part of RIF in Jan, but the job market seems very bad at this point. Did anybody get a new job recently? how are the interviews going? anyone who can share recent experiences in job searching?
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Part of last year’s RIF with last day on Nov 19th 2025. Joined the competitor in Feb 2026 with decent pay increase. Was in C13 mostly working on applications in Openshift and Public Cloud.
Your experience with Headhunters/Personnel Agencies is the exception, NOT the norm.
Just Google and read the Reviews about the Headhunter agencies. They're All the same Negative experiences.
The reviews are like thelayoff.com site. When 80% to 90% or more of the job applicants' experiences with the Headhunters are negative experiences, it's the Headhunters' who are in the wrong and are at fault.
The problem is NOT us job seekers, it's Them!
Years ago, one large well-known personnel agency at least was honest with me and told me that only 10% of the job seekers who contact them, get a job through/from their agency. I suspect this statistic is about the same for all agencies.
I looked at the Headhunter interviewer and thought, "Then why am I wasting my time with you and why was I a Svcker who sent you my resume when you told me to send you my resume??"
This means 90% of the job seekers/Svckers are wasting their time and false hopes! I've already known this for years.
I've lost count of the number of Headhunters who swore up and down to me that they'll get me at least an interview(s) if not a job. And then crickets, NOTHING. ONLY GHOSTING!
There are thousands of Internet reviews from other Svckers who've had the same Negative experiences as I've had. This means I'm NOT alone and NOT an anomaly.
As I posted before, Headhunters/Personnel Agencies are the job seekers' last resort, NOT first resort.
@ax Maybe you had a bad experience. Maybe such third party recruiters without ethics do exist. I can only speak for myself and while I had a couple of third party recruiters move on despite hearing back from me on LinkedIn, the fact remains that I had my current, post Citi job partly due to an executive recruiter who got my resume in front of the hiring manager, gave me valuable Intel, whenever they could, before the next round of interviews and so on.
Pro Tip: Thanks Headhunter and Personnel Agency !
Headhunters and Personnel Agencies/Staffing Companies are worse than employers!
All they want is job applicants'/Svckers' resumes to see how and where people are getting jobs, where they're employed etc.. AND THEN, they GHOST the job applicants! You'll NEVER hear from them again after the initial contact and after you give them your Resume!
Same Sh!t Show BullSh!t at every Headhunter. Just read their Yelp and Glassdoor reviews! They ALL have a bad reputation.
If they're doing it to one or some job applicants/Svckers, they're doing it to others!
This is one reason why Headhunters are merging or going out of business. They other reason is the Internet and employers NOT wanting to fork over 30% to 40% in commissions/finders fees.
Job applicants can apply for jobs directly on the employers' websites, so why pay useless, cut throat Headhunters to find new hires??
AND they ARE CUT THROAT! I've lost count of the number of companies that told me during interviews that Headhunters are savages, animals and cut throat. Yes, they were actually called that by the interviewers. The steal each others' job orders and job applicants, LIE and cheat both sides....Both the job applicants and employers!
Headhunter are the last resort NOT first resort when job searching!
@OP nice try, HR.
Left Citi two month ago. +50% in TC and I should have done this long ago.
Pro tip - in this market of saturated talent plus AI submitted candidates to increase application numbers... Try to make connections with recruiters/headhunters/positions being advertised by staffing firms. This will help in making sure your resume is actually seen by hiring managers once these people do the basic filtering of you and your profile.