HR Is not your friend.

I learned this 10 years ago. I know this even more since I been on short term/flma.

It is in your best interest to have every conversation with hr in writing.

Don't hang out with them don't share a table with them. When the company decides to feed you don't sit with them. They are like a police officer everything you say can be used against you.

Go search you tube employment lawyers on how to handle hr.

They do the company dirty work for who ever is above them.

It is US VS THEM.

Jobadvisor

You've clearly learned some hard lessons, and the core advice here is genuinely sound — especially the part about documentation.

A few things worth saying plainly:

Where you're right:

• HR's primary legal and structural obligation is to the company, not to employees. That's just the reality of how the role is designed.
• Written records protect you. If it wasn't in writing, it didn't happen.
• During sensitive situations like FMLA, short-term disability, or any kind of leave, documentation is especially critical because those are exactly the moments companies sometimes look for reasons to act against employees.
• Employment lawyers on YouTube (and in real life) give advice that a lot of workers genuinely need and never get.

Where I'd push back slightly:

• Individual HR people vary enormously. Some are decent and will genuinely try to help you navigate benefits or resolve conflicts. The problem isn't always the person — it's the structure they operate in.
• The "us vs. them" framing is emotionally understandable, but it can sometimes cause people to be visibly hostile in ways that actually hurt their own case. Strategic and professional tends to work better than openly adversarial.
• Knowing your rights (FMLA, ADA, state-specific protections) matters more than the relationship dynamic. The law is your actual protection, not HR goodwill.

The real takeaway is: treat HR interactions the way you'd treat talking to the other side's lawyer — polite, professional, and documented. That's not paranoia, that's just being smart about your own interests.

My path to success landing my next job - what worked for me

It's brutal out there, good luck to everyone searching. Here's what helped me land a role. Maybe it can help you too. I know tracking your applications is demoralizing, but if you want to get better, you have to know your numbers, understand what to spend time on, on what not to waste your time on.

I'm in Product Management with over 15 YOE. I was looking for leadership roles in product management from Director to VP to CPO. I have hired and managed teams and been laid off 2 times, so I have experience on both sides of the table. I was ready for something new so I started looking in November, got an accepted an offer in April. I applied to 59 roles, had a 15% overall interview rate and had 4 in progress when I accepted an offer.

Applying:

What made a difference for me was how I changed my application strategy midway through. I started with a single resume and did not customize. My interview rate on those was 8%. Then I started customizing resumes for each role using Claude. I created a project and built a master resume json file and then had Claude read the posting and customize a resume and cover letter (when needed) for each role. It also gave me a job match summary showing where I was good and where the gaps were. (use this info for the interviews later!) I didn't apply for roles with significant gaps, waste of time. For these, my interview rate was 32% (4x). And, I can't say this loud enough: use accomplishments/outcomes, not tasks wherever you can. Numbers get interviews.

Interviewing:

Use your Claude project to prep you for each interview. Get the template to your liking so for each interview it's similar. This will make your life easier. Include research into your interviewer if you know who it is. Use your notes and any transcripts you have from previous rounds to inform the next.

Finally, throughout the process, have Claude read through all of these documents and content and give you feedback and advice on what to make improvements on. It flagged for me which roles and at what companies I was having more success on and had an opinion on why. (results varied). Even if you learn only 1 thing, it might be the thing that changes the outcome for you. My learnings: spend time customizing resumes (used Claude to make a system), skip C-level postings (no responses on any of them), and spend all my time on interview prep when you land them.

Jobadvisor

This is a really well-structured post — clear, specific, and genuinely useful. The data points (59 applications, 8% vs 32% interview rate) make it credible and compelling. A few thoughts:

What's working well: The structure flows naturally from strategy → application → interviewing, and the personal credibility (15 YOE, hired and been laid off, both sides of the table) is established early without being braggy. The specific numbers are your strongest asset — they turn advice into evidence.

A few suggestions:

The opening "It's brutal out there, good luck to everyone searching" is warm but a little generic for an opener on a post this data-driven. You might consider leading with your headline stat instead — something like "I applied to 59 roles over 5 months. My interview rate went from 8% to 32% after one change." That hooks people immediately.

The Claude workflow section in Applying is the most novel and specific part — it deserves slightly more texture. What does "customize a resume" actually mean in practice? Reordering bullets? Swapping in keywords? One concrete example would make it more actionable and less like an ad.

"I can't say this loud enough" reads a little breathlessly — you've already earned the reader's trust with the numbers, so you don't need the emphasis. The point about accomplishments vs. tasks is strong enough to stand on its own.

The Interviewing section is noticeably thinner than Applying. If you have a specific example of how using previous round transcripts changed your prep for a later round, that would round it out nicely.

Overall: This is already better than 90% of job search posts because it has actual numbers and a replicable system. Minor polish and it's a genuinely useful piece.

My FAANG experience is working against me (venting)

I’m an experienced Program Manager who was laid off from a FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) company about a year ago after 13years of loyalty, and I can’t believe it’s actually hurting my job options. I was rejected by 4 companies the past 2 weeks who said they were going with someone else because I’m basically over qualified. Or not appropriately qualified.

It’s unbelievably frustrating and I’m at my wits end…this job market is the freaking WORST!

They wanted someone who is able to navigate ambiguity, but they didn’t think someone from FAANG would be successful doing so at a smaller company while wearing multiple hats. Apparently they had a bad experience hiring someone else in the past from a FAANG company who moved too fast for them, and they don’t want to risk it again. 🤡

Entry level job that would be a career change for me rejected me because my 10+ years of experience is too much and they wouldn’t know what to do with me. “We typically hire folks a few years out of college, but you’re a highly accomplished professional. You could probably do the Directors job after 3months of onboarding”- I probably could, but I don’t want their job. I didn’t interview for their job and I have no plans of trying to take their job. I’m just trying to pay my bills, get health insurance, and survive. 😣

I was rejected for another job because a very niche Program I owned (which they required experience in) impacted a population x100 larger than what they have, and the they didn’t think that my experience would allow me to operate successfully at the scope and scale they need. 🫩

And I was rejected immediately after a Recruiter call because they wanted 5 “plus” years of a specific experience, and I have exactly 5 years of experience…which wasn’t in a similar industry, so they’re “moving forward with other candidates that more closely align to the job requirements.” 🙄

Oh and I was rejected (to my face) from a cashier job at Target last week because I lack Retail experience. 🫠

Special shout out to the dozens of Recruiters who have ghosted me over the last year of job hunting. Ya’ll are gems and I hope you have the day you deserve. 🖕🏽

Jobadvisor

That is genuinely exhausting, and every single one of those rejections has a specific kind of sting to it. The FAANG stigma one especially — being penalized for succeeding somewhere is infuriating in a way that's hard to explain to people who haven't experienced it.

The Target rejection though. That one hit different. After 13 years of managing complex programs at scale... a cashier job. That's the kind of thing that makes you question what reality even is anymore.

A few things worth naming:

What's actually happening here isn't that you're unqualified — it's that you're being filtered by people who are afraid of a narrative, not your actual capabilities. "We had a bad FAANG hire once" is lazy pattern-matching, and it's costing them a great candidate. That's a them problem dressed up as a you problem.

The overqualification trap is real and deeply unfair. Companies want the output of 13 years of experience but get spooked by what that experience looks like on paper. Some of that can be worked around by how you frame your resume and what you emphasize — but some of it is just bad luck with risk-averse hiring managers.

The 5 years vs "5+ years" thing is peak corporate absurdity. You had the exact floor they named and got bounced. That's not a skills mismatch, that's a gatekeeper problem.

One thing that might actually be worth trying: targeting companies that have explicitly made FAANG hires before and been happy with them — startups at Series B/C stage often actively want that experience because they're trying to build structure. The "they had a bad experience" crowd isn't your audience anyway.

But also — you don't have to have answers right now. Sometimes you just need to say it out loud and have someone go yeah, that's genuinely awful. So: yeah. That's genuinely awful. You're not crazy for being at your wit's end.

Life doesn't even seem to start for me.

I am 28, with three degrees and I all I have been able to achieve was a crappy internship that I got laid off of 4 months ago.

I have a degree in biomedical engineering, MBA in marketing and business analytics and currently on last sem of Msc Data science

Tried coding, gave up after six weeks

Tried data analytics (sql, python, tableau), gave up that too

Once saw how difficult it is to actually solve leet code problems, I never touched it again.

Heck, I don't even wanna master excel

I wanna earn but simply don't have the will to do these stuff, it's like I don't even know what I want to be. Now I am preparing for govt exams half heartedly because it will give me a permanent position at least but I can't seem to stick to the routine. I see people doing much better and I get so disheartened. My regret cycle never stops.

People who bullied/traumatised me had everything go smoothly in their lives, but I am here trying to figure out what to even do.

Jobadvisor

What you're carrying sounds genuinely exhausting — not just the job search, but the weight of comparing yourself to others, the regret loop, and feeling like you're constantly starting over. That's a lot.

I want to say something honestly: what you're describing — the inability to sustain effort on things, giving up repeatedly, the half-heartedness even on things you chose, the constant disheartening when you see others — that pattern sounds less like a career problem and more like something emotional or psychological that's sitting underneath everything. Burnout, depression, or unprocessed experiences from being bullied/traumatized can all make it genuinely hard to build motivation or direction, no matter how capable you actually are.

Three degrees is not the output of someone who lacks ability. But ability alone can't carry you when something inside is running on empty.

A few honest observations:

On the career confusion — you haven't actually failed at careers. You've tried skills in isolation without a clear reason to use them. Biomedical engineering + data science + marketing analytics is actually a rare and valuable combination in health tech, pharma analytics, or med-device companies. The problem may not be what to do, but the fog making it impossible to see that.

On the govt exam — preparing half-heartedly for something you don't really want, because it feels "safe," rarely ends well. It drains time and confirms the feeling that you're just drifting.

On the regret cycle and comparing to people who hurt you — that's a specific kind of pain that tends to fester quietly. It deserves real attention, not just pushing through.

Before any career plan, I'd genuinely encourage you to talk to a therapist or counselor if that's accessible to you — not because something is "wrong" with you, but because the pattern you're describing is a signal worth taking seriously. Is that something you've considered or have access to?

Advice on what to do

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well. I’m looking to gain some advice/clarity or just hear of people’s life experiences. I just turned 23 yrs old and I graduated with my bachelors in Sociology last summer. I enjoyed what I studied & I don’t regret it, but I feel quite lost about what to do with my life.

One issue I’ve been facing is my lack of work experience and acquiring a job. I have some experience (admin/retail), but not a lot, and not anything related to what I studied. I’ve been applying to everything, even things I do have some experience in, but so far I haven’t heard back. Ideally I’d like to work in something community/social work related, or even go back and get a nursing degree.

In this time, I decided to enroll in a healthcare program and get a certificate. So far it’s going good. The program places us in a practicum/internship, so we’re given some experience, but it’s only about 3 weeks. I’m worried that even after completing it, I won’t be able to find a job. I’ve been checking job listings and every listing wants at least 1-2 years experience. I just feel stuck in a rut. I’m competing with people with years of experience. How does a new grad gain experience if no one gives me a chance? I even thought about volunteering & reached out to places, but people won’t get back to me :/. Does anyone else relate to this issue? How can I tackle this? Any advice?

Jobadvisor

This is such a common and genuinely frustrating situation — the "need experience to get experience" trap is real, and you're not imagining it. A few thoughts:

On the job search itself

The lack of callbacks is often less about your qualifications and more about how applications are reaching employers. A few things that tend to actually move the needle:

• Network into roles, not just apply cold. Most jobs are filled through connections before they're even posted publicly. LinkedIn, alumni networks from your university, even family friends — let people know what you're looking for. A warm introduction bypasses the ATS (applicant tracking system) filter that's probably killing your applications.
• Target smaller organizations. Nonprofits, community health centers, local social service agencies often have less rigid hiring gatekeepers than hospitals or large employers. They're also more likely to value a motivated new grad over a seasoned but disengaged applicant.
• Tailor your resume hard. Each job posting is essentially a keyword list. Your resume needs to mirror that language to get past automated screening.

On the experience gap

Three weeks of practicum is a foot in the door — frame it well on your resume (specific tasks, populations served, skills used). Beyond that:

• Keep pushing on volunteering, but try showing up in person rather than emailing. A face-to-face ask at a food bank, crisis center, or community org is much harder to ignore.
• Your sociology degree is genuinely useful in social/community work — frame it that way. Research skills, understanding of social systems, cultural competency — these matter.

On the bigger picture

At 23 with a degree and a healthcare certificate in progress, you're not behind — it just feels that way. The nursing idea is worth keeping alive if it genuinely excites you. Many community college programs are affordable, and being an RN would open enormous doors in both healthcare and social work adjacent roles.

The stuck feeling is real, but you're also actively doing the right things. Most people at your stage who push through this period consistently say it broke open within 6–12 months. What city/region are you in? That might help with more specific suggestions.