I start Monday and my background check isn’t complete
Today is the last day for Hireright to either submit or not but one of my references for a unpaid internship is not responding so hire right is being weird but I start June 1 chances that they send to employer or do u think they will give it more time and delay my start date I really hope they don’t I even told hire right just to mark it unable to verify so they could finish the report I got the background check last Friday so it’s gonna be a week in 10 hours
Jobadvisor
That's a stressful situation! Here's my honest take:
You're probably fine. Here's why:
How HireRight typically handles unresponsive references:
- After a reasonable attempt period (usually 5-7 days), they commonly mark references as "Unable to Verify" and close the report — exactly what you requested
- An unpaid internship reference is low-stakes in their eyes; it's not employment verification
- They don't hold reports indefinitely waiting on one unresponsive contact
Likely timeline today:
- Since it's been nearly a week, they're almost certainly wrapping it up today
- Your request to mark it "unable to verify" was the right move and likely pushed it along
- Most reports go to the employer even with one unverified reference — the employer sees the note and makes the call
What employers typically do:
- A single unverified unpaid internship reference rarely causes a hold on a start date
- HR has seen this countless times — it's common
- They usually only delay for things like criminal record discrepancies or unverifiable employment at a paid job
What I'd suggest right now:
- Email or call your HR contact directly today and give them a heads up — something like "I wanted to let you know HireRight is wrapping up my background check today; one reference from an unpaid internship was unreachable but I've asked them to mark it unable to verify"
- Getting ahead of it shows professionalism and removes the surprise factor
The odds of your June 1 start being delayed over this are pretty low. Most likely the report closes today and HR barely blinks at it.
Been searching for a year and a half with lots of interviewing but never an offer. Not sure how to move forward.
To start, I've been in my current job for a little over a year and a half. Pretty quickly after I started, I realized it was a terrible fit and I started looking for a new position.
Since March of 2025, I've been applying and interviewing for roles in my old field and even some at my old company. I've gotten to the final round 5 times, only to be told they went with another candidate, usually an internal candidate but sometimes it was just someone with more direct experience. Or so they say.
I did have one company tell me that I wasn't chosen because I wasn't concise in my answers and that showed that I didn't have the executive presence necessary for the position. That stung, but honestly, I was really grateful for the transparency because for the first time I got some real, tangible feedback I could use going forward.
My problem is, I have been applying to the same companies for the past year and I keep running into the same recruiters. How can I show them that I've grown and can do well in the roles I'm applying to? I'm not applying to roles that are a step up, they're just a lateral move to get back in the industry I know and love.
For reference, I used to work in the health benefits field and want to get back into it. I currently work on the health provider side.
Jobadvisor
This is a genuinely tough spot — you're close enough to keep getting to finals, but not quite landing it. That's actually meaningful signal: your resume and initial impressions are strong. The gap is in the final stretch.
Let me break this down into the two distinct problems you're facing:
Problem 1: The "conciseness / executive presence" feedback
This is the most actionable thing you have. Executive presence in interviews really comes down to one thing: answering the question asked, confidently, then stopping. A practical framework that helps is BLUF — Bottom Line Up Front. Lead with your answer or conclusion, then support it briefly. Most people do the reverse (they build up to the point), which reads as uncertain or unstructured to interviewers.
A few things worth trying:
- Record yourself answering common behavioral questions and watch it back. It's uncomfortable but revealing.
- Practice with a strict 90-second rule per answer. If you can't say it in 90 seconds, the answer needs restructuring, not more words.
- If you can work with a coach (even one session), having someone interrupt you when you over-explain builds the instinct fast.
Problem 2: The recurring recruiters who've already passed on you
This is actually less of a problem than it feels like. Recruiters move roles and companies constantly — many of them won't even remember you. But for the ones who do, being upfront can actually work in your favor. Something like: "I know we've spoken before. I want to be direct — I've been working on [specific skill or feedback], and I'd welcome the chance to show that." That kind of self-awareness and directness signals exactly the executive presence they're looking for.
Also worth noting: the health benefits space is tight-knit. The fact that you're still getting to finals at your old company and others in the field suggests your reputation and network are intact. That's not nothing.
One broader question to sit with: Five final rounds in a year-plus, mostly losing to internal candidates — that pattern might say more about when companies are posting (often they already have someone in mind) than about you. It may be worth leaning harder into your network to find roles before they're posted, where you're not competing against a pre-selected internal candidate from the start. Former colleagues, old managers, people you worked with on the benefits side — those conversations often surface opportunities that never make it to a job board.
You're closer than it feels. The feedback you got was a gift — most people never get it.
What are some careers that fit my interests?
While I am not currently of age to start a career, I’m planning on majoring in social work in college. I’ve been pretty set on social work for quite some time. Obviously though, there are many categories under social work and I don’t know exactly what I want to do.
However, when talking to someone, they told me to make a list of things that interest me or that I’m passionate about and to try to find where to go from there. I’m not sure there is one specific job where I can look into everything I am interested but I would like to know what are some career paths that aren’t so known. I really don’t want to just have a job because it’s what people do. I want to help people. My life goal is to help people in some way shape or form. Anyways, here are some of my interests and things that I’m passionate about:
-Foster care (this is originally what I wanted to focus on and I am still thinking about this a little bit)
-Crisis management (like trafficking, abuse, etc)
-Children
-Teenagers
-Education (systems of education and their efficiency)
-Poverty and marginalized communities
-The female body (like learning about it)
-Teenagers
-Overall health (physical, mental, and spiritual)
-Leadership
-Travel (I like to travel I don’t know how important this is but I wanted to include it)
-History
-Victimology
-Inequality with gender, race, ethnicity, etc
-Sociology (I love love love sociology)
-Generational traditions and beliefs (I’m not sure how to explain this one)
-Feminism and misogyny
Jobadvisor
It is incredibly impressive that you are already thinking so deeply about your future and have such a clear, beautiful core mission: you want to help people, and you want your work to matter.
The person who told you to list your passions gave you excellent advice. Your list is fascinating because it forms a perfect bridge between individual care (helping a single child or teen in crisis) and macro-level change (studying sociology, history, inequality, and fixing broken systems).
In the world of social work, there are three main levels:
Micro: Direct practice with individuals (like traditional therapy or case management).
Mezzo: Working with small groups, schools, or local neighborhoods.
Macro: Changing whole systems, laws, research, and communities.
Given your love for sociology, feminism, history, and system efficiency, you are naturally wired for Mezzo and Macro social work, or niche clinical roles that deal heavily with cultural and systemic factors. Here are some lesser-known career paths that perfectly weave your interests together.
1. Medical Social Worker / Patient Navigator (Specializing in Women's & Adolescent Health)
What it is: You work within public health systems, community clinics, or hospitals. Instead of just doing medical tasks, you focus on the social, cultural, and spiritual factors influencing health.
How it fits you: This directly combines the female body, overall health, and teenagers/children. You could work in a clinic specifically for pregnant teenagers, victims of human trafficking, or marginalized communities, helping them navigate a complex, often unequal healthcare system.
2. Forensic Social Worker / Victim Advocate
What it is: This is the intersection of social work and the legal system. Forensic social workers work within courts, crime victim centers, or anti-trafficking task forces.
How it fits you: This covers victimology, crisis management, and inequality. You wouldn’t just be offering comfort; you’d be helping traumatized teenagers and children navigate the legal aftermath of abuse or trafficking, applying your understanding of power dynamics (misogyny/racism) to ensure they are treated fairly by the system.
3. School Social Worker or Educational Equity Policy Analyst
What it is: You could work directly inside a school helping marginalized students, or move into the macro space as an analyst looking at education systems and their efficiency.
How it fits you: If you go the school route, you are directly on the front lines with children and teenagers, often catching kids who are entering the foster care system or living in poverty. If you go the policy route, you use your love for sociology to study why certain school districts fail marginalized communities and design better systems.
4. Community Organizer / Director at a Global Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
What it is: Leaders who coordinate community responses to systemic issues, or work for international organizations that tackle poverty, gender inequality, and human rights.
How it fits you: This brings in your desire for leadership, travel, and feminism/misogyny. Working for an international NGO allows you to travel and study how generational traditions and beliefs (anthropology and sociology) impact things like girls' education, maternal health, and poverty in different cultures.
Mapping Your Passions to Roles
To see how these overlap, look at how a single master's degree in Social Work (MSW) can take you down entirely different pathways depending on what you pair it with:
| Career Path | Primary Focus | Slices of Your Interest List |
| Forensic Social Worker | Crisis & Legal Systems | Crisis management, Victimology, Teenagers, Inequality |
| Adolescent Public Health Social Worker | Health Equity & Bodies | The female body, Overall health, Teenagers, Poverty |
| International NGO Specialist | Global Systemic Reform | Travel, Feminism/Misogyny, Sociology, Traditions |
| Foster Care Policy Advocate | System Efficiency | Foster care, Children, Education, Leadership |
A Quick Note on "Generational Traditions and Beliefs":
What you are describing here is a mix of Cultural Anthropology and Intergenerational Trauma/Resilience. In social work, understanding how a family's history, cultural background, and passed-down beliefs affect their mental health and view of the world is called using a "person-in-environment" perspective. It is a core pillar of modern social work!
Your Next Best Step
Since you have time before you officially start your career, you don't have to choose today. A Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) or a degree in Sociology is the perfect starting point because it will expose you to all of these paths through required internships.
Advice Please!
I am a F 30 recently was promoted to a high level role at my company. There are a group of men who openly are annoyed/frustrated I was promoted (they are all managers and I was an individual contributor before promotion). I would consider myself a top performer, well liked and never been in trouble (I have been promoted 3 significant times in less than 4 years).
3 days after being promoted I found out I was pregnant. I waited to announce my pregnancy until 14weeks.
Much of the work I do interacts with this group of men. They constantly make comments, or exclude me from important meetings. Some examples are calling me ignorant in meetings publicly, not inviting me to meetings within my scope of work, coming by my desk to say “I look anxious/emotional/stressed” loudly in the office or in front of my coworkers/boss. This has gotten worse since announcing the pregnancy but was present before. Each thing individually is not a huge deal but it’s more of the constant disrespect and comments together.
Recently one made comments about what I was wearing and joked that the change in wardrobe is “what happens when you get knocked up” in front of other coworkers who did not know I was pregnant to try and get a laugh.
Jobadvisor
This sounds genuinely exhausting, and I want to be direct with you: what you're describing is serious. Let me break this down clearly.
What's Actually Happening Here
This isn't just "office friction." You're describing a coordinated pattern of behavior that likely crosses legal lines in most countries:
The pregnancy comment about your wardrobe is the most egregious. Publicly broadcasting your pregnancy without consent, framing it as a punchline, in front of coworkers who didn't know — that's not a joke, it's a power move designed to humiliate you and strip you of control over your own news.
The cumulative pattern matters legally. You're right that each incident alone seems small — that's often intentional. But courts and HR investigators look at patterns. Calling you "ignorant" publicly, commenting on your emotional state loudly, excluding you from your own scope of work, and escalating after your pregnancy announcement is a textbook hostile work environment case.
What I'd Advise You to Do Now
1. Start a private log immediately — today if possible. For every incident, document: date, time, location, exact words used, who was present, and any witnesses. Keep this off company devices (personal email, personal notes app).
2. Preserve evidence — if any of this happens over email, Slack, or any written channel, screenshot it and save it externally.
3. Know your protections — in most jurisdictions (US, EU, UK), pregnancy discrimination combined with a hostile work environment gives you significant legal standing. The wardrobe comment alone could be characterized as pregnancy discrimination and a privacy violation (outing your pregnancy without consent).
4. Consider a formal HR complaint — this is a big decision with tradeoffs. A complaint creates a paper trail and forces the company to respond, but it can also change dynamics. Before doing this, it's worth having a conversation with an employment attorney first — many offer free consultations.
5. Build your paper trail at work — start sending recap emails after meetings ("Following up on our conversation today...") so there's a record when you are excluded or talked over.
The Harder Reality
You've been promoted three times in four years. You are clearly exceptional at what you do. These men feel threatened — and they're using the pregnancy as an additional weapon because they think it makes you more vulnerable. It's calculated.
The fact that your boss has witnessed some of this is important. Have you had any direct conversation with your boss about what you're experiencing? That's worth thinking carefully about — their response (or non-response) will tell you a lot about what path forward makes the most sense.
You don't have to choose between protecting yourself and being professional. Documenting and escalating is the professional thing to do here.
Anyone else just straight up terrible at interviews?
It doesn’t matter how much mock interviewing I do, or how many interviews I attend, I am just not good at it. It doesn’t matter how much I prepare or practice, or how much I smile and try to have a warm and professional demeanor. It’s especially bad any time I attend an interview where they ask the basic interview questions and don’t seem like they want to get to know me, if I get the vibe that they are just knocking one more interview off of their list and literally reading a list of basic questions I shut down. I feel like interviewing is a two way street and the interviewing person should be trying to give the company a good appearance, be warm and friendly and get to know the person they are interviewing.
Anyways I’m not sure if I bombed my interview today or not but I could use some encouragements. I’ve had 3 interviews this week for remote roles, two of them were one way video recording interviews, one was a zoom call. I feel like the ones over the internet are especially hard because I just can’t read their body language and it’s just so awkward.
Jobadvisor
That sounds genuinely exhausting — three interviews in one week, including two of the one-way video ones which are honestly kind of dehumanizing. Talking to a camera with no feedback at all is a weird skill that has very little to do with how good you actually are at a job.
You're not wrong about the two-way street thing either. The best interviews feel like conversations, and when someone is clearly just reading from a script without any real interest, it's hard not to shut down. That's a pretty human response, not a personal failing.
A few things worth holding onto:
The fact that you got three interviews in one week means something is working — your resume, your application, something is landing. That's real.
Bombing a specific interview doesn't mean you bombed it as much as you think. Candidates are notoriously bad at self-assessing their own interviews. The times you walk out feeling great aren't always the offers, and vice versa.
The remote/video awkwardness is genuinely a skill gap that has nothing to do with your actual competence or personality. A lot of great people are bad at it. It's more of a broadcasting skill than an interpersonal one, which is frustrating when you're someone who clearly connects better in real interaction.
You showed up three times this week when it's clearly something that takes a lot out of you. That takes more courage than people give it credit for.
How are you feeling now compared to right after the interview?
Failed a life-changing interview today :(
I had an interview for a super cool study abroad program (associated with the college I got into) today and I did not do well 😞 They didn't ask any of the questions I expected/prepared for and I feel like I just didn't get to properly demonstrate my enthusiasm and passion for the program. It may be unmedicated ADHD but I was straight up rambling and I don't think my points were well communicated.
I've only ever had like 4 interviews (2 of which I've bombed) in my life but I'm just sad I missed out on an opportunity that would definitely change my life. The program acceptance rate is 30-50% but to be honest I don't think I was charismatic enough to beat out 1/2 other applicants vying for my spot.
I don't even know what my problem is, when I was practicing two nights before at 2AM I was incredibly eloquent and could come up with stuff on the spot but at the actual interview I kept forgetting my point and I didn't express a lot of the thoughts/passion/dedication I wanted to. The interviewers also didn't really ask follow up questions based on my answers (although that may be standard procedure) but the vibes were not great.
I'm pretty good at making friends (at least within my age group) and its frustrating that I can't succeed at the one thing that will likely change my life both now and in the future. I guess now I should prepare for a gap year in my hometown 😞
Jobadvisor
That sounds really deflating, especially when you'd put real effort into preparing and genuinely cared about the outcome. The gap between "2AM practice where everything clicked" and "actual interview where it all fell apart" is one of the most frustrating experiences — and it doesn't mean the 2AM version wasn't the real you.
A few things worth sitting with:
The rambling and losing your train of thought under pressure is incredibly common, especially if ADHD is in the mix. High-stakes situations spike anxiety, and anxiety is basically kryptonite for working memory and verbal fluency. It's not a character flaw or a reflection of your actual intelligence or passion — it's a performance condition thing, and it's very learnable/manageable.
The interviewers not asking follow-up questions doesn't necessarily mean the vibes were bad — a lot of programs use a standardized format where they explicitly can't deviate from their question list, for fairness reasons. You may be reading into silence that wasn't actually there.
You don't actually know the result yet. I know it felt bad, but people are notoriously poor judges of their own interview performance — the self-critical brain tends to replay every stumble and ignore what landed. 30-50% acceptance is genuinely not that selective.
And even if it doesn't work out — one interview, with four total under your belt, at 18 or so, is not a verdict on your future. The skills that make you good at connecting with people do translate to interviews; it just takes more reps to get your nervous system used to that specific format.
Be sad about it today. That's fair. What's the program, if you don't mind sharing?
My manager thinks remote means I'm 'on call' even when I'm literally sitting in court
I need to vent. I am done with the constantly changing rules about when I am expected to be available.
I work fully remote on a demanding team and I have recurring court appearances that are scheduled well in advance. I put them on my calendar, I block the time, I give notice. I am not hiding anything.
Still, every time I have a court morning my manager starts pinging me like I'm on a beach. Slack messages first, then texts when I do not answer, and then a "just hop on for 10 minutes" request that somehow turns into a full blown live fire drill. When I say I am in court and cannot respond, I get guilted with "we all have stuff going on" and "remote work requires flexibility." Okay, but court has metal detectors, strict rules, and a judge. It is not a coffee shop where I can pull my phone out.
What bugs me more is the double standard. If someone has a dentist appointment, people respect it. If someone is commuting, no one expects instant replies. But if I am at home and not visible, suddenly my time is considered endlessly sliceable.
I am organized. My deliverables are on time. I leave a clear status and an ETA. I am not trying to disappear, I am trying to do my job without getting dragged for being unavailable in a situation where I legally and practically cannot be on my phone.
I do not even need advice as much as I need to say this out loud: remote does not mean I am permanently reachable. It just means my desk happens to be at home.
Jobadvisor
Ugh, I am so sorry you are dealing with this. Consider this completely validated: your manager is being incredibly unreasonable.
There is a massive difference between "remote work requires flexibility" and "remote work means I own your soul 24/7." Your manager is actively choosing to conflate the two, and it sounds utterly exhausting.
The double standard you pointed out is what makes this especially maddening. If you were physically in a corporate office and walked into a closed-door meeting with the CEO, your manager wouldn't dream of busting through the door to hand you a Slack message. But because you are remote, they treat your calendar blocks like "suggestions" rather than hard boundaries.
And let’s be real about the context here: It’s court.
This isn't you taking a long lunch or getting a haircut. You are in a secure government building under the supervision of a judge where having your phone out can literally get you fined or held in contempt. It is a legal obligation, not a casual "stuff going on" errand.
Comparing a formal legal proceeding to a flexible daily routine is a massive failure of management. You are doing everything right—blocking the time, giving advance notice, hitting your deliverables, and leaving clear ETAs. You are holding up your end of the professional contract; your manager is the one failing to respect basic workplace boundaries.
Remote work means you work from a different geographic location. It does not mean you are an on-call ER doctor available for "live fire drills" while sitting in a courtroom.
You have every right to be completely done with the guilt trips. Turn those notifications completely off next time you walk through the metal detectors, and let them ping into the void. You gave notice. You're allowed to be offline.
People who make job application pages - this is my TED Talk
I should not need to select landline or mobile.
I should not enter my address with state, and then be asked what country is this.
I should not be asked what my race is.
I should not be asked what my gender is.
I should not be asked what my sexuality is.
I should not be asked if I want to opt in to marketing texts and emails.
I should not be asked what my salary expectation is if you already said the salary is x.
I should not be asked what currency to be paid in if I'm applying for a job in the US with a US address.
I should not be asked what my military clearance is - the job spec should make it clear you need military clearance.
I should not be asked if I want my resume read by AI. You're going to do it anyway.
I should not be asked if I'm open to relocation on an application for a remote role.
If the question is '...has someone referred you for this role' and I click no. I should not then be stopped from proceeding past the box saying 'if so referred by who?'.
Good evening.
Jobadvisor
Standing ovation from the back row.
Please, take a bow. You have just articulated the collective, soul-crushing frustration of every job seeker on the planet. The modern applicant tracking system (ATS) often feels less like a hiring tool and more like an interrogation designed by someone who has never actually met a human being.
Let's break down why your TED Talk hits so close to home, and the baffling "logic" behind these hiring platform design flaws:
The "Are You Paying Attention?" Redundancies
The Address/Country Loop: It’s 2026. If a system requires a ZIP code and a state, a single line of code should deduce the country. Forcing you to scroll past 150 countries to find "United States" is just digital hazing.
Landline vs. Mobile: Unless it's 1999 and you're waiting by the kitchen wall-phone for a callback, it's a mobile number.
The "No" That Means "Yes": The broken conditional logic on the referral question is the ultimate boss fight of bad UI. Clicking "No" should instantly hide the "Who?" box, not trap you in a mandatory validation loop.
The Automated Contradictions
Salary Matching: If a job posting explicitly states the budget is $90,000, asking "What are your salary expectations?" feels like a trap. Are they hoping you'll accidentally underbid yourself?
Remote vs. Relocation: Asking if you'll relocate for a role that lists the location as Everywhere/Remote is a glaring sign that the HR department just copied and pasted a template without looking at it.
The Legal & Bureaucratic Overreach
The Identity Demographics: While things like race, gender, and veteran status are technically collected for federal compliance (like EEOC reporting in the US) and are supposed to be separated from your application, asking for sexuality or forcing marketing opt-ins feels incredibly invasive when you're just trying to pay your rent.
The AI Illusion: "Do you consent to your resume being read by AI?" is peak corporate theater. We all know the algorithm has already parsed the PDF before the page even finishes loading.
The Verdict: Job applications should be a conversation starter, not a data-mining expedition or a test of patience against poorly coded dropdown menus.
Thank you for coming to this TED Talk. May your next application have a "Apply with LinkedIn" button that actually fills out the fields correctly.