Interview feedback

So I got this feedback from my recent interview with Hiring manager and a team lead.

“Unfortunately, the team does not want to move forward for you and this role. The team thought you showed an ability to build from scratch, work independently with little guidance, had good technical skills but the area they were both concerned with was communication. They thought your answers were a bit long and scattered.”

I usually take long time to describe my work as I feel they would need some context to what I am working on.

I thought it went good as they were both asking multiple follow up questions.

I start with the STAR method but I guess I explain too much.

Jobadvisor

That's a frustrating one to sit with — especially since you walked out feeling good about it. Lots of engagement and follow-up questions usually does mean genuine interest, so the gap between how it felt and the feedback isn't a sign you misjudged the room. It just means the content was landing but the delivery was costing you.

What you're describing is a really common trap with STAR: people hear "give context" and treat it as "explain the whole situation," when interviewers actually need way less Situation/Task than you'd think. A few things that tend to fix this:

Time-box the S and T hard. Aim for 2-3 sentences max before you get to what you did. Something like "Our checkout flow was failing for international users, I was the only backend engineer on it" — that's it, that's the setup. The instinct to over-explain context usually comes from worrying they won't understand why the work mattered, but interviewers will ask if they need more. Under-explaining is recoverable; over-explaining eats your whole answer.

Lead with the headline, then back into detail. Instead of building up to the result, say the result first: "I rebuilt our deployment pipeline and cut release time from 2 hours to 15 minutes. Here's how—" This does two things: it gives them the takeaway immediately even if you ramble after, and it forces you to structure the rest as supporting detail rather than a chronological narrative.

Treat follow-up questions as the feature, not a sign you under-explained. It sounds like you're trying to preempt every follow-up by packing it all into the first answer. Flip that — give a tight answer and let them pull the thread. That's literally what those follow-ups were doing, and you said yourself there were a lot of them. That's the system working, not a gap you needed to fill in advance.

Practice with a timer. Genuinely useful here: record yourself answering a standard STAR prompt and aim to land it in 90 seconds. Most people are shocked how much they're including that isn't doing any work.

One thing worth sitting with separately from the tactics: "technical skills were good, communication held it back" is actually pretty specific and fixable feedback, not a vague brush-off. It's worth taking as a real signal rather than something to second-guess.

If it'd help, I'm happy to do a quick mock — give me a STAR-style answer you'd actually give in an interview and I'll tell you where I'd cut.

I missed an interview

I feel sick. I really wanted this job, and I scheduled the interview online last week. Their only opening was for yesterday at 10am so I chose it. Well, after picking it, I mixed it up and thought that the interview was at 2:30pm. They called me at 10:30 saying I missed it. When I called the recruiter after, I told him I just got a call from the hiring manager saying that I missed my interview, but it wasn’t scheduled until this afternoon. We continued trying to sort this out for about 4-5 minutes, at the end, he said that’s weird that it showed a different time for me, but that he’d ask the hiring manager if she’d be willing to reschedule. This morning I woke up with a bit of self doubt thinking “maybe I did mix it up” so I scrolled back through my emails to last week, and lo and behold, there it was. I am gutted and I feel awful that I made this stupid of a mistake and even worse that I called them thinking this wasn’t my fault.

What do I do?

Jobadvisor

That's such a rough thing to discover the morning after — that sinking feeling when you realize you defended yourself and then found the receipts proving you were wrong. That's a hard moment.

Here's the thing though: this is fixable. A scheduling mix-up plus a confused phone call is not a character indictment, and it's very unlikely to be the dealbreaker it feels like right now. What matters most from here is how you handle the next message.

A few thoughts on that:

Be straightforward with the recruiter. Don't over-explain or spiral into self-flagellation in the email — just own it cleanly. Something like: you went back through your records, realized the mix-up was on your end, and you wanted to correct the record and apologize for the confusion on the call. Recruiters deal with human error constantly. What they remember is whether someone handled it with accountability or got cagey.

Don't bury it in apology. One clear acknowledgment lands better than five anxious ones. Over-apologizing can actually read as less composed, not more sincere.

Ask, don't assume the answer is no. Reiterate that you're still very interested and would welcome the chance to reschedule if the hiring manager's open to it.

Let go of the "I called and said it wasn't my fault" part. You weren't lying — you genuinely believed that in the moment. That's different from dishonesty. You don't need to confess to "almost lying," just correct the factual record.

Want help drafting that message to the recruiter? I can put together a version that's honest and direct without overdoing the apology.

Got to 6th interview, company still refusing to disclose salary

I have had 6 interviews (yes, 6!!!) with a large global company headquarteed in London and still don't know the salary, not even the broad range. They have refused to tell me on multiple occassions. The company is an incredibly well-known household name and would be amazing on my CV, hence why I have bothered persisting with these interviews.

I asked for the salary in the 1st interview (with the global manager) and she shuffled around some papers trying to find it then told me she couldn't locate it but would email me later. I took her at her word, but now, more than a month later, I realise she was probably acting.
I then asked in the 2nd interview (with someone more junior), and was told she wasn't allowed to tell me.
I didn't bother asking in the 3rd, 4th or 5th interviews.
I then had the 6th interview with HR last week, asked her, and she told me she was not allowed to tell me!!! I was speechless. She said I have to wait and see if I get a final offer, and then I will find out.

This has been a crazy experience - I have spent easily 12+ hours prepping for these interviews and still have no idea whether I can accept. Has anyone experienced this before?

Jobadvisor

This is genuinely frustrating, and honestly, pretty common with large corporates — but six interviews without a number is excessive even by those standards. A few thoughts:

Yes, this happens, especially at big multinational companies. Some have rigid pay-banding systems and policies that salary is only confirmed by HR/recruitment at offer stage, often because the band depends on final level/grade decided late in the process. Some interviewers genuinely don't have access to it (hiring managers often don't know exact comp, only HR does). But "not allowed to tell me" after six rounds is a stretch — it's more likely a deliberate tactic to keep you invested before you see the number and potentially balk.

Why companies do this:

• They want to assess fit/enthusiasm before "revealing the figure," so you've sunk cost into the process
• They may be testing how flexible you are before settling on a number
• Some firms wait to see your current salary or expectations before naming a figure, so they can anchor low
• In genuinely siloed orgs, comp decisions sit entirely with HR/total rewards, and nobody else has visibility

What you can do now:

• At this stage, send a direct, polite email (not in-interview, in writing) saying something like: "Before progressing further / before any offer, could you confirm the salary band for this role? I want to be respectful of everyone's time and ensure alignment before going further." Putting it in writing sometimes gets a different answer than asking verbally.
• If they still refuse, you can name a number yourself: "My expectation for a role like this is in the range of £X–£Y — can you confirm this aligns with the band?" This often forces a response, since they now have to react rather than deflect.
• Check Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, LinkedIn Salary, or industry-specific sites for this company/role — large household names often have decent data points from current/past employees.
• If it's genuinely a "no number until final offer" policy, at minimum ask for the range, not exact figure — most legitimate companies can share a band even pre-offer.

Worth knowing: In the UK, there's no legal requirement to disclose salary during interviews (unlike some US states), so they're within their rights — but it's still bad practice for a company of this size, and reasonable to find frustrating after 12+ hours of prep.

Given you're this deep in, it's fair to ask point-blank in writing before round 7 (if there is one) or before accepting anything. You don't owe them indefinite patience just because the name is good on a CV — and a company unwilling to even state a range this late is worth factoring into how you read their culture if you do get an offer.

Fired after 10 months at a company that told me onboarding takes a year. Moved cross country for this. I don’t even know how to feel.

I need to get this out because I genuinely don’t know how to process what happened.

I relocated from Texas to California for a role at a CPG company. Packed up my life, moved across the country alone, and gave everything I had to this job. During my onboarding my manager told me it would take a full year to really get up to speed. I was fired at 10 months.

My annual performance review was positive. My manager called me a wonderful addition to the team, said she was lucky to have me, and talked about how excited she was for what I’d accomplish in the coming year. Six weeks later I was on a Performance Improvement Plan.

No written warnings. No formal coaching steps in between. Just “you’re performing below minimum expectations, here’s a PIP.”

I tried. I genuinely tried. I proactively asked for feedback. I noticed issues that needed improvement and built plans to address them. The only issue: they gave me 30 days to fix issues should have required months of coaching by their standards.

Every week the feedback got vaguer, the goalposts felt like they were moving, and I kept getting marked down for things that either weren’t clearly communicated to me or that I was actively improving on. When I asked for examples on things they couldn’t give me anything specific or any issues that occurred prior to the pip. One time I asked about something and they said that my socialization (in an open office environment was a negative and distracting me from deliverables, I was never late for anything). They also blamed me for someone else’s group game of geo guesser. I guess when you play with groups of 12 or more the person who started it gets off easy.

At one point I was marked negative on my performance review for not using an accommodation I had been formally approved for in a specific way, even though my manager’s own written guidance said I could use it as needed. That same week she praised my focus and attentiveness in meetings in the exact same document where she said she had concerns about my engagement. I still don’t understand how both of those things can exist in the same review.

On my last day, an hour before they fired me, my manager and her supervisor encouraged me to go home early. Then came the virtual call. My manager’s supervisor sat there the entire time and said absolutely nothing. Just stared at the screen while I was let go. No acknowledgment. No words. Nothing. What made it worse is that like 1 hour earlier she had pulled me aside for a warm, friendly conversation , completely normal, like nothing was wrong. Hours later she couldn’t even look me in the eye on a screen. That’s the part that stings. This company prided itself on its culture and values. The humility and honesty they preached didn’t show up in that room when it actually mattered.

And then three weeks after firing me without an apology or a single acknowledgment of how hard any of this was, my manager texted me out of nowhere saying she was available as a resource for whatever comes next.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I moved across the country for this. I gave up my support system, my therapist, my people. I gave this company everything I had for 10 months.

I’m not okay. But I’m trying to be. I’m on unemployment and trying to find jobs, but I’m scared of this employment landscape and don’t know what to do. Should I move back to Texas? Do I keep applying here? Idk. I Just needed to say this somewhere

Jobadvisor

This is a lot to carry, and the whiplash in it is real — not just the firing itself, but the version of events that doesn't add up. A glowing review, then a PIP six weeks later. Praise for your focus in the same document as concerns about your engagement. A warm conversation an hour before a silent, cold termination. A text three weeks later offering to be "a resource." None of that is something you misread. It genuinely doesn't cohere, and you're allowed to trust that instinct instead of spending energy trying to make it make sense.

What you're describing — vague feedback, shifting goalposts, no specific examples when you asked, a compressed timeline that didn't match their own stated onboarding curve — is a pattern a lot of people don't recognize until they're inside it. It doesn't mean you didn't try. It sounds like you tried hard, asked good questions, and did the things a person in good faith does when they want to improve. The fact that the system still produced this outcome says something about the system, not about your effort.

The accommodation thing in particular — being marked down for not using it "in a specific way" when the written guidance said as-needed — is worth holding onto separately from the emotional processing for a minute. That, plus the speed and structure of the PIP, may be worth a free consult with an employment lawyer in California, even just to understand whether anything here crosses from "bad management" into something with legal weight. California has fairly strong protections, and many employment attorneys do free initial consults specifically for situations like this. It costs you an hour, not a commitment.

On the bigger question — Texas or stay — I don't think you need to answer that tonight, and I'd gently push back on trying to. You're 10 months into a cross-country move, freshly unemployed, and processing a loss that has grief in it: the job, the plan, the version of this year you thought you were building. Big geographic decisions made from inside that state tend to get re-decided later anyway. It might help to separate the questions:

• Can you afford to stay put for now, even if uncertain?
• Is California where you actually want to be if the job weren't the deciding factor?
• Is Texas pulling you back toward people and support, or away from something scary?

Those are different questions with different timelines, and they don't all need answers right now.

How are you actually doing today — not the job search logistics, just you?

AI has no place in hiring! NO MORE!!!

Ok. So I have been going insane since yesterday afternoon. I had an interview at 12:00PM. I showed up on time but I needed help getting into the building, so I called the number this company provided.

Sounds like common sense, right? I texted them as well, letting them know I'm here but can't get inside.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

Nobody responds. Because nobody responds I email them.

Still nothing.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

I wait.

It's 12:14

I send another email and call/text again. No response.

Then someone from another department in the building exited but I asked them to hold the door. I finally got in and went to the office floor that was on my email.

Except it was another door that needed a key card. Outside the door was a board full of all the companies using the building and their numbers. I found the one that schuelded me for the interview and called it. Turned out this phone number belonged to someone no longer employed with them.

After that I got frustrated and left. I thought the company ghosted me. No matter how many times I contacted them nobody responded back. So I had to Google some background information and found the email for the regional director and the actual phone number for my city's location. I called that number only for it to be a disconnected number. It beeps 3 times before shutting off.

Then this morning I called the interviewer I was supposed to meet yesterday. He picked up and we both said hello except he hung up right after. I called again because it sounded like he didn't hear me but it went straight to voice mail.

So now I was pissed. I sent a professional email detailing my concern to the director, insisting someone to clarify what's going on with the status of my interview that the company agreed upon.

Now time skip to a few minutes ago. One of the people I emailed told me nobody is in the office and they are sorry. The schedule I selected was not approved by them but instead by a digital worker. The real person said they will see if they can reschedule me next week.

I hate all of this

Jobadvisor

That is a special kind of infuriating — not just one thing going wrong, but every single channel failing at once. The number that goes to someone who doesn't work there anymore. The disconnected line. The interviewer hanging up on you twice. And then finding out at the end that none of it was a real person's mistake — a "digital worker" booked a slot that no human had approved, and nobody caught it until you'd already burned an entire afternoon standing outside a building trying every possible way to reach a person who didn't know you existed.

You did everything right. You showed up on time, you tried every contact method they gave you, you problem-solved your way into the building, you tracked down a regional director when the official channels failed, you stayed professional in your email even though you had every reason not to. None of what went wrong was something you could have prevented or done differently.

And the timing of this matters too — you're not coming into this fresh. You're a few weeks out from a termination that already messed with your sense of whether effort and good faith count for anything in a workplace. Then this happens, where you do everything "right" and the system still fails you, through no fault of your own, and a piece of automation is the reason. That's going to land harder right now than it would on an easier week. It's not an overreaction.

On the practical side, whenever you're ready to think about it (not right now if you don't want to): when they reach back out about rescheduling, it's fair to ask directly whether a human will confirm the appointment this time, and to get a direct line to an actual person, not just the scheduling system. You did nothing that needs explaining or smoothing over on your end — if anything, you have the receipts (texts, calls, emails, timestamps) that show exactly how hard you tried.

How are you holding up otherwise today?