This is just a lighthearted joke but still I’m frustrated

Wanted to provide one HUGE tip to conquering the STAR method.

For context, if you don't know what STAR stands for, it's Situation, Task, Action, Result. Pretty common framework for all interviews these days, especially in tech. Recruiters even tell you to use it. Now, that everyone is using it though, the answers tend to be kinda same. So, one trick that I learned and I want to cite my source here (Interview Titan), is that it's all about timing, not necessarily about what you say. Why? Because when we explain the answer through that framework, we tend to ramble, especially when talking about ourselves in the ACTION part.

So here is the optimal timing (according to Interview Titan)

Situation: be brief and spend no more than 1-2 sentences, so like 30 seconds

Task: Again, be brief 30 seconds or less

Action: This is where you can speak a bit more, but no more than 1:30-2 mins. Your answer should be concise enough to list out three important things YOU did

Result: be brief, again and say something like "this resulted in X growth/revenue" you can insert whatever you want there but it must have moved the needle for the company.

The main goal of this is to keep your answers concise, short, but still thoughtful enough without rambling. and the total time for your answer shouldn't be longer than 3 mins.

Months of studying, hundreds of $$ on the AAPC membership, books, and test fee... And I still can't get a job in the field, over half a year later. Still stuck in an underpaid, overworked billing role, which I've wanted to leave for even longer.

The fun thing is that to keep this certification, you're required to pay an annual membership fee to the AAPC, and also get continuing education credits - by spending additional money, of course.

I've been applying locally, to in-person roles, and to remote ones as well. No luck anywhere. And then these same medical orgs repost their listings over and over - like, what sort of unicorn are they looking for? 😮‍💨

I'm so tired of this hiring hellscape, and wishing I did not go after the cert. So much for passing a challenging exam, with no career benefit to show for it. 😢

Recently, I cleared all the technical, managerial, and HR rounds. The HR representative verbally informed me that I had been selected, but I did not receive a written offer letter.

After two days, I followed up with HR regarding the offer letter, and I was told that it was in the approval phase. A week later, HR informed me that all approvals had been completed except for the CTO’s final approval, which was rejected.

HR also mentioned that both the hiring manager and the hiring manager’s manager had requested the CTO to reconsider the decision. HR specifically clarified that budget constraints were not the reason for the rejection but did not provide any specific reason.

Do I still have a chance of receiving the offer letter in this situation?

This one surprised me. A company sought me out because of my experience and education in the AML and fraud space, which was exciting because the requisition wasn’t even open yet. Someone asked for my resume and forwarded it to HR. Within 13 minutes, HR emailed me asking to schedule an interview. They said they weren’t sure how soon the requisition would open but they definitely wanted me to meet with the VP. They scheduled that conversation, it turned out they were opening a role and the interview went well. Afterward HR let me know I was moving forward to the assignment round.

I started working on the assignment and asked a clarifying question about the data. It turned out they wanted me to evaluate everything as of April rather than the current date, which changed my approach enough that I needed to restart. There wasn’t a deadline but I still let them know I would need one additional day. Instead of submitting it the next day, I submitted it the following day. I also had a few people review my work to see whether my reasoning and conclusions made sense to them before turning it in.

Then late on a Saturday, I received an automated rejection. That was the entire follow-up after a company had proactively sought me out, quickly arranged an interview with its VP and asked me to complete an assignment. I have substantial experience with the work the assignment covered, completed it quickly even with the clarification and have done roughly 25 interview assignments over the last two years. Until this one I had never been rejected immediately after the assignment round.

I’m not saying that means my work couldn’t have missed the mark or that I was entitled to move forward. But the sequence feels strange, and I’m left wondering what happened. Did the assignment change their assessment? Had they already decided against moving forward while I was still working on it? Did something change internally? I don’t know, and an automated rejection gives me nothing to work with. Going from being actively recruited before a role was even open to receiving a Saturday rejection after completing their assignment feels like a pretty abrupt shift. This one honestly feels fishy, even though I don’t have enough information to say why.

I have been looking for a PT internship in NYC in the proptech startup field this past month. A lot of time spend on LinkedIn got me absolutely nowhere. I ended up reaching out to a family member who put me in contact with somebody they know at a startup I would have been interested in interning by.

This contact and I spoke over the phone and really hit it off and he asked that I’d prepare some example work. I did so and I got very positive feedback and then he connected me with the head of the company who is in charge of making the final say.

This CEO, who is very busy took some time to respond and had to reschedule nearly 3 times before we actually had our time to talk over zoom. However while we were emailing it seemed that he was interested in an intern (I mean hey, who doesn’t want free labor from somebody hungry for work). He even told me that he was looking forward to talk and that he apologized for postponing our meeting.

I join the meeting and he is looking down at his keyboard the entire time clearly working on something else. It didn’t feel like an interview, more like a confrontation. I felt like I was at my principals office in elementary school where he guilted me into confessing to what I did.

After explaining the role I’m looking for, he took two steps back and looked around the office and turned to me and said: unfortunately, we currently don’t have the resources to have an intern at the moment.

Like… ugh. I totally understand that this is reality but damn, I really thought I had this in the bag.

So now I’m back to square 1, reaching out via LinkedIn and cold emailing.

I then decided I’d use another resource I had by being in the city and I printed the attached flyer and mamilla envelopes and decided to go around the city to some startups and drop it off by them.

The first startup I went to, the doorman let me in and I went up to the HQ. And omg it was insane. Just a huge space full of people working. I felt like I was intruding on something, I mean I was.

I walked into the office and see a guy coming out of the restroom and I ask him if there’s a secretary I could drop off my envelope by and he told me to give it to a person he pointed to.

I went up to her and very nicely I said “excuse me, sorry to bother but I have some mail to deliver. I was told you would be the one I could hand this off to.” She was very kind back and took it and I went back downstairs and left the building.

I never have ever had the confidence to do such a thing but I don’t think I’ve ever felt more alive before in my life.

Happens to be I also emailed a somebody there today and they responded that they aren’t hiring for PT/internship roles.

But I’m still proud of myself for doing something extremely ambitious.

Anyways I’m still on the hunt for an internship in NYC. DM me if y’all have any leads. Curious to know what yall think of my story 🙃

We are cooked gang. Blue and white collars aren't safe.

It's been 7 months. I applied to everything that pops up on Indeed. I am 42 and have decades of retail and warehouse experience. Nobody would hire me. I had not a single call back. I finally got hired. I start October 25th. All the paperwork is in and it's official. It's not the best job but it pays well. And at least I have something. It's a crazy job market. It's been hell. I hear the people out there who have been unemployed for years. I don't want to jinx myself so I am literally knocking on wood. Wish me luck

Some of the assessment questions were weird, for example:

Do you work too fast without thinking about safety more, or do you miss deadlines more? WHAAAAAAAAT. I DONT DO EITHER.

27k in student loan debt, homeless, no job, no savings, two SWE internships on my resume, useless cs bachelor's degree from 2025.

My parents kicked me out when I approached a year post graduation with no job. I wasn't getting any interviews, at all. I was working as a part time barista for $16/hour to bide my time but I abandoned that job when I was kicked out. I'm in a city where rents are 2000+ for closets. No reason to stay at that place.

My loans have obviously been defaulted on by now, I don't even have an active phone number for then to contact me with. No money.

I've been staggering, stumbling around gagging on nothing like a drug addict in the last week or so. I had a bike but someone broke the lock on it while I was sleeping outside one night.

Idk what I can do now. I can't get a tech job or use my degree for much of anything. I've been diving into trash cans for plastic bottles. I feel uncomfortable in my skin, I have no pride in myself, in my existence. I have no confidence anymore.

I'm sitting near a Starbucks curled up on a bench just watching the night go by. My life is over. I have no control but my future any longer. I want to end this.

I was emailed a soft offer by the person in charge of onboarding at the company I've been interviewing with. I was told that they would be sending my actual offer documentation yesterday, "later on in the day" (Friday), but I never received anything.

This is a startup company, and they do not have an HR department, so the CFO is the one doing the offer letters and the onboarding/sending the PEO links. Should I be concerned, or is it possible that he just had entirely too much on his plate and wasn't able to get to creating/finishing the offer?

Keep in mind, when I was interviewed for my first round (Oct 5th), I didn't hear back about my invite for my second round until 11pm on Oct. 11th. My recruiter who got me connected with the company in the first place told me that I should expect the official offer letter sometime this weekend or by Monday morning. She also said that for the last person she got hired at this job that she called their references for them, but she told me she wasn't able to get around to it and that she would have to call mine this upcoming Monday/Tuesday. So I am also trying to consider if that is also what is delaying the official offer letter being sent to me.

I am in a very tight window financially, due to months of unemployment and living off my savings and I am at the very end of my savings at this point. If I don't start this job within the next 3 weeks, I'm screwed.

i’ve literally been without a job for the past 5-6 months because nobody is hiring me. I’ll do countless interviews and applications and nothing ever comes of it. u genuinely have to beg for a job nowadays or know someone in the company to get the job. i’m basically homeless right now and sleeping at friends houses because i lost everything. this is genuinely horrible. i am able to do gigs every here and there but i dont make enough to survive on my own at ALL.

I came across the job opening on LinkedIn. It was a fairly established company with international offices.

“(Tea, please!)” ruined my day I can’t lie.

I know it’s locked behind a paywall, but this dude has a PhD in chemical engineering at Princeton University. He trained AI for short while (those gigs that pay experts) and it was fine until it wasn’t. He was eventually out of work. He’s 30 years old and living at his parent’s homes did his circumstances. He was getting ghosted by food preparations roles. He was applying to all 50 states.

“Many people have jobs, but they’re not leaving them, limiting opportunity for others. Those who don’t have a job are locked out of the growing economy as if it were a fortress, leaving them puzzled by the headlines of low unemployment and an accelerating GDP.”—WSJ article

The article describes those annoying “AI interviews” I’ve been posting about.

I’m just happy that mainstream media is hearing us out.
I felt I was the failure. I quit a 600+ application!
This article spoke to me. My boomer parents are yelling “maybe it’s you! Your messing the application process”

My background is mostly in software development, here in America, with about 30 years experience and a computer science degree.

The last three interviews I went on, the salary discussion went like this: "How much compensation are you looking for? Keep in mind we have a guy in Mexico that can do it for $8 an hour".

For the last year I've been driving a van, delivering patients to medical appointments and returning them home. It was the very first job offer I got after a million applications. I average about 450 a week, and I have about 3-4 spare hours during the day between 8:00 and 5:00. I

I've completely lost the will to live and my imagination, and the home will probably go next month. There's a shelter nearby, though.

Anybody have any ideas how I can earn extra money between rides? Or tips for looking on the bright side ordeletion? Single no kids, closest people no longer alive. I'm nearly 60 years old so I'm not exactly in high demand, but I do good work and try not to bother people!

May you be blessed

Am I just never going to ever get a job? How often do companies even keep the results of these checks?

I’m interviewing for a corporate finance role and already had a virtual interview followed by 3 rounds of in-person interviews with the hiring manager, directors, and a VP.

After that, the hiring manager asked for 3 references and personally called all of them. They all told me the conversations went really well and gave positive feedback.

Now the hiring manager reached out saying another VP wants to connect with me.

I’m a bit confused since I’ve already gone through all these interviews and reference checks. Is this usually a sign they’re looking for final approval before making an offer, or could I still be competing with other candidates?
Anyone been through something similar? How did it turn out?

Thanks for your responses.

I'm looking for some honest advice from HR professionals or hiring managers about my situation.

I accepted an offer from a new employer, with a start date of Monday, October 26. When I signed the offer, I had approximately three weeks before my start date.

The offer was subject to background verification. My understanding was that the screening would be completed during the first week, allowing me to give notice to my current employer the following Monday and complete my notice period before starting the new job.

Unfortunately, the background check took longer than I expected.

On October 14, I proceeded with submitting my resignation after speaking to the recruiter and he gave me good to go signal for background verification verbally. I missed mentioning to recruiter that I will be resigning today after this call

My current employer has now confirmed that my final working day will be Friday, October 30.

This creates a scheduling conflict because my new employer expects me to start on October 26, four days before my last day at my current job.

I would like to ask my new employer to postpone my start date by one week, from October 26 to Monday, November 2.

A few important details:
- I have already accepted the offer and submitted my resignation.
- I have not yet asked the recruiter to change my start date.
- I did not explicitly discuss a postponement with the recruiter before resigning.
- The new employer has already initiated onboarding (got calendar invites only)
- I'm committed to joining and am not reconsidering the offer.
- I realize I should ideally have confirmed the timing before resigning, but I was expecting the background check to be completed sooner.
-Recruiter knows about the delays with background verification

My questions for HR professionals l:
- How would you typically handle a request to postpone a new hire's start date by one week in these circumstances?
- Would this request raise concerns about the candidate's reliability or commitment?
- Is withdrawing an offer over a one-week start-date adjustment something I should realistically be concerned about?
- Would you recommend explaining the background-check delay, or simply explaining that my current employer has confirmed October 30 as my final working day?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have handled similar situations from the employer's side.
Thanks for any insight.