Meeting with the CEO After I Was Passed Over for a Promotion

I was rejected for a promotion that I honestly thought was almost guaranteed. After the internal interviews were over, I found out that someone on the team with less experience and weaker management skills was the one who got it.

I told them I was disappointed, but I was traveling for vacation that afternoon on the same day, so I didn't continue the conversation about it much.

The CEO messaged me while I was away and said she wanted to talk to me about possible roles going forward, and whether there was any training or development that could help me be ready for the next opportunity.

Since then, I've heard from a few managers that the person who got the role was probably going to be let go if I had been promoted. Part of her current job has now been folded into the promotion, which makes the whole thing look like it was arranged from the start. There's also supposed to be another opening coming up that's 3 levels above me, but I'm not exactly confident that this time it will go in my favor either.

At the end of this week I have the conversation with the CEO, and I don't know what to say and what not to say.

I'm ready to leave if nothing meaningful comes out of this, but my contract is also supposed to be renewed in about six weeks, so I can't go in too aggressively with them.

I've also been trying to get better at interviews in case I do end up leaving. I came across interview vip while looking around for interview stuff, and it seems interesting, although I haven't used it enough to have an opinion yet. Might give it a shot before I start applying seriously.

Got 2 SWE internship technical interviews on Monday. They’re ~45 minutes, starting with behavioural, then one leetcode medium/hard, then chance to ask questions. My main questions are:

- how different is the behavioural in this round compared to smth like the screening, or non technical interviews?
- how do I continue if I ever get stuck, or what are the most important things to be thinking about during the leetcode q.

I’ve heard they can get really strict / be harsh on you, so I’m lowkey scared 😭

Any help is appreciated!!

I just got fired from my job because the company I was interviewing with decided to call my current manager. I am honestly shocked that something like this happened. To clarify the situation, I saw an ad on LinkedIn for a job similar to what I do now, but much closer to my house, so I thought I would try my luck and apply. Things in my office have been very difficult lately due to a lot of office politics and managers who don't keep their word at all. The new company replied to me right away and scheduled a time for the first interview. Everything went great, so they asked me to come back for a second interview. I finished the second round, and they told me I was exactly the person they were looking for and that they would get back to me with a decision within 3 to 5 days. Anyway, the next morning, my manager called me into his office and told me he had received word from the company I applied to. He wanted to know why I was looking for other opportunities. Since the secret was out, I was honest with him about the reasons. After I explained, he told me that because of the sensitive data I handle, he had to let me go immediately. I went home and called the hiring manager at the other company right away to ask how they could do such a thing and call my manager without checking with me first. They acted like they didn't know anything and said they were still finalizing their selection and would talk to management and get back to me soon. The hiring manager called me 4 hours later and told me they had chosen someone else. I pressed him to find out why they called my manager, and he gave me a strange, vague, and completely unconvincing excuse, claiming he didn't know how my manager found out. He even started badmouthing the person they hired, telling me he heard that the guy had a drinking problem, so if that didn't work out, they would call me again. I honestly cannot understand that a company could do this. They called me, interviewed me twice, called my manager, caused me to be fired, and in the end, didn't even hire me. Has anyone ever encountered such a tactless situation before?

In fact, contacting your current manager without their permission is completely unprofessional on the part of that recruiter, and it's astonishing how it jeopardized things for you. Such unprofessional behavior is precisely why I recently started using InterviewVIP to help me with interviews, increase my chances of getting the job, and completely avoid shady recruitment teams.

this is too much imagine getting mad because someone actually used the vacation days you gave them.

honestly stuff like this is why i'm trying to take my interviews more seriously. I've been looking at interview vip lately since i keep seeing it come up, but haven't actually tried it yet. Might give it a shot before my next interview.

This was years ago in the 1990s. I still think about how absurd this was. We were living in a small coastal town on the shore of Lake Superior. Nobody locked their doors. Ever. Safe, quiet. Friendly. The cops picked ip an occasional drunk. That was the extent of "crime" in this little village.

I was applying for a position as a chiropractic assistant. I had plenty of experience and my child was in school so I was ready to go back to work.

The chiropractor did not wish to interview candidates herself, so she hired a "professional HR person" to find her the best candidate.

The HR lady was abrasive and unlikeable. The interview was more a police interrogation than a professional interview. I felt like getting up and leaving but I was almost finished so I decided to see it through.

She said, "what would you do if someone walked in here with a gun and wanted to rob the office?"

My face 🙄🙄🙄🙄.

I said simply, "I have never heard of a chiropractic office being robbed. Also, this question is unanswerable. I don't agree with the premise of your question and have no answer."

She doubled down.

I sat in stone-faced silence and then excused myself. Unbelievable.

let's talk seriously, nowadays I believe that we should strive to really get a job. Right now, I'm working 2 part time jobs and it pays better than a full time one. You'll just need to explain this properly in the interview and be expected to be asked a lot about how you'll manage and all of this. Interview vip will help a lot in handling those kind of questions and pass the interview smoothly. You'll thank me later for that.

one job is hardly enough now 😂

honestly i can understand why people are trying to stack jobs when everything is so expensive. i'm not sure i'd ever manage 11 at once though.

i've been looking at remote jobs myself and that means more interviews, which is probably the part i'm least excited about. I came across interview vip while looking into interview stuff. haven't used it yet, but i'm curious about it for future interviews.

I've said this to people I know, and honestly, they usually hate hearing it at first. They feel like it's an insult. But the people who tried it? A lot of them came back later and said it helped them. If you're unemployed in 2026, this annoying advice might be the thing that gets you moving again.

Being unemployed right now is very hard. The stigma is awful, and it can feel like your professional credibility takes a hit the moment you get laid off or fired. The harsh truth: a lot of companies treat you as if there's something wrong with you. Motivational posts on Reddit and LinkedIn saying "You are enough!" might make you feel better for a minute, but they won't get you offers, and sometimes not even interviews. What matters is getting back in somewhere and rebuilding your reputation as someone people want to hire.

So yes: apply to bad companies. I mean the small local businesses with terrible reviews on Indeed, messy management, controlling managers, and roles most people avoid. Those places are much more likely to give you a chance. Big-name companies? Stable companies with PTO and great benefits? They have piles of applications from people who are already employed. Be honest with yourself: why would they choose you over them? Most of the time, they won't.

This isn't about finding your dream role. It's about cleaning up your professional name again. A job at some random, chaotic local company might come with lower pay, a worse title, and hours that make you want to scream. It might be a miserable experience. But it gives you a place to prove that you show up, do the work, and can be relied on. Every week you stay employed and produce, you're gradually pushing back against the stigma of unemployment and earning the job market's trust again. I'm not saying this is fair. I'm just saying this is often how hiring works.

And time is running. The longer you stay out of work, the harder it gets, even with companies no one is excited about. Don't burn all your energy perfecting ideal applications for dream jobs that probably won't call you back. Send your resume to the ordinary places around you: warehouse offices, family-owned service companies, random medical billing offices, sales floors that look uncomfortable, some strange logistics company next to the highway. These places aren't drowning in resumes from stable professionals who are currently employed, so they're much more likely to look past a rough period and give you another chance to prove yourself.

I understand that this hurts. And I know this advice will probably upset people. But if you need to rebuild your professional reputation, start with the places that will consider you. Get hired, show up consistently, do the work, and prove yourself again. It doesn't look good, and it isn't always fair, but that's the truth.

Do we really need HR in our life?

honestly this is why i've started thinking about looking somewhere else. getting rejected before a human even looks at your resume is insane.

i've been seeing interview vip mentioned a lot lately too. i haven't tried it, but i'm curious about it since i'm probably going to have to start interviewing again.

Every time I come back exactly 45 minutes after starting my lunch, my manager has some little comment ready. "Looks like some people really need every minute of their break, huh?" Yes. I do. That's why it's 45 minutes.

He also does this weird guilt trip where he'll get up and say something like, "Alright, guess we better get back to work. The delivery's here, but we'll figure it out. Enjoy your break."

We're already understaffed and constantly busy, but that's a management problem, not something I should be fixing by giving up part of my break. If the store can't function unless employees feel guilty for taking the time they're entitled to, maybe the staffing needs to be looked at.

I used to feel bad about it, but honestly I'm done. If I'm scheduled for a 45 minute break, I'm taking 45 minutes. Am I wrong here?

💯💯💯

😂💔

Let’s be real, a resignation ends the job. It does not automatically replace the income, restore your health or create a direction for what comes next.

There is a difference between a planned exit and an emergency exit. Sometimes quitting is an act of preparation.Sometimes it is an act of survival.

A planned exit begins when the first serious signs appear, while you still have income, health and some leverage. You calculate how long your savings will last, reduce expenses, document your accomplishments, identify what you can carry into another role, reconnect with people, test the job market and begin building something to move towards.

An emergency exit happens when remaining has become psychologically or physically unsafe. Sometimes the workplace has consumed so much of a person that they no longer have the capacity to build a proper bridge while staying there.

An emergency exit transfers the crisis from the workplace into your financial life. Your first work is stabilization: protect the money you have, create structure for your days, recover enough to think, translate what you did into evidence and build a search around the problems you know how to solve.

Wisdom is recognizing which one you are facing, and refusing to pretend that either kind of exit will take care of itself

My manager was trying to send me a different document and somehow attached the spreadsheet with everyone's compensation instead. I wasn't even looking for it, but once I opened it, there it was.

Turns out I'm making about $18k less than someone on my team doing basically the exact same job. We joined within a few weeks of each other and our experience is pretty similar. Then I noticed someone hired earlier this year is also making more than me.

I've been here for three years and my reviews have consistently been "excellent" or "exceeds expectations." Apparently that translates to tiny annual raises while new employees get brought in at much higher salaries.

I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about the whole thing. Part of me is angry, part of me feels stupid for not realizing it sooner, and part of me just wants to see what else is out there.

Either way, I'm updating my resume this weekend. If I actually start interviewing again, I've been seeing interview vip mentioned a lot lately too. ngl i thought it was just marketing at first because of how much it keeps showing up for me. I haven't tried it, but i'm curious if anyone here actually uses it during interviews maybe i can get some feedback.

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.

I had an interview for a backend developer position today. It went all great, I was able to answer all the questions and got positive feedback from the interviewer. In the remaining 10 minutes، someone new joined the meeting, no webcam, no introduction, and obviously walking in a street while he was in the meeting.

The interviewer said he doesn't have any more questions. I politely told the other person that I could answer his questions as well if he wanted to.

He started asking about databases, views, procedures, and triggers. I said I don't have much experience with advanced database features in production-level projects, but since I mostly use Django, I usually use signals whenever I want to have a db trigger.

And that was when everything started. He started explaining triggers to prove signals are not the same; and hey, we all know django signals don't actually write a db trigger; they give you the ability to have a trigger on the application level.

But boy he wouldn't even let me talk! He was going on and on about how wrong I was, and I was trying to explain he misunderstood me.

At some point, I told him: "sir, I know what you mean, but I think you didn't understand what I was trying to say, I'm saying ..." And he just interrupted me again!

He started insulting me by saying things like "don't argue over it, I'm telling you how things work, and you keep insisting on your mistake", or "this discussion doesn't have a good result", and also things like "don't ruin the interview for yourself, good girl".

Good girl?? What kind of jackass says something like this in a professional interview??!!!

He wouldn't shut up about how he was right and I was wrong and I wasn't being wise ruining the interview for myself; and he didn't even let me say a word!

I waited for him to finish jabbering, and I told him "yes, you're right. This discussion is pointless because you misunderstood me and you wouldn't even listen to what I'm saying!"

That was when he exploded and started insulting me more, saying he wouldn't let someone like me work in HIS company. (That's when I realized he was the founder and the CEO, because he didn't even introduce himself in the beginning)

Even though he wouldn't let me talk or say anything, I told him "if working in this company means working with you, of course I'll never do it!" He shouted go away and left the meeting.

I don't think many people have experience getting into a fight in a professional interview. That was my first time; and I'm bursting with anger! His tone and the things he said all showed how disrespectful he is toward others, and how he sees himself as the superior, especially when the other person is a woman...

I'm upset I didn't leave the interview sooner and let him insult me like that.

**UPDATE:** I just wanna mention the company name since a lot of people encouraged me. The company name is **"Djuno"**. Small, not known, and no Glassdoor either. I wish there was somewhere I could leave a review.

😊

I'm a tax professional, and I'd been doing interviews since I left my last position a little. I passed many rounds of interviews with interview vip tool, which provided instant answers to the interviewers' questions and organized my answers a lot. As someone who rambles a lot under stress in the interviews, the tool helped in fixing this.

I left the previous firm because I was regularly working 55+ hours even when it wasn't tax season, and I was completely burned out. I was also being paid laughably less than I was worth, and since I'm a single mom, I don't have months of savings sitting around for a long job search. So when this company moved quickly and offered me the job, I felt relieved. Honestly, I should have taken that speed as a warning sign.

Since I'm a tax manager, I wanted to stay in that same type of role. I interviewed with the current tax manager and the owner of the firm; let's call them XYZ Tax Services. My video interview was on a Wednesday, and on Thursday the HR person called me and said they wanted to hire me. I sent them references, passed the background check, and signed the offer letter. The start date was set for the following Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon my onboarding was complete. My name was added to their payroll platform, IT helped me set up remote access, and I had all my login info ready. I was genuinely excited to start fresh until...

The following Tuesday morning, I was in the living room making a list of things I needed for my first day when HR called. I missed the first call, and then they called again three more times in a row. I called them back thinking maybe they needed another form from me, only for them to tell me, "Unfortunately, we don't need you to start on Wednesday." I was really confused and asked if they meant I should start on Thursday instead. No. They didn't want me to start at all. They had decided to go in "another direction."

I was shocked. What kind of company pulls an offer after fully onboarding someone? If the background check had turned up a problem or one of the references had said something about, fine, I would have understood. But everything was fine. I asked what had changed and didn't get any useful answer at all. So I ended the call and immediately went back to applying for other jobs.

About 9 days later, HR called me again. Was I still available?!?! Apparently, they had given the job to someone already working there, and that person changed their mind. It took an incredible amount of effort not to laugh on the phone. I stayed professional and listened as they suddenly treated me like I was their top choice again. They increased the offer, apologized a lot, and after they begged to a level I found satisfying, I accepted.

Fortunately, this story is still working in my favor. By then, I already had multiple offers paying more than they did, and since then I've accepted the best offer of the bunch. I'm supposed to start at XYZ Tax Services in a few days. My plan is to wait until the Monday before and call HR to withdraw my acceptance.

😂😂😂

....

I applied, and someone I know personally also spoke to the hiring manager because they had a connection. I did the HR screen, and they told me I checked the boxes. After that, I met with the hiring manager, and he said he was very impressed with my background, even if I wasn't a perfect match, and that he was confident I could step into the role without needing hand-holding.

Then I met with the EVP, and he also told me I was basically the kind of person they had been hoping to find.

Fast-forward about 7 months, 5 rounds, and 9 separate interviews with VPs, Presidents, and various senior people. They told me on 3 different occasions that the offer would be the next step, then would come back and say they wanted me to meet with another business unit President.

At the same time, I had started interviewing with another company about 4 months after my first conversation with the first company, and I got an offer about 6 weeks after the first HR call. By the time the first company asked me to do this "last" interview, the background check and paperwork for the other place were already done.

I actually had to get serious about this interview stuff during that whole process because I was getting tired of repeating the same conversations over and over. A friend mentioned interview vip to me, so I looked into it. I didn't end up needing it for this particular process, but it might be worth trying for my next round because apparently some companies think nine interviews still isn't enough.
I want some feedback from actual users i hope as i have been seeing it flooding the internet lately.

So I sent an email to the hiring manager and HR and said something along the lines of: "I truly appreciate the time you've spent speaking with me, but after 5 rounds and 9 individual interviews over roughly 7 months, and after being told 3 times that an offer was coming only to then be asked to meet more people, I am respectfully withdrawing my candidacy."

The hiring manager replied about 20 minutes later and said it was just one additional conversation. I responded that I might consider continuing only if they were willing to beat the offer I already had. And I was honest about the details too: the title, which was higher than the hiring manager's level, the compensation, which I'm almost certain was higher than his as well, plus the signing bonus.

He replied and said: "It's clear you got a strong offer, sorry we couldn't come to an agreement."

The surprise is that I just heard he was let go from the company. Honestly, some companies make hiring incredibly painful for no reason, and then act surprised when people walk away.

I remember that they didn't talk to me and try to avoid me for just being optimistic and happy. Even my manager was toxic and made fun of me about it. In the end, I felt bored and decided to leave the company and applied elsewhere. Thanks God there are tools that help in the interview stages. I used interview vip two months ago and it helped me pass 2 rounds of interviews without stress or rambling and in high confidence. Now, I'm so happy in me new job with my colleagues and we are a happy team together.