# A Year of Applying, Two Panels of Four — Then the Rejection Was Automatic

**[TRUE STORY]** — by Candidate · via r/recruitinghell

He had been applying for almost a year when a recruiter finally called. There was a phone screen, then two panel interviews — four people on each. The questions were relevant, polite, and asked again and again in slight variations by each new face. Eight people interviewed him. None of them, apparently, could decide alone.

After the final round, an automatic email arrived: they had gone with someone else. No feedback, no call.

He wrote that he had been over-qualified for many of the roles he applied to, and had spent the year being ghosted, auto-rejected, and circled back to by recruiters months after the fact. The part that broke him was the arithmetic — eight interviewers to reach a form letter.

He cried for the first time on the drive home, at the thought of looking his wife in the eye and telling her this one had not worked out. Then at the thought of his children.

*Source: [r/recruitinghell · viral post](https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1xduqkx/it_really_is_as_bad_as_they_say_it_is/)*
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