r/Tsenta

I am actually losing my mind. I just got a rejection email for a Junior market research role and the feedback was literally "we decided to go with someone with more experience."

Dude... it was an ENTRY LEVEL role. The pay barely above the minimum wage. Who is this more experienced person taking these roles?? Are the people having 3 to 4 years of experience that desperate that they are taking entry level jobs or the company is just lying to us?

i’ve got the degree, i did the unpaid internships, but that’s just not enough.

Is anyone actually got hired, or we are all just vibing in unemployment together.

I actually cannot process this right now. I gave five years of my life to this company, survived all the toxic corporate trauma, and they just laid me off by saying my role is being Restructured.

They already hired my replacement. It's a fresher who literally doesn't know how to use basic excel, but they cost half my salary. And the actual audacity??? They asked if I could spend my notice period training them on my workflow.

I am just sick to my stomach.

Corporate loyalty is the biggest scam ever. Never bend over backwards for these companies, they will replace you in a heartbeat for cheap labour.

I’m done. My boss just used the "we’re a family here" line to justify another weekend of unpaid labour. Last time I checked, my family doesn't make me fill out a timesheet or threaten my health insurance if I don’t show up for Sunday dinner. It’s a job. I provide skills, you provide a paycheck. Can we please stop pretending this is anything else for god’s sakes. the next person who says family in a meeting is getting my resignation letter as a reply.

Saw a job posting for a junior associate

Requirements: 4 years of industry experience, proficiency in 3 Softwares that only came out 2 years ago, and a PhD is preferred.

Pay: $18/hr.

Is the entry part referring to the entry of my soul into the void? Because I don't know how anyone is supposed to survive this. Feels like companies wants a fully trained employee but don't wanna pay for one.

why does every career discussion eventually turn into: “you need to network more”

okay cool. now tell me with who exactly?

because a lot of us are first generation job seekers. we don’t have relatives in big companies.

we don’t know recruiters personally. we’re figuring everything out from scratch while competing against people who already have guidance and connections.

and i’m not even blaming them honestly. connections have always mattered.

it just gets exhausting when people act like networking is some easy thing everyone naturally knows how to do.

when you’re unemployed for a while, even sending a simple message starts feeling awkward because you constantly feel like you’re bothering people.

everything was normal at first.good conversation. interviewer smiling. They told me how i am a good fit for the company .

then they asked my expected salary and the vibe changed instantly like i am being interrogated for a crime.

the funniest part is they wanted someone with experience, multiple skills, flexibility, weekend availability and ownership mindset but reacted like i committed financial terrorism for wanting decent pay.

job hunting really teaches you how weird companies get when money enters the conversation.

last month i had a company schedule an interview with me and then reschedule it twice. annoying, but okay things happen.

on the final day i joined the call 10 minutes early because i didn’t want to look unprofessional. sat there waiting like an idiot for almost 25 minutes before someone finally emailed me saying the interviewer was “busy” and they’d let me know the next steps.

they never contacted me again..

that was the moment i realised how dehumanizing job hunting can get sometimes. applicants are expected to be perfectly professional, perfectly available but companies can waste your time completely and somehow that’s just considered normal.

I am literally furious right now and exhausted. Over the last month, I’ve done:

2 Recruiter calls, A 3-hour technical "homework" assignment, A panel interview with 5 people, A 1-on-1 with the Department Head, A "CULTURAL FIT" coffee and A final presentation to the Board.EIGHT rounds not 3 not 5….EIGHT.

I spent hours researching their competitors and building a mock strategy. And today I got a call that they "decided to go with an internal referral who better understands the company DNA”.

So I went to check LinkedIn. The referral turns out to be someone who already had strong internal connections and had worked with the team before.

They wasted 15+ hours of my time just to pretend they were doing a fair and competitive search. I feel like a background character in a circus. The whole market is a joke.

most people think that unemployment means free time but in reality it feels the opposite sometimes.

like when you’re resting, your mind is still running in the background:you should be applying right now, someone else is probably getting ahead, what if you’re wasting too much time.

and the worst part is how invisible the stress looks from outside. you could be sitting quietly at home while mentally calculating money, checking emails every hour, overthinking old interviews, wondering if recruiters even saw your application.

And after a point the exhaustion stops being physical. it just sits in your head all day.

i don’t think people talk enough about how psychologically weird job hunting becomes after a few months.

I recently got promoted and everybody at work keeps congratulating me.
I got new title.  more responsibilities, more meetings, more expectations & suddenly everyone wants my input on everything.

but the only thing that stayed junior was my salary.

it’s honestly funny how companies will hand you enough responsibility to develop stress but act shocked when you expect the pay to match.
at this point i feel like i got emotionally promoted more than financially promoted.
The worst part is I don’t even know if it will be increased or not.

for the past few months my entire life started revolving around applications, interviews, rejection emails, ghosting, linkedin scrolling, using job automation tools all of it. after a point you genuinely start questioning yourself even when you know the market is bad.

today i finally got a call saying i was selected and i just sat there staring at the screen for like 10 seconds because my brain forgot how to process good news.

I just want to say, if anyone here is struggling right now, seriously don’t let the process convince you that you’re worthless. this market messes with your confidence a lot more than people admit.

I have sent out over 300 applications in two months and i am just done. i woke up today and just stared at my laptop and started crying. the thought of opening one more job board makes me feel physically sick. how do you guys keep going when it feels like a full time job that pays zero dollars? i think i need to take a week off before i lose my mind

I’ve been at my current company for four years. For the first three, I was the "yes" person. I took every extra project, stayed late, and made sure my output was flawless. I thought this was the path to a promotion.

Last month, a colleague who does about 70% of the work I do but spends 50% of his time networking with directors got the Senior Manager role I wanted. When I asked my boss for feedback, he said, You’re TOO VITAL where you are. If I move you, the whole department’s workflow breaks.

I have learnt my lesson the hard way. don’t be the worker bee. be the person who manage the hive.