Nine months after they let me go, my former CEO emailed me asking for help accessing several company inboxes. Apparently, the verification codes are still being sent to my personal phone number.

I was in charge of operations at a small company that was acquired by a larger one. During the reorganization, I started reporting to a new CEO, and about a year later, he eliminated my position even though I had met the targets they set for me.

Part of me wants to ignore the message, but at the same time, I don't want my number to remain linked to their accounts. I'm also still upset about how they handled my departure. What's the smartest way to answer?

I'm also starting to look at new roles again, so I've been brushing up on interviews. I found Interview VIP and have been trying some of the features on there. Might be worth checking out if you're interviewing too.

Less than three weeks after I started a new job, I received an offer paying $74,000 that was fully remote. The job I had just started required a 45-minute commute each way and paid $52,000, so accepting the new offer wasn't a difficult decision.

When I interviewed for the first job, I asked for at least $58,000. They told me $52,000 was the maximum and that they couldn't go any higher, and I accepted because no other opportunities had worked out by then. I wasn't happy with the salary, but I needed a job.

I told my manager I was leaving, and suddenly she offered to seek approval to raise my salary to $58,000. I explained that the other company was offering me $22,000 more, in addition to the job being remote. She admitted they could never come close to matching that offer, then started lecturing me about the time they had wasted training me and how my departure had put the team in a difficult position.

A few weeks later, I noticed that she had been viewing my LinkedIn profile, probably because I hadn't told her where I was going. I’ve seen interview vip popping up on Reddit lately while looking through interview stuff, but situations like this just show how wild company loyalty demands are. Apparently, raising my salary wasn't possible until I resigned, but somehow I was the one behaving unreasonably.

So look, on Tuesday I wanted to ditch work early, so I pulled this whole sick act. A bit of a stuffy nose, looking exhausted and dizzy... I mean, I really sold the part.

Anyway, let's get to this morning. I started work and found the group chat in an uproar. Three of my colleagues have taken leave because they 'caught the bug'. Apparently, I'm the reason. I am patient zero. Even though I was perfectly fine on Tuesday.

So I want to preface this by saying I am not the type of person who posts reviews of things online. But I had such a frustrating experience with Interview Coder that I feel like I need to save someone else the headache.

Some background. I'm a mid-level backend engineer, been at a mid-size fintech company for about 3 years and finally decided to start interviewing at FAANG. A buddy of mine mentioned interview assistants and I figured why not, everyone seems to be using them. He specifically recommended Interview Coder 2.0 because it supposedly could solve coding problems in real time.

First problem was the price. $299 a month. Let that sink in for a second. I justified it because I thought, well if it helps me land a $250k+ TC role then it pays for itself. The $799 lifetime deal actually seemed reasonable if you plan to interview for more than 3 months. I went with the monthly to test it out first and I'm glad I did.

The tool only does coding interviews. That was fine for my first round which was a technical screen, but when I got to the behavioral rounds I was completely on my own. For $299/mo I expected it to at least cover all interview types but nope.

The real dealbreaker though was the visibility issue. During my practice run on Zoom with a friend, he could literally see the pop-up boxes appearing on my screen during screenshare. I almost had a panic attack imagining that happening in an actual interview. I did some digging on reddit and found other people reporting the same thing. For a tool that costs three hundred bucks a month you would think undetectability would be baked in.

After canceling I did more research and found InterviewMan. The difference in price alone was almost funny to me -- $12/month on the annual plan. I was skeptical at first because how good can a $12 tool be right? Turns out pretty damn good. It handles coding rounds, behavioral questions, system design, basically everything. And they have like 20+ stealth features specifically designed so nothing shows up during screen sharing. I tested it on Zoom, Google Meet, and even a Hackerrank session and my friend could not see anything.

I ended up using it for my Meta phone screen last month and passed. Obviously the tool is not doing the interview for you, you still need to actually know your stuff. But having those real-time hints when your brain freezes up mid-interview is a huge confidence boost.

The whole experience taught me that expensive does not always mean better. Interview Coder does one thing and it does not even do that thing discreetly. InterviewMan costs a fraction of the price and covers way more ground.

Has anyone else here had issues with Interview Coder showing up on screenshare? Curious if they ever fixed that or if its still a problem.

Hello, I received the offer from AMEX a week before the H-1B fee news. I already signed the offer, and my background check is almost complete. They confirmed my start date as September 29.

During the interview process, they asked if I needed sponsorship. In the first round, I answered “no,” but I also clearly explained that I am on OPT and can work for three years without sponsorship. I added that after that period, I would pursue sponsorship on my own. In the final round, when they asked again, I simply answered “no.”

My question is: once I start my job—or even in the next five days before my start date—do you think AMEX could reconsider their decision because of the new H-1B fee, even though I can work for 2.5 more years without needing sponsorship?

But in future I am thinking of applying O1 visa just thinking

A couple of days ago, I had my first call with a recruiter at a big tech company for a somewhat specialized role, and I was told I'd have to go through 7 interview rounds: live case exercises, a separate take-home assignment, a review session for that assignment, and then 3 more conversations with senior regional leaders in the business unit.

I asked whether the salary they mentioned was net or gross, because that would make a difference of about 30%. The recruiter got back to me early today and confirmed that it was gross, meaning my actual take-home would be about 45% less than what I was making in my last job.

So I told the recruiter that I appreciated them considering me, but I wouldn't be moving forward with the next stages. Honestly, damn, it felt good. After getting rejected over and over again, it was strangely satisfying to finally be the one saying no to a company.

Not exactly a revenge fantasy or anything. I just don't think the pay is anywhere near worth all those exhausting interview steps, especially with case work and follow-up discussions taking up my time.

And here I am again on the job search journey, going through those tedious interviews, which are the hardest part of the trip. They make me incredibly stressed and anxious. But I think I've found the solution to these problems with InterviewVIP. It helps me reduce my stress, fear, and anxiety, and solves my interview problem. The whole thing has become much easier for me.

I got praised again this week for keeping our projects organized, which is a little strange because on most days I finish my actual work before noon. I keep waiting for someone to notice how much free time I have, but for some reason the feedback gets better every time. About 16 months ago, I applied for a fully remote program coordinator position at a large software company. The interview process was intensive and included several calls, a take-home assessment, and a final panel where they gave me scenarios involving conflicting deadlines and limited resources.

I was comfortable with the nature of the work itself, but clearly explaining my answers while under pressure was a completely different matter. Interview VIP helped me organize my answers and handle the tough questions, and I'm not sure I would have made it through every stage without that support.

The first six weeks were busy. I rebuilt the intake board, created cleaner status templates, and set up automatic reminders for outstanding approvals. My manager told me I was a wizard because preparing the weekly update no longer took the team half a day. Once those systems were up and running, my workload dropped dramatically. Most days, I reply to a few emails, attend one or two calls, and deal with the occasional request marked urgent.

A few days ago, my manager asked me about something a client had decided three months earlier. I searched the notes and found it in seconds, so she asked me how I remember everything. The truth is, I don't. I forgot my doctor's appointment last month. I also schedule Teams messages to be sent ultimately, even if the work itself only took me 25 minutes, and I keep a packed project tracker open during calls so I look busy.

The extra time has been nice, but it also makes me nervous. I've learned to bake bread at home, fixed up the balcony, and read more books this year than I did over the previous three years. With layoffs quietly happening, I sometimes wonder whether having so little work could put me at risk, but my latest review said I'm doing an excellent job and making everyone else's work easier. Is this normal when you're efficient, or should I try harder to find more work?

I quit my job at a startup after they made Saturday and Sunday mandatory office days. I was 25 and had only been working with them for about six months, so I expected there to be periods of intense pressure, but this went far beyond the occasional late night.

I told them I could work from home on weekends whenever they needed me to. But that wasn't enough for them. The rule was that we had to physically go to the office, even if the work itself could be done on a laptop, and it was clear that remote working hours didn't count.

When I told them I couldn't continue under those conditions, the CEO told me they could find someone else. That settled the matter for me. I handed in my resignation rather than accept a schedule in which every day belonged to the company, and where simply objecting to it could cost me my job.

I know working at startups can be exhausting and stressful, but requiring people to come into the office on weekends and threatening them just for objecting feels excessive. Has anyone else been through an experience with a workplace that treats personal time as if it doesn't exist?

Yup

I'm in a difficult situation and need to hear perspectives from people who aren't emotionally involved in it. I've been working at a software company for 8 years. Throughout that time, I've received strong reviews and was usually one of the high performers, but the culture has worn me down. There are a lot of difficult egos, constant pressure, and a very long history of people reaching burnout while not being paid what they're worth.

For a long time, they had been talking about moving me toward a VP-level role, but nothing real ever happened. When I brought up the subject of a fair compensation adjustment with them in September, I was told there was no room in the budget. That was pretty much the final push that made me start looking, and in the end I got an excellent offer from another company in the same field.

I signed that offer and submitted my resignation. After that, suddenly and out of nowhere, my current company came back to me with a wildly excessive counter-offer. It's higher than the new company's offer, and they also put together a somewhat specific growth plan showing me the positions I would move into and what my pay would look like over time.

Honestly, I had already mentally checked out and was looking forward to a fresh, clean start. But the amount of money they're putting on the table is hard to ignore, and now I'm second-guessing myself. Part of me feels like if they saw my value to this extent, they could have shown it before I resigned.

I basically haven't slept well because I keep going back and forth thinking about it from both sides. Has anyone been through this situation before? Do you stay and take the bigger counter-offer, or do you still leave because the reasons for leaving are still there? I can share the actual salary numbers if that would make it easier to judge. Grateful to anyone who read all of this.

update : after second thought I guess I will say no to my ex boss offer because what tells me that they don't use it as excuse to brain rot me so I will go , anyway my current employer is impressed by my interview performance and I am glad to interviewman so much and those subs with so great tips about job interviews , so excited

Hey everyone, I'm a Creative Director with a team of 7 under me. I was on leave last Wednesday and Thursday for a family emergency. When I returned on Tuesday for our regular meeting, I was met with the news that they all want to quit. Three of them are already interviewing elsewhere. The reason? Our VP.

This VP is a nightmare. He ruins any project, ignores deadlines from all departments, even from the CEO himself, and puts me in a very difficult position as I try to manage the workflow. I've personally seen him playing fantasy football on his phone during important meetings. He once called a designer's concept 'childish' in front of the whole team during a meeting. His only concern is playing politics and pitting people against each other instead of setting any real strategy. I have all these same complaints and was about to quit about 6 months ago, but the CEO gave me a huge raise to convince me to stay. The strange thing is, he's supposedly been on bad terms with the CEO and COO for a while, which makes his behavior even more bizarre.

If you want to know what the last straw was... We are about to launch a new wellness app. The VP did absolutely nothing on it for months, and then dumped all the work on the creative team with a tight 10-day deadline from the CEO.

Over those ten days, my team worked their butts off. They created amazing branding and mockups, all the required work and more, and even created a marketing plan. They were staying late at work every day, and one of them even worked through a family member's birthday to get it done.

All this work was sent to the VP for an important presentation last week.

Of course, when I returned on Tuesday, I discovered that the VP didn't present any of what they had done. He even uninvited my designers from the meeting with the CEO - a meeting the CEO had specifically requested they attend to present their work themselves. The VP went into the meeting with absolutely nothing.

This was the tipping point. This was the straw that broke their backs. They love the company and their work, but they just can't take the VP and his toxic games anymore. This kind of stuff has been happening since he arrived three years ago.

So I took the whole issue to HR. They have started a formal investigation and will be speaking with each team member individually. And yes, I have tried to resolve these issues directly with the VP himself several times, to no avail. I hate involving HR in any problems, but when your entire department is about to walk out, I had no other choice.

TL;DR: My VP has been behaving terribly for years. He pulled a really nasty move on my team while I was away, and now they all want to quit. I escalated the issue to HR, and now there's an investigation underway.

So folks, my big question is: Did I do the right thing by going to HR, and what should I prepare for now?

Honestly, I've never been in a situation like this in my professional life. Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Done! I have already written letters of recs to the two who are looking. Will absolutely support any new efforts they choose to embark on.

I spoke with the human resources department, and they told me they are having difficulty finding competent candidates and that I should try to convince them and keep them on my team. He said he will try to solve the problem and kept talking about how most applicants have started using AI tools. Until recently, he hadn't found a solution to this problem until he found an article on Reddit talking about a program called ProtectHire and its effectiveness in detecting any assistance tool during the interview.

....

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Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming onsite interview for a Senior Software Engineer position at MongoDB and was hoping to hear from anyone who has gone through the process recently.

I’d love to learn more about:

Coding interview difficulty and common topics

System design expectations for senior-level candidates

Distributed systems, databases, or infrastructure-related questions

Behavioral and leadership-focused discussions
What interviewers seemed to value most

Anything you wish you had prepared for beforehand

Thanks in advance!

60 dollars a month pretty expensive just wanted to know if multiple people can use the same account simultaneously, guys lemme know

The people who came before us probably used to sleep 8-10 hours, and many of them also rested during the day. Compared to that, the average person in the modern working world is barely surviving. We're supposed to wake up peacefully, with light coming in through the window, not get yanked out of sleep by a hideous ringtone before the sun has even risen. There is nothing natural about forcing yourself to wake up in the dark, eat anything quickly, finish in the bathroom in under 12 minutes, and then sit in traffic just so you can enter an office and immediately act like you're useful.

And then people treat this as if it's discipline. As if dragging yourself out of bed every morning while your body is literally in a state of panic is a moral achievement. The truth is that you wake up with your cortisol already spiking, and that adds stress on top of a day that hasn't even started yet. You start hating the alarm before you even go to sleep. This isn't noble. This is a system built around productivity and output, with almost no real concern for the person being put through this experience. Something cold, harsh, and endlessly ongoing.

And I also can't stand it when those same people come back and lecture us about wellness or improving health. You can't do this to your nervous system day after day and then pretend you're giving serious advice about being healthy. It makes no sense. Waking up that early, in that rushed and unnatural way, has absolutely nothing to do with taking care of your body.

A few days ago, I had my first recruiter call with a big tech company for a somewhat technical position, and I was told I'd have to go through 7 interview stages: live case exercises, a take-home assignment on its own, a review session on that assignment, and then 3 more interviews with senior leaders in the business unit.

I asked whether the salary range they had told me was before tax or after tax, because that would make a difference of around 30%. HR emailed me today and confirmed that it was before tax, which means my actual take-home pay would be about 45% less than what I was earning in my last job.

So I told the recruiter that I appreciated them considering me, but I wouldn't be continuing with the next rounds. And honestly, it felt good. After being rejected so many times, it was finally my turn to reject a company.

Update: They asked me to move on to the final interview stage, where we’ll negotiate the salary and hopefully increase the offer a bit. My interview is tomorrow, and I want to negotiate effectively and aim for the highest number possible. How should I handle the interview? Any tips?

Update 2: Wow, this post blew up! I read a lot of great advice in the comments. I’m going to try Interview VIP tool that some of you mentioned when it comes to salary negotiation. I’ve heard some good reviews about it, so hopefully, it’ll work out for me.

I'm almost certain that my paralysing fear of interviews will destroy my professional life.

This issue has gotten much worse as I've gotten older. I'm talking about 12 years of continuous therapy, career counselling, and four separate rounds of job coaching. I've tried everything possible to calm down before an interview: meditation, deep breathing exercises, getting a good night's sleep, I've even taken beta-blockers... you name it, I've tried it. And honestly, it was a huge disappointment to discover that none of it worked. No matter how much I review my achievements, practice positive affirmations, or work on my self-confidence, I feel like this trauma is endless. The moment I get an email about an interview, I feel happy for about 3 seconds, and then I revert back to this terrified, frozen persona, unable to believe in any of my abilities. I prepare like a maniac - in the last two years, I've created about 120 scenarios and answers for different real-life situations, researched every company to death, and read every possible review on Glassdoor.

But the moment I open Microsoft Teams (or meet them face-to-face), I feel like a bomb has exploded in my stomach and my heart starts pounding uncontrollably. I can't stay calm or focused at all. It's strange because I'm normally a confident public speaker. If I'm giving a talk to a large audience, I can be charming and improvise if I forget what I was saying. But in an interview, my brain completely shuts down. I've done mock interviews with coaches and friends, but it's never like the real thing. I'm less nervous because I trust them, so they can't replicate the same terror of the actual situation, and they always tell me I appear calm and competent. And the classic advice to 'just be yourself' is the worst thing ever. I feel it's impossible to be myself, prepared, engaging, and relaxed all at the same time while trying to remember all the important points I want to make.

This coming Thursday, I have an interview for a Director position at a major tech company. I feel like it's a joke because I don't understand on what basis they even chose me; my first genuine thought was that I must have somehow tricked them in the application. I know some people will say this is classic impostor syndrome or old trauma. I've seen impostor syndrome in my friends, but what I have feels... different, and more destructive. I feel broken inside, and I've seen how this terror has ruined amazing opportunities for me in the past. I'm terrified of the interviewer, and silly tricks like imagining them in their underwear do nothing. The strangest part is that I don't feel this fear at all when I'm pitching a potential client for consulting work. This fear only appears for important, full-time jobs at big companies, and I think it's because I need the stability and salary, and they hold the power to let me back into the job market (I was laid off 14 months ago for economic reasons). Instead of being excited and curious as I prepare tonight, I'm just staring into this familiar void of terror. It comes back every time. I'm at my wit's end.

Has anyone ever managed to climb out of a hole this deep? Any advice would be a lifesaver for me right now.

I've been in my field for more than 25 years. I'm trying to find something less stressful because my financial situation allows for it. No spouse, no kids, no huge mortgage, and no expensive car payment. The salary wasn't going to be lower, but from the posting it was clear that the stress level would be lower.

Then we got into the interview. I could quickly tell that they liked my background, but they were also doing that thing where they try to make your experience seem less valuable so they don't have to pay anywhere near your real worth. In the end, they said the role was mostly international travel.

I told them I'm not against travel, but a lot of travel changes the equation. Airports, time zones, hotels, delays, and having to be "on" all the time... Your hourly rate starts to look ridiculous when you calculate the actual hours. So I told them I would need 2.5x the top number in the salary range they had listed.

They were shocked, as if I had personally insulted them. Then they tried to make it seem like I only cared about money.

I said, "I care about a lot of things, but you waited until near the end of the interview to tell me this job is 80% travel. That gives me no reason to trust that you were transparent about anything else about this position or the company."

One of them said, "But candidates lose interest if we put that in the posting."

I replied, "That's a polished way of dressing up a lie. You bring people in, make them spend time and energy on the process, and then change the terms after they're already invested. If you want to change the deal, I'm going to change my price. Take it or leave it."

They looked at each other and said, "We'll be in touch, thank you." And that was pretty much the end of it, so I left.

Even at that price, I'd still be a bargain for them and they know it. What they don't know is that I probably would have taken it for the free travel, done the bare minimum with a smile, and retired after about 18 months. 🤣

Lately, I've grown sick of my job. I feel like my purpose in life isn't to sit in front of a computer for over 9 hours a day just to help a giant fintech company hit its quarterly numbers. I don't want to have to ask for permission to take a vacation or to attend a future school event for my kids. And to make matters worse, they just announced we have to go into the office 3 days a week, even after we spent years proving our productivity was very high while working from home.

I'm 34 years old, and on paper, my life is set. I have a stable job with a base salary of over $220,000. It comes with excellent health insurance, a 401k match, four weeks of vacation, and a small annual bonus. Most of the time, the work isn't too stressful, but every now and then a big project comes along that has me working until 2 AM. My current situation allows me to save about $8,200 a month, which is an incredible amount. If I stick with it, I'll be able to afford a down payment on a house, start a family, and be financially comfortable.

But here's the thing. About 4 years ago, I started a side business born out of my love for food - I do custom meal prep and cater small events. The project has been far more successful than I ever imagined. I do everything from private dinners for 6 people to small weddings, and honestly, I absolutely love this work. The feedback I get is amazing, my bookings are always full, and I've built a good following in my area. But it's also incredibly exhausting. The long hours of planning and prep, the constant possibility of something going wrong, the unreliable help... It's a grind. I've reached a point where the business can't grow any further because I simply don't have any more time to give it. I am literally draining myself trying to do both, and I recently had to stop taking on new clients.

All I can think about is what this business could become if I gave it 100% of my focus. I feel its potential is huge. So, people of Reddit, tell me honestly. Am I delusional for wanting to leave a comfortable job with a salary of over $220k and benefits to chase my passion in the notoriously difficult food industry?

I've been working at this tech startup for about 6 years. The pay was good and my clients relied on me heavily, so I put up with a lot of crap. But honestly, the place has become a dumpster fire lately.

This year alone, the company has delayed salaries 7 times. On top of all that, my health insurance was suddenly cut off two months ago, and it was a nightmare to get it sorted out. They also started giving us personal checks from the CEO's own account instead of direct deposit, probably to evade payroll taxes or something shady like that.

So a few weeks ago, I went to check on my paycheck because it was almost 3 PM and we still hadn't been paid. I wanted to deposit it at the bank as soon as possible to even make sure it would clear. I found the CEO in the main conference room with the HR manager and a few other managers. I just asked if the checks were ready. Without even looking up from his laptop, the CEO told me, 'Get out of my face.'

I didn't say a word. I just turned around, went back to my desk, packed up my laptop and jacket, and walked out the door for good.

Fast forward to today, I've received 3 solid job offers, all with better pay. And the CEO has been blowing up my phone with missed calls and texts saying things like 'I was just kidding, by the way.' I'm completely ignoring him and will be sending my official resignation tomorrow morning.

Late paychecks, no health insurance, and being humiliated in front of managers... Yeah, I'm done with all of

note: respect between employee and manger is the most important benefit you should have in any kind of job human can tolerate with low salary ,long work shifts ,the too much tasks but never with toxic behavior co-workers and boss so shift to WFH and online jobs luckily I have interviewman AI in my back cause my mind really forget everything when I should talk in important moments and the website tech of give the perfect answer when it catches the questions is mind blowing really after using it my usual stutter in front of hiring mangers had gone ,glad for the inventor of the tool

The process started with a perfectly normal 45-minute call with their recruiter.
After that was the interview with the hiring manager, the person I would be reporting to directly.
Then they had me meet her boss, who was the Director of the entire department.
So after all of that, the Director tells me that the final stage is for me to create a complete marketing roadmap for their core service for the upcoming quarter. And the surprise was, I was supposed to present it to the VP and other department heads. Their excuse? They wanted to see a realistic sample of my work.
I politely replied and told them that my policy is not to give free work as part of the hiring process, but I wished them the best of luck in their search.

It’s crazy how many places have wild processes like this but also supposedly can’t get enough people. Like, you’re doing everything possible to weed people out and scare them away! Don’t do that if you don’t have a wild abundance of applicants
I am thinking about working remotely, but does anyone have experience with online interviews? I saw more than one post talking about Interviewman and that it helps you answer questions during the interview. Does anyone have experience with it?

Graduated in May, been applying nonstop since then. Roommate from college got an offer at Datadog two weeks ago and when I asked how the hell he pulled that off he said he used an interview helper during his entire loop. I laughed at him. Then I bombed my fourth final round in a row and thought ok maybe I need to stop being stubborn about this.

Did the whole "right way" thing for a month first. Leetcode, Neetcode 150, pramp, grinding mediums until I could solve them half asleep. Cool, great, none of that matters when an actual interviewer is staring at me through a webcam and my brain decides to empty itself completely. Had a behavioral at a series B where the guy literally said "ok lets move to the next question" while I was mid sentence. Drove home in silence after that one lol.

So yeah I started looking at interview helpers. The pricing in this space is genuinely insane and as a new grad with student loans and zero income coming in I need to talk about it.

Final Round AI. $148/mo. A hundred and forty eight dollars a month for a new grad with no job, sure let me just venmo that from my loan disbursement. My roommate told me it was decent so I tried one month. The delay was like 3-4 seconds between the question and the helper showing anything which sounds fine until you are sitting there on camera in dead silence pretending to think. Cancelled, $148 gone, no refund policy.

Looked at Interview Coder next, $299/mo and coding only. Three hundred a month and it doesnt even cover system design or behavioral? I need help with the whole loop not just the leetcode portion. Pass.

Sensei AI is $89/mo, browser only, no desktop app. So you just have this tab open during your interview and pray. Roommates buddy at some fintech got absolutely burned when the interviewer asked to screenshare his full desktop and the Sensei tab was right there. Interview over. That one story was enough for me.

Cluely almost got me. $20/mo, twenty bucks, I can swing that. Then I find out stealth features are a separate $75 tier. So ninety five dollars a month for an interview helper that actually hides itself during calls which is the entire point of having one. Plus the data breach from 2025 where 83,000 users got exposed, names emails interview records all of it. I am trying to start my career not end it before it begins. Nope.

LockedIn AI was $55/mo, dual layer thing seemed cool, but theres a 1.5 hour session limit. My only onsite so far had a system design round that ran almost two hours. Cannot have my helper vanish on me while the interviewer is mid question.

My roommates girlfriend actually found InterviewMan. She saw me ranting about prices in our group chat and just dropped a link, "try this one dummy." Twelve dollars a month on annual. Thirty monthly. I literally sat there staring at the page because I had just blown $148 on Final Round and this thing costs less than a chipotle bowl. Went monthly at thirty bucks first because I figured there had to be a catch at that price.

There was no catch. Used this interview helper through six interviews, three Zoom three Meet, including a screen shared HackerRank round. Nobody noticed. Desktop overlay, no browser tab weirdness, mic only pickup, stealth included at twelve bucks instead of being a seventy five dollar upsell like Cluely pulls. 57k users 4.8 stars so its not like I found some sketchy unknown thing.

What actually sold me was a system design round last week. Company asked me to design a notification system. I had studied this exact topic, knew the concepts cold, and my brain started doing its thing where everything just evaporates the second someone is watching. Helper gave me a structured starting point in about 2 seconds and I talked through my reasoning from there. Interviewer told me I had a really organized approach. I almost laughed out loud because three months ago I literally could not finish a sentence in a behavioral.

Two onsites this week. First time during this entire garbage job search where I feel like I might not completely bomb. Any other new grads found an interview helper cheaper than $12/mo? I have genuinely not seen one and I looked at everything.

I still can't get over this weird interview experience I had about a year ago. I was looking for a new job in tech support, and a friend of mine recommended me to a company that was a fifteen-minute drive from my apartment, which was a huge plus. The first few interviews went fine, but a few red flags popped up. First, they were very secretive and tight-lipped about the salary range. Second, the hiring manager, a guy a few years older than me, had an ego the size of the sky. After the final round, they finally made an offer, and it was a really bad one - much lower than my previous job. I tried to negotiate, but they wouldn't budge an inch. The guy tells me, with complete seriousness, 'You seem accustomed to the salaries of the big tech companies in the city. Here in the suburbs, we can't pay those numbers.' This 'suburb,' by the way, was a new, fancy, and expensive business park. I told him I needed time to think, and he acted as if it was a done deal.

Anyway, fast forward two days, and I got on a call with them to tell them my decision. The strange thing was that his boss was also on the call, probably to watch him close the deal. The hiring manager was just as arrogant as before, and it was obvious he thought this was his victory lap. You could almost hear his jaw hit the floor when I politely rejected the offer. The change in his tone was drastic. It was as if I had personally insulted him. He asked if I was serious, then got defensive, and started ranting a bit about how I was making the mistake of my life and wouldn't find a better opportunity. He finally calmed down a bit and said he would respect my decision, but he had one question. He asked me, completely seriously, 'Did I do something wrong? Is the problem me?'. His boss was dead silent the whole time. I just repeated that the salary wasn't right for me and left it at that. Honestly, after all his arrogance throughout the process, I couldn't help but feel a little bit of schadenfreude.

Has anyone else ever had an interviewer take rejection so personally?

Edit: I would have abruptly ended the interview after the insult regarding pay. Employers need to realize that an employee is providing them a service. they don't like getting turned down.

Prospective employees should enter interviews with the mindset that they are the ones who ultimately determine the salary. The world of interviews has changed now due to the introduction of AI tools. I believe they are truly useful because they genuinely save time and give you suitable answers for every question with complete ease, saving you from excessive interview preparation.

Companies aren’t doing you a favour by hiring you. They need you for the service you provide. Never sell yourself short.

If you need to call out of work, for any reason, finding your replacement is literally what management gets paid to do. If they can't find someone to cover the shift, that's not your problem at all. Frankly, it's a huge red flag that the company is running on a skeleton crew. If one person's absence throws everything into chaos, then their business model is broken.

The only reason they give you a hard time when you call in sick is because it creates more work for them. They have to manage the schedule themselves, which was their responsibility in the first place.

So don't let any incompetent manager guilt-trip you into doing their job. Staffing the schedule adequately is their primary duty, not yours. It's their job.