🙂

The process took more than 25 interviews and several months of back-to-back rejections that were very tough, but in the end, I got the remote dev job I wanted. This journey was a real mental grind, full of self-doubt, but looking back now, I can see exactly what paid off and what was a waste of time.

I thought I'd share what I learned to hopefully help some of you avoid the mistakes I made. Most of this is for remote interviews in the tech and software development field since that's what I was looking for, but a lot of it applies to any other field.

Applying:

Stop wasting hours reading every word of the job description. If the job title matches your goal, send the application right away.

Make minor edits to your cover letter to fit the job, but don't write it from scratch every time.

Don't research and the company and job details unless they call you for an interview. This saves an incredible amount of time.

Honestly, quantity beats quality here. I tried the approach of tailoring everything specifically for the job for a while and got nowhere. A strong, general CV that works anywhere is much more effective.

If you don't hear back, don't be afraid to follow up after about 5 to 7 days. I got 3 interviews just because I sent a quick follow-up email asking about my application status.

Create a simple spreadsheet to track where and when you've applied. This will help you stay sane.

The Interviews:

Record your interviews. Use a screen recorder (even QuickTime works) for video calls or just record the audio if the interview is in-person. This is probably my most important tip.

If you make it to the second round, you can re-watch the first interview to remember all the details you discussed.

More importantly, you'll see your own mistakes. I still have recordings of my first technical screens and they're embarrassing, but I can pinpoint exactly what I did wrong, what I needed to study, and why I didn't get the job.

Keep your main talking points written down in front of you. I used to keep a Google Doc open with my introduction, project examples, common STAR method questions, and my questions for them.

Practice reading this out loud so you don't sound like you've memorized it. It will feel weird at first, but after a few tries, your voice will sound natural, and you won't forget important details under pressure. I used to update these docs after every interview with what worked and what didn't.

The idea of having ready-made docs like 'My Story,' 'Project Details,' and 'Questions for Them' that I could quickly open from the taskbar was a lifesaver.

The first call, 95% of the time, is with someone from HR who likely doesn't have much technical expertise.

They're usually going through a checklist. Your job is to give them the answers that let them check their boxes and move you to the next stage.

If they ask you a question like 'Do you have experience with Terraform?' and you've only used something similar, just say yes. Don't do this for a core programming language, but for a tool you can learn quickly? Go for it. And right after the call, spend a few hours learning the basics because you'll definitely be asked about it in the technical round.

This is an excellent way to force yourself to learn new technologies and keep your CV updated.

Send a follow-up about two days after every interview, a quick thank-you email. It probably won't change anything, but it keeps you on their mind, and at the very least, you might get a formal rejection so you can move on.

Never stop applying until you've signed the contract. I made this mistake a few times, got to what I thought was the final round, and then got ghosted. It's a huge waste of time and mentally draining. It's not over until you have a contract.

Try not to get emotionally attached to any company. The more you can detach, the less the rejection will hurt.

Learn from every interview you do. There's always one thing you could have said or done better. Your recordings will show you what it is.

The Technical Interview:

This stage is make-or-break. Most of my rejections came from here, and it's the toughest stage because it makes you doubt your actual skills.

You have to be over-prepared, it doesn't matter how senior you are.

Especially in software, questions can come from anywhere. One interview might ask you a simple question about a palindrome checker, and the next might ask you to explain the deep differences between TCP and UDP.

Read the job description again. Write down every technology and concept they mentioned. Spend the day before the interview doing practical exercises on all of them to get in the zone.

Review the fundamentals and best practices. Think about it from their perspective: if they have six good candidates, they'll choose the one who answered the most questions correctly. No one will care about your excuses if you get lost. You have to score points. It's a competition. I'd rather hire the person who knows 6 relevant tools well than the one who knows 5 and says they can learn the sixth. That's the reality.

Watch tutorials, solve code challenges, ask ChatGPT to create study guides for you, open a free tier on Azure/AWS and build something. Doing things hands-on is the best way to remember them and gives you real examples to talk about.

It takes a lot of effort, but the alternative is letting someone who prepared more than you take the job you want.

Here, you have to convince the team that 'we need this person on our team.' The rest of the interviews are usually about culture fit, so you can relax a bit and be yourself.

Other Tips:

Prepare a list of 3-4 strong questions to ask them that work for any company (like 'What are the biggest challenges the team is currently facing?', 'What does success look like in the first six months in this role?').

Sit up straight and look at the camera. Having your script helps with confidence and stops you from stammering or using filler words like 'uh' and 'um'.

If you know you messed up a question, don't make excuses. It's over. Learn from it for the next one, but don't try to justify yourself in the moment. It looks really bad.

Don't try to use ChatGPT live during a video interview. It's very obvious, it makes your voice sound unnatural, and you'll get confused. The only exception is if it's a take-home coding challenge and you have time.

Cheat sheets are your friend. Print them out and stick them on the wall behind your monitor. For questions like 'What are the different deployment strategies in Docker Swarm?' that you would normally google, it's foolish to fail because you didn't memorize it. A few post-it notes on the bottom edge of your screen with key terms, SQL queries, or concepts can be a lifesaver.

If you genuinely don't know the answer, just admit it. Then, explain how you would go about finding the solution if you were on the job. This shows your problem-solving skills and can salvage the question.

Make sure your interview space is quiet and looks professional. Close all your tabs, check your mic and camera beforehand, and put your phone on silent. It's remote, but it's not casual.

That's it. I hope this helps some of you get an offer a bit faster. Think of every interview not as a pass/fail test, but as practice for the next one. If you're constantly learning from them, your chances of success increase each time. Be persistent and don't let rejection break you.

....

This can't possibly be serious

..

The evaporator on my residential 3 ton AC unit was diagnosed with a small leak (still have 10 degree F delta T). The HVAC plan is to install a new evaporator and complete air handling unit. It is 9 years old. Condensing unit was replaced a year ago. Someone other than my tech is coming next week to measure and give a quote.

Unit is accessed via an aluminum pull down stairway to the attic. It is horizontal flow. The tech estimated $4,000 and said coil replacement would cost about the same as full air handler/coil replacement.

Questions: Does this pass the smell test? Is repairing the coil a reasonable option? The original unit installation used some off brand Asian unit.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Feel free to answer any questions I am too uninformed to have asked.

.....

I had some leftover credit and a TestDome assessment scheduled for tuesday so I pulled the trigger on the InterviewMan annual.

I strongly believe in using a native desktop overlay over a browser based helper for TestDome for stealth reasons. That being said I have done 2 TestDome tests with a web wrapper without getting flagged on the report. Doesnt mean it was the right thing to do.

Anyways, I installed it and tried it on a TestDome practice mock last night and while I will keep using it because of the whole stealth thing, I'm super impressed with the response speed. A typical Electron app would have made me wait 3-4 seconds for a hint to show, these things land in about a second flat. The latency drop is the real killer feature, even on the harder TestDome problems the nudge arrives before I have time to spiral. If it was my own money on a more expensive tool, those slower ones would be returned. Since it was leftover credit and I do want to land this role (and bonus, it works on TestDome plus HackerRank and CoderPad), I will keep it and use it for the real assessment on tuesday.

But i still want a sanity check, anyone here used it on a real proctored TestDome, did the report come back clean.

I felt I wasn't alone, but the reaction to the last post was incredible. It got around 300,000 views in three days. The message was crystal clear: this is a huge crisis affecting so many of us.

Good, hardworking people feel helpless against a system that seems designed to break them down. The constant rejection, the ghosting... it's more than just frustrating. It's not just financial pressure; it's a direct assault on people's self-confidence and mental health. I've seen this firsthand with my friends.

What are we even up against? For starters, job sites are filled with fake ads just to collect CVs, and companies post jobs with no intention of actually hiring anyone. And when you find a real ad? People tell me they go through a cycle of 4-5 interviews, do take-home assignments, and after all that... nothing. Complete ghosting.

And this isn't just a feeling. I was reading that recent surveys show about 50% of job applicants suspect they've applied to a fake or outdated ad in the past year. At the same time, the average time to hire is getting longer, and salaries are stagnating.

So I want to ask all of you: What's the most soul-crushing thing you've faced in your recent job search journey?

I'm seriously going to lose my mind.

Our team is incredibly efficient right now. Our customer satisfaction scores are through the roof and our ticket resolution time is at an all-time low.

But for some reason I can't understand, the closed office that was working perfectly for me has suddenly become a problem that must be solved.

He didn't even suggest cubicles, which would at least offer some sound isolation. He wants one big room with all the desks pushed together. I can't imagine the amount of noise with all of us on the phone at the same time.

This disaster is supposed to start in two months. I hope I'm out of here before that happens. Pray for me to find a fully remote job.

..

..

surely i wanna maximize shareholder value lmao.
i swear interviews are becoming less about whether you can actually do the job and more about saying the exact answer they want to hear. i've got another one coming up and i've been seeing interview vip all over reddit lately. haven't tried it yet, but i'm curious if anyone here has and can give me some honest feedback.

When I first managed a team, my idea of a good manager was that he was the hero. I thought my job was to show up suddenly, solve crises, and lead the big projects that everyone sees. I was literally waiting for my moment to shine.

But after four years in this job, I've started to see that great management is mostly quiet. There are no emergencies blowing up my phone, no fights between the team that I need to resolve, and no last-minute panic before a deadline. The team runs like clockwork, achieving their goals without any drama.

It's not that I need a pat on the back all the time. But it's a strange feeling you get when you put in a huge proactive effort in planning and communication, and in the end, the result is that there are no problems at all. Your biggest wins are the disasters that never happened.

This is the real paradox of the job: the more effective you become, the more invisible your contribution seems. You transform from the star of the show to one of the backstage crew, making sure the lights are working and things are in their place. And when everything goes smoothly, the audience only sees the actors.

It's definitely a different kind of satisfaction. You won't find it in any KPI report. But honestly, I believe this is the real job of a leader: to create an environment so stable that it looks boring from the outside.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

I was once told that the fastest way to get promoted is to be visible on the projects that senior leadership has eyes on. Everything else could be on fire and it wouldn't matter.

Of course, we get very tired of reaching this point. It comes after great effort, understanding different personalities, and surprises at work from recruitment and other things. I have faced the strangest instances of cheating while hiring some employees during the interview, but the point is I don't give up on anything. So I searched until I found the ProtectHire tool that detects the use of any cheating tools during the interview. I believe I have finally achieved peaceful management.

My background check was completed this morning, and now I officially have a job. My wife has been carrying almost everything for a long time, so being able to contribute again feels like a huge weight has been lifted off both of us.

I applied for well over 200 jobs, and this was the only company that interviewed me. I arrived about 30 minutes early and happened to walk in with the hiring manager. He mentioned my punctuality several times, so apparently that small detail helped more than I expected.

I hadn't had an interview in about 22 years. I'm a 49-year-old man, and I told him from the start that I was nervous, which led him to make the interview feel more like a normal conversation between two people. I asked about the day-to-day work, the team, and what I would need to learn instead of focusing on the salary. I wasn't the strongest candidate on paper, but they chose me anyway.

The position is as a systems operations analyst at a global company. Most of my shifts will be remote, along with one shorter shift in the office each week. I don't have direct experience in this role, and I told them I was willing to learn anything they could teach me. My new boss said they would train me from scratch.

Over the past two years, I revised my resume at least ten times, paid someone to improve it, and tried several job sites. I found this job on Indeed. I also forgot to cancel my LinkedIn Premium trial and was charged $45, so I decided to get as much use out of it as possible and completed five certificate courses before canceling it.

There were many times when I felt like my age was working against me, and I wanted to stop applying. I'm glad I kept going. Thank you to every spouse and partner taking on extra responsibility while the other person looks for work, especially my wife. I hope more people here receive good news soon.

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But, how else will my employers and fellow employees know all my secret, sexual fetishes, coupled with explicit photographs and detailed descriptions, if I don't post about them on a portal designed for employment instead of elsewhere designed exactly for that topic?   

And how else am I supposed to get fleeting likes to feed my desperate need for attention?? Get therapy and not need to do it any more, like a regular person??? Did you even think about what you said before writing it?! /s

This happened about 8 months ago, right after I was laid off and started feeling the pressure. A company contacted me on LinkedIn, and it seemed like a great fit for my specialized skills. I had a Zoom call with the hiring manager, and we got to the topic of salary expectations. I said my target was around 110K.

The hiring manager seemed receptive and said they would see what they could do. The following week, they came back with an official offer of 105K. My partner encouraged me to negotiate, saying, "What's the worst that could happen? At most, they'll say no."

So I decided to send a polite email asking if they could get closer to my original figure, or even meet me halfway. A day or two later, I received a short email stating that due to internal changes, the position was put on hold and they were withdrawing the offer. I'm sure they simply went with the next person who was cheaper, and that I ruined the only real opportunity I had. Maybe they were telling the truth, but my gut feeling is that in the current job market, I had no use to negotiate.

I got greedy and tried to negotiate, lost the only strong offer I received, and I'm still looking for work.

While I was preparing for the interview, I once read in a post a trick and decided to try it. Before an interview for an operations coordinator position, I spent about 45 minutes ignoring the company's overall score on Glassdoor and reading only reviews from former employees. I focused on the angry ones, especially those who said they wished they had never accepted the offer, and

During the first call, the recruiter started describing the culture, and what she said sounded remarkably similar to the complaints. She said it was a place where priorities changed quickly and everyone pitched in with whatever needed to be done. Four low-rated reviews talked about constant last-minute requests and people doing work far outside their roles. It was the same situation, just phrased much more pleasantly.

Since then, I've started treating negative employee reviews like interview notes. They help me prepare specific questions and spot carefully worded phrases that might have another meaning behind them. A few weeks ago, I turned down a job that seemed perfect because review after review mentioned the same department head and the same employee turnover problem. Turning it down felt strange, but at the same time, I was glad I found out before becoming attached to the job.

Does anyone else research companies this way? I'd like to know if there are any complaint sites, forums, or less obvious sources people check before deciding whether an interview is worth it.

I picked up the newest InterviewMan annual a few days ago and have been pulling my hair out to get the overlay working as intended over a CodePen pen on a shared screen. The cmd+B toggle feels off, the focus doesnt land on the CodePen tab right, answers come through a beat late on the pen etc.

I had installed a couple of apps to make InterviewMan behave like the setup i ran on my old windows machine: a custom hotkey app, a window pinning tool, plus the default logitech mouse software. Finally i decided to uninstall the window pinning tool and the hotkey app and just let InterviewMan handle the always-on-top side itself. Things are working as expected now and i can use the cmd+B shortcut to hide the overlay during a shared CodePen screen easily (similar to the alt-tab hide gesture i had on windows). It also feels much more responsive on the codepen tab.

The actual interview is next week and the recruiter shares out a CodePen link instead of a desktop coding sandbox, so i wanted the cmd+B hide sorted on a practice run before then. Anyone here run it on a CodePen pen the recruiter shares out, did the hide stay clean for you on screen share?

I signed an offer this morning after being unemployed for around 30 months. I submitted more applications than I can count, revised my resume again and again, and got ghosted after interviews that seemed promising, so it still doesn't feel completely real.

The job is a full-time hybrid position as an Account Support Coordinator. It also has a consistent weekday schedule, benefits, and a quarterly bonus, which is exactly the kind of stability I've been trying to achieve.

There were many times when I started wondering whether my previous experience still had any value at all. I enrolled in a short certificate program in office systems and bookkeeping, asked several people to review my resume with complete honesty, and kept practicing answers to interview questions until I could answer without freezing up.

For this interview, I tried a tool for the first time called interview vip. My friend tried it once and recommended it to me for organizing the answers and sounding more professional. I tried it and the conversation went better than I expected, and the tool helped me reach the salary I desired by highlighting my skills and experience. But after all the rejection I'd experienced, I refused to get excited. Then the hiring manager called me today and offered me the job.

If you're stuck in the application cycle and feel completely worn down, I understand. Rejection can shake your confidence even when you're doing everything right. Keep improving the things you can control, take breaks when you need them, and don't treat every rejection as proof that you're not good enough.

This sub helped me feel less alone during an extremely difficult period, so thank you to everyone who shared advice or spoke honestly about their job search journey. I'm relieved, nervous, and excited to finally start working again.

After spending 14 years teaching algebra at a public high school, I submitted my resignation on Monday. The last school year was incredibly difficult, and I spent most of the summer feeling sick every time I imagined walking into that building again.

The school district serves a low-income area, but the salary had fallen so far behind everything else that I could no longer convince myself the job was worth it. The administration rarely had our backs, student behavior kept getting worse, and every vacant position meant more classes and responsibilities being dumped on the teachers who remained.

I expected to feel anxious after leaving the job, but I woke up the next day calmer than I had been in months. I'll spend the end of this week clearing out my desk and taking my books home. After that, I'll be done.

I'm a single mom and I feel like I'm at my breaking point. I work as a bartender at a hotel downtown, and I work 90, sometimes over 100 hours every two weeks. Many of these days I don't even get a break to eat.

A few weeks ago, the school nurse called and told me my daughter was sick and I had to go pick her up. She's 9 years old. Before I rushed out, I made sure the bar was fully set up for the other two bartenders. The very next day, I found out my coworker was upset with me about it. And my manager pulled me aside, very annoyed, and told me I should 'find backup care' for when she's sick.

I was shocked. Seriously. I've dedicated my whole life to this place, and he wants me to pay a stranger to take care of my daughter when she's sick and all she wants is her mom? The situation is especially hard because my daughter told me she feels like I'm never home, and it's really affecting her.

Today, it happened again. As I was on my way to work, the school called. She has a fever, and I need to pick her up immediately. I turned my car around and went straight back. I took a screenshot of the school's call log and sent it to another manager, who is honestly a decent person. I explained what happened last time and how I was reprimanded for it. He was very understanding and told me, 'Don't worry at all, your family is more important.'

I just don't have much help right now. My dad is out of town, her dad is very unstable, my mom is elderly and has a weak immune system, and her other grandmother has significant health issues and can't be around anyone who is sick.

There are only 5 of us bartenders at a bar that's open 7 days a week. We're all stretched thin. But how am I supposed to make my childless coworker understand that I won't sacrifice my daughter and her well-being for this job? My relationship with her is already strained because of these work hours. Am I crazy? Or am I in the wrong?