r/BehindHiring

Since January Ive applied for 40+ roles and almost half didn't even acknowledge the application.

Interviews feel more competitive than ever, recruiters are overloaded, and every job post seems to amass 300 applicants within hours.

Its hard to stay consistent without letting the process wreck my confidence.

Biggest things I hear people say,

• tailoring CV's for each role
• apply early
• networking instead of “easy apply” spam
• taking breaks before burnout hits - which I hate because when I'm on a break I feel guilty for not doing more, when I know I should be taking a break! Its a vicious circle.

Anyone else finding the market unusually brutal right now, or is it just me?

I used to think “we’ll get back to you” means the interview went well.

But after a few interviews, I realised it can mean many things.

Sometimes they are still interviewing other candidates.
Sometimes the role is on hold.
Sometimes your profile is good, but someone else matched better.
Sometimes salary expectation becomes the issue.
And sometimes, companies just don’t update candidates properly.

One mistake I made earlier:
I stopped applying after a good interview because I was waiting for that one HR response.

Now I follow this rule:

If there is no update in 2–3 working days, I send one polite follow-up.
But I don’t stop applying until I get the offer letter.

Has this happened to anyone else?
What was the reason in your case?

Hey recruiters!! I was wandering what you dislike about ats systems?? Personally hate the AI automated sourcing or screening. I NEVER USE THOSE.

WHY DON'T THEY ADD ACTUAL USEFUL STUFF LIKE NOTES, REMINDERS. Even just less clicks overall and a better user interface. Like in high volume recruiting, it's not even reviewing resumes that annoys but what goes around it.

What do you all think??

I have been a project manager officially for about 7 years now, and unofficially I have performed project management and project coordination responsibilities for more than 10. I was laid off by a shitty healthcare IT company outsourcing my job and hundreds of others, and since that time I have been working as a contract PM for an insurance business managing multi-million dollar mergers and acquisitions IT projects. In August, my 2-year contract will end, and I will be forced to take at least a 3 month leave before being considered for re-hire unless I am offered an FTE role, which I doubt will happen.

Here's the rub: I've been applying all over the place for positions that pay less, and require less experience than what I have, however nearly all of these positions require a degree, and the linkedin metrics of how many BS and MS degrees I am competing with is extremely daunting. I am a combat USMC veteran, honorably discharged, and I have over 20 years of IT experience. I have a PMP, and multiple other PM, Agile, and Lean certificates but none of it seems to matter.

So, honestly, how screwed am I?

So as a recruiter myself, let me tell you something honestly.

Please stop sending messages like:
“Dear Sir/Ma’am, hope this message finds you well. I am looking for a job…”

You’ll get ignored just like the other 100 people did.

Most recruiters aren’t ignoring you to be rude.

It’s just that a lot of messages feel copied, rushed, and like they’ve been sent to hundreds of people at the same time.

If you want replies, talk about something I posted, said or worked on. Everyone likes feeling seen.

Maybe mention a post I shared, something about the company or ask a thoughtful question about hiring or the industry.

Honestly, before messaging someone, spend 5–10 minutes understanding who they are.

What do they post about?
What kind of people do they hire?

Networking works better when people remember you positively.

And no, that does not mean spamming comments under every post or pretending to “love” every company.

People can tell when it’s fake.

But one genuine conversation?
That can genuinely help you later.

Because the reality is, the market is difficult right now.
You cannot depend only on job postings and applications anymore.

I'm trying to get back into tech, and one of the things I have going against me is my first job I only spent 6 months there.

I don't know how to explain that I left my previous company because it was a scam, was worried some of the things they were doing behind the scenes was illegal, etc.

I want to be honest but if it's screwing me in interviews then I'm willing to say something else, I just don't want to say something as robotic as "it wasn't a good cultural fit".

Please help? If want more information I cam DM about it.

This is the first time I’ve gotten an email that says my resume is with the hiring manager. Did I get past round 1??? The email says:
“Thank you for your interest in our (title) position. We're currently reviewing resumes with our hiring manager and will notify you once we have an update. You can also follow your progress within your account, or find and apply for more opportunities.”

I’ve been getting a lot of the emails that say something like:
“Thank you for your interest however, other candidates more closely match the skills and experience we’re looking for. We encourage you to sign up for job alerts and apply for roles that match your qualifications”.
This is the first email that has said it’s under review!

There’s a new platform that allows companies to filter users and find their perfect employee. This is essentially the opposite of LinkedIn jobs, indeed, etc. I kind of love it.

What’s the likelihood this takes off? Think companies are getting tired of combing through thousands of resumes 🧐

I’ve been interviewing for 18 months, this is my 107 application, 8 interviews, 5 final round interview, 0 job offers.
Here’s the timeline for this current job:
\- 3/4 — Applied
\- 3/26 — First interview with HR screening, sent thank you to HR
\- 4/14 — Second interview, with the director who is the hiring manager and then sent thank you to HR coordinator same week
\- 4/27 — emailed HR for an update
\- 5/1 — Third interview with the senior manager who would be my direct manager, sent them a thank you and recommendation based off our conversation the Monday after.

Background: during the interview they mentioned it was down to 3 candidates and they had another interview that day and hopefully the process was only one more week

\- It is now 5/14 and I haven’t heard anything

After my interview with the senior manager we talked about a tool and AI integration. I didn’t know about it at the time but I went and took a course on it this week.

**My dilemma: Do I send one more email mentioning the course and how it will make the work easier or do I leave it alone? I’ve already followed up with the Direct manager thanking them after our interview and giving recommendations based on our hobbies. This wouldn’t be a status update request just a “hey I took this course and this seems awesome” but I don’t want seem desperate or pushy or inappropriate. But I also want to show initiative since it’s a 2 person team.**

Extra context: The director who is the hiring manager has never received a direct email from me, reminder my interview with them was back in April. At the time I emailed HR discussing my interview with the director and how great our discussions was.

What would you do?

As someone who has been on the job hunt desperately before I'm shocked to see how candidates aren't trying harder. I'm on a hiring team, but not the hiring manager, and I would be working in partnership- extremely close - with this position.

So far every candidate hasn't asked me one question- nothing about how we'd be working together or my thoughts about the company. Nothing. Only 1 has sent a thank you email to follow up. Only 2 looked me up on LinkedIn. Only about half dressed professional.

As much as I know first hand how bad and competitive the job market is, you'd think people would try a bit more when there's 100s of other qualified candidates.

On a related note, we were hiring for my position in a different department so I have a ton of connections on LinkedIn that do what I do. When I would see them recommend their colleagues who had been recently laid off, I would comment for them to reach out to me and that I could get their resume in front of a hiring manager. I wanted to pay it forward since I remember how frustrating job searching is. Not one person reached out.

It's hard to feel bad for people who won't help themselves.

Here's the thing. The offer they give you first is rarely the best they can do. But most people accept it anyway because they don't know how to push back without feeling awkward.

So here's what actually works.

Know your number before the conversation starts. Not a feeling, actual market data. Glassdoor, LinkedIn, people in your network. Walk in prepared.

Lead with what you delivered, not what you need. Nobody on the other side of that table cares about your expenses. They care about your impact. Revenue, savings, results. That's your leverage.

Don't just negotiate the base. Sometimes the base is genuinely stuck. But the bonus, equity, extra leave, flexibility often isn't. Know what the full package looks like before you decide yes or no.

Ask questions before you name a number. What does success look like here? How are reviews structured? Is there flexibility in the budget? You'd be surprised what people tell you when you just ask.

Stay calm. Seriously. The moment it gets emotional, you've already lost ground. This is a business conversation not a personal one. Treat it like one.

I was put on PIP by my previous employer, one of the big four. However, I have resigned without a job offer before they could remove me on the basis of PIP failure. I have started applying for new jobs. My question is in case if I accept an offer from a company in the near future, it is obvious that they will conduct a background check. Will the new company find out about my PIP and whether this could affect my offer?

At one of the companies I worked for, I didn't have the best relationship with my manager. This manager gave me a below average performance review rating ("meet most expectations") while before I reorg'd to their team, I always got "exceed expectations" (at the same company). A couple of months after that performance review, I found another job and resigned. I was never put on PIP or anything. And nothing more dramatic happened.

Recently, I accepted an offer and am going through background check, including an employment history check. I'm not sure if this company marked me as "ineligible for rehire" because of what happened or whether the background check company will ask about eligibility for rehire. But I would like to understand, if they did and it came up during the background check, how bad would it look? Is it bad enough that my new employer will rescind the offer? TIA!

I have recruiters from Netflix, United Talent Agency, Disney, and NBCU look at my Linkedin profile. So I know they saw my application, looked at my resume, and then bothered to check out my profile on Linkedin. Why didn't they bother to schedule an interview? Anyone have any insight here?

Next semester I’ll be studying in Switzerland as an international student. The school I chose is a small private institution, not really prestigious or globally recognized. It’s more of an expensive private “boarding school” type environment than a top academic powerhouse.

When I was choosing where to go, I talked to several professors and mentors I genuinely respect in finance/business. Most of them told me not to obsess too much over prestige for a semester abroad. Their point was that an exchange is temporary, you don’t actually graduate from that institution, and the return on investment of paying massively more just for four months at a top school usually isn’t that high(prices above 15-20k semester tuition not including housing/food expenses)

They told me I should see it more as an international experience: meeting people, building a network, growing personally, improving culturally/socially, and getting a broader perspective rather than trying to maximize prestige for such a short period of time.

So I followed that advice.

For context, I’m currently in my seventh semester and one semester away from graduating. I study finance/business, I’ve been preparing for the CFA, I’ve done some smaller certifications and courses like CFI and Harvard Business School Online, and I’ve tried to build technical skills outside of class too.

But now I keep overthinking the whole thing.

Part of me feels like I wasted money choosing a smaller unknown school instead of trying harder to go somewhere “elite” like London Business School, Bocconi, LSE, etc.

I keep wondering if those names would’ve actually made a significant difference on my CV for recruiting, or if a four-month exchange at a prestigious institution doesn’t really carry that much weight compared to internships, technical skills, networking, certifications, interview performance, and all the other things that matter in finance.

The only real upside I can currently see is that the environment seems very international and wealthy, so maybe the networking aspect could still become valuable long term.

I guess I’m trying to figure out whether I’m catastrophizing this decision or if exchange prestige genuinely matters a lot in finance recruiting.

It could have made a great difference being just 4-6 months on a top school for my CV/recruitment process in a job? Or it’s not that significant/important :c

Most of us have that one part of our career we feel we need to explain. A pivot that looked odd. A role that did not fit the usual path. And every time we talk about it, we clean it up. Make it sound more planned.

Because the system always rewarded the predictable story.

But here is what he pointed out.

He called it onlyness.

Think about it this way. AI can copy the standard. It cannot copy you. And the more specific and unusual your path, the harder you are to replace.

And here is how you actually use that.

First, stop hiding the parts that felt unconventional. That pivot. That industry switch. That role nobody quite understood. Those are not gaps in your story. Those are the best parts of it.

Second, learn to tell your story in a way that makes the connection obvious. Not your job titles in order. But what each move taught you and why that matters now. 

Third, lead with what you uniquely bring. Not your title. Not your years of experience. The specific combination of perspective and judgment that only your path could have built.

That is your onlyness. And that is what makes you genuinely hard to replace.

If this made you think differently about your career story, share it with someone who needs to hear this right now. And follow for more conversations like this. 

You’re good at your job. Everyone around you knows it. So why does your resume make you look average. This is the most common thing I see when people come to me for help.

1. The people who are best at their jobs are usually the worst at talking about them.

When you’ve been doing something for years it stops feeling like a skill it just feels like Tuesday. So you write it down like it’s nothing and move on without realising that the thing that feels obvious to you is the exact thing someone else has been trying to hire for months.

2. They describe what the role involved instead of what they actually did.

Responsible for. Assisted with. Supported the team. That’s not a resume that’s a job description. Anyone who held that title could have written it and that’s exactly the problem. Nothing on the page tells me why it had to be you.

3. They write their resume like their manager already knows them.

Every job they’ve ever gotten came through someone who vouched for them so they’ve never had to make a case for themselves to a stranger. The resume reads like an inside joke nobody else is in on.

4. They cut the most impressive thing they ever did because it felt like too much.

So the one line that would have made a hiring manager stop and go back to the top never made it onto the page trimmed out of habit, out of modesty, out of not wanting to seem like they were exaggerating. And the person reading it never knows what they missed.

5. They got given more and more responsibility but the title never changed.

So the resume shows the same role for four years and looks like nothing happened when what actually happened is they quietly became the most relied on person in the building. The growth was real, it just never got a name.

6. They were the person everyone went to and it never once showed up in their job description.

The one people called when something broke, when a client was unhappy, when nobody else knew what to do. That was their actual job. None of it is on the resume because nobody ever told them it was worth writing down.

7. The thing that made them exceptional at their last job means nothing to anyone else.

They were so deep in how that company worked, that team operated, that specific problem got solved that pulling it out and making it land for a stranger feels impossible. So they write something vague that sounds like everyone else and wonder why nothing moves.

8. Their best work left no evidence.

They fixed it before it became a crisis. They caught it before anyone noticed it was wrong. They held something together that would have fallen apart without them and because nothing broke there’s nothing to point to. The best thing they ever did is completely invisible on paper.

9. They talked themselves out of every achievement before they wrote it down.

They know how much was luck. They know how much was the team. They know how much was just being in the right place. So they sand everything down until it sounds like nothing and hand a hiring manager the most modest possible version of a career that deserved far more credit than it got.

10. They were the glue and there is no line on a resume for that.

The person the whole team leaned on. The one who made things work when they shouldn’t have. The one whose absence would have quietly broken everything. That kind of value doesn’t fit in a bullet point and most people who have it spend years watching less capable people get further on paper because at least they knew how to make themselves sound like something.

Being good at your job and being good on paper are two completely different skills

Thanks for reading

1.5k views and no one knows? Does anyone else find any of this is odd? Am I the only one who runs into this problem?

Every job I interview for wants “professional references.” I’ve managed to get a few friends who either own their own company or used to work with me, but not in supervisory position, to jot some things down. But every job I ever had uses third party contractors to verify someone’s employment there. No one is allowed to give professional references. I have two former bosses who have been kind enough to be a “personal” reference, but cannot officially speak as {managerial position} at {company I worked for them}.

So, my question is this: why do companies who don’t do professional references as policy ask you for professional references? And, besides fudging it like I’ve been trying, what do you say when you don’t have any because of the same reasons people can’t get references from the place you’re interviewing at? Obviously they understand it but ask for them anyway.