r/InterviewsHell

I'm 24 and I seriously feel like I've found life's cheat code. I come from a humble family with 4 siblings, so my idea of being rich was making about $60k a year.
I just accepted a remote dev job with a salary of $110k plus bonus. I have no student debt. I have a decent-sized house in a quiet city, and the mortgage is only $850. After paying all my bills, I have about $2500 left over each month to do whatever I want with.
My mind is short-circuiting trying to process how much money this is.
First thing, I'm going to build a solid emergency fund. After that, I have a few things I want to do, like renovating the kitchen and getting a new washer and dryer. Other than that, I'll start investing the money and maybe enjoy some nice coffee and a few vacations. I'm naturally a frugal person, so this amount will feel like an insane fortune.
I understand it's not 'buy a yacht' rich, especially with today's prices, but the feeling itself is crazy. It's unreal.

I went this morning for my first day at a new job. I was supposed to be hired as a delivery driver, with hours from 9 to 6. When I got there, they told me the job is 90% warehouse work and stocking goods, with just a few simple deliveries on the side. If they had been honest with me from the beginning in the interview, I would have said 'no thanks,' and they could have found someone else who wanted that job. I had specifically told them I needed something that wasn't physically demanding, so for them to hide something like that is honestly just dishonest of them.

After that, they left me sitting alone in the breakroom for about 45 minutes. No one showed me how to clock in, or any paperwork, or any instructions at all. So I grabbed my jacket, got up, and left immediately.

Seriously, companies need to be honest and clear in their job postings and interviews. What kind of 'professional' people think it's okay to lie about the nature of the work until someone shows up for their first day? People don't have time to waste on these games, fake job descriptions, and salary surprises.

Now I'm completely confused. I've been at this tech company for 7 years. The culture there is very toxic and full of arrogant people, but I managed. They're known for burning people out and being cheap, and I've felt it myself. I was always a top performer and my results were noticed, but my salary never matched my effort. They just kept promising me a future leadership position.
After my request for a decent raise was denied in November, I finally decided to look for a job elsewhere. The new place gave me a great offer, and I accepted. But as soon as I submitted my resignation, my manager and HR suddenly came back with a crazy counter-offer, even bigger than the new job's offer. They also presented a full 'roadmap' for my career path and future salaries, something that never existed before.
Honestly, I was completely burned out and ready to leave, but this money has made me second-guess everything. I've barely slept this whole week. What would you do in my position? My head is spinning. I can share the exact numbers if that helps. I would be grateful for any opinions.

I have schedule interview to a hiring manager, its a 1:1 and an engineering role. I am wondering if this is a normal lead time or just a red flag? I never experienced this kind of lead time into a 1:1. I can understand if this is a panel interview wherein panelist schedule need to be aligned.

just got back from an interview that left me questioning everything. applied for a marketing coordinator role at a mid size company. thought i was prepared. first half was fine. standard questions about experience, strengths, weaknesses. then the hiring manager leans back and says "ok now sell me that pen" pointing to a random pen on his desk. i did the whole thing. talked about reliability, smooth writing, never runs out of ink at the wrong time. he didn't react. then he points at my wrist and says "ok now sell me your watch."

i was caught off guard. i just said "it tells time and matches almost anything i wear." he laughed and said "that's it? you're not even going to mention the brand or where you got it?" i told him it was just a regular watch nothing special. he spent the next five minutes explaining how i missed an opportunity to create value and build desire. then he asked me to try again. i froze. i know sales tactics are part of some interviews but this felt like he was just messing with me. am i overreacting or was this guy just on a power trip? has anyone else had something like this happen? honestly just trying to figure out if i bombed or if he was being unreasonable.

This is bothering me for several reasons. Most importantly, I don't think work has the right to force me to do anything unpaid and outside of my normal work hours. I feel like they are seriously overstepping their boundaries.

We are already having a company-paid lunch during our break to say goodbye to her. So, we're already taking time out of our day specifically for this. That should be enough of a farewell, right? But they also want another party after work?

Honestly, I have no problem with this manager, she's perfectly fine. But how many farewell parties does one person need? Besides, the party is a 45-minute drive from my house, and it's from 7 to 9 PM. I have to work early the next day, so it's not convenient at all.

The whole thing is just an inconvenience and a headache, and the fact that they're calling it 'mandatory' is what's really provoking.

Hey everyone, I just signed an offer letter for what I thought was my dream job, but I'm starting to see some major red flags. Throughout the interviews, we had a clear agreement that the job was fully remote and that my start date would be in about four months so I could finish the notice period at my current job.

Right after I signed the offer letter, the hiring manager called me. He started pressuring me hard to talk to my current manager and try to leave my notice period early to start with them in three weeks. I told him that's likely not going to happen, but he kept insisting and saying things like, 'The team is really swamped and waiting for you to jump right in, so this delay will put you behind.' In the same call, he also said they 'strongly encourage' people to come into the office four days a week for collaboration, which means I would need to relocate.

Honestly, I want to back out. But I'm not sure how binding this is. The paper I signed was an 'offer letter,' not a full employment contract. It only had the basics like salary, PTO, and health insurance information. And it didn't mention anything about a notice period if I wanted to leave or about a probationary period.

I know I should probably talk to a real lawyer, but honestly, I'm terrified. Has anyone been in this situation before? And what did you do?

About a month into my new job as a VP, I got a strange email from the company on Docusign. With no explanation, just a link. I opened it and found a very unfair non-compete agreement, written solely in their favor, that they wanted me to sign.

I immediately started looking through it, and a few things jumped out at me that made me very concerned and were clear red flags:

- First, the timing is very strange. Why now?
- It prevents me from working for any competing company for a full 3 years after leaving them.
- It also says I can't work any other job at all. The owners are well aware that I have my own consulting business on the side, which we discussed during the hiring process.
- Their geographical restriction is insane. They've listed many cities and states around me where I'm not allowed to work.
- It forces me to agree to my current salary, even though my responsibilities have significantly increased in the past month.
- And the kicker? They're saying I have to pay them $2,000 in 'training fees' if I leave the job within the first 18 months.

Of course, it was impossible for me to sign something like this.
I went straight to HR to understand what was happening. My first question was why this was brought up a month into the job, not during the hiring process. Their excuse was that their lawyer is slow. A very lame excuse. Then I brought up that my responsibilities have increased significantly since I started and said we needed to revisit my role and salary. The HR person said she would pass my concerns on to leadership.

A few hours later, the CEO called me, but I was busy in another meeting. The next day, the general atmosphere was off. HR told me the CEO wanted to talk to me, but then... Nothing, radio silence all day. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that I can't sign this agreement as it is. Honestly, this whole situation has made me seriously doubt the integrity of the people running the company. I can't work in a place that operates this way.

I've already sent the documents to a lawyer to get his opinion and I'm weighing my options. If they insist on their position on any of these points, I'm ready to quit on the spot. It's a huge disappointment that something like this would even happen. Part of me feels like they realized my value in this first month and are now trying to lock me down with this garbage contract.

Am I overreacting? What would you do if you were in my place?

I’m amazed at how large tech companies can simply send an email saying, "The position has been closed, we’re sorry." After an interview where both sides felt it was a great fit, it’s hard to understand how everything can change so abruptly. You go from a positive conversation to receiving a cold, impersonal "We’re sorry" message just days later. There really should be some kind of standard or rule for companies, especially in the tech industry, to handle this more thoughtfully.

Do they even consider the candidate’s expectations? After all the time, effort, and enthusiasm put into the interview, to just be dismissed with a generic email feels like a disregard for the candidate's value. What does a talented candidate, with the right skills and experience, think when this happens? It’s not just frustrating—it’s demoralizing. Companies need to recognize the impact of these rejections and handle them with more care. It should not be acceptable to treat candidates this way. There needs to be a better, more respectful process for handling interview outcomes.

I'm seeing crazy story posts specifically mentioning and _consistently linking to_ InterviewMan. I find the naming and linking sus. I expect the kafkaesque stories altho they're about bad jobs not luciferian interviewers. Are these just shilling?

Hey all! I've recently gone through a couple of interviews with a company, including the final round.

They asked for references from my previous employer, so I reached out to colleagues and shared three LinkedIn contacts who kindly agreed to help. It turns out HR would like to speak with all of them directly, not just via LinkedIn messages. Also, HR "hasn't been able" to reach one of them and asked me to check if they could get in touch with him instead.

I've never seen that before. Is this normal?

I finished my interviews 20 days back. Recruiter has been very communicative. However, in the past 12 days I have sent three follow-ups (1 they asked me to follow-up as hiring manager was ooto) and have not received a response to my 3 follow ups. Am I cooked? or is this how it works? I read a lot about the slow process at google but im just very anxious now!

Let's hear the most unhinged or weird response you've gotten when you've had to take one of those personality tests, whether for applying to a job or while you're in the position.

I had to take one for a management role. HR was actually upset that my "work" result was different than my "home" result. I work in legal compliance (EHS). I would imagine most people act differently at work than home. 🙄