r/Recruiter_Advice

I got a phone screen through a friend and old colleague. She told me to apply + email her my resume, which I did both yesterday. I emailed her my resume around 12:30 and by 4:30 the recruiter reached out to schedule a phone screen. The recruiter's outreach was via a text + email and I set up the screen from an automated scheduling tool.

I was super excited but woke up this morning to a rejection email for the same job. It came in at 12:36 so I know it was automated. What does this mean? Should I reach out to the recruiter to confirm my interview? TIA

TL/DR: Got an automated rejection email for a job I'd just scheduled a phone screening for about 6 hours earlier.

I need some honest perspectives because this process has genuinely confused me.

I interviewed for a global marketing role with a tech company. The hiring manager was US-based and the discussion went really well, even extended beyond scheduled time. We discussed team challenges, ownership, marketing operations, campaigns, events etc in depth.

Also important context: they were hiring for 3 open roles, not just 1.

Post interview:

HR called saying feedback was positive

Asked for payslips, offer letters, documents

Asked preferred location

Started compensation discussions

Current/last CTC: 14 LPA

Initially I had mentioned around 20 LPA, but after understanding the scope better during the discussion, I revised my expectation to 23–25 considering:

broader ownership

global exposure

Gurgaon location/travel and the fact that I was already underpaid compared to market standards in my previous role ( I have 8+ years of experience)

HR said 20 was possible but wasn’t sure beyond that because management calculates on percentage hikes. After discussion, I came down and requested them to at least try for 21 LPA.

Then suddenly after days of silence and followups, HR told me they are still interviewing more candidates in the pipeline and will get back in a couple of days.

This is what’s confusing me: If they were still evaluating heavily, why move into:

compensation negotiations

document collection

management approval discussions

before completing all evaluations?

Now I genuinely can’t understand which scenario is more likely:

I was actually a strong finalist and compensation slowed approvals

HR pushed management to compare more candidates because my ask stretched their comfort zone

This is just normal corporate hiring behavior and I emotionally over-read the signals

Would genuinely appreciate honest opinions from recruiters/hiring managers/candidates who’ve seen similar situations.

I've been in recruiting for about 6 years. Started as a coordinator, now I handle hiring for a mid-size tech company. And I'll be honest, resumes have started to feel pretty meaningless to me.

Not in a "everyone is a liar" way. More like... I just don't know what's real anymore.

Last quarter alone:

Someone listed "led a team of 12." They were on a team of 12.

Another candidate had a well-known company on their resume for 2 years. Dates didn't add up at all.

Third person listed a certification they signed up for but never finished.

None of this came up until 2nd or 3rd round interviews. Hours wasted, on both sides.

The thing that gets me is most of these people were actually decent candidates. They didn't need to lie. But they did anyway, and it cost them the job.

I kind of get it though. When you feel like everyone else is stretching the truth, you feel like you have to as well just to get a callback. It's a weird cycle that nobody really wins.

Just wondering if others are seeing the same thing. Are resumes getting worse? And is there anything that makes you actually trust a candidate early on, before you've spent hours on them?

Looking to shift into recruiting as I feel very aligned with the idea of the role and the goal is to be able to be in a position where I can provide for myself and the family. Thing is I feel like applying for an entry level role along with hundreds more gets me nowhere with how the market is. Thinking I just start from scratch and build the skill myself. Just looking for best practices and what solid direction looks like for someone looking to break into the industry.

Thanks all!

What strategies are we using for outbound?

How are we connecting with candidates?

Whats working for people?

Would love to hear success stories, strategies, tools, anything and everything that we’re trying out there.

I'm a 28 year old black man with 7 years of HR and recruiting experience. I went through two rounds of interviews with this major ticketing company that required 3 years of experience.

From my recruiting background I have a lot of experience with correctly answering questions and framing them in the context of my experience. I felt like I had one of the best interviews ever.

Weeks later they come back, reject my application and say that they liked me but that I was "overconfident" and needed to work on that in the future.

As a black man that has only been interviewed by white people, I doubt that if a white man walked in with the same demeanor and interview experience as me, that they would categorize him as
"overconfident."

Is this a micro aggression or am I overthinking??

Hello! Anyone here doing recruiting while on a full time job? How is it? kindly share your experience. 🙂

I am doing fractional recruiting for a nonprofit and I am trying to decide between ziprecruiter and indeed for sourcing.

Someone mentioned that zip recruiter seemed to have more tech resumes, but I have never used Zip.

Any idea which would be better to fill positions like Grant Manager, Advocate (as in trauma informed staff for residents) or People OPs Generalist?

(Hopefully this doesn’t go against the rules. I read them over and it doesn’t seem to.)

So I was applying for a position which involves customer contact and some technical know-how. It is an entry level position and they mentioned that no technical experience is needed. I have a finished degree in Social Sciences and started a Computer Science degree last year so I thought this could be the perfect combination of the two.
The online interview went well, then they invited me to their office. There the interviewer - one of the CEO's - was the only person talking to me for 2 and a half hours. He proceded to ask me very technical questions. When I could not answer some of them and got nervous he told me I "broke down" and that he worries if can do the job when things get stressful.
Worst part was: he obviously Googled the things he asked me on the spot and sometimes seemed to confuse the position with the more technical one they also offer.

I think the way he was trying to test me was awful and I know that people in higher positions are often not the most empathetic (altough he claimed to be ofc). Moreover he asked many personal questions about my friends and hobbies which I find unprofessional. He complained that the company had become too political and that he wants things too stay flexible, but also every employee should burn with passion for his company...

When he ended the interview and wanted to offer me the chance to have a second interview where I had to fulfil a task in front of of him and an expert, I declined.

Should I have tried to prove myself in a second interview or did I dodge a bullet there?

(P.S. I think having applicants jump through so many hoops, despite searching intensively is weird, but sadly how way things work nowadays. What's your take on that in general?)

I'm in the final stages of a new job offer and about to start the background check. I’ve been with my current employer for over 8 years, but I just realized my internal Workday title (Facilities Specialist) is different from my forward-facing title (Office Manager).

My company-issued business cards, email signature, and boss all use "Office Manager," but my internal HR categorization is lower (likely a cost-saving measure, as I haven't had a raise in 4 years).

I've been advised to list it as "Office Manager (Internal Title: Facilities Specialist)" on the background check form. Has anyone dealt with this before? How common is it, and does this format prevent any red flags during verification?

I had my final/panel interview for a corporate financial services role this past Tuesday. The interview lasted almost the full scheduled time (~50 mins), and at the end one of the interviewers mentioned they still had a few more interviews to complete and that HR/recruiting would likely follow up end of week or early next week.

By Friday morning I still hadn’t heard anything, so I sent a short follow-up email reiterating interest and asking if there were any updates on timing/next steps.

The recruiter replied this morning and said:
“I wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that we are still considering you for the position. I will follow up with you as soon as I have additional information. I hope to know more regarding this position the week of May 26.”

What insight can you give me from this email? Is this positive, neutral, bad?

Additional context:
Initial recruiter screen went well
Advanced past hiring manager interview to final panel
Memorial Day weekend is also coming up

For people involved in hiring/recruiting at larger companies, how would you honestly interpret this email?

i am a woman in tech and i hate the amount of personal info you need to make public just to even compete in the job hunt. it's already so competitive and i'll be looking for a new job this year. but it creeps me out.

full name, location of work, headshot. privacy nightmare. if someone wanted to stalk me, i've made it hilariously easy for them.

this is exactly the kind of shit out parents warned us about not doing online, and now, you're basically forced to participate if you want a job at all.

so be honest with me: how much of a disadvantage am i at if i delete my linkedin?

would you consider me as a candidate if i put similar info on my portfolio website instead?

While job hunting: is it better to have an employment gap on your resume, or to currently be working a role that can be seen as irrelevant or even a step-down?

For context - I recently accepted a job for a fintech as a Senior Account Manager selling low deal-size
B2C. (Accepted it bc i was unemployed and needed a job). However, i learned very quickly that the role was not for me.
My background is strong Account Executive experience in SAAS and fintech but for B2B.

Should i remove my current role from resume/linkedin while i apply, or keep it?

The employment gap would be about 6+ months.

I cleared the interview for CEA role with Assistant Branch Manager and Customer Experience lead and I also got the verbal offer.

So now the recruiter called me to schedule the interview for the same branch and role.

What kind of question I should expect?

Recruiter for a small industrial firm. About 70% of my pipeline is welders, cnc operators, maintenance, qa for shop-floor environments.

Indeed has gotten noticeably worse over the last 18 months for these reqs specifically. Same posting that got me 30 qualified applicants two years ago now gets me 200 applicants and maybe 4 are real. Most are job-board churners or AI-generated resumes.

Is anyone else in industrial recruiting seeing the same drop, and what are you actually using to fill instead? Want to make sure I'm not just complaining about a problem that has a known solution everyone else found two years ago.

recruiter reached out to me on 20th monday april for a job, i sent resume, next day he called for screening, got back to me next day asked to submit in portal, by friday i had whiteboarding, after 30 mins of that session ending they kept extension round on monday. next day they kept portfolio round that ie tuesday.

On the next monday he called and said interview was not that great do you have any other projects to show to fill the gaps in ui and edge cases etc and scheduled an interview for Tuesday. I prepared a new case study on ui just following this advice.

In the Tuesday interview with a senior he said I don't want to see projects I'll give a topic show me how you solve. passed that round, then had a meeting with head of design passed that too. I was said this was the last round by HR.

Then they asked me to come to their office and do an assignment for two days in office (even said to me sm like you can work till 12 am also in our office its open) then they didnt like it gave me one more day to redo everything presented that and then rejected me saying my product thinking is great but ui was inconsistent maybe because its overnight work. Mind you I am doing this while having a full time job and they know that.

What do you think of this process, is this reasonable for a PD 1 role?

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?