r/askrecruiters

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??

This is something I've been sitting with for a while now.

We had a strong candidate in process for a senior role. Internally, everything looked organised to us. Our slack threads were active, calendar invites were out, and the hiring panel was aligned. From where we were sitting, the process was moving.

But… from where she (the candidate) was sitting, we had gone silent for 23 days.

She didn’t receive any update after the second round (not even the industry-standard "we're still in process" note).

Thus, she had no idea if we were deliberating or if she'd been quietly passed over. Therefore, she kept interviewing elsewhere. By the time we came back to her with an offer, she'd already accepted one.

We didn't ghost her intentionally. But she had no way to know that.

I think about this a lot now. The internal experience of a hiring process and the candidate experience of the same process are sometimes completely different things, and you won't find that out until someone tells you.

We've changed a few things since. Updates go out between rounds now, even when there's nothing concrete to say. Skills screening moved earlier, so we're not that deep into a process with someone before we catch a gap.

Has anyone built a systematic approach to candidate comms mid-process? Or is this still mostly a manual thing for your teams?

Hi, just retired after 35 years in the industry. My son told me Reddit is where people actually talk about this stuff, so here I am. I have been going through the posts here a bit and realised I could provide some guidance.

For ref: Spent a great time in recruiting, mainly across US, Australia, Asia.
Mainly Tech, then shifted to Series A and up startups. Happy to answer some questions if it helps.
P.S - Still getting used to this platform so might be a bit slow in replying.

I have my third interview in person next week for a company. Both conversations were good , but the HR person just asked me to complete an assessment and it’s about ranking random things from best to worst . She said it’s standard for their process but here is an example of some things I have to rate:

- a baby
- using love to commit murder
- nonsense
- a good meal
- a thief
- a person who does not tell the truth
- a rubbish heap
- a devoted scientist
- imprison an innocent person
- love of nature
Etc…..

Has anyone seen an assessment like this??? The email said to not overthink the questions. But like what….? Help?!

I’m trying to figure out how to aim my job search when my actual capability is meaningfully higher than what my resume signals.

I have a business administration degree, but my resume does not read like “advanced analyst,” “developer,” “automation engineer,” or anything in that lane. I also don’t want to pretend I’m something I’m not. I am not a software engineer. I am not a credentialed data analyst. I am not trying to jump into a senior strategy role.

What I do have is an unusual amount of practical leverage with LLMs and tooling.

I’m a very heavy LLM user. Not “I use ChatGPT sometimes,” but tens of thousands of serious turns across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. I use these systems as working infrastructure: to reason through processes, build scripts, create calculators, design CRUD-style tools, structure documents, automate repetitive tasks, debug workflows, and build small internal systems around whatever job function I’m doing. Basically you could drop me into a substantial amount of business admin roles where there is no expectation to code, and I can build vertical integrations for just myself, or glue pieces of a given tech stack together where the company tech stack falls short. For example, the 1% user threshold for 99% of people was 12000 turns for 2025. On Chat GPT alone I had 99k, putting me in the top .01% of users.

I’m somewhere more than vibe coding and less than a full blown software engineering. I can’t credibly sell myself as a developer, but I can usually reason my way through building targeted verticals if the problem is concrete enough. I know how to break the work down, ask the right questions, test outputs, troubleshoot, and iterate until the tool does what I need.

The type of role I’m looking for is not customer-facing and not a role where the whole office treats me as a shared resource. Ideally I answer to a small number of people, have clear expectations, and work against concrete KPIs.

For example, if the role is processing documents, reviewing files, managing records, cleaning data, generating reports, handling intake, or maintaining some operational queue, I can often build a system around that work. The ideal situation is a role where the baseline expectation is clear, and I can quietly use personal tooling, scripts, templates, LLM workflows, and process design to produce at a much higher level than the job technically requires.

I’m not looking for “challenge,” “passion,” “startup chaos,” or a role where I have to prove myself through constant meetings and stakeholder management. I’m looking for bounded back-office operations work where being unusually good at building personal leverage actually matters.

So my question is:

What job titles or industries should I be targeting where this kind of capability is valuable, but the entry gate is not “already have five years as a data analyst / software engineer / senior operations manager”?

I’m especially interested in roles that are:

internal-facing document/data/process heavy KPI or queue based low customer contact low meeting load operational rather than strategic friendly to automation and AI-assisted workflows realistic for someone with a business admin background whose actual tooling ability is ahead of their resume

I’m trying to find the right category of work where my resume gets me in the door, but my actual capability lets me outperform once I’m there.

Hi recruiters, I have some questions concerning outreach as a newly graduated student:

1. Do direct messages in LinkedIn truly lead a recruiter to look at your information - e.i. Does it increase your likelihood of landing the job?

2. Is it necessary to “bug” recruiters in order to get them on your radar.

This one is a little more personal.
For some background, I’ve applied to this space industry job where I got the interview, and the recruiter called me directly to tell me the interviewer had nothing but positive feedback, but was considering someone else. I have his number and he networked me to other recruiters. I also told him thank you and to keep in touch.

3. Should I go to these recruiters if I apply for another position through the company? What else could I ask them for help in searching for a job?

4. What can I do to get the attention of recruiters so I AM on the radar?

I was invited to an onsite final interview with my future c suite boss (who is flying out to the office) who I’ve already met virtually. The HR team said it would be conversational, I’ll get to see the office, and maybe meet a few key leaders.

I’ve already gone through 5 rounds including behavioral assessments and take home assignment.

What should I expect in this interview? How can I best prepare for it?

Vent/frustrated post. I been unemployed 3 1/2 months after being employed for 11 years. My first 1/2 months I was doing it all wrong with my resume since I have been off the market for a decade. I did waste time there but after coming on here and learning more I been using different apps to help me.
I have been on 2 interviews one was bc I had a referral and the resume I used was not the greatest. That job you needed 0-2 years experience I have many in the field plus I was a former Citi employee. I never got a call back.
After using different apps I been using chat gpt to make sure my resume aligns with the JD and I been paying for cvnomist. I even had a recruiter message me with a resume template we should use. I rewrote my resume again.
I am only applying to jobs that have opened within days and few candidates that have applied.

Update I applied to DTCC 3 weeks ago with 0 candidates and hours of posting
My application went straight to under consideration. BUT no one has contacted me smh
I applied 2 weeks ago to JPM also small number of Applicants and within hours of job posting. BUT no one has contacted me yet
It’s been 3 weeks since I applied to MUFG also early applicant and went straight to under consideration but no one has contacted me .

I know people in the market and honestly I feel like people when they aren’t in their shoes it’s like you are on your own. These are people I have known for decades and even though we didn’t KIT we still had each others contacts and never had any issues with them. But it’s sad bc no one is obligated to get you the job but does it hurt to email the hiring manager and put a good word in ?

My severance will be running out soon and I’m not sure
What else to do different or any suggestions that I can learn from or put to use.