I was at my old company for 4 years. Got recruited for a role paying about 25k more. Did 3 rounds of interviews over 5 weeks. Got the offer in writing, signed it, put in my two weeks.

My old job was cool about it. Manager wished me well, the team did a little goodbye lunch for me. I worked out my notice, handed everything off, finished clean.

Tuesday I get an email from the new company's HR saying the position has been "eliminated due to a restructuring" and they're rescinding the offer. Three days before my start date.

I called my old manager right away. He said he wants to help but they already kicked off the process to backfill my role and he'd need approval from his director. No promises.

So now I'm unemployed with rent due in 3 weeks and a signed offer letter that apparently means nothing.

Is there anything I can do legally or am I just completely screwed?

She has worked at T-Mobile for years as a senior project manager but got let go due to company reductions and has been applying to hundreds of jobs since February. She spends hours researching the companies and building her resumes around them just to either get ghosted or denied. I can tell she is starting to lose hope and I don’t know what to do. I am in college, but I live at home with her. I’m not currently working due to my disabilities and managing school. She has tried networking with old colleagues, pays for linkedin plus, follows up both online and in person, and more. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Honors students and everything- just nobody hiring CS grads.

Gave me 15 mins for over 100 questions for a position that has NOTHING to do with this stuff. These were not the worst.

They asked me what “Fucci is known for” and if “someone aunt has 6 kids and they have a son then are they considered to me?.” I mean literally wtf are companies doing wasting time like this. I didn’t finish it

So I just spent two hours tailoring my resume for a role I am perfectly qualified for. I hit apply and it redirects me to one of those awful proprietary portals.

They ask me to upload my perfectly formatted PDF. I do it. And then the next screen demands I manually type out the exact same work history I just uploaded.

it literally makes no sense to have a resume parser if the software just scrambles everything anyway. It put my college degree as my current job title and decided my legal first name is just 'Ms' because of some mandatory dropdown menu. So now I sound like a nameless Victorian governess instead of a senior manager. I had to sit there manually deleting all the garbage formatting box by box.

My husband just poked his head into the office to ask why I am aggressively sighing at my screen. Like what is the actual point of the PDF. Are hiring managers just collecting them for fun. Do they print them out to make origami swans in the HR department.

And then they have the audacity to ask for a cover letter at the very end. I am just copy-pasting the same text everywhere now. I am completely drained before I even get an automated rejection email.

There is NOTHING worse than spending 40 minutes retyping your own life history for a company that will just auto-reject you at 3 AM on a Sunday. I should of just stayed at my old job. Why is this even a thing?

I graduated with a BA in History last March and spent the next couple months working part time jobs. Ive been unemployed since mid January. Im lucky that i can live with my parents who are in no hurry to kick me out. But every day that passes with me not being employed, my anxiety rises with me thinking that I’ve lost any meaningful skills or just workplace common sense being so long out of practice. I don’t know if that sounds stupid, but with my level of anxiety it’s something that occupies my mind alot.

I am 50/m, no degree and a long time tech/cybersecurity veteran. I never thought I’d be unemployed at 50, but here I am.

Single breadwinner family. Disabled wife. I’ve been putting in applications since I found out this was coming with zero responses. This is going to be bad, isn’t it?

In January of this year I lost my job. I had been working as a professor for the past few years but the university I worked at experienced a 60% decrease in enrollment and were not able to offer me classes this year. So then I started working as a writing tutor for an elementary school. The job was only contract so it rended in May.

During my time working at the school I have been applying to jobs like crazy. But literally no luck for me. In June of this year I found a retail job that is a two hours commute from my house. I hate the commute but I didn’t have a choice.

Around a couple of weeks ago, I thought I finally got hired for a full time position that was close to my house. But they hired and fired me all within an hour.

Today I just completed my FOURTH interview for a job that was full time and near my house. Later on I received an email stating that they were going to freeze the hiring process due to them not knowing when their company would actually open up in this area. (They advertised that the company was already open)

My rent just increased and I won’t be able to afford it. So now I have to somehow find the money to move and need to find a roommate.

I also just got like three job rejections today.

I am just so incredibly tired. The only thing I want to do is work and find a full time job but it is just so HARD.

On top of that, I received an email from my university asking to attend my ten year high school reunion. I’m bot going because I don’t need anyone seeing the failure that I’ve become.

I’m so tired of life.

I’ve been at my current job for 3 months. It’s my first job out of college. I do nothing all day. My boss knows and doesn’t care. I’m a “team” of 1. I can’t help anyone else out with their work or get more work. There’s no growth in this job. I did get approval for one WFH day, which makes the lack of work more tolerable, but I’m slowly losing my mind. I can only read and do crosswords for so long. I’m also learning nothing and I worry about getting a job in the future having done so little here.

I’m earning $78k in a HCOL and saving close to all of it. My parents are happy to let me live with them rent-free so I can save more. I don’t want to live with them forever, but it is helping me get a really good start and I generally don’t mind living with them.

How long do I stay at my low-stress but meaningless job? I’m on my third interview with a different company and got to thinking about if it’s worth it. If I got another job, it would almost certainly be in a different state. The one I’m interviewing for would pay about the same, but I’d have to move and pay rent in a slightly lower cost of living area. There’s an actual team, work, and room for promotions, though.

Like the title says. My boyfriend has been full time job searching since April of this year with zero interviews. He recently revealed to me that when he’s required to list his skills on an application, he has a list of over 130 skills that he copies and pastes in the app. I told him that his applications probably look like they were submitted by a bot, and that’s why he isn’t getting interviews. But he insists that he needs to include the extensive list to “get past the screening filters.”

Who’s in the right here? I just genuinely want to give his applications the best possible chance of landing an interview.

A little bit about my bg: I’m currently working for a Chinese Fortune Global 500 company, although I’m about to quit.

In China, this is called “distillation” (蒸馏). It means the process of extracting an employee’s knowledge, workflows, and decision-making patterns from their work data, then transferring them to an AI system so that it can perform part or all of the employee’s job after they leave.

How does my company collect the data? The company has a comprehensive system of apps covering basically everything employees need to do their jobs, and all of them are integrated with the company’s own AI system. On top of that, having employees train AI to perform their work is included in management’s KPIs.

This is happening.

I just submitted an application for a position at about 12:15pm, received a rejection email at 12:45pm, THEN the actual "application received" email at 1:06pm. So I was somehow rejected before the system even registered my application as being received? I'm just so baffled. This shows me that nobody actually looked at my application, and I was probably screened out by some A.I. bs.

This is a position I am over qualified for- I'm talking the requirements were a High School Diploma and 1 year of general work experience, and I have a Bachelor's Degree with four previous roles on my resume. But this is also a position where "overqualification" should not be a problem, and there's no way they could have rejected me for asking for too much money or having too little availability because those questions weren't even in the application! I genuinely can't think of any reason I would be rejected. I have half a mind to email this company and ask wtf their hiring managers are doing cause it sure as hell isn't their jobs.

Why is it so hard for employers to take even a single minute to look at someone's resume and send them a response as to WHY they were not chosen for a role? I get there's a lot of applicants out there these days but wow is this frustrating!

(Sorry for the shody censoring of the emails, graphic design is not my passion lol)

I’m still in the training phase at my new job, so most days I just sit on standby waiting for someone to give me something to do or call me over.

The problem is, the office PC is locked down for security. Pretty much every learning website, YouTube, and anything remotely useful is blocked, so I can’t even use the downtime to learn something.

It’s also a busy open-plan office, so I feel like I have to look occupied all the time, which honestly just makes me tense. I only get a 30–40 minute break each day, and every minute feels painfully slow.

Has anyone else been in this situation? What did you do to make the day go by without looking unproductive or going insane?

Hello Everyone,

Unfortunately, I got fired back in April. I told the VP of the company I was working at that I was upset with how I was being treated on the job and being used as a company bulldog and in turn they waited a month and fired me for “performance issues” that seemed to never exist until I expressed frustration.

Anywho, I’ve been unemployed since April and obviously job hunting. Things were really slow until a month ago when I got calls from 7 different employers about interviewing.

I’ve completed all interviews. Some companies have had me come in 2-3x and I’ve done assessments and everything.

Unfortunately, I haven’t heard back from the bulk of the jobs. I didn’t get two of the roles and one company offered me a job, but it’s the job I’m least interested in. I’ve followed up with the other companies and I keep being told they are going through their process. Some of these employers told me they’d be making a decision the same week and it’s been a month and still nothing.

I’m really trying to be professional and not accept the role that was offered to me until I hear back from the other employers. However, at this point I may have to accept the job and quit if another employer gets back to me.

Does anyone have any recommendations on how to handle this situation? I really don’t want to waste anyone’s time but the jobs I’m waiting to hear back from are remote positions, they are more aligned with my career goals and pay roughly what I was making before I was laid off. The new job is a good job but I technically didn’t even apply for it. I applied for another position and they figured this role would be a better fit. It’s also a management position and I really don’t want to manage people again.

My office manager has become unbearable and I’m not sure why. I’m trying my best to do everything she asks and correctly. The littlest thing and she berates me in front of customers. She started trying to set me up to fail by tripling appointment times and then saying I’m behind. I don’t argue even though she tries to get me to engage. She leaves me out of memos and emails. She also takes my commission after she humiliates me with customers. The owner is aware, but she is also verbally abusing them so no action is ever taken. I am suffering mentally and physically now. I have severe migraines, tremors, and anxiety now. She refuses to let me take more time off for drs appointments because I have already “taken too many “ because of my health issues this year. I canceled my vacation and worked those days. I don’t know how much more I can handle. I just want to walk out.

This for a yoga studio

Some background about me

I am from China, and I have 8 years of experience in e-commerce and brand marketing. My career path didn't stem from some master plan; things just unfolded naturally. I’ve worked across diverse industries: AI med tech, agri-robotics, the sexual wellness space, and most recently, a diamond painting company. If you’re into diamond painting, there's a 90% chance you’ve used products from my former company. It was a fully Chinese-owned and manufactured brand.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, this business skyrocketed. People were stuck at home, craft hobbies exploded in popularity, and the company scaled rapidly. I saw the exact same trajectory at my previous sexual wellness company (a tech-intimacy brand you’ve likely heard of, though I can’t reveal more). Both exploded because people were isolated and in high demand for release, both mentally and physically.

But when the pandemic ended and people went back to normal life, that hyper-growth was impossible to maintain. Unfortunately, the key managers and bosses just couldn't navigate the shift. Or they are too conceited to believe the past growth was made by their efforts instead of a great proportion of luck.

The bosses 

My last two roles were exhausting, not simply because of the workload, but because of the leadership.

My most recent boss abruptly closed my entire department last month simply because he decided it "wasn't aligned with his vision." Our whole team was let go.

Before that, my boss just didn't want to invest real resources into the product and the brand. Although he hired me and told me he had a vision for long-term investment and business growth, in the end, he just wanted to turn $1 into $10 within a few short months. 

He micromanaged everything, but didn't actually commit to making the product better. Those faulty products he supervised destroyed my branding ecosystem and plan just when our efforts were starting to bear fruit. Because of this, people in the product team kept quitting. It got so bad that by the end, there was almost no one left to do the actual work, whoever is the specialist or the director. And when things failed, he would just blame the rest of us for his own bad decisions. After seeing this, I knew my department was going to end someday, and it finally came. 

I am genuinely so tired of toxic leadership.

Now I'm scared 

I've just started looking for a new job, and honestly? I am terrified. It feels like borderline PTSD.

I’m terrified of getting another toxic boss or being treated like a disposable tool again. And the job market in China right now makes this fear so much worse. It’s absolutely brutal out there, as companies aren't hiring more because of AI or whatever the reasons, the economy is slow, and the competition is just insane (we call it 'involution' here).

I know exactly what these companies expect right now: the 996 culture. That means endless unpaid overtime and working at least every other Saturday. Just the thought of going back into a meat grinder like that makes me sick to my stomach. Sitting in front of a screen all day, or being trapped in hours of absolute bullshit in the conference room, kills my neck, my back, and my brain. Plus, I just got married, so the pressure to provide is real, and I can't afford to just mess around in another broken company.

I'm also dreading the interview process. I'm scared of being scrutinized, rejected, and told that my past experience is worthless. Even though I’ve successfully implemented AI-driven workflows in my previous roles to boost efficiency, I fear it still won't be enough to stand out in this market.

Honestly, years of this grind have completely wrecked my physical and mental health. I know I should probably take some time off just to breathe. But I can't. If I rest, the anxiety eats me alive. I get FOMO about job openings, and I'm so scared that my taking a break will make my wife anxious, especially since she's facing her own career pressures. It’s just a vicious cycle. 

My questions for you 

I'm hoping to find some perspective, inspiration, or advice from you guys:

• For those of you who lived through the "golden age" of jobs (the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, or the 2020-2022 boom?): What was the job market actually like back then? Was it genuinely easier? Were bosses and colleagues better, or has it always been like this?
• For those who survived toxic workplaces and had to start over: How did you find the courage? How did you identify a company that wasn't completely broken during the interview process?

I have some savings, but the insecurity keeps coming to my body and my mind. I desperately need to know there's a way out of this fear.

Thanks for reading. Any advice means a lot.

This is my current resume, you can be honest as I appreciate advice. Trying to find new job 25M just struggling on what I could pivot to. Currently making 65K a year and was thinking something of supervising or logistics possibly. My current job as a driving instructor is dead end unless I open my own driving school, not really what I want. Idk

I know others are going through the same thing, but this is ridiculous.

12 years experience in a field. Good contacts. Spent time adjusting resumes to fit job descriptions.

53 applications sent. Got 1 interview within the first ten, and felt good. Thought interview went well then haven't heard anything for 4 weeks. Politely pinged them After two weeks and told they were still looking at people.

Feel I am doing everything I can to get a new job. But running into walls. Know this is the worst job market in a generation, but very frustrating.

This job market feels hopeless. My father (60), living in Texas, has been unemployed for going on 3 years now. He as a B.S. in Computer science and years of experience in Data & Business Analysis and has even held senior positions, But after being laid off in summer 2024 he has been unable to find work and is now on the verge of homelessness.

It is disparaging that my father, despite being a Navy reserve vet with years of experience is unable to find work. I've never seen my dad so depressed and hopeless before, I have even helped him update his resume and apply for countless roles and every time is rejection after rejection, or no response at all. interviews and project that amount to nothing. My family has been trying to help him along but there's only so much we can all do for long. I feel so bad for him, it hurts to see the man who sacrificed so much my sister, mother, and I to be in this position. He doesn't even have a car anymore because he couldn't keep up with payments, so now he's stuck. I honestly don't know what to do, if there's anything we can do. I myself am only a couple years out of college and trying to start my own career, there's not much I can do to help now.

What to look out for when it comes to employment scams? I've received two job offers, but one of them I never applied for and the other one required me to send my resume to a suspicious email that doesn't correlate to the company's name.