I don't know that product. I know mine. Deeply. That's the entire value I bring, and in that room it was useless, because the conversation wasn't about whether my platform works.

And the questions weren't even about the scoped use cases. The client wanted to argue about needs they might have in three years. Requirements they can't articulate yet. The actual problem was already solved and sitting there untouched.

Anyone else get prepped for one call and walk into a different one? And how do you pivot a feature bake-off back to the business goals ie the outcomes they actually said they wanted?

So I finally worked up the nerve to post one of those "I'm open to new opportunities" announcements on LinkedIn. Put real thought into it, laid out the roles I'm targeting, my background, location preferences, asked people to share if they knew of anything.

Here's where I landed after a few days: 1,754 impressions, 52 likes, and exactly one repost. I have 1,346 connections.

And now I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to feel about it. Part of me feels kind of betrayed? Like, one repost out of 1,300+ people. No one replied back. And many people I genuinely thought were my allies didn't even engage — some of them went as far as looking at my profile but then did nothing. It's hard not to read that as "not many people actually like me or believe in my skills."

But then the other half of my brain is telling me I'm being ridiculous and beating myself up over something completely superficial. It's LinkedIn. The algorithm is weird. People scroll past everything. Likes aren't a referendum on my worth as a professional or a person.

I honestly can't tell which read is correct. Is this a normal response to a post like this and I'm overthinking it? Or is low engagement actually telling me something I should pay attention to?

Anyone been here? How did you make sense of it?

So real quick for anyone who doesn't know: STAR is Situation, Task, Action, Result. Basically you structure your interview answer so it has a clear beginning, middle problem, what you actually did, and the payoff.

And okay fine, it works. People who use it perform better at interviews. Companies literally train their hiring managers to look for it. It's become so standard that some places straight up expect you to hit those four points or you're basically tanking your chances.

It only works if you've memorized the story and they ask the exact right question. Soon as they ask something slightly different my brain goes full static, I'm cooked.

And THEN my brain has to do like... five things at once:

• Keep looking at them
• Actually listen to what they're saying
• Not go off on a random tangent
• Try not to freeze up

while trying to force it into STAR format while I'm talking.

So what does my ADHD brain do? It just goes full panic mode. I decide sitting in silence = death, so I just START TALKING. No structure, just vibes, hoping something sticks.

Anyone else struggle with this?? And like... is there a way to actually make STAR work when your brain won't cooperate??

I was interviewing for a Sales Engineering position at a SaaS company. The posting emphasized strong skills along the lines of MEDDPICC and Command the Message. It was advertised for the Enterprise segment, but they also had a Mid-Market role open, and the screener decided that was a better fit for me.

Some background: I spent 3 years on the Sales Engineering team at my last company, but I was upfront that my role was more technical. I wasn't carrying a quota, I didnt have a dedicated set of AEs I always worked with, and I was mostly responsible for the demo environments and helping other SEs scope out complicated technical deals. I really want to break into a true SE role if a team would just give me a chance.

Here's the part that got me. During the screen, they insinuated they could be flexible — that they offer coaching on the soft skills side of becoming an SE, and that my technical skills could bridge the gap and bring real value since strong technical depth isn't easy to find in candidates who already have the sales polish. I honestly felt redeemed hearing that. Like, a company like this actually exists? After months of a brutal job market where every posting seems to expect applicants to be celebrities, someone finally looked at my background and saw potential instead of a checklist gap.

A week later, the ominous message arrives:

>I had the opportunity to share your background with the hiring manager, and unfortunately they have chosen to go in a different direction at this time. This search has been very competitive, after reflecting on the needs of the team we've decided to move forward with other candidates whose experience is a closer match to what we need at this stage. 

So much for flexibility and coaching, I guess.

I've had an hourly contract with this client for 3 months. The arrangement worked well for both of us, and I've billed around $2K total. Then, right after my last invoice, he went completely silent. He stopped responding to any message I send.

Worth noting: we only ever communicated through Slack, so I haven't tried other channels like email or calling his phone.

What makes it stranger is I can't figure out why he'd cut me off. We never had a single disagreement, and if he was unhappy with my work, he never said so. It's not like the project wrapped up either — the requirements shifted week to week and I was happy to accommodate, since any extra hours were billed with his approval.

The last time we talked, I'd finished a deliverable and asked for his feedback before moving forward. He paid that month's invoice, but I never heard back on the feedback, and that's where we left off. It's been a month now. Every message goes ignored — even though his Slack status shows green.

For context, here are the last messages I sent him.

First check-in:

>Hi,
Wanted to check in on whether you have the chance to review x?

A week later:

>Hi, hope all is well with you.
I was opening to see if x was getting traction and I noticed y
So just wanted to check if you had chance to sanity check x and if there is anything I could help out on

After letting a month pass:

>Hi ,Hope all is well is with you.  I hope it isn't something tragic that I haven't heard from you all last month.  Has the project been de-prioritized or moving in a different direction or just that you've been really swamped?

Honestly, what I can't wrap my head around is why it's so hard for him to just respond. He's not obligated to keep giving me contracting work. He could easily say priorities shifted and he's ending the project, or even tell me straight up that he's unhappy with my work. And if the honest reason is uncomfortable, he could just give me the easy version instead. Why go completely silent? I don't understand how some people operate.

If it were just this one contract, I'd dismiss it as a one-off weird character. But something similar happened last year with a different client.

I was tasked with debugging an issue that took a while to crack. It involved a SaaS platform whose support team was useless, but I eventually found the root cause. Right after I shared the good news, he went silent too — and here I actually tried calling and emailing, with no response either way. I did get paid for the time since it was through Upwork, but I still don't understand why someone would cut off their contractor out of nowhere.

What's also strange with the current situation: he never revoked my access to any of his systems, I'm still in all the platforms I was working with.

Two clients now, same pattern — work gets delivered, then total silence. Is this just something that happens in contracting? Would love to hear if others have dealt with this, and how you handled it.

Its so sketchy because in 1 week price of 14-inch MacBook Pro in Space Black with M5 chip shot from $1,849.00 or $154.08/mo. for 12 mo. to $2,149 or $179.08/mo. for 12 mo.

Thats a 300$ price hike. Maybe Goldman Sachs saw it coming and conveniently rejected my applications when it was $154.08/mo. because they had insider knowledge that Apple was planning on raising their prices. This is all conspiracy and there is no way I can prove my theory but suspicious that this happened to me early this week. I'd be curious if my credit application would suddenly be instantly approved with the same info I provided before if I tried now.

I posted yesterday about attempting to buy an Apple product via financing. I provided l pertinent details along with photo of my driver's ID front and back, immediately put in review status. I waited and waited and then at midnight received an email that my application was rejected with explanation: "We are unable to verify your identification information"

They didn't seem to put much effort into it by either calling me or pinpointing exactly what is amiss on their end. I just went ahead and restarted the process and put in review status again. At this point if it fails again, what are my options? should I go in store and purchase the financing option? or do I have to bite the bullet and pay upfront without financing since their process is broken?

I was trying to purchase something from Apple using financing at 0% APR. I don't understand why process is taking more than 1 day.

I have good credit score, pay all my credit card bills and mortgage on time. Only thing is that I am currently unemployed but living off savings. Will they deny my application for this very fact?

Wanted to share something from my last company because I'm curious if anyone else has lived this.

Somewhere along the way I became the unofficial owner of our demo environment. Nobody wanted the responsibility, but it was mission-critical. Every sales demo ran on automations I built that populated the system with realistic data and events.

The problem with being a single point of failure is that everyone agrees it's a problem and nobody does anything about it. I spent literally years asking for a backup so I could, you know, take a vacation. Nothing. There was even a formal push to transfer ownership to engineering, and they agreed in principle and then it just got postponed ad nauseam.

AEs refused to actually learn the demo environment. They wanted to wing it on instinct, and when something didn't work the way they assumed, that was somehow my problem.

Engineering shipped features with zero thought about demo-ability. New feature launches with no API support, which means I literally cannot automate data into it, which means it can't be demoed. And guess who the AEs come breathing down on when they can't show the shiny new thing to prospects?

So I'm stuck in the middle, holding together something the entire sales org depends on, with no backup, no roadmap consideration, and no real authority to fix any of it. Just vibes and apologies.

I don't even hate the work itself — building the automations was honestly kind of fun. What killed me was the helplessness. Owning something critical with none of the support or leverage to make it sustainable.

Anyone else been the accidental owner of something "too important to fail but not important enough to staff"? How did you get out — did you escalate, quietly let it break, or just leave?

I was interviewing for an SE position and reached the case study round. They gave me a two-pager about a fictional customer facing an issue with the company's product, and I was supposed to come up with a solution that addressed the stated problem while also upselling another SKU. The two-pager also mentioned that the client was considering similar functionality from a competitor.

My deliverable ended up being a slide deck with all the essential elements: discovery questions, an architecture diagram, and a phased delivery plan. In the plan I proposed, phase 1 fixed the problem they currently faced, and phase 2 introduced the other SKU.

The plan was sound in principle, but they wanted to trip me up and see how I'd handle objections. They suggested there would be a challenge getting the team aligned, because the fix involved onboarding and training for the people using the tool, since we'd essentially be replacing it with something else. Regardless, fixing it first would have been a better foundation before adopting the other SKU.

In the interview, I acted flexible and said we could surely accommodate a revised plan and shift phase 2 ahead of phase 1. At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, when the rejection letter came, the feedback on this point read:

>When we pushed back on starting with phase 1, you shifted to our suggestion quite quickly. In senior consulting roles, clients often push back to test conviction, it’s important to be able to defend a recommendation with clear reasoning, even if you’re ultimately flexible on the outcome.

This was just one bullet point out of multiple concerns they had, so it wasn't the sole determining factor, but it definitely took me by surprise.

Over the past few months I've been interviewing for roles titled Sales Engineer, Solutions Architect, and Senior Implementation Architect, and I've been surprised at how heavily these interviews grade skills I thought were reserved for AEs.

I always understood these roles as being there to run demos and handle technical questions. Instead, I'm finding we're expected to be storytellers, do future framing ("this solution will increase your revenue by X%"), and handle objections.

Which makes me wonder: what's the point of an AE if one person can do all of that and be the technical expert?

I don't want to sound like I am minimizing the existence of handycap parking spots. I think its for the public good despite the fact that sometimes it feels the supply is exceeding the demand meaning public policy is acting too conservative to be safe to safeguard this need.

I am arguing for something like this for accommodating people with bladder problems. Quality of my life is ruined by this constant struggle to find a public bathroom to do my business. Our cities are not doing a good job making them available at the places that make sense like public parks or within a dense commercial square.

I also completely understand that its adding to the municipal services to have to maintain bathrooms or porta-potties. On the same vein, expecting restaurants and shops to accommodate non-patrons is also a lot to ask for. It sucks that junkies and homeless have abused this privilege over persons that suffer from the biological need.

Life is difficult when you are constantly wondering if a public facility is nearby and if not what are the best alternatives? could I sneak into a bar or coffee's shop's bathroom without having to buy anything? also is it a reasonable tax for us to have to buy the cheapest thing to enjoy this privilege? Moreover I have come across establishments that exhibit a hostile attitude when using their bathrooms and not being a customer. Yes I have been yelled at and forced to buy something from them even going as far as blocking the doorway not letting me exit until I did.

It kind of made me wonder whether incontinency is soo rare that no city or town and country legislation makes it a requirement to have public bathrooms readily available. If not, could there be card for people suffering from this condition they can wave to public establishments that they legally have to abide by even if your not their customer? I wonder if something like that already exists