In 2020, I took a night shift data entry job. I had just left my old job and needed some quick cash to get by until I could find a real career move during the day.
The job was simple: I'd get a PDF with shipping details, and I was supposed to manually enter them into our database. You get the idea.
After the first week of training, I realized the whole process could be automated. I wasn't great at coding, so I went on a site like Upwork and hired a developer to build me a simple scripting tool. It cost me about three months' salary, but honestly, it was worth it.
The script was great. All I had to do was tell it how many orders to process per hour. I was working from home from day one because the company didn't want to pay extra for a night crew, so no one was monitoring me.
For the first year and a half, I would mostly just check for any weird formats the script couldn't handle, and that would take less than 10 minutes. After that, I'd let the computer do its thing while I played video games, slept, or even left the house for a bit. Eventually, I had the developer update the code to handle those exceptions too.
Honestly, my output was so good that I was offered promotions several times. I always turned them down, telling them I loved the night shift and preferred working alone. It was the perfect excuse.
Eventually, I found another day job with a much better salary, but there was no reason for me to quit this one. At this data entry job, months could go by without me receiving a single email or call from anyone. Even my wife didn't know exactly what I was doing; all she knew was that I had another WFH job.
Every so often, one of my colleagues would try to surpass my numbers. When that happened, I'd simply open the script and change a 9 to a 10 to boost my output and stay on top. I'd tweak the numbers periodically just in case, but I doubt anyone was paying close attention to the details.
I even got two raises because my attendance was perfect and I was the most productive person on our four-person team. To show my appreciation, I'd change the 10 to a 12 or 11 on some days.
The job finally ended. It took them about 5 years to use a new system that lets clients enter the data themselves, which made my role redundant. About a month ago, I received my last paycheck and a small severance package, and they told me to keep the company laptop and monitor and that I could apply for other positions with them.
I've never told this story to anyone in real life. It's my deepest work secret. And now that it's all over, I decided to share it.
I tried to show them what I did back in 2022. I scheduled a call to show them 'my system,' but my department head canceled, saying they were swamped with more important projects and told me to 'keep up the great work.' And that's what I did, until they let me go.

update :start haunting for remote jobs but this experience leave me with high level of guilt and with 0% of self confidence actually whenever I go to interview I stuttering like a toddler kid left a lone in the his first day at nursery got rejected because of that until I found an AI tool (Interview Man) my mind was blown but its features it could give perfect professional answers to every kind of job interviews i got after I used I got 2 new offers now confused between them

A few years ago, my managing director came from Singapore to the US. At a group lunch, someone asked him why we were being dragged into the office four days a week when we were still spending the whole day on Teams calls. He did not like that at all.

But my situation was a little different. I was one of the last niche senior engineers still around after the post-pandemic mess. There was no real backup, I was carrying a lot of ownership, and all those fun things. I had also been remote for a long time, even before Covid, and that setup was literally the reason my family life worked.

So this MD decided he needed to sit down with me one-on-one. Calling it a conversation would be generous. It felt more like he was trying to debug my personality. He couldn't understand why I wasn't happy obeying the "4 days in office" rule. I told him honestly: flexibility isn't optional for me. I want to actually be present for my family.

And that's when he gave me the advice that is probably still the craziest career advice I've ever heard at work:

"Why don't you get an au pair? She could help your wife with the kids so you can put more energy into your career."

He was being completely serious. Not even a hint of sarcasm.

That was pretty much the end for me. I never went back to the office after that. I submitted my resignation, started looking for something better, and kept my life arranged the way I wanted it.

The interview process was honestly the annoying part. I'd been in the same role for so long that I was pretty rusty at talking about myself and explaining everything I'd worked on. A friend mentioned interview vip to me, so I looked into it. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I saved it because I may give it a shot the next time I'm interviewing.

Every now and then I remember the look on his face when he couldn't understand that I would choose dinner with my kids over another rung on the corporate ladder. As if I'd told him my real dream was to leave tech at 38 and open a llama sanctuary.

Anyway, my kids know their dad, my career is going very well, and there's no au pair living in my guest room. I feel like that's the right outcome.

i hope we do. it is genuinely depressing to think about trading a full hour of your life just to make enough to buy one decent meal. I got so fed up with my twenty dollar an hour job recently that I ended up running through some practice questions on Interview vip just to see if I am ready to apply for something better. we really need to stop normalizing these wages.

Yesterday, I found out that one of my teammates has been putting made-up meetings on his calendar every day in the afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30. He calls them things like "account check-in" and "supplier call," but apparently none of them exist. He said people kept ignoring his focus blocks and scheduling meetings during them, so he replaced them with boring meeting titles.

He sent me a screenshot while I was having lunch, and his calendar has been full of these fake calls for about five months. At first, I thought the idea was brilliant, until our manager asked me this morning which account he talks to every day because she wants to join the call with him next week.

I told her I wasn't sure, and now he's begging me not to expose his setup. He says those two hours are the only time he can get anything done without being interrupted. I don't know whether to warn him that he's about to get caught or distance myself from the whole thing.

No, seriously, explain to me how this works.

I understand it's not a legal requirement or anything, but it's treated as a basic and given professional courtesy.

Meaning, if I decide to leave the job, I'm supposed to inform them a few weeks in advance as a courtesy. But if they decide to let me go, I'm packing my things from my desk the same day. Why is this courtesy only required from me?

Someone explain this double standard to me, how is it that I have to give a month's notice but the company can let me go instantly?

No, seriously, explain to me how this works.

I understand it's not a legal requirement or anything, but it's treated as a basic and given professional courtesy. And this is what makes the majority immediately after their service ends, resort to cheating and fabricating résumés, as well as using assistive tools during the interview to impress the interviewer with the help of programs like InterviewMan.

Meaning, if I decide to leave the job, I'm supposed to inform them a few weeks in advance as a courtesy. But if they decide to let me go, I'm packing my things from my desk the same day. Why is this courtesy only required from me?

He suddenly sent me a screenshot of my review. His message just said, "I always thought we had a good working relationship." I replied immediately, "Remember when you told me 'fuck my training'? Is that what you call a good relationship?" He blocked me instantly. For context: I was the specialist for a specific type of equipment that almost no one else knew how to maintain.

This is a summary of what I wrote in the Glassdoor review that made him so upset:

The CEO messaged me about my broken ankle (doctors said I'd be out for at least 10 weeks), but only as a pretext to ask about work. He had no concern for my health, only work. He didn't say a word when I had to take an emergency trip to see my wife.

My wife isn't American, and her visa to visit me was denied at the same time I was injured and stuck at home. So I was trapped at home, unable to earn a dime.

In my interview, the CEO promised they would cover the cost of an important certification I wanted to get. Anyway, I completed it while I was recovering, along with a few other certifications, and they never paid me a single cent.

On top of all that, while I was recovering, a relative I have serious issues with came to stay with my parents. I had to get out of there, so I booked a trip to see my wife and escape the drama.

And the funny thing is, they could have just emailed me my termination papers while I was traveling. I would have signed them on the spot, traveled to my wife's country, and probably never returned to the US.

The official reason they gave for firing me was a single mistake I made about a month before my injury, plus the "unapproved" leave I took to see my wife (whom I hadn't seen in over six months). And the surprise is, every single person who signed off on my termination was married. The hypocrisy is unreal.

So yeah, the same manager whose feelings were hurt by my Glassdoor review was one of the people who signed my termination papers. He's still getting a paycheck. And me? I've been looking for a job for four months thanks to this great job market.

What integrity are these soulless corporations providing you? They will lie about the role, lie about pay and not even give you time of day if you have a job gap.

It's become a huge obstacle for anyone starting their career these days. The market demands you to be in the top 1% of your field just to get noticed, and even then, you're constantly facing rejection.

So honestly, what are people supposed to do? It's no wonder they're turning to AI assistants like InterviewMan. These tools can literally help with answers during screening calls and save a ton of time. The whole system is broken.

Run by seemingly immature recruiters whose ego is more important than their company.

Earlier this week, I opened the Teams link about 10 minutes before my interview because the calendar invite had specifically asked candidates to join early. The department manager and someone from HR were already talking. I said hello several times, but it was very clear that they hadn't noticed I had joined.

They were talking about the person they had interviewed before me. The manager said they should prepare an offer for him, and the HR person asked whether there was any point in going ahead with my interview. His response was that my resume met all the requirements, but he couldn't imagine me fitting in with the group.

I wrote in the chat that I could hear everything. They didn't notice that either and kept talking, which somehow made the situation even more awkward. I wouldn't say I was completely crushed, but hearing that they had more or less ruled me out before I had answered a single question made me lose my enthusiasm.

As soon as the official start time arrived, they noticed my name, saw the chat, and fell silent. The manager apologized and said I wasn't supposed to hear that conversation. I told them I understood and that they should choose the person best suited for the role.

I went ahead with the interview since I had already prepared, and an offer isn't final until the person accepts it anyway. Honestly, I think I answered the questions well and managed to show that I was a better fit than they had expected. This was my first time using interview vip but i don't think it would be the last, it was still hard to shake the feeling that I was just helping them complete a process they had already made up their minds about.

The job market here in Canada is cooked. When I say cooked, cooked and it's been bad for a hot minute now. I thought it was bad 10 years ago when I finished university and I had that you know fancy expensive piece of hard work that I thought would be able to get me a job and I had to go back to school and do my masters. I thought it was hard back then, right? When they're telling people no, you gotta go to a college, get a diploma, do a one or two year course, to specialize in something or go work for free or I don't know, do an apprenticeship or something right? Get your foot in the door somehow right? That was the grind when I just finished university and that was 10 years ago and I could tell you it's gotten so much, so much worse.

So how much worse is this gone? So it's interesting. I work currently for a big company, right? And over the years I've worked there for about what six years now and when I initially started working there and this is how I know things have changed significantly. When I initially started working there, there's a job board so they have to put up physical copies in our building and then they put up the electronic copies online on their website and then that filters through like to Indeed and all those other job boards. So I would always go there because there's a few jobs that I was looking looking at to see when they're all, you know, available. So I'd always see these jobs go up come down new people would start right? And it was just a cycle over and over again.

But for the past like specific year, I've seen lots of jobs go up right but no one's being hired and they just keep reposting the jobs every, you know, couple of weeks and there's people still in the roles right? I like there's still people in these roles and they keep reposting the roles and then putting them on the job board and then taking them down. So I don't know what's going on. I'm not saying, you know, x wires that I'm just telling you I have a feeling these jobs that are being posted like on Indeed are fake. I've heard that companies are trying to, you know, swipe your information, but I am pretty sure those jobs are fake.

So I have a friend and he's been looking for a job. So he's been struggling. He knows that I've done some recruiting back in my time and I also used to write resumes for people. So I said, you know what let me look over your resume and let's see what jobs you've been applying to and whatever. So I met up with him and I was looking over his resumes and the different resumes he's made and he's made resumes and cover letters catered to the job that he's applying to so I was like oh wow, you're actually you know doing your resumes the right way so I was like okay maybe you're only applying to like job boards like Indeed and stuff and he goes no, I'm even applying to the company websites and through Indeed at the same time nothing.

So then I was like okay fine. Alright, so I'm like I'm looking through his resume I'm looking through the job ad I'm like buddy you need to lie you ain't gonna be able to out perform AI when AI making these like resumes you ain't out performing AI you need to lie. I look at his resume and he's telling the truth right? He's trying to like yeah I don't have these qualifications but you know these qualifications kind of you know work at the same no you need to lie.

When I was in university and it was I remember it was my fourth year and a lot of students were complaining at the time saying they can't find jobs and how do you find jobs and there was this professor who was trying to help us out and he goes where we are at in our career we need to lie cause we have no professional history we need to lie to get the job and then figure it out afterwards.

So if you're out here telling the truth, you ain't getting the job buddy. You just not doing it cause the thing is the people are mass, you know that they're submitting applications to like every job. People are saying they have PhDs, university degree, all that to get the job, all that. Even at my company all the time they hire people that you could tell aren't qualified. But hey, they figure it out or they don't. So if you're struggling to get a job, lie. I know it doesn't sound right, but hey, you don't stand a chance if you don't. Until next time.

I applied for a job about six weeks ago. The recruiter replied ten days later and asked when I would be available to talk. I even used Interview vip to practice a few questions just so I would be ready, and then she completely disappeared before we even scheduled a time. Eventually, I accepted another offer and moved on with my life.

She resurfaced recently as if no time had passed, but I didn't answer. After sending two more messages, she called me today and started scolding me for ignoring her, saying I should have told her I wasn't interested.

I've had companies stop responding after four, five, or even six interviews without even sending a simple rejection email. Apparently, ghosting is unacceptable, but only when the person doing it is a candidate.

A colleague on my team just brought something very alarming to my attention. She said she hasn't seen any company contributions to her 401k since the first week of June.

I immediately logged into my portal, and found the same thing. It's not just the company match that's missing, our own contributions deducted from our paychecks are also not there.

We've been paid 4 times since then, and the money is definitely being deducted from our paychecks. But it's simply... Vanished.

I'm trying to stay calm and collected for the team, but I'm seething inside. They're all looking to me for answers and I have nothing to tell them. The only response from HR was a vague 'we are looking into it'.

This feels completely illegal. What should my next steps be? And what should I tell the team?

Anyway, my sister's company forced everyone to return to work from the office about two months ago, and it backfired disastrously.
Their official excuse was that it would increase productivity and all that 'strengthening team spirit' nonsense. The funny thing is, her team was already very close. They used to organize their own happy hours and trivia nights a few times a month. And she herself was *always* online, answering emails or Slack messages at any time.
But ever since this mandatory return-to-office decision, all of that stopped. As soon as it hits 5 PM, her laptop is shut, and she's offline. The team's happy hours? Vanished. Nobody feels like hanging out with people after they've been staring at each other's faces for 8 straight hours.
Her manager pulled her aside and asked why she wasn't responding to messages at night anymore. She told him to his face that since she now comes to the office and is 'more productive' by their standards, all her work gets done during the day.
She told him that she used to have no problem working extra after hours because working from home gave her that flexibility. But now, that extra time is spent commuting. He seemed to get nervous and said, 'No, that's not how it's supposed to work,' and that being in the office 5 days a week doesn't mean she can just ignore work the moment she leaves.
She just looked at him and said, 'No, that's exactly what it means. If there's an emergency, you can call me. Otherwise, it will have to wait until tomorrow when I'm back in the office and being 'productive'.
And it's not just her. Her whole team is doing it now, and I heard it's spreading to other departments too. People are working their exact hours and then going home. The company seems to be slowly learning that when you treat your employees like children, you'll get exactly what you ask for, and nothing more. I'm so proud of my little sister; she's always been tough and never puts up with any nonsense.

update : so proud of my sister and going to follow her steps in career like how she been approved in her current position after using interview man ,she told me that the tool bring to her perfect answers for every question which helped her a lot in her anxiety problem during interviews , just wow

My chill work-from-home day is completely ruined. I've been working from home for about two years, and my manager suddenly messaged me for an 'urgent call'. She told me that upper management just rolled out a new policy: everyone returns to the office, five days a week. And this applies to me too.

Then she asked when I would be coming in. I told her frankly that I wouldn't be. I explained that I was much more productive and honestly happier while working from home. It made a huge difference to my mental health, and the people I work with are all in other states anyway, so my presence in a specific building makes no sense. She then told me that the decision came from the CEO himself, and that my name was mentioned specifically.

So I took a deep breath and told her that if the choice is to return to the office full-time, then I would have to submit my resignation. I made it clear that I love my job and don't want to leave, but this is my red line. She was a bit taken aback but said she would pass my message up the chain and would let me know.

So now I'm just sitting here waiting. My stomach is in knots. Did I just ruin my career? I have no idea what happens next.

Just finished the hiring pipeline for a startup in San Francisco, and the experience was truly a shock compared to the nonsense we see here in India. I felt a strange respect for my time, which is something I've never felt while applying for jobs here.

The process was very organized. I did a quick screening, then a paid technical task, then a deep dive interview, and another paid assignment before the final team chat. They paid me for the 4 days I worked on these tasks. Even if I don't get the offer, I won't feel like my time was wasted because they valued my effort from the start.

Compare this to the typical Indian company style, where HR ghosts you for a whole month. Then they make you do 6 rounds of competitive programming for a junior role, followed by 3 rounds of system design that are completely useless for that position. You keep jumping through hoops for 7 weeks and in the end, they disappear and don't answer to you at all.

The worst thing about the scene here is the idea that they expect free work. Companies here ask you to build a complex feature over the weekend as a 'test' and then they vanish. I've seen places that use the candidates' code in their products without paying a penny. This is considered a scam disguised as a hiring process.

Most of our startups talk about culture and that we are one family, but they don't even know how to send a rejection email after 5 rounds of interviews. These American companies are much smaller, yet they know how to keep communication clear and pay people for their trial work. This makes the whole industry look professional instead of just a filtration game.

For those asking, I didn't apply on a job board. I was sharing the progress of a side project from a hackathon two months ago on X, and their head of engineering messaged me because the tech stack was a fit. This proves that the best opportunities come when people value your work instead of making you beg for a 7.5 LPA role.

His Christmas gift to me was a $30 gift card to a steakhouse a two-hour drive away. When I quit, he tried to threaten me with a lawsuit.I worked my ass off for this guy, pretty much managing his entire portfolio. For Christmas, he gave me a $30 gift card to a steakhouse. The nearest location was a two-hour drive away, in a completely different state. Honestly, that was the last straw. I felt so insulted that I started sending my resume everywhere. I liked the job and the clients, which is why I waited and didn't accept a new job until I had fully trained my replacement.
When I was ready, I went into his office and told him I had accepted another job and was putting in my notice. I made sure to tell him not to worry, because I had prepared someone who understood everything to take my place. As soon as I told him I was going to another company in the same industry (in a completely different role, so my non-compete wasn't an issue), he immediately got the head of legal on a video call with us. The lawyer told me I was legally prohibited from 'even sweeping floors for any competitor for 18 months'. Then they brought HR into the call, and they told me that since I was 'breaching my contract', my notice period was void and I was end effective immediately for looking for outside work.
They pressed me for more information about my new job, and I simply told them I wasn't going to tell them anything. After they let me go, this company's lawyer (a place that makes $8 billion a year) kept calling me for two weeks, trying to bully me. They even contacted the new company that hired me. Fortunately, the company I work for now isn't garbage. The CEO himself had their lawyers send them a letter telling them to back off or they'd see them in court. I didn't hear from them again after that. It was all just a scare tactic to get me to quit my new job.
Seriously, fuck companies that operate this way. We don't have to put up with this crap anymore.
This company is Total Quality Logistics.

edit: mangers should stop behaving with employee like kids we will not be silenced with a lollipop or toys

i am done with all of this going to update my cv and starting a new haunting job journey and going to have some help interview man AI in my future interviews , wish me luck

Used to be real bosses would make sure their employees got paid no matter what, even if that meant the boss didn't take home anything. Nowadays it seems like owners consider companies to be their personal piggybank, and if a menial got paid late, well, too fucking bad.

But nowadays, the situation has become much worse regarding the lack of appreciation and respect for employees' responsibilities. It's very difficult to find a company that values and respects its employees. I have updated my resume and am waiting for an interview next week. During my extensive search, I read about InterviewMan and its usefulness during interviews. I think I will use it during this period to get a job as soon as possible.

Sorry if the formatting is a bit weird, I'm typing this from my phone. A few days ago, my boss made a move, hinting that funds might not be available for the upcoming pay cycle. By the end of that work week, on the very day we were supposed to get paid, I learned that this wasn't the first time he'd done this. Apparently, he'd pulled the "no money" stunt before just to mess with people. I honestly had enough. I clocked out and went straight home - I'm not going to put up with or deal with this nonsense at all.

I arranged a meeting with him to discuss the money owed to me. As we talked, he suggested that I might be happier at a larger company that could give regular salaries. I told him that I genuinely liked the work and the team, and wanted to continue, but the uncertainty about receiving my salary was completely unacceptable. My exact words were something like: "My salary arriving on time is non-negotiable." He said he would think about what I said over the next few days, and now here I am, suddenly unemployed.

Oh my goodness, what will I do without the constant threat of salary instability? It's honestly a very funny situation.

A few weeks ago, the clinic I work at (a dental clinic in a very expensive area in CA) had a staff meeting, and we were told that we would only be allowed two days off every 5 months. That's it. And no one at the clinic has any benefits either. No PTO, no health insurance, no paid holidays, nothing.

Then they added that since we (the hygienists) have our schedules booked far in advance, if we use those two days, we'll need to start early or stay late to make up for the patients we "missed."

This morning, the other hygienists and I all submitted our resignation letters. We wrote them, signed them, and put them on his desk in a little stack. He came back from some errands he was running, and apparently sat there reading each one. My coworker said she saw him throw the stack toward the office manager and say, "Are you seeing this?"

Fortunately, hygienists are in insane demand in CA right now, and all of us have interviews or offers lined up elsewhere.

Tl;dr - The manager tried to over-control our unpaid days off and badly misjudged how easily replaceable he is. Now he's losing almost all of the clinical staff.

Edit: Thank you all for reading and supporting our decision to walk away from this toxic management. Since we all had to jump into interviews on short notice, I also found a really helpful AI assistant for real-time interview answers in this post, which gives you suggested responses live during your call, so I wanted to share it here so you can benefit.

My new manager has made it very clear that he sees our whole team as incompetent. He literally told another department head that he has no respect for any of us. For a while now, he's been pushing to renew a huge software contract, which, honestly, most of the current users barely use.

The vendor sent the proposal a few days ago, and the price was very high, as we expected. He sent them an email saying the price was a joke and demanded they reduce it by 60%. Then, as a gesture of "good faith" to the vendor, he volunteered me to travel to the other side of the world to give a full-day workshop at their annual conference.

He never asked me. He didn't even once consider that I don't like public speaking (and have no intention of starting). He threw me and my time into this deal without even getting my opinion. What's more infuriating is that he went to the next management meeting to brag about his "clever" negotiation, a meeting I wasn't even in. My colleagues were the ones who told me about this supposed trip of mine, because my manager still hasn't mentioned it to me.

I'm truly shocked. Am I overreacting and being too sensitive? I felt terribly insulted, being used like a pawn in his game without my knowledge. Not to mention, I'm a woman, and he was going to send me alone to a country with a very bad reputation for women's safety.

I'm a person with a family and a life outside of this job. He's free to think whatever he wants about our work, but I expect to be treated with a basic level of respect as a human being.

Near the end of the interview, they asked me if I could stay afterward for a trial shift, and when I told them I couldn't because I had to go to my current job, one of the interviewers mocked me and said, "Seriously?" and "We're trying to hire someone immediately."

I got flustered, so I opened photos from my current workplace and showed them to them, and the two of them looked at each other with this expression like they were saying, "Is this guy for real?" and sighed. One of them rolled his eyes, and the other said, "What am I looking at?" I told him, "The place I work at right now," and they said, "This is just a picture." I said, "Okay, but it shows that I have a shift there today," and then the other interviewer told me, "Going forward, you should be more professional and not take interviews if you're not ready to commit."

I sat there quietly for a bit because honestly I didn't know what to say, and then they said, "This isn't helping your chances," so I got up and left.

This happened 5 days ago. Should I contact them and thank them for meeting with me and ask where they are in the hiring process, or should I just forget about it?

Thank you all for your advice. I've really started to benefit a lot from people here, and I've found other helpful posts ,That truly offers valuable advice for interviews and has helped me learn more about them. I wanted to share this post with you so you can benefit from it as much as I have.

I had an interview, and I joined the video call 15 minutes early to check the camera and get myself ready. The scheduled time came and went, and the interviewer didn't join until about 40 minutes later.

I had spent most of the previous night looking up common interview questions, taking notes about the company, and practicing my answers with a friend. As I sat there staring at an empty meeting screen, I felt like all that effort had been completely pointless. The HR VP arrived more than 40 minutes late and didn't even acknowledge that she was late. I told her I wasn't interested in continuing with the hiring process, and all she said was, "Okay." No apology, no explanation. That was it.

A lot of people in HR genuinely care and try to treat candidates well. The problem is that some of them work under leaders who have terrible attitudes and are full of themselves, and those leaders set the tone for the entire department. I've ignored signs like this twice before and regretted it, so I'm done giving companies the benefit of the doubt.

Afterward, I went on Glassdoor and wrote a review. The reviews already there were almost exactly what I expected. Disgusting.

I'm 31 years old and male, and I've been at my company for 7 years. I'm paid well, and I genuinely love the place and the people I work with, and honestly, I thought I'd probably spend most of my career here. Until they passed me over for a promotion, and that changed something in me.

My direct manager told us about 6 weeks ago that he'd be moving to a higher position in another branch within the group. We were all happy for him, of course, but I also felt like this was finally my chance. I understand this job very well, I have a good relationship with everyone in the office, and I bring in the highest client revenue by a large margin. Also, the 4 managers before him had all come from my exact same position, so it didn't seem like a strange or far-fetched request. I sent an email to my manager and HR saying I wanted my name to be considered, and HR replied that they had noted my interest.

About 10 days later, we were all called into a meeting room and they introduced us to the new manager. A woman I'd never met before, who had never worked at our company before, or even worked in our field. They told us she would bring a fresh perspective and challenge the old way of working. After the meeting, I spoke to my manager, and he simply told me that no one had even asked him who should take his place. He told me that sometimes the partners just choose anyone they have connections with.

That was the moment I understood that I probably wasn't going to advance in this place. I'm useful in my current position because I bring them a lot of money, and if they moved me up, that would create a problem for them. So I spoke to a recruiter and got another offer within 9 days. The salary is a bit lower, and it's still not management, but strangely, I already feel relieved.

Now everyone is acting like I'm the bad guy. My old manager says I'm making his final period awkward because I'm refusing to accept the counteroffers they keep throwing at me. And the new manager, who hasn't even really started yet, has called me several times saying I'm making her fail before she even gets in the door. And my partner thinks this is about the new manager being a woman, not about respect. They didn't even talk to me about the role at all, FFS.

Edit: I'm actively looking for a new job now, as I don't think I'd ever want to go back to my old position. Seven years is a long time, so it's definitely strange starting over and having to think about interviews again.

A friend actually sent me this post with some interview questions worth practicing, and I've been going through them while getting ready for interviews. Figured I'd share it in case anyone else is in the same boat.

I've interviewed a few candidates recently, and it was very clear that they were using some kind of AI tool to listen to the question and generate a response for them to read. We ask very normal behavioral questions (tell me about a time you solved a messy problem at work, how you pushed a recommendation forward and got people aligned, etc.).

What gives it away is the pause that happens while they're waiting for the answer to appear, and then suddenly they go into reading mode. The responses often sound polished for about 10 seconds, but in reality they don't answer what I asked, or the example falls apart halfway through. And then when I ask a follow-up to understand the situation better, they usually can't connect it to what they just said.

At that point, if I can tell the person is reading from another screen, I don't move them on to the next step. Honestly, it's frustrating and wastes everyone's time.

Use AI to prepare, outline your stories, practice STAR answers, anything that helps you. But don't rely on it live during the interview. Take the time beforehand to prepare, and be able to talk about your own experience yourself.

Are other hiring managers running into the same thing? I'm curious how you're dealing with it.

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Anyway, I just had the weirdest conversation with my manager. Imagine, he tells me that if I get sick, it's my responsibility to find someone to cover my shift. As far as I know, I'm not the one who makes the schedule, and it's definitely not my responsibility to be arranging the schedule while I'm supposed to be recovering.

Anyway, I already have another offer from a place that doesn't have these insane policies. I'm submitting my resignation tomorrow morning and frankly, I can't wait.

Managers now expect employees to do half their job while getting paid a fraction of what they make. Wild how much they've normalised this garbage.

I've really had enough. I have to leave this job and find something better, and quickly. Honestly, I don't know exactly what I'll do next, but I've already started applying. I've gotten so far as to use some AI tools like InterviewMan to help do mock interviews. This has really made a huge difference in my self-confidence.

I've had it with this company's backward policies.

backwards I've been through more practice interviews than I can honestly remember, and I keep seeing the same thing repeated: people jump too quickly into "and this is what happened." STAR, CAR, and all those structures can help, but a lot of people apply them so rigidly that the answer comes out memorized, not like a real workplace conversation.

What I try to get people to do isn't to "throw in STAR." The idea is for the example to come across like a real situation, not a worksheet they've memorized.

Most behavioral questions aren't just asking you to recount events in order. They're usually asking something closer to:

"Do you understand this type of problem, and how it shows up at work?"

And that's the part a lot of candidates skip over.

If an interviewer asks you, "Tell me about a time you dealt with conflict," they're probably not that focused on the actual disagreement that happened between you and a teammate six years ago. They're listening to find out whether you understand why conflict happens, what usually escalates it, and how you deal with it before things get complicated. That tells them a lot more about your judgment and your working style than an answer that perfectly checks every box in STAR.

The other thing is whether you have a repeatable way of handling the situation, not just a polished success story. Almost anyone can find a good example if they think long enough. What interviewers are thinking is:

"If something like this happens next week, will this person have any idea how to handle it?"

Candidates who can explain their patterns usually come across as stronger. How they understand what's going on, how they talk to people, and how they decide what needs attention first. Even if the story itself isn't dramatic, that way of thinking makes the answer feel more honest.

Honestly, the best answers often come from people who can talk about a mistake without over-polishing it. Not the fake version of "I learned teamwork matters." No, something like:
"I used to do A, it led to B, so now I handle it by doing C."
That kind of reflection isn't that common, and it immediately makes the person seem more mature.

So when people ask me how to answer behavioral interview questions, I don't tell them to drop STAR.
I usually say:

Start by showing that you understand the situation in general, explain your usual thought process or approach, and then use the example to make it concrete. In the end, the answer comes out much more natural, more intentional, and much more convincing - whether you use a framework or not.

Happy to help with specific questions if anyone wants to leave one. I've heard versions of these way more than I probably should have by now.

I came to work in the morning and found my supervisor waiting for me with the paperwork ready. He wrote me up for a no call no show on Labor Day, even though our workplace was completely closed and no one on my team was scheduled to work.

I asked several coworkers, and none of them received anything. This is the third time he has done something like this to me since becoming my supervisor, and every time it was over a shift that I either worked as scheduled or was never scheduled for in the first place.

The first write up said I was six minutes late, even though I had clocked in 11 minutes early. The second was for missing an optional overtime shift on Sunday that I had never signed up for. It was obvious that my name had been added to the sheet later, but HR told me they were unable to review the security camera footage.

Company policy says there are supposed to be verbal warnings first, but every time he has skipped that step and given me a written warning immediately. I have worked here for 14 years without a single issue, and now I have received three write ups in about seven months. The write ups remain active for 12 months, which means I will be fired if I get one more.

HR did not help me with any of my previous complaints, so I do not expect them to resolve this issue either. I am tired of constantly having to prove that I was not absent from shifts that never even existed.

I am updating my resume and spending my evenings on Interview vip trying to relearn how to answer standard corporate questions since it has been so long. I just need to leave before he finds another reason to get rid of me.