also stolen health care, delayed (or denied) retirement, not being able to buy a house, not being able to pay off your student loan... the list goes on and on...
If I don't know the range of the salary, I never enter the interview since this is our basic right. Even in the interview itself, interviewman can help you negotiate the salary better and increase your chances to get accepted.
I just needed to vent because I'm absolutely fuming.
I'm a recent graduate, but I have a few years of work experience. I've been throwing applications everywhere for a while and finally got several back-to-back interviews with one company. I thought this was it, I passed 5 stages and was optimistic. But this time, it truly crushed me.
Let me tell you about the circus that happened:
First, the HR screen - the usual stuff you all know.
Then an online assessment - it was tough, honestly. Questions on Python, FastAPI, Postgres, and 3 LeetCode problems.
Next was a Home Assignment - this took me a full week. I was asked to build a full-stack internal tool to manage assets for marketing campaigns. I built it with the same design system as their internal portal, to the point where I mimicked their component library. I even added a few extra features to show I was enthusiastic. I explained all of this to the CTO in a 90-minute technical discussion.
After that, there was another stage - a 90-minute technical session with the same CTO. This time he wanted me to integrate the Stripe API to handle mock subscription events and generate reports. He seemed very impressed and told me, 'Great, prepare for the final interview'.
The final interview with the CEO - he asked me a system design question about how to build a flexible data pipeline. I was just starting to explain my approach... He cut me off after 10 minutes and coldly said, 'Have a nice day.' And that was it. He didn't ask any questions or give any feedback. And hung up.
I have no idea what I did wrong. After the call ended, I just sat there staring at the screen, completely numb. I wasted maybe over 30 hours building them a working tool, and for what? To get rejected in 10 minutes.
I feel completely drained and, honestly, defeated. The take-home project was a massive waste of time. I put in so much effort to research their stack and build something solid. Today I'm completely burned out and questioning if this field is even for me. I don't know how I can endure this unemployment grind any longer. 😭😭
Anyway, I just had to vent somewhere.
Looks like it's back to LeetCode... 😑
Every damn week
A few weeks ago, I had a panel interview, and honestly, I was very surprised. One of the HR people on the call (it was me and four of them) asked me: 'So, your CV says you graduated from high school in 1998, but there's nothing after that until 2001. Could you explain this period?'
This was an interview for a senior position at a software company, and honestly, I stared at him for a second in disbelief before saying: 'Look, I'm 45 years old. My CV would be 12 pages long if I included every summer job I had as a kid.' Then I told him what I was doing at the time.
I mean, I would understand if they were asking about a gap from the last two years, for example. But something from about 25 years ago? Seriously. What does that have to do with the job today?
what happened next is that I'm waiting for the second round if there will be ..... no responses until now, but after I hung up from the interview, I kept thinking that I should have used the AI interview helper that my friend had told me about before. When I told her how confused I got while answering, she said it could have helped me come up with quick, professional answers and deal with those awkward random questions without freezing 😞
So yeah, lesson learned. Next time, I won't go into any interview without having the Interviewman tool ready.
I am a teacher. I worked at schools in the past and was underpaid. But I switched to working from home through freelancing platforms, and it made a huge difference. So, I advise every teacher to apply to online schools or work through freelance platforms. And if you get stuck during an interview, you can use an AI platform like InterviewMan to help structure your answers and boost your confidence.
I'm trying to figure out which direction to take in my career. I'm 26 and recently started working as an Assistant Property Manager, making 55k. Ideally, I'd like something remote if possible, but I'm open to hearing about pretty much any industry.
For people under 32 who make $110k or more - what do you do, how many years did it take you to get there, and do you like the work?
This is perfect!
On the bright side the weekend will come by eventually
I quickly discovered that whenever I talk about my financial situation, whether in an interview or with colleagues, it often causes problems. If my direct manager or even someone higher up finds out that I don't rely on their salary, or that I won't accept any unreasonable request just to keep my position, I immediately become a target.It's truly perplexing how these companies claim to care about their employees or society, yet at the same time demand absolute loyalty and servitude.
I'm an analyst, and part of my role is to keep a bunch of reports constantly updated. The process was painfully manual, because almost no one here knows Power BI, Tableau, Power Query, or VBA. We have a data warehouse, but my manager still goes in every morning to export the data as a CSV, then does the usual routine of "make charts in Excel" for whatever visuals people request.
When I joined, I started building things in Power BI and Tableau, and honestly, because expectations were so low, everyone treats me like I'm a magician. I've now finished most of the initial query work, so I can put in the new file, hit refresh, and the whole report updates itself. They think it takes me half the day, but in reality it's about 8 minutes if nothing weird breaks.
The annoying part is that our data warehouse still isn't directly connected to anything we use - don't ask - so someone still has to manually grab the raw export instead of it coming through some magical API connection. So now I'm debating whether to tell my manager: "Look, put the file here and hit refresh," so the reports can get done every day without me having to keep monitoring them myself, and I can move on to better work.
Or should I keep pretending this is still a manual process and not say that most of it is now automated? Honestly, I'd rather move up here than leave, so part of me feels like if I show them I can automate the boring stuff, it might get me better projects instead of endlessly refreshing reports.
The manager said, "ah ok well, I wanted to let you know we were going to look to fill that position and offer it to you first before we announce it on the online system and put up fliers so other people can have a shot at it" She told her i was comfortable where I was at. Still, money talks. If she wanted me to do that job id be open to doing it for the right price. And it ended there.
I'm already planning to leave my job for a higher position in a better company with better pay, but I'm still just planning this step because it's a bit difficult for me right now, especially when it comes to the interview. I know AI has developed many tools, including InterviewMan, which achieved impressive success in the free trial. I'll subscribe and use it in my upcoming interviews.
A few days ago, my manager called me and offered what she called a 'graduation' to a higher position. But what's the problem? There's absolutely no change in my hourly wage. The biggest thing she was pushing was a slightly different shift, which honestly wasn't a huge advantage.
Luckily, the person who originally held this position - and whose last day with us was that day - gave me a very important heads-up as soon as I walked in.
Her exact words were something like this: 'Look, I'm leaving (she got a good promotion to a team lead position in another company branch). They'll definitely come to you for this spot; you're the obvious choice. But whatever you do, don't accept anything less than twenty-five dollars an hour. They'll try to make it seem mandatory, and they'll talk about you 'graduating,' but it's your decision alone. And they can't force you to take it!'
It's truly great when someone in a leadership position genuinely cares about their colleagues instead of just following company rhetoric. I always considered her a true friend, and this situation confirmed it for me.
I'm in a very stressful situation and need to see this from the perspective of people who aren't emotionally involved in it. I've been working at my current tech company for 8 years. My performance here has been good, and I've always been one of the strongest people at work, but the culture is exhausting, there are difficult personalities to deal with, and this place has a known pattern of draining people and pushing them into burnout without paying them what they deserve.
For a long time, they kept telling me there was a path ahead for me to reach a director-level role, but nothing concrete ever happened. When I asked for a fair raise at the beginning of April, they told me the budget wasn't there. That was pretty much the push I needed, so I started interviewing, and in the end I got an excellent offer from a competing company.
I accepted the new offer and submitted my resignation. Then suddenly, my current company came back to me with a very large counteroffer that's higher than the new job offer, along with a written career roadmap showing the roles they say I'll move into and the salary increases tied to each step. Honestly, I was mentally checked out and ready for a clean start somewhere else, but now I've started second-guessing everything because the money isn't insignificant.
And this is the part that's confusing me. If it had been a small raise, I would have left easily. But the number is big enough to make me stop and think, even though I know all the reasons that made me want to leave in the first place. For the past few nights, I haven't been able to sleep and I've been thinking about it, and I feel completely stuck between the safe and familiar choice and the chance to start over somewhere else.
What would you do if you were in my place? I can share the actual salary numbers if that would make the advice easier. Thanks to anyone who read all of this.
After a lot of thinking and reviewing the situation carefully, this is what I came to. The counteroffer feels like just a manipulation, not a real solution. I was underpaid, and honestly, I feel like they took advantage of me. It's time for me to leave and move on somewhere else. I'm not going to put myself in a toxic situation again, so I'll seriously reconsider the offer I received from the other company, and will try to apply all the tips mentioned in this post to be a perfect candidate for them.
It makes job hunting so much less stressful because you’re not playing stupid bullshit games of, “Is this even worth my time applying?” This makes anyone who knows they are in a job-searching period and already has interviews look for tools to help them complete this step more quickly, for immediate responses. The interviewMan is open during the interview, listening to the questions and answering them.
I had an initial interview a month ago, and the salary range they quoted was significantly less than what I make now. We ended the call, and I suggested they update the posting with the salary range to avoid wasting their own time.
I've been working in local news for a while, in a respectable, mid-sized city. Recently, I got a surprise call from a big station in the state capital. It looked like a good opportunity on paper.
After a few good interviews, when it came time to discuss salary, their initial offer was only $42,000.
I took a deep breath and explained the situation. I currently earn around $48,000, and this move would put me in a much more expensive area. On top of that, the job involves regular weekend shifts, which usually come with additional compensation. I explained that accepting their offer would mean a direct pay cut for me, even before considering the much higher rent and general expenses. I told them frankly: "If the first number doesn't start with a five, I honestly can't even consider this move."
About ten days later, they got back to me. They confirmed they wouldn't be able to reach $53,000. I thanked them for their time and told them to withdraw my application, but encouraged them to contact me if their financial circumstances ever changed.
😁😁
25 minutes after the start of my shift, my stomach started acting up, so I ran to the bathroom. When I got back, I found my manager already annoyed. He started interrogating me about stupid things like why I hadn't gone before clocking in. I'm one of the best people working for him, and a lot of people there have said that, but for some reason he always singles me out. So after about 3 hours, I left. Fuck slave labor. Now I'm stressed and not really sure what's going to happen next.
To clarify, when I say I'm not sure what's going to happen next, it's because I have college expenses coming up and I'm still waiting for my student loans to be approved. I'm staying with my parents, so I'm not completely screwed financially. But seriously, you have no idea how bad this place is. They don't even pay us for public holidays unless we use PTO, and you have to work there for about 14 months before you're even eligible to take PTO.
Honestly, this job seems like trash, right?
Update: Woow, I didn’t imagine my post would blow up like this. I read most of the comments, and honestly, I agree with you guys I can’t keep working there anymore.
I also saw this post here on reddit about something called 'cold emailing' to find a job, and I really liked the idea. I’m going to try it and hopefully find a better opportunity soon. I’ll definitely update you all.
This has been sitting in my head for a while, and a conversation at a cookout a few weeks ago is what finally made me write it.
My friend Matt and I have known each other since college. Same major, similar grades, and our first jobs were at very similar places. We're both 36 now. Matt has had 7 jobs in 12 years. I've had 3. He makes about $55k more than I do. On LinkedIn, he looks like he's crushing it. But a few Sundays ago, after his third beer, he told me he feels like he's running in place.
New company, same adjustment period, same 5 months where he has to prove himself, same office politics but with new names on the org chart. He said, "Every time I make more money just to feel the same feeling."
By contrast, I've been at my current company for almost 5 years (project management, a mid-sized industrial supplier in the Midwest). I know the org, I know the people, and I've helped build a few things I'm honestly proud of. But I'd be lying if I said I don't currently feel like I want a change. It's like the learning curve flattened out about 18 months ago, and now I'm just repeating the same playbook over and over. My wife keeps sending me job posts and I keep closing the tab.
Then I talked to my other friend Jenna, who has been at her company for about 11 years. Eleven years. And yet she doesn't seem trapped or stalled at all. She's moved between teams within the company, basically shaped her role herself over time, and she genuinely seems happy with what she does. I asked her if she ever thinks about leaving, and she looked at me like I was asking whether she was planning to move to the moon.
So now I'm looking at three people.
Matt jumps from job to job and has money but no roots. I stayed where I am and have roots but feel like I'm standing still. Jenna stayed where she is and somehow has both. What is Jenna doing that Matt and I aren't?
I keep coming back to the idea that maybe it's not about the strategy itself. Maybe it's about whether that strategy fits the person. Matt might be the kind of person who likes movement and new problems, but he keeps jumping to the same type of companies, so the new feeling wears off quickly. And maybe my problem isn't that I have to leave; maybe I need to find what Jenna found: a better way to grow inside a place that still suits me.
But how does someone know that? Because the phrase "know yourself" is nice, but it literally doesn't tell you anything!!!
I see a lot of people going straight from undergrad into a master's or further study without any work experience and without a clear plan, and that's very strange. "I need this degree so I can get to xyz role." Fine, but has an employer said that? Have recruiters, hiring managers, or job postings repeatedly proven that? 8 out of 10 companies will choose the new graduate with a bachelor's who can prove they're capable, and if they like your performance, many places have tuition help or programs that can pay for grad school later.
A lot of people spend huge amounts of money because they assume companies are sitting around waiting for candidates with master's degrees. Most of the time, you're just delaying your career and taking on more debt without even knowing whether it will help you or not. Get into the field first, then decide whether more education makes sense.
Of course, this doesn't apply to medicine, law, clinical tracks, or fields where an advanced degree is literally required. But if you're in business, data/analytics, most sciences, computer science, teaching, etc., look for internships, co-ops, entry-level roles, research experience - anything that gives you real exposure. Turn that into a job, learn what the market rewards, and then get a master's if you still think it's necessary.
We're not in pre-2012 anymore. Your skills, experience, and ability to do the work matter more than stacking another degree on top of a bachelor's just because you're anxious about starting.
So, I have an interview in 24 hours with a big AI Firm (Non-Tech). Can I use the Interview Man copilot safely for this one, or should I avoid since it's for an AI firm? Would the interviewer be able to detect the copilot?
It's a Non tech position, so only behavioral questions only in this round. I suck at responding within STAR/CAR framework. Hence, the question.
Am confused.