Man gets rejected in middle of interviewing for job: ‘Hilariously unfortunate’

A man on Reddit revealed that he was rejected for a position while he was still being interviewed for the role on Zoom. Reddit user @DatJavaClass shared a post on subreddit r/recruitinghell narrating the story of him getting rejected during the hiring process.
He said it happened during his second interview with the company which was with a panel including senior managers and the Chief of Staff. “It was the second of three interviews, so not an overwhelming number, but it was the longest by far (1.5 hours). The first had been half an hour, and the third was only going to be 15 minutes with the CTO,” he wrote.
The interview was going well and after testing his technical knowledge, the panel was just having a light-hearted chat. “The Chief of Staff brings up the third interview: “Let’s get it scheduled before we forget,” he said.
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The man said he was ready for the next interview and suddenly, received an email. “A rejection email. The “dear john” kind we’ve all gotten used to. It’s from them,” he said.
Baffled by the message, he regained his composure. This is when the Chief of Staff asked him if he would be free for the next interview.
“All I can do is smile and reply: “Works great for me, but I’m not sure it’s going to work for the rest of the hiring team. Someone just rejected me sight unseen,” he said.
His reply shocked everyone in the panel. “I’ve been rejected from this role so you can pursue other candidates that more closely align.”
“What other candidates are left? I thought he was the last?” one of the senior members asked another.
The man said the revelation led to “awkward few minutes of silence” before one of them assured him that they will get back to him by the end of the week.
“Then I was kicked out of the Zoom call. So I’m thinking someone’s friend just got hired and no one told the Chief of Staff, or the role got closed due to budget and again, no one told the Chief of Staff. Either way… hilariously unfortunate,” he said.
(Also read: UK Man was rejected 5 minutes after job interview. He said he talked about…)
The post was soon flooded with comments from people with similar stories.
“My husband once interviewed with Amazon for a corporate dev role and on the way to his car in their parking lot, his phone buzzed and it was their rejection! Like damn, that was lickity split,” wrote one user.
“Brutal, being rejected via email during the interview. Sounds like you dodged a bullet honestly, reflective of what it would be like to work there,” said another user.