#interviews

I will be starting with Vanguard in Plano in 3 weeks. Curious of the culture, in office environment, office amenities. For example, is there a cafeteria? Gym? Do most people work 8-5 in office? I had 3 interviews. 2 managers said “come in at 8, leave at 12:30 and finish the day at home. The 3rd manager said 8-5 is the minimum expectation.

I saw a thread that said that the most dangerous person in a toxic workplace isn’t the bully - it’s the leader who watches the bully and calls it a personality conflict.

Back in 2017 - 2020 or so, there was a bully in the Law Dept. She stabbed everyone in the back and the front and told bald faced lies about everyone.
Leadership did nothing about her reign of te---r - in fact they chalked all of her shenanigans up to “personality conflicts” and “misunderstandings” when the evidence - emails, calendar invitations, personal interviews - all clearly showed that she was a liar and actively working to undercut colleagues and direct and indirect reports with her Machiavellian ways.

Sadly Aflac didn’t address the bully - only supported her and drove out many excellent lawyers in a mass exodus once they all realized that their concerns were being swept under the rug, with full cooperation and support from senior legal dept leadership and Hr.

Once they realized the full extent of her decimation - everyone leaving - this person was eventually promoted to a new role in the business to get her out of the Law Dept and then eventually was moved out of the company once a business area with guts had the nerve to address her.

It’s disappointing that the Law Dept couldn’t address a blight upon their department and instead had to have many high performing attorneys leave for other roles before the awful lady was addressed.

I dare say that those in the public should know how the law dept leadership runs - saving their own skins and sacrificing their top performers to save face and not taking responsibility or accountability for how they run things. It’s sad.

Has anyone who was eliminated earlier this year successfully secured an interview for a new role? I have applied for a few different positions for which I was a perfect fit, but the speed with which I received the "Thanks but no thanks" email felt automated. The first few times I assumed they'd already filled the role internally or had lost funding for the position. Now I'm wondering if there is an automatic filter to exclude previous employees. If so, I really don't want to waste time applying for anything else. Has anyone who was JE'd gotten rehired?

Are there any companies you've been applying to where you've actually heard back for an interview?

Are there any companies you've been applying to where you've actually heard back for an interview?

Are there any companies you've been applying to where you've actually heard back for an interview?

What did you think of Dan’s interview at Semafor today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr5S4xpK2R4

Interview starts at 3:43 mark

Do I just say it straight, that the job is a mess, or do I clean it up so it sounds better? How honest am I supposed to be? If I say too much, does that sc--w me, and if I don’t, why am I leaving?

Saw someone else get an interview on a shared screen today, are they just targeting five9 now for staff?

I had one in my LinkedIn dms, are there any other good employers looking for five9 employees?

I am hoping to get out of here soon, the salary and management toxicity really struck a nerve recently

I had an interview on Monday that I was really excited about, until they asked me what animal I would be if I could choose. Seriously, what kind of question is that? Why would anyone ask something like that? It's been a while since I last interviewed, is this the norm now?

Curious does anyone have any context why there is a delay on any job offers from the recent jobs posting? Many have slowed down after final interviews.

I applied/interviewed to 3 positions over the past 6 months, made it to the interview phase but never get selected. I have a friend who’s moved around a lot over the years, I figured it be relatively easy to get a role this way, especially if it’s a lateral move. Anyone else unable to move around? Do the hiring managers know who will be hired before they post it on workday? That’s kind of what I’m thinking how it works now, they know who will get hired but just open the position as a formality, wasting everyone else’s time who applied.

Or do I just have bad luck?

I'm curious how many are actually getting interviews and offers versus just sending resumes into the void.

Is this normal at Schwab to get asked to created a whole angular application during a specialist software engineer interview that connects to an api. I had until tomorrow to finish it, but I felt it was a waste of my time since I am employed in a different position with other work. I felt it was extreme and I’m moving on. Is this normal.

Just filed for NC.
Interview date is early June.

If you are thinking about filing, or preparing the doc before you file, no need,
just file right away.

You can cancel or change later.

I have been at T for more than dog years and as I venture into job market, I am seeing hiring managers not having a clue who they want, yet interview me and send instant rejections after the first rounds. I am unsure if these are H1B postings, my tenure at T negatively affecting or my credentials. I am a bit flabbergasted on what to improve on if I can’t even make the first round. How did you overcome this?

Has anyone ever accepted a new position only to discover the day-to-day reality was completely different from the job description or what was discussed in interviews? I'm trying to avoid that situation again. What are the best ways you've found to get an honest sense of the work environment and the actual role before you sign an offer?

I have applied over 90 roles at Fidelity, not a single call for interview and it comes back as they are moving forward with other candidates. If the company and specially hiring manager has someone in their circle or known group member to hire why post it and wasting my time. I like Fidelity culture, benefits, despite of their low pay scale as their 401k, bonus and other things make up of that pay

I’ve been looking for another job for months now, partly as a precaution and partly because I really need a change. But it’s incredibly depressing out there. I’ve been genuinely trying, and I’ve managed to land a grand total of one interview. Has anyone had better luck?

Even when I get interviews, every conversation feels mechanical. Companies are cautious, hiring managers seem stretched thin, and nobody promises stability. It feels like the whole market shifted into survival mode and all of us are stuck in it. I feel so bad for those who have to go through the whole process without having a job.

I ’ve read your posts, and I see a lot of pain, anger, and smart people struggling to land. Yes, the market is tough, and yes, offshore/H1B is a factor, but let's talk about the biggest hurdle: Your Wells Fargo Leadership Narrative.

You were trained and rewarded in a toxic, high-fear environment. Now, you’re inadvertently carrying that "WF ethos" into your interviews, and recruiters are seeing it as a massive risk.

Here is the truth: Your next employer doesn't just need your technical skills; they need assurance you aren't bringing the "poison" of an abusive, command-and-control culture with you.

1. The Red Flags Recruiters See
   When you talk about why Agile failed, or how you led a team, we listen for these immediate flags:

"I monitored their tickets..." 🚩 (Translation: I micro-managed, I didn't trust my people.)

"We couldn't innovate because it was too risky..." 🚩 (Translation: I was risk-averse, I didn't create a safe learning environment.)

"Agile failed because management we-ponized the metrics..." 🚩 (While true, it signals: You don't know how to protect your team from bad leadership.)

"I had to stack rank them..." 🚩 (Translation: You were an enforcer of a toxic system.)

1. Your New Leadership Narrative: From Enforcer to Enabler
   You need to shift your identity from a manager who enforced toxic metrics to a Servant Leader who protected and enabled their team despite the toxicity. You must demonstrate that you were a student of the anti-patterns, not an advocate.

This shift is rooted in Psychological Safety (PS)—the belief that your team can speak up without fear of punishment. When PS is high, Agile works, Innovation works, teams work. When it's low (like at WF), everything fails.

Your Goal: Convince the interviewer that you know how to build a safe and empowered team that drives innovation and takes ownership.

1. The AI Chat Practice Prompt
   Use a tool like this (Gemini, ChatGPT, etc.) to practice your new answers. Paste the following prompt into your chat, and then answer the questions the AI poses. This forces you to recondition your answers and solidify your narrative:

[Copy and paste this into an AI Chat]

"I was a manager who was recently laid off from a large financial institution that suffered a failed Agile transformation due to a deeply toxic, high-fear culture. In my interviews, I am struggling to demonstrate that I have moved past that toxic environment. I need to establish a new leadership narrative based on Psychological Safety (PS) and Servant Leadership. Assume I am in an interview for a leadership role at a healthy organization.

Please ask me the following questions and critique my answers, looking for red flags that show I am still operating from a 'command-and-control' mindset:

How do you get others to trust in your leadership?

How did you approach performance reviews and development in that high-pressure environment?

How do you foster innovation and manage technical risk on your team?"

1. What the AI Will Teach You to Say
   When you practice, your answers should evolve to focus on systems, coaching, and protection, not control. For example:

Instead of: "I monitored their work."

Say: "I shifted my focus from monitoring tasks to coaching autonomy. I established clear, measurable team goals and ensured my team felt safe enough to immediately raise impediments, knowing I would remove them."

Use the AI to refine your story until you sound like a leader who learned from the fire and is now ready to build a healthy culture. Good luck—you are capable of this shift!

Does completing four rounds of interviews usually indicate I’m likely to receive an offer for an internal position?

https://youtube.com/shorts/bP6L6kbz2lM?si=U_3CnJs74rLXJMWw

Check out Pat’s commentary grants vs investment..

Oh the headline is more click bait…the meat of the interview was intel and the fed government dollars

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/10/13/former-intel-ceo-pat-gelsinger-of-course-were-in-an-ai-bubble.html

Howdy,

Got an interview request to do cyber controls/risk work with a "crypto leader." Recruiter is being coy about which firm but I figured I'd post here for thoughts.

Anyone here have info on how the gov/risk/compliance departments are here? Would you recommend leaving a similar job at an established top 10 bank for a riskier job in this space for an 80k pay bump plus equity?

I did see there was a 20% layoff in "crypto winter" 2023 but my current company had a bigger layoff in recent years so not sure how worried I should.

I don’t even know how many applications I’ve sent out so far, and all I’m getting is crickets.

Pass the screen, go for the round of interviews, how long before you hear something? Same Day? Couple days? Week? Do rejections come immediately while silence means a possible offer? Or is it the opposite, if they are interested you get an offer right away, and silence just means they aren't interested? What's the norm these days on the interview circuit?

After months and months of applying. That's the only thing making Monday and the rest of the week feel bearable. I've been so unhappy here that I've even considered quitting without something else lined up. Now I'm putting all my hopes into landing one of these two jobs. I'm even willing to take lower pay just to get out of here.

Never give these 3 'sudden deaths' answers at a job interview, says CEO—'you've instantly disqualified yourself'. #3 is very interesting, see the link below:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/never-give-these-3-sudden-death-answers-at-a-job-interview-says-ceo-you-ve-instantly-disqualified-yourself/ar-AA1LkiJf?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W069&cvid=4eb443a3de0a425ca7049dbd8be1e6f0&ei=61

Hello,
I recently started at Wells Fargo working at a local branch in Florida, but have come to realize why the position was offered to me so quickly after one interview. I have a narcissistic female manager who doesn’t realize she is the problem and reason why everyone keeps quitting this location. I didn’t notice this at first, she hides it well but now that I’ve caught on I am already in the process of interviewing on all of my off days once again. This woman is off her rocker and barely speaks English fluently. Wells Fargo hires complete trash.

I will keep you posted.

Will Elevance ever go above the given salary range in a pre screen interview call?