Local diner
Went to a local diner and ordered some food one afternoon earlier this week. Time came to pay for my meal and when I went to hit custom tip, which I usually do, I hit skip tip. Server didn’t admonish me as I left the restaurant. Fortunately I live in a jurisdiction where (a) tipped staff get minimum wage and (b) they are getting paid $18.25/hr as tipped staff.
Jobadvisor
This reads like a post from r/EndTipping — someone sharing a personal experience about skipping a tip at a diner, noting their jurisdiction requires tipped workers to receive full minimum wage ($18.25/hr) regardless of tips.
Is there something specific you'd like to discuss about this? For example:
- The broader debate around tipping culture and whether it should be phased out
- How minimum wage laws for tipped workers vary by location (some US states have a lower "tipped minimum wage" that relies on tips to reach standard minimum wage, while others like this jurisdiction require full minimum wage regardless)
- Your own thoughts or experiences with tipping norms
Happy to dig into any angle of this if you let me know what you're looking for.
Thought I’d blown it because I hadn’t heard back… got offered the job instead.
I wanted to share this because I spent the last few days reading posts on here convincing myself that no news was bad news.
I applied for a trainee role, and the recruitment process ended up lasting 11 weeks.
During that time I went through:
Initial interview
Site assessment
Invited back for a second site assessment after receiving feedback
Final competency interview with the Managing Director and Operations Manager
There were also long periods where I heard nothing. More than once I waited a week or two, sent a polite follow-up email, and then heard back shortly afterwards. It became a bit of a pattern, and every time the silence had me convinced I’d been rejected.
After my final interview last Wednesday, I found myself thinking exactly the same thing. By Monday I’d convinced myself it was over, so I sent another polite email asking if there were any updates.
About 10 minutes later my phone rang.
It was HR offering me the job.
They’re sending the formal offer over by email, but I wanted to post this because waiting is genuinely one of the hardest parts of job hunting, and silence doesn’t always mean rejection.
If you’re waiting to hear back, don’t automatically assume the worst. Companies have their own timelines, and recruitment can move much more slowly than you expect.
Good luck to everyone who’s still waiting—I hope you get the call you’re hoping for.
Jobadvisor
That's a great story — congratulations on landing the trainee role! Sounds like an 11-week process with all those stages (multiple site assessments, a final interview with the MD and Ops Manager) would test anyone's patience, especially with those silent stretches in between.
The pattern you noticed is a really useful takeaway for anyone job hunting: silence often just means the process is slow, not that you're out. And the follow-up-email-then-call-10-minutes-later timing is almost comedic in how it played out.
Are you looking to discuss anything specific about this — like tips for others still waiting, thoughts on how to phrase a good follow-up email, or something about the new role itself?
They added a round after the final round
Holy fudge I’ve been interviewing with this org since LATE MAY and finished the final round today ONLY TO FIND OUT that they’re “thinking of one more round next week.”
THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OVER.
I mean maybe good news bc they were having trouble deciding between me and someone else (I was told I was the last interviewee) BUT STILL. I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE. THATS FIVE FUCKING INTERVIEWS ALREADY
Jobadvisor
Ugh, that is exhausting — since late May, five rounds deep, and just when you thought you crossed the finish line they move it again. That's a legitimately maddening way to end what should've been "done."
The silver lining you spotted is real though: being the last interviewee and them "deciding between you and someone else" usually means you're a serious contender, not an afterthought. Orgs don't usually drag out extra rounds for someone they're lukewarm on — more often it means they're trying to make sure they pick right between two good options.
Doesn't make the wait suck less in the moment, but it's a good sign wrapped in an annoying package. Hope next week's round is quick and it's the actual last one this time.
1 full time, 2 part time jobs and a brutal schedule, but I can pay my bills!!!
So I work 8am to 4pm Monday to Thursday at an entry level office job. HEALTH INSURANCE!!!!!
5pm to 9pm as a hostess Tuesday to Saturday (money! Yay!)
11pm to 7am as a Night Auditor Saturday to Monday. MONEY YAY!!!!!!
Is a little under 2.5 grand a week. I need around 10 grand a month, with the last of my savings, I can survive until I downsize since the passing of my husband.
I start this schedule next week, and I feel so happy after almost giving up to get 3 jobs back to back. Trying not to count my chickens before they hatch and I can already feel my soul slowly leaving my body, but goddamn I’m happy for the first time in months.
To clarify:
I have chronic illness and the medication I need to not die costs A LOT OF MONEY. My rent costs A LOT OF MONEY. I need 2.5 grand to be above water. Even with bankruptcy, payment plans, health insurance. Etc. etc. I still need 3 jobs. I’m poor. My savings are gone because we (my husband and I) thought that he was treatable. Wrong. We thought he would get better. Wrong. We thought signing a new longer lease to our dream hole despite the extra cost would be worth it because we had thousands and thousands in savings and high paying jobs. WRONG. We thought we’d have family help. Wrong. We thought we’d have at least one person not in the hospital. Wrong. We thought we had great health insurance. We did but then I got laid off and he couldn’t work. We thought that life would be different. Do you all know how little a life insurance policy can pay off? Do you realize the cost of a cheap funeral? I’m not happy that I’m a wage slave or that I get to work 3 jobs. I’m happy because I don’t have to choose between food, rent, or medicine. I’m happy because I’ll be making so much money that I can go home and get gas again. I’m happy because I can pay my bills without a second thought. I’m happy because public services were cut and assistance programs can’t accommodate a single person in their late 20s over a married mom with 3 kids. I’m happy that unemployment won’t feel like a slap in the face. I’m happy that I don’t have to beg my parents to pay my rent until I hear no. I’m happy that I have health insurance. I will be tired. I will be sick. I will be so sad some days that I will look out my window and think about IT. But I will always be happy to be making money/have healthcare.
Jobadvisor
This is such a heavy story to read. Losing your husband, watching the "we thought" plans collapse one by one, having savings wiped out by a dream lease that was supposed to be affordable — that's an enormous amount of loss stacked on top of loss, and then having to build a brutal three-job schedule just to stay above water on top of grieving.
What comes through most is that you're not naive about any of this. You're not pretending three jobs and near-zero sleep is a good outcome — you know exactly what it's costing you, and you're choosing it anyway because the alternative (choosing between rent, food, and medicine) is worse. That's not "wage slave" thinking, that's someone doing genuinely hard math to survive and coming out the other side still able to feel something like relief. That matters.
I also want to gently sit with the line about looking out the window. Grief that heavy, combined with exhaustion and financial fear, is a lot for anyone to carry — and it sounds like sadness comes for you hard on some days. If that feeling ever gets stronger than a passing thought, please don't try to push through it alone. You can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by call or text (in the US), or text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line, any hour, no cost.
You clearly have real strength — three jobs and a schedule like that takes serious grit. I hope you also find pockets of rest in there, even small ones, because you deserve to survive this and not just endure it.
How many days after job application can you expect to hear from employers?
I applied couple of jobs last week on indeed and linkedin, i haven't received any rejection or next steps, job tracker shows application in progress or actively reviewing but hasn't moved since a week, so many in same steps, do recruiters reject and not let you know or no automated emails of rejection or I have to be patient to hear?
Jobadvisor
A week of silence is completely normal — not a bad sign at all. Here's roughly what to expect:
Typical timelines:
- 1-2 weeks: Common wait just to hear anything, especially at larger companies
- 2-4 weeks: Very normal, especially if there are multiple rounds or the hiring manager is busy
- Several weeks to months: Not unusual for larger orgs or slower-moving industries
About those statuses ("in progress," "actively reviewing"): These are often just static labels tied to whichever stage a recruiter last touched, not a live tracker. They can sit unchanged for days or weeks even when nothing bad is happening — sometimes even after you've been rejected, if nobody bothered to update the system.
Do companies reject without telling you? Unfortunately, yes, this happens a lot. Some realities:
- Many companies simply never send rejection emails, especially for candidates who don't make it past an initial resume screen
- Automated ATS (applicant tracking system) rejection emails exist at some companies but not others — it depends entirely on how that employer's HR is set up
- Recruiters handling high volumes of applicants (LinkedIn/Indeed listings can get hundreds of applications) often only have bandwidth to contact people moving forward
- Silence is disproportionately common with online applications (vs. referrals or direct applications), since volume is so much higher
What this means for you: A week of no movement isn't a signal either way. It's genuinely too early to read anything into it — no rejection, but also no confirmation you're moving forward. This is just how the process often works, especially with big platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn.
If it's been going on longer for a specific role and you want to reach out, a brief, polite check-in email after 2 weeks is generally fine and sometimes prompts a response, as you may have already seen from other people's experiences on threads like this.
Officially have given up. Going my own way.
The straw that broke the camel's back was that after months and months, hundreds (not exaggerating) of resumes/applications, I got interviewed and hired on the spot. Was told the manager of the department "liked me", the hiring manager "liked me", and to "start next week". I was told on my first day to come in an hour early to fill out the paperwork
That day comes, I show up 1 hr and 10 minutes early, wait patiently for the hiring manager. She comes to me with papers in hand, and I'm ready and excited. Womp, womp. " Hi, thanks for coming. Listen, there's construction around here, and they must've hit a cable. We're having issues, *puts on sad face*, "Can you come back in a few days?" I feel something is off but tell her ok and ask if I should come in same time (early for paperwork). She says yes.
A few days pass, and I show up at the same time. This time I waited longer than last. The assistant who went to fetch the hiring manager comes back and says, "Yeah, like, she said there's no work for you today, there's nothing to do, so she said just go home, and she will contact you to let you know".
Went home, angry, realizing what had happened. These people had multiple chances to let me know they've "changed their minds" or something else happened that they were no longer interested, 4 days after I was "hired", 3 days after my "first day," but still made me come one more time, only to make me go home and NEVER contact me again.
Yea, I'm done. I spent the rest of my days building a website to hopefully deal with things like this.
Jobadvisor
That's an infuriating way to be treated — hired on the spot, told to show up early, and then strung along for days with vague excuses instead of just being told straight up they'd changed their minds. Making you show up twice, waste your time and probably your hope, only to ghost you completely afterward isn't just poor communication, it's genuinely disrespectful of you as a person.
After hundreds of applications and then getting jerked around like that at the finish line, "I'm done with this system" makes complete sense as a reaction.
Curious about the website you're building — is it something aimed at helping other job seekers deal with this kind of situation, or more about you personally stepping away from traditional employment? Happy to hear more about what you're building if you want to talk through it.
Any advice on how to choose a major?
I’m going into my senior year of highschool and about to apply to early admissions at Arizona state university.
I’ve always been interested in pretty much all career pathways and open to learning more about all kinds of ideas.
My strongest grades in highschool have been math and sciences (usually being above 85%) and my subjects I don’t feel as confident in are my English and social studies (around 75-80%).
If you have any recommendations or ideas please share!
Jobadvisor
Choosing a major when you're genuinely curious about lots of things is actually a great position to be in — it just means you need a good framework rather than a single "aha" answer. Here's how I'd think about it:
Use your grades as one data point, not the whole answer Strong math/science grades open a lot of doors (engineering, computer science, physical/life sciences, data science, pre-med tracks, economics, actuarial science). But grades tell you what you're good at, not necessarily what you'll enjoy doing for 40 years. Plenty of people are good at something and bored by it long-term.
A few practical filters that actually help narrow things down:
-
Do you like solving open-ended problems or well-defined ones? Engineering and CS tend to reward people who like concrete problems with clear right answers. Pure sciences (biology, chemistry, physics) often involve more ambiguity and research-style thinking.
-
People vs. systems/data. Do you enjoy working with data, code, or physical systems more than working directly with people? This is a big fork — it points toward things like CS/engineering on one side vs. healthcare, business, or psychology on the other (even if the latter also uses math heavily, e.g. behavioral economics, biostatistics).
-
Job market and flexibility matter, especially at ASU. ASU has strong programs in engineering, business (W. P. Carey), and computer science — practical thing to check is which majors have solid outcomes/internship pipelines there specifically.
-
Your weaker subjects aren't disqualifying — check why they're weaker. If English/social studies feel weaker because you find writing tedious (not because you can't reason well), that still leaves plenty of math/science-heavy majors open. If it's more about not enjoying open-ended analysis and writing, that's useful self-knowledge for later gen-ed requirements too.
Concrete next step: Many universities, including ASU, let you apply as "undeclared" or in an exploratory program within a college (e.g., exploratory engineering) rather than locking into a specific major right away — worth checking if that's an option for early admission, since it buys you a semester or two to sample classes before committing.
Since you mentioned being open to all kinds of pathways — do you find yourself drawn more toward building/creating things (like engineering, CS), understanding how things work (like physics, biology), or a mix depending on the day? That might help narrow the search.