u/maces-evasive

Once I was interviewing for a position at one of the large utility companies in the UK. I had already passed the phone screen, so they asked me to go to a corporate event space for the next stage. We were about 40 people in a very large room doing aptitude tests. They filtered out 25 people then, and the remaining 15 of us were told to wait for the one-on-one interviews in smaller meeting rooms.

The interview was going well, but it was a bit strange that they were video recording the whole thing. At the very end, the guy looked at me and said: "Just one last thing, can you sing a song for me?"

I was completely surprised and didn't expect this at all. I asked him what he meant, and he said anything, just sing anything. I refused, of course. He kept pressuring me and saying you could sing the national anthem or even a children's song, but I told him I wouldn't do that.

When the interview ended, he turned off the camera and gave me a look full of sympathy. He said: "You were truly great, and I feel guilty, but you're not going to get this job." Then he explained that his manager insisted they wouldn't hire anyone who refused to sing, no matter how good their interview was.

I was 20 years old at the time and the whole thing was very surreal. I even stayed upset with myself for a bit, thinking I should have just done it, but looking back at it now, I'm glad I didn't. It was clearly a test to see if they could control me easily or not.

I just started my first internship as an accounting major... Earlier this week, I went up to my manager's manager, who is a senior director at the company, and introduced myself. He said something along the lines of, "You're the new intern, right?" I replied: "Yeah, and I'm going to be the best hire this company has ever made" (pretty much the same thing an athlete said before winning a few championships). But instead of laughing or being pleased, he said something like, "Okay... Sure... Anyway, I have to hop on a call. See you later."

A little while after that, I saw the Talent Manager who interviewed me going into his office, and I don't know if that's normal or not. Also, a second-year analyst came over to my desk and said, "You're an absolute menace mate, fancy getting a coffee?" And I don't understand why he's saying "mate" in the first place, since he grew up in Ohio.

Did I ruin things for myself, or did I somehow make a memorable first impression? Honestly, I don't know how I'm supposed to read this situation.

Quick summary of where I'm coming from: I started college in 2022, and my mother passed away about 18 months later, which left me without any family. I fell into severe depression and eventually dropped out after I had enough credits to get an associate's degree. I had taken a few coding classes in college more out of curiosity than anything else, and I discovered that I was better at it than a lot of people around me, so after I dropped out I figured I'd try to make programming work for me. I spent a very long time studying on my own, built some projects with the PERN stack, and was able to get an internship because of the strength of those projects. In the end, I did four different internships before I got an offer for a software engineering role.

This might sound stupid, but I was making about twelve dollars an hour at most of those internships. My last internship ran into budget issues and couldn't keep paying me, so I started applying again. I interviewed for a role that required three years of experience and a bachelor's degree. I went through five interviews with them, and honestly I did way better than I expected. I felt like they liked me, and the conversations flowed very naturally. One call with them was supposed to be 45 minutes, and I ended up spending almost two and a half hours with them talking about software and random tech stuff. The job is fully remote and the salary is around $115k. It feels strangely undeserved, like I somehow got in through a door I wasn't supposed to enter. There's no real reason for me to think that other than the fact that my path wasn't the traditional one.

Has anyone gone through something like this before? What did it feel like when you started the job that paid well? Does this impostor feeling fade over time, or do you just learn to deal with it? I'd appreciate any advice that helps me process what's happening. Thanks.

I've been going back and forth with someone over emails and a few calls for about a month, and when it came time for the actual phone interview, this happened. The posting didn't list any strict specific requirements (nothing like "must have X years of experience doing this exact thing" or anything like that), but the salary range was $13 to $21 an hour. I told her I was looking for $16 an hour, and suddenly she changed and got very weird.

She launched into a long speech about how they want someone who wants to build a future with the company, how these are stable, long-term positions, and how compensation isn't the only important thing because they offer benefits. The benefits were basically paid onboarding, paid federal holidays, and 12 days of PTO. I mean, sure, it's nice that those things exist, but none of them are going to pay my rent or car insurance. Honestly, I sat there silently for a second because I didn't know how to answer without sounding rude. She said she wanted to schedule a second interview, but honestly, I feel like her reaction told me everything I needed to know.

I was a fit for all the general things they were asking for, and then some: a college degree, a clean background, willing to complete their training, able to travel to different sites, comfortable working with children, and I have actual experience being around kids. I was even totally fine with going through the whole training process.

How are people supposed to live as responsible adults on $13 an hour? Especially when the job itself listed a higher range, and I didn't even ask for the top end of it.