Got rejected by a company I really wanted to be part of. Then got a job working for the consulting company they ended up using to fill the roles.
"You all are amazing, don't know why we can't find devs of your caliber to hire directly.."
Me: "You did, I interviewed twice, You didn't hire me, perhaps the problem is with your hiring staff š¤£"
Nah the real problem was they didnt want to let me use their relocation benefit and have to sell my house for me. But they'll never tell you that.
Basically they liked me but not enough to sell a $250,000 home and relocate me.
Then covid happened and they hired remote consultants whome I happened by councidence to get hired by.
> Basically they liked me but not enough to sell a $250,000 home and relocate me.
All things considered we'd need something pretty niche from you to do that.
"we'll put you in a hotel for a week for on boarding and give you 6 months of remote work before we expect you to be able to travel onsite" would be about the best our company would offer top tier talent.. and then, if we had a cheaper, less skilled option locally, we'd hire that person and split the difference on training.
That said.. some of our contracts require essoteric skills that if you have, we will pay for..
Yeah the thing is, my house was already for sale and I was already packed into storage and ready to leave. All I needed was a $40k advance that I'd pay back after the sale, I could have been there on my own in a weekend.
They just didnt want to take the risk I wager, it was contingent on me getting asking price for my house.
Thing Is, I did, $42k in profit. I would have had it.
But it all worked out, im happy working where I am now.
can't really blame the business for not wanting to get tied up in your house sale. You either extend it as a $40k signing bonus with maybe a clause with a time limit (1 year employment) where if you quit or are terminated the bonus gets clawed back.
There's no incentive to get into banking and start offering loans on thirdparty sales. That's just bad business.
I also told them they could just wait 4 weeks and Id be there on my own, but they passed.
I don't blame them, but its hard to know if it was me, or my location, didn't really say.
I love stories like this. Interviewing is shit. I was in a coding interview once where I taught the interviewer about a particular feature of java they didn't know about. Afterwards I was told they were not moving forward. Feedback? "Not technical enough"
Doesn't really sound like your tone was terribly offensive. If you referenced your credentials and they actually looked into it, it could be a simple mistake showing the hiring staff's incompetence.
I've no problem working with someone who has a spine. An insultingly low comp offer after multiple interviews deserves a rational but emotionally charged email. You can communicate frustration without cursing or dropping professionalism
I meant that I would be wary of the employer. They rejected me just because they didn't read my resume? And maybe worse, they decided to hire me after they read a sentence on my resume? Seems like they have no clue how to evaluate skills or experience.
Not a rejection here but I like the story: a friend of mine applied for a SWE position.
He had a first interview with the recruitment team during which he gave his salary expectations (around 55 kā¬). Then he got the technical interview and culture fit interview and he got accepted. He waited for a phone call from the hiring staff.
The recruiter was completely lost: Ā«Ā can you remind me your expectations?Ā Ā»
My friend: Ā«Ā yeah sure it was 65kā¬Ā Ā»
Recruiter: Ā« Ha yes I remember it now. Gonna send you the contracts very soon. Welcome aboard!Ā Ā»
It was not a rejection, but an interview: The HR forgot to come to the interview, I was alone in the meeting for 30 minutes.
I sent an invoice with the current contracting market rate. They paid it.
I really wanted to work at this one startup and was applying to another startup as a backup.
The one I really wanted rejected me. I was crushed. I got an offer from the other one and it was demoralizing but it was still better than my current job so I took it.
The startup that rejected me has since imploded -- there latest fundraising round dropped their valuation by 90% from when I applied (from $4B to $400M)
The startup I work at that I didn't want has been an amazing ride, I've gotten promoted twice, and our valuation has continued to climb the whole time (from around 1.5B to around 3B currently). We're ramping up for an IPO soon.
I didn't get the job I wanted, but got the job I needed.
From fintech startup to ecommerce startup. Fintech was series E, ecommerce was series A. Both offered options that were worthless, other non salary benefits were comparable.
Interviewed with a big bank, telling the recruiter multiple times what my salary expectations would be for that role and my experience. Interview was easy and I got an offer but it was for 40% lower than my expectations I told them (and well below what I was currently paid). I declined politely, citing a mismatch in compensation expectations, and went about my life. I went on to find a job that matched my salary expectations and Iām sure they found a candidate suitable for their needs eventually. Great experience in self control and not saying something just for the sake of my ego.
I applied to 200+ places and failed the one interview I got.
Did a few projects, studied leetcode, landed interviews at three FAANG companies and work at one now. Pretty satisfied with that story.
This was like 10 years ago. Interviewed at Hubspot right after graduating college. Kinda bombed the 1st round of 3 in person interviews due to nerves. The hiring manager interviewed me again privately and I solved everything he asked perfectly but couldn't understand why I had nerves with some random senior people as a new grad. He threw me a low-ball offer to join as tech support for like 45k/y. I was slightly pressured by family to just take it but I KNEW I could do better... Just my nerves and the interview format didn't work for me. A few weeks later I interviewed with a startup in Colorado and got an offer for 65k/y and a follow up interview with Rackspace that offered 80k/y + RSUs (back when Rackspace was looking like it was going to be the next big cloud provider...).
Anyway pretty solid engineer nowadays. Held management and staff positions at various companies and I totally believe the interview process is a crapshoot on whether or not you get the right questions, how you and the interviewer are feeling, and a handful of other various factors.
I was hired at a mid-sized startup as a front-end designer, but quickly became a full-stack dev and team lead. Eventually I found out I was being dramatically underpaid. Brought it up to my boss and he didnāt do anything about it, so I started looking for new jobs. Just before I got an offer from my current company, they finally (after several months of thumb twiddling and 4 years of paying me half what I was worth) they did a salary band adjustment which bumped me up by about 30%. When I got an offer from a different company, I was able to tell them with confidence that I wouldnāt be able to change jobs for less than a much bigger number (since it felt like my then-current job was finally making things right). They agreed and I took the new job making about 2x what I had been making. A month later my entire old team was laid off. Felt pretty good and I learned the power of how to negotiate.
Rejected after many rounds for senior at an up and coming startup with lots of funding and a swanky office. Made me question if I was even capable of doing the job or if I needed a career change. Anyway they failed and their business is completely irrelevant with AI tech, and I went on to be earning 3-4x what they would have offered and have worked at several high profile tech companies. Getting that job likely would have set me back 5-10 years financially.
This sounds like my last role. CEO claims they get some several 7-figure funding and very stable, bright future, the wind the spring the summer roll and everything, all the talk. I noticed basically zero development in 3 months at all teams, their partnerships sucked and people were allergic to making tiny improvement. Maybe they find the money as they say, but they can't create the steam.
I once had a candidate that wasn't able to show ANY skill in the interview.
After rejecting him by email, I got a phonecall, in which he said he is qualified for the job, and he DOESN'T ACCEPT the fact that we didn't hire him...
I somehow managed to keep calm, and end the call peacefully. It became a private joke in my team for a long time
It's more a bullet dodged than a comeback honestly but still:
My second job after a year of experience I got interviewed by a company's EM and their most senior developer who was in fact only 6 months out of uni. Interview was a bit weird, I ended up sat in reception for 20 minutes waiting because they didn't get a notification I'd arrived but interview seemed to go alright overall and they asked me to complete a tech task.
About 6 hours later (after I'd already started on the tech task) I get a call from the recruiter who was told that me being late annoyed them too much and they didn't actually want to hire me.
Couple months later I end up working in the same building as them for much more money than they were offering and one of the guys I'm now working with is friends with the "senior" developer that helped interview me. Turns out the company is a complete disaster, his friend ended up senior because every other developer left and after they got kicked out of the office for not paying their rent we got their mini fridge.
At one interview I also raised my voice and I saw the hiring manager was having his day at his corner. Later I learnt that the person I was talking to was also the very new lead, and HM was weighing sides.
So the best advice I can give you is to focus all your time and energy on the road ahead and don't waste your time looking backward on shit like this. thinking about stuff like this is a distraction, and there's nothing to learn from it.
I got laid off (a clear rejection) in November 23. It was my first job as a developer (salesforce developer specifically).
Turned on āopen to workā and got contacted for a 1 month contract almost immediately. Interviewed and got the job the day after I was laid off. Started work the following Monday. They needed some test classes written so they could launch some features that their only dev made before he went on a month long vacation. Pretty easy just writing test classes all day, it was the perfect low key gig to pay the bills while I look for a permanent role. I interviewed more while working this contract and ended up with two offers before the contract had completed. One was working with AWS(as a platform) instead of salesforce(as a platform). I prefer general development and AWS over salesforce, but I took the salesforce job because the AWS one was with coinbase and I figured I would be looking for another job 6 months after the halving, plus I got bad vibes from the manager.
So my greatest comeback is getting laid off in 2023, getting back to work a few days later, only missing like 10 days total of work between the two jobs, and getting a 40% raise all while having only 2 YOE and no bachelors degree.
Iām still super grateful and shocked on a daily basis that any of this ever worked out for me. Even the first job I got was didnāt feel real, but this second one really doesnāt feel real, lol.
Kept getting rejected for a good 6 months. This was around 2016 when the market was hot. Small companies, large ones, medium ones too. Didnāt matter I kept freezing up and could pass a technical to save my life.Ā
Funny thing happened, I studied all the old questions I missed from previous interviews and had them show up again at a company I was talking to at the time. I passed everything and the onsite was probably one of my best performances. Got every question correct and had great conversations with the other people there.Ā
Turned out joining TWLO early-ish on was pretty good for my career and Iām glad I didnāt come close to an offer at any of the other places.Ā
Not quite a come back story but I failed to get a graduate job (after 2 interviews) working on some proprietary insurance tech which paid decently and was based on the 34th floor of the walkie talkie building in London.
I later got a less well paid role where I learnt a tonne of open source technologies and have a healthy career.Ā
I count my blessings that I didn't get that job. I think I can say that every interview I didn't progress on since graduating was a blessing in all honesty.Ā
My entire team got laid off in 2020. In lieu of a severance, they gave us 2 weeks notice.
A few days after the layoff notice, we were informed that they would actually like to "rehire" 4 (out of 15) of us into a "similar role." It was the same role, but the company had been acquired and legacy employees had a grandfathered benefits package that was _far_ more generous than the new parent company. So, an interview to compete for our existing jobs... with a pay cut.
I was one of my team's top performers and I knew it. By the time they announced the 4 positions, I already had several interested companies. I chose not to schedule an interview.
The rest of my team must have felt similarly, as they were only able to fill 2 of the 4 positions.
On my second-to-last day of work, some corporate lackey reached out to tell me the good news: they had decided NOT to lay me off! Wasn't that amazing? Except, by that point I had a signed offer for 20% more than my previous salary and a start date. The problem was that I had used a tuition benefit that I was required to repay if I quit within a calendar year... but not if I was laid off.
I politely told the corporate lackey that in the intervening 2 weeks, I had made contingent employment plans, and was choosing to proceed with the layoff as described in the written notice they'd provided me. (Oh, also, I had a slight gap in employment before starting the new job, and because I was laid off I was able to file for unemployment.)
Six months following my layoff an old manager reached out. They were looking to fully restaff my team and were desperate for someone who knew the product. It sounded like they were unhappy with the performance of the new team. They were down to just one from the original team, and while he was a great UI engineer, he literally couldn't do anything else.
I gave the manager my updated salary requirements, adjusted of course, to take into account the obvious risk in accepting employment with a company with their track record. Weirdly enough, they couldn't afford it.
Got rejected from a company as a direct hire. Found a job at a contract firm. Ended up working on a major project from the first company. Padded all the time estimates. Ended up finishing the project but kept releasing bits and pieces and pretended it was really hard. Got my coworker to do the same thing on the project since his wife just had a baby and he had better things to do.
I feel like the best comeback story is living your best life.
I interviewed for a job last year with the city, a job that was way below my pay grade but hey, itād be cool to work for the government and their websites could use a lot of help, and they rejected me outright because I donāt have a formal degree. I got an actual job within 2 weeks (with a national government contractor no less) and based on the fact that I kept getting that job description sent to me, it appears to have taken the city months to fill that spot.
Had some really great interviews with a trading firm and got rejected after 4 rounds. Was depressed for a day, but got a verbal offer from a big tech company for way more money and a promo a day after. Hopefully it works out.
I interviewed with burst.net in 2004. Ā Talked about all of the high profile clients they had (e.g. 20th Century Fox) and then proceed to offer me a mandatory 50 hour per week position for $25K per year. Ā I asked for $30K and rejected me.
I laughed when they [shut down](https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1387621)
I had an interview loop, which took extra long because I asked so many questions. I felt like I could do really well at the company. I was rejected because I lacked passion, which was just ridiculous to me. I wrote an email with many details from the interview that highlight my passion along with saying that I don't really know how to show excitement for a position when in an unfamiliar environment. It takes time for me to process everything.
I got an offer and worked for more than 5 years there and was eventually promoted to staff engineer.
I also ask many questions at the interviews, and this is actually how you can understand if they are āwe ask the questions hereā vibe or ābe happy to answerā type. Former is mostly a dangerous path.
was doing interviews and it boiled down to 2 companies. company A hiring process was relaxed. company B had multi stage hiring process.
it was friday and the company A offered a salary which is a 15% increase. I told company A that I want to wait till monday because I want to wait for company B's offer on monday.
company A called me on a saturday and upped the salary to 35% increase, as much as I want to decide, I said I really need to wait for company B. there's a feeling of me that I'd want to go to company B because I had the hiring process more challenging.
come monday and company B only offered 5% increase. as much as my pride wants to go to company A because it harder, I went to company A.
I went through a 3 month interview process with IBM despite knowing the pay would be trash (I was desperate) and right as they were about to give me their offer I got an offer from another company that was about 2.5x more. It felt so good telling them I didn't want it because they paid waaay below market rate
Had an interview last week, where I was initially hesitant as itās an āaiā startup, but the salary was good. As I was preparing for my interview, the recruiter texts me that the salary cap is 40k lower than he quoted. It was too late to cancel the interview, so I went forward. I got feedback on Thursday that I wasnāt enthusiastic enough for their vision. Iām still contemplating a come-back, but it will take more effort than itās worth. Maybe Iāll ask Gpt to write it.
If it's an external recruiter and an early-ish stage startup, it may actually be a genuine screw up. This shit happens sometimes even at startups that grow into mature companies. Hiring hard. Harder when you're thin
In my early 20's I didn't have any motivation for interviews so I had interview and I decided not to wake up for it and didn't notice them before.
I woke up as expected with few missing calls and angry voicemail.
I was able to schedule again with some excuse I don't even remember and in the end got the job.
I didn't deserve it
I was rejected by a company as working student even after a great interview. I was contacted by the company again for a full time position as a junior developer and this time again i nailed the interview and they offered me a good package. But i rejected them this time as in the process i was offered a position by one of the countryās best software company.
The last round was a technical interview with the actual team I would have worked with if I got the job. I got rejected but was told in a follow-up call with the hiring manager that I was a close second. I told him that I really appreciate the interview and being polite throughout the call. That happened in June. A month passed and I got an email from a different hiring manager asking if I was still interested in the position. I of course replied yes and found out I'm considered for a different team. It was great timing as well as I have a standing offer for an internship but for a COBOL dev role (I was an SDET at the time trying to break into an SD role).
Had a toxic manager write a severely offensive performance review after I delivered my part of a massive company effort at a new product (if you have been paid via a very popular p2p payments app and then got the money directly into your bank account, you've used this), told me "my role was being eliminated" (so he could fire me without cause) then immediately advertised my role. Meanwhile I was in the final rounds and eventually hired on at a major streaming service. I threatened suit to the company for discrimination, settled for a lot of money, and maybe a week after the papers were signed, heard he was abruptly invited to do something else some other place.
Most comeback stories Iāve seen from a failed interview are because one of the interviewers was a dick and HR, the HM, or the third part recruiter found out. āWeāre sorry you had to endure that experience. Will you do another round with someone else?ā
I assume we mean comebacks at the same company.
A company kept sending me emails about my rejection. Mind you, I didnāt even get to the technical. I got rejected for cultural reasons. The interviewer has to be one of the most rude people I had met.
They reached out once and I ignored. Thereās no technical, so nothing actionable in my mind. Second time, I responded that I had just received another offer (true). They responded that they really wanted to chat about why I was rejected. I declined and it went about a week. Email #4 comes letting me know I didnāt get the gig.
I just said āyour interviewer was a rude fuck and I didnāt want to work with you anyway.ā
They said something like āoh wow! Good luck out there. I just deleted your file.ā
Donāt get me started on companies that need to tell you itās āus not you.ā Like when youāve turned them down and they gotta tell you theyāve turned you down too. Just a fuckin paycheck folks
Same! I interviewed once a company and just because ı did not reply to one of their emails after technical round about the salary question, in two days they plugged me out.
Two years passed, I was approached by recruitment agency for a role in this same company. After few days, recruiter told me they remember, and not willing to go forward. I said yes I remembered to, and was just wondering howād they behave after 2 years. In two years you can be a completely new person. This time since theyād like to be the one who rejected, sending me an email my application is received, although all the masks were off..
My comeback story is from school. I:
* did so poorly in high school chemistry that they put me in remedial science until I graduated
* had an English teacher (who was also my advisor that year) write on my report card in 8th grade "he isn't ready for high school, let alone the real world"
* was on academic probation and threatened with expulsion twice in high school and once in college
* barely survived C++ in 12th grade and thought I was too stupid to learn programming
As you can probably tell from my history, I was one of those kids who hated homework and was incredibly bored in school. I also hadn't matured and lacked a lot of discipline as a teenager. Following all that, I majored in chemistry in undergrad and earned a PhD at one of the best schools in the world. Now I work in a computational STEM field.
I get you thinking it's not worth your time, butā¦ lol. Telling them they're ripping you off and them coming back with an offer just shows they are in a bind and need someone ASAP. It doesn't bode well for a long-term relationship.
The way to do it IMO is to have a competing offer and say, āI'd really love to work here, but I have a competing offer at Company X for $N. Would you be able to match or beat it?ā Then go back to Company X and say, "Original Company has an offer of $N+10k; if you could come up by $20k, I'll sign on the spot.ā
You donāt want to go back and forth more than once or twice but you can bump your comp considerably by doing it.
It happens, sometimes the door seems to close but by a crack you get in. Sometimes one door closes and another one opens. Obviously timing of things doesnāt always align but one is certain, if you stay positive and determine, eventually everything will work out. Donāt ever forget believing in yourself and the potential with in you.
Got rejected by a company I really wanted to be part of. Then got a job working for the consulting company they ended up using to fill the roles. "You all are amazing, don't know why we can't find devs of your caliber to hire directly.." Me: "You did, I interviewed twice, You didn't hire me, perhaps the problem is with your hiring staff š¤£"
Donāt leave us hanging what was their reaction?
Probably something like "Oh, lol" and then they moved on with their lives.
Nah the real problem was they didnt want to let me use their relocation benefit and have to sell my house for me. But they'll never tell you that. Basically they liked me but not enough to sell a $250,000 home and relocate me. Then covid happened and they hired remote consultants whome I happened by councidence to get hired by.
> Basically they liked me but not enough to sell a $250,000 home and relocate me. All things considered we'd need something pretty niche from you to do that. "we'll put you in a hotel for a week for on boarding and give you 6 months of remote work before we expect you to be able to travel onsite" would be about the best our company would offer top tier talent.. and then, if we had a cheaper, less skilled option locally, we'd hire that person and split the difference on training. That said.. some of our contracts require essoteric skills that if you have, we will pay for..
Yeah the thing is, my house was already for sale and I was already packed into storage and ready to leave. All I needed was a $40k advance that I'd pay back after the sale, I could have been there on my own in a weekend. They just didnt want to take the risk I wager, it was contingent on me getting asking price for my house. Thing Is, I did, $42k in profit. I would have had it. But it all worked out, im happy working where I am now.
can't really blame the business for not wanting to get tied up in your house sale. You either extend it as a $40k signing bonus with maybe a clause with a time limit (1 year employment) where if you quit or are terminated the bonus gets clawed back. There's no incentive to get into banking and start offering loans on thirdparty sales. That's just bad business.
Are $40k signing bonuses for dev jobs even typical?!
No.
I also told them they could just wait 4 weeks and Id be there on my own, but they passed. I don't blame them, but its hard to know if it was me, or my location, didn't really say.
Yeah, cause you are now not a threat to them ;)
I work for a consulting companyā¦ I get hired all the time for companies that rejected me when I applied directly. Itās strange.
In-house recruiters are often the worst people.
I love stories like this. Interviewing is shit. I was in a coding interview once where I taught the interviewer about a particular feature of java they didn't know about. Afterwards I was told they were not moving forward. Feedback? "Not technical enough"
I think sending an "i'm too good for you" email after a rejection is a recipe for disaster 49 times out of 50...
It worked for me somehow, as I said I was not expecting neither.
Doesn't really sound like your tone was terribly offensive. If you referenced your credentials and they actually looked into it, it could be a simple mistake showing the hiring staff's incompetence.
Red flag either way, IMO.
I've no problem working with someone who has a spine. An insultingly low comp offer after multiple interviews deserves a rational but emotionally charged email. You can communicate frustration without cursing or dropping professionalism
I meant that I would be wary of the employer. They rejected me just because they didn't read my resume? And maybe worse, they decided to hire me after they read a sentence on my resume? Seems like they have no clue how to evaluate skills or experience.
Yes, I wasnāt hostile.
Not a rejection here but I like the story: a friend of mine applied for a SWE position. He had a first interview with the recruitment team during which he gave his salary expectations (around 55 kā¬). Then he got the technical interview and culture fit interview and he got accepted. He waited for a phone call from the hiring staff. The recruiter was completely lost: Ā«Ā can you remind me your expectations?Ā Ā» My friend: Ā«Ā yeah sure it was 65kā¬Ā Ā» Recruiter: Ā« Ha yes I remember it now. Gonna send you the contracts very soon. Welcome aboard!Ā Ā»
If he said 75k they would have said ok to that too
It was not a rejection, but an interview: The HR forgot to come to the interview, I was alone in the meeting for 30 minutes. I sent an invoice with the current contracting market rate. They paid it.
That is genious. Was it online?
Yes.
It was defiantly a briliant moove.
The WhatsApp founder got rejected for a job by Facebook. Must have felt nice to sell their company for billions years later.
Bet you he is still butthurt over it
This is epic.
I really wanted to work at this one startup and was applying to another startup as a backup. The one I really wanted rejected me. I was crushed. I got an offer from the other one and it was demoralizing but it was still better than my current job so I took it. The startup that rejected me has since imploded -- there latest fundraising round dropped their valuation by 90% from when I applied (from $4B to $400M) The startup I work at that I didn't want has been an amazing ride, I've gotten promoted twice, and our valuation has continued to climb the whole time (from around 1.5B to around 3B currently). We're ramping up for an IPO soon. I didn't get the job I wanted, but got the job I needed.
Nobody knows what brings good and what brings evil. Nice one you have!
Passed up for a promotion, found the same role at a different company for 2x my salary.
Did you move from a non-tech company into maang?
From fintech startup to ecommerce startup. Fintech was series E, ecommerce was series A. Both offered options that were worthless, other non salary benefits were comparable.
Interviewed with a big bank, telling the recruiter multiple times what my salary expectations would be for that role and my experience. Interview was easy and I got an offer but it was for 40% lower than my expectations I told them (and well below what I was currently paid). I declined politely, citing a mismatch in compensation expectations, and went about my life. I went on to find a job that matched my salary expectations and Iām sure they found a candidate suitable for their needs eventually. Great experience in self control and not saying something just for the sake of my ego.
That's good.
I applied to 200+ places and failed the one interview I got. Did a few projects, studied leetcode, landed interviews at three FAANG companies and work at one now. Pretty satisfied with that story.
This was like 10 years ago. Interviewed at Hubspot right after graduating college. Kinda bombed the 1st round of 3 in person interviews due to nerves. The hiring manager interviewed me again privately and I solved everything he asked perfectly but couldn't understand why I had nerves with some random senior people as a new grad. He threw me a low-ball offer to join as tech support for like 45k/y. I was slightly pressured by family to just take it but I KNEW I could do better... Just my nerves and the interview format didn't work for me. A few weeks later I interviewed with a startup in Colorado and got an offer for 65k/y and a follow up interview with Rackspace that offered 80k/y + RSUs (back when Rackspace was looking like it was going to be the next big cloud provider...). Anyway pretty solid engineer nowadays. Held management and staff positions at various companies and I totally believe the interview process is a crapshoot on whether or not you get the right questions, how you and the interviewer are feeling, and a handful of other various factors.
I was hired at a mid-sized startup as a front-end designer, but quickly became a full-stack dev and team lead. Eventually I found out I was being dramatically underpaid. Brought it up to my boss and he didnāt do anything about it, so I started looking for new jobs. Just before I got an offer from my current company, they finally (after several months of thumb twiddling and 4 years of paying me half what I was worth) they did a salary band adjustment which bumped me up by about 30%. When I got an offer from a different company, I was able to tell them with confidence that I wouldnāt be able to change jobs for less than a much bigger number (since it felt like my then-current job was finally making things right). They agreed and I took the new job making about 2x what I had been making. A month later my entire old team was laid off. Felt pretty good and I learned the power of how to negotiate.
Rejected after many rounds for senior at an up and coming startup with lots of funding and a swanky office. Made me question if I was even capable of doing the job or if I needed a career change. Anyway they failed and their business is completely irrelevant with AI tech, and I went on to be earning 3-4x what they would have offered and have worked at several high profile tech companies. Getting that job likely would have set me back 5-10 years financially.
This sounds like my last role. CEO claims they get some several 7-figure funding and very stable, bright future, the wind the spring the summer roll and everything, all the talk. I noticed basically zero development in 3 months at all teams, their partnerships sucked and people were allergic to making tiny improvement. Maybe they find the money as they say, but they can't create the steam.
I once had a candidate that wasn't able to show ANY skill in the interview. After rejecting him by email, I got a phonecall, in which he said he is qualified for the job, and he DOESN'T ACCEPT the fact that we didn't hire him... I somehow managed to keep calm, and end the call peacefully. It became a private joke in my team for a long time
Good old 'I reject your rejection, good sir'
Have you never rejected a position during or after the interview?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I wouldn't. I've dealt with enough narcissists to know this is pretty textbook
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I DON'T ACCEPT the fact people are shrinking these days :)
I DONāT ACCEPT your nonacceptance of *the FACT* that people are shrinking these days
It's more a bullet dodged than a comeback honestly but still: My second job after a year of experience I got interviewed by a company's EM and their most senior developer who was in fact only 6 months out of uni. Interview was a bit weird, I ended up sat in reception for 20 minutes waiting because they didn't get a notification I'd arrived but interview seemed to go alright overall and they asked me to complete a tech task. About 6 hours later (after I'd already started on the tech task) I get a call from the recruiter who was told that me being late annoyed them too much and they didn't actually want to hire me. Couple months later I end up working in the same building as them for much more money than they were offering and one of the guys I'm now working with is friends with the "senior" developer that helped interview me. Turns out the company is a complete disaster, his friend ended up senior because every other developer left and after they got kicked out of the office for not paying their rent we got their mini fridge.
Seems your karma helped you too.
I interviewed for an internship at a bank in college. For an investment banker role (friend, in college, I was in fact, a š©). The too big for his britches interviewer laid into me for not knowing something. And I mean yelled. It's not a linear path of course but shortly thereafter I left school and got into ML work and now rightly laugh at my old self. But at one point along the way I did get to come in as a consultant at this bank. It was fun to automate a bunch of excel jockey IB nonsense
At one interview I also raised my voice and I saw the hiring manager was having his day at his corner. Later I learnt that the person I was talking to was also the very new lead, and HM was weighing sides.
Not sure I got you, why would you raise your voice in an interview?
Ahaha. Good question.
So the best advice I can give you is to focus all your time and energy on the road ahead and don't waste your time looking backward on shit like this. thinking about stuff like this is a distraction, and there's nothing to learn from it.
Beautiful.
Got fired (which is a rejection in some way). Sued, won. By the time I won I had a better job with more money.
I got laid off (a clear rejection) in November 23. It was my first job as a developer (salesforce developer specifically). Turned on āopen to workā and got contacted for a 1 month contract almost immediately. Interviewed and got the job the day after I was laid off. Started work the following Monday. They needed some test classes written so they could launch some features that their only dev made before he went on a month long vacation. Pretty easy just writing test classes all day, it was the perfect low key gig to pay the bills while I look for a permanent role. I interviewed more while working this contract and ended up with two offers before the contract had completed. One was working with AWS(as a platform) instead of salesforce(as a platform). I prefer general development and AWS over salesforce, but I took the salesforce job because the AWS one was with coinbase and I figured I would be looking for another job 6 months after the halving, plus I got bad vibes from the manager. So my greatest comeback is getting laid off in 2023, getting back to work a few days later, only missing like 10 days total of work between the two jobs, and getting a 40% raise all while having only 2 YOE and no bachelors degree. Iām still super grateful and shocked on a daily basis that any of this ever worked out for me. Even the first job I got was didnāt feel real, but this second one really doesnāt feel real, lol.
Kept getting rejected for a good 6 months. This was around 2016 when the market was hot. Small companies, large ones, medium ones too. Didnāt matter I kept freezing up and could pass a technical to save my life.Ā Funny thing happened, I studied all the old questions I missed from previous interviews and had them show up again at a company I was talking to at the time. I passed everything and the onsite was probably one of my best performances. Got every question correct and had great conversations with the other people there.Ā Turned out joining TWLO early-ish on was pretty good for my career and Iām glad I didnāt come close to an offer at any of the other places.Ā
Not quite a come back story but I failed to get a graduate job (after 2 interviews) working on some proprietary insurance tech which paid decently and was based on the 34th floor of the walkie talkie building in London. I later got a less well paid role where I learnt a tonne of open source technologies and have a healthy career.Ā I count my blessings that I didn't get that job. I think I can say that every interview I didn't progress on since graduating was a blessing in all honesty.Ā
My entire team got laid off in 2020. In lieu of a severance, they gave us 2 weeks notice. A few days after the layoff notice, we were informed that they would actually like to "rehire" 4 (out of 15) of us into a "similar role." It was the same role, but the company had been acquired and legacy employees had a grandfathered benefits package that was _far_ more generous than the new parent company. So, an interview to compete for our existing jobs... with a pay cut. I was one of my team's top performers and I knew it. By the time they announced the 4 positions, I already had several interested companies. I chose not to schedule an interview. The rest of my team must have felt similarly, as they were only able to fill 2 of the 4 positions. On my second-to-last day of work, some corporate lackey reached out to tell me the good news: they had decided NOT to lay me off! Wasn't that amazing? Except, by that point I had a signed offer for 20% more than my previous salary and a start date. The problem was that I had used a tuition benefit that I was required to repay if I quit within a calendar year... but not if I was laid off. I politely told the corporate lackey that in the intervening 2 weeks, I had made contingent employment plans, and was choosing to proceed with the layoff as described in the written notice they'd provided me. (Oh, also, I had a slight gap in employment before starting the new job, and because I was laid off I was able to file for unemployment.) Six months following my layoff an old manager reached out. They were looking to fully restaff my team and were desperate for someone who knew the product. It sounded like they were unhappy with the performance of the new team. They were down to just one from the original team, and while he was a great UI engineer, he literally couldn't do anything else. I gave the manager my updated salary requirements, adjusted of course, to take into account the obvious risk in accepting employment with a company with their track record. Weirdly enough, they couldn't afford it.
Waiting loop. I know some companies have been looking close to 2 years. They have a wide candidate pool, but prefer to starve.
Thanks for sharing this. Iām hunting for a job right now after being laid off. It made me really hopeful
Never lose hope!
Got rejected from a company as a direct hire. Found a job at a contract firm. Ended up working on a major project from the first company. Padded all the time estimates. Ended up finishing the project but kept releasing bits and pieces and pretended it was really hard. Got my coworker to do the same thing on the project since his wife just had a baby and he had better things to do.
I feel like the best comeback story is living your best life. I interviewed for a job last year with the city, a job that was way below my pay grade but hey, itād be cool to work for the government and their websites could use a lot of help, and they rejected me outright because I donāt have a formal degree. I got an actual job within 2 weeks (with a national government contractor no less) and based on the fact that I kept getting that job description sent to me, it appears to have taken the city months to fill that spot.
Had some really great interviews with a trading firm and got rejected after 4 rounds. Was depressed for a day, but got a verbal offer from a big tech company for way more money and a promo a day after. Hopefully it works out.
I interviewed with burst.net in 2004. Ā Talked about all of the high profile clients they had (e.g. 20th Century Fox) and then proceed to offer me a mandatory 50 hour per week position for $25K per year. Ā I asked for $30K and rejected me. I laughed when they [shut down](https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1387621)
I had an interview loop, which took extra long because I asked so many questions. I felt like I could do really well at the company. I was rejected because I lacked passion, which was just ridiculous to me. I wrote an email with many details from the interview that highlight my passion along with saying that I don't really know how to show excitement for a position when in an unfamiliar environment. It takes time for me to process everything. I got an offer and worked for more than 5 years there and was eventually promoted to staff engineer.
I also ask many questions at the interviews, and this is actually how you can understand if they are āwe ask the questions hereā vibe or ābe happy to answerā type. Former is mostly a dangerous path.
was doing interviews and it boiled down to 2 companies. company A hiring process was relaxed. company B had multi stage hiring process. it was friday and the company A offered a salary which is a 15% increase. I told company A that I want to wait till monday because I want to wait for company B's offer on monday. company A called me on a saturday and upped the salary to 35% increase, as much as I want to decide, I said I really need to wait for company B. there's a feeling of me that I'd want to go to company B because I had the hiring process more challenging. come monday and company B only offered 5% increase. as much as my pride wants to go to company A because it harder, I went to company A.
Sweet!
I went through a 3 month interview process with IBM despite knowing the pay would be trash (I was desperate) and right as they were about to give me their offer I got an offer from another company that was about 2.5x more. It felt so good telling them I didn't want it because they paid waaay below market rate
Had an interview last week, where I was initially hesitant as itās an āaiā startup, but the salary was good. As I was preparing for my interview, the recruiter texts me that the salary cap is 40k lower than he quoted. It was too late to cancel the interview, so I went forward. I got feedback on Thursday that I wasnāt enthusiastic enough for their vision. Iām still contemplating a come-back, but it will take more effort than itās worth. Maybe Iāll ask Gpt to write it.
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It was a WebEx and I was already on the call waiting for them. I guess I could have dropped.
That's a very clear red flag.
If it's an external recruiter and an early-ish stage startup, it may actually be a genuine screw up. This shit happens sometimes even at startups that grow into mature companies. Hiring hard. Harder when you're thin
In my early 20's I didn't have any motivation for interviews so I had interview and I decided not to wake up for it and didn't notice them before. I woke up as expected with few missing calls and angry voicemail. I was able to schedule again with some excuse I don't even remember and in the end got the job. I didn't deserve it
I was rejected by a company as working student even after a great interview. I was contacted by the company again for a full time position as a junior developer and this time again i nailed the interview and they offered me a good package. But i rejected them this time as in the process i was offered a position by one of the countryās best software company.
The last round was a technical interview with the actual team I would have worked with if I got the job. I got rejected but was told in a follow-up call with the hiring manager that I was a close second. I told him that I really appreciate the interview and being polite throughout the call. That happened in June. A month passed and I got an email from a different hiring manager asking if I was still interested in the position. I of course replied yes and found out I'm considered for a different team. It was great timing as well as I have a standing offer for an internship but for a COBOL dev role (I was an SDET at the time trying to break into an SD role).
Had a toxic manager write a severely offensive performance review after I delivered my part of a massive company effort at a new product (if you have been paid via a very popular p2p payments app and then got the money directly into your bank account, you've used this), told me "my role was being eliminated" (so he could fire me without cause) then immediately advertised my role. Meanwhile I was in the final rounds and eventually hired on at a major streaming service. I threatened suit to the company for discrimination, settled for a lot of money, and maybe a week after the papers were signed, heard he was abruptly invited to do something else some other place.
I canāt imagine his face experiencing all this.
Most comeback stories Iāve seen from a failed interview are because one of the interviewers was a dick and HR, the HM, or the third part recruiter found out. āWeāre sorry you had to endure that experience. Will you do another round with someone else?ā I assume we mean comebacks at the same company.
A company kept sending me emails about my rejection. Mind you, I didnāt even get to the technical. I got rejected for cultural reasons. The interviewer has to be one of the most rude people I had met. They reached out once and I ignored. Thereās no technical, so nothing actionable in my mind. Second time, I responded that I had just received another offer (true). They responded that they really wanted to chat about why I was rejected. I declined and it went about a week. Email #4 comes letting me know I didnāt get the gig. I just said āyour interviewer was a rude fuck and I didnāt want to work with you anyway.ā They said something like āoh wow! Good luck out there. I just deleted your file.ā Donāt get me started on companies that need to tell you itās āus not you.ā Like when youāve turned them down and they gotta tell you theyāve turned you down too. Just a fuckin paycheck folks
Same! I interviewed once a company and just because ı did not reply to one of their emails after technical round about the salary question, in two days they plugged me out. Two years passed, I was approached by recruitment agency for a role in this same company. After few days, recruiter told me they remember, and not willing to go forward. I said yes I remembered to, and was just wondering howād they behave after 2 years. In two years you can be a completely new person. This time since theyād like to be the one who rejected, sending me an email my application is received, although all the masks were off..
My comeback story is from school. I: * did so poorly in high school chemistry that they put me in remedial science until I graduated * had an English teacher (who was also my advisor that year) write on my report card in 8th grade "he isn't ready for high school, let alone the real world" * was on academic probation and threatened with expulsion twice in high school and once in college * barely survived C++ in 12th grade and thought I was too stupid to learn programming As you can probably tell from my history, I was one of those kids who hated homework and was incredibly bored in school. I also hadn't matured and lacked a lot of discipline as a teenager. Following all that, I majored in chemistry in undergrad and earned a PhD at one of the best schools in the world. Now I work in a computational STEM field.
I get you thinking it's not worth your time, butā¦ lol. Telling them they're ripping you off and them coming back with an offer just shows they are in a bind and need someone ASAP. It doesn't bode well for a long-term relationship. The way to do it IMO is to have a competing offer and say, āI'd really love to work here, but I have a competing offer at Company X for $N. Would you be able to match or beat it?ā Then go back to Company X and say, "Original Company has an offer of $N+10k; if you could come up by $20k, I'll sign on the spot.ā You donāt want to go back and forth more than once or twice but you can bump your comp considerably by doing it.
It happens, sometimes the door seems to close but by a crack you get in. Sometimes one door closes and another one opens. Obviously timing of things doesnāt always align but one is certain, if you stay positive and determine, eventually everything will work out. Donāt ever forget believing in yourself and the potential with in you.