Two interviews in, a TikTok creator thought the process was nearly done. Then an HR rep called with the good news: the company wanted to move her forward. That meant re-interviewing with the same panel she had already met and, if she survived that, two additional interviews before any decision. Five stages total, for a company nobody has been allowed to name.
She withdrew her application while still on the call. "I'm not the right fit for your company," she told the recruiter, then posted the reasoning: companies run five-stage loops to mine applicants for solutions they do not want to pay for.
The video has about 88,600 likes and split the comments. A commenter with 25 years of experience said they now refuse scenario-based assignments for the same reason; another described a game studio that asked applicants to build a test model for a job paying roughly $7,000, with dozens of applicants each building one. A candidate survey cited in the coverage found most applicants prefer one or two stages. The company is not named.