'6 Weeks, 7 Interviews And A No': Cancer Survivor's Brutal Job Hunt Post Viral

The current job market is facing its most significant downturn since the COVID-19 pandemic. The emotional toll of navigating such a market was recently highlighted by a 34-year-old job seeker who revealed that she "actually threw up" from the stress of a rejection. Her experience followed an exhausting two-month process that included seven gruelling rounds of interviews.

"After 6 weeks, 7 interviews, a case study, a board deck, a presentation, and a final meeting with HR, after all of that, I got a no," the woman wrote in a Reddit post titled: "It's official. I actually threw up."

The woman said the company's rejection email felt abrupt and confusing despite having undergone repeated evaluations. "I genuinely don't understand what happened. "We're moving forward with another candidate that better fits our needs"? Really? My head is still spinning."

The woman left her previous job in May 2024 after a breast cancer diagnosis, but was crestfallen by the state of the job market after she returned.

"I'm on food stamps, I've got student loan debt, credit card debt, and now medical debt, but after so much good feedback for this particular job, I really saw a light at the end of the tunnel," she told Newsweek.

Check The Viral Post Here:

It's official. I actually threw up.
by u/namas_D_A in recruitinghell

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Social Media Reactions

As the post went viral, social media users shared similar experiences, highlighting that the hiring protocols in most companies were broken.

"To be honest, no matter how far you get in the process, you got to stay neutral. I realised this after having 2 final rounds with 2 different companies and still got rejected," said one user while another added: "I feel like they already had an internal candidate they didn't want to disclose to you. I'm sorry it happened, stay strong!"

A third commented: "This happened to me and the company finally posted who got the position earlier this week. I pulled her up on LinkedIn and she is an incredible candidate who had a very similar background and layoff experience to what I had gone through. As much as I wanted to be sad or hate her, I was just happy to see someone get their win in this job market."