Hello! It’s #vsrativakansii again. The last winter selection of this year is about the strange behavior of employers during interviews, working for free, ageism and the meaning of being of candidates.
Hello! It’s #vsrativakansii again. The last winter selection of this year is about the strange behavior of employers during interviews, working for free, ageism and the meaning of being of candidates.
Send vacancies that you think contain strange requirements for candidates to [email protected]
Tatyana Bykova, founder of Bykova Recruitment Agency, shared a screenshot of a candidate’s story for an HR vacancy. «The trashy stories continue… How are you, gentlemen? I really want to see the owner of this company,» she wrote and added a screenshot.
According to the interviewee, at first the company manager «couldn’t» find time for the candidate, and then there was a group interview with nine specialists and a huge test.
Software Engineer Roman S. posted a screenshot of a job offer description with the comment: «Where did we go wrong?».
First, the employer offers a two-week unpaid test period if the candidate completes the test task with a mentor. If the candidate completes the test task independently, they are given two days and access to the repositories.
Secondly, you need an AI engineer with a super-junior grade. And it’s not necessary to write good code.
Pavlo Stepanenko, a sales specialist, shared a vacancy that, with a fairly low salary, requires the candidate to understand the meaning of life.
«Do you already know your global goal? Your „why“? For example, why do you need it for 15K? Do you know?», he wrote.
Marketing expert Yulia Katkova shared a story about how she was invited to work at a service station despite having a properly written resume.
«Of course, I knew that 'flexibility' among candidates is a steady trend in the labor market. But this is the first time I’ve received such an extravagant offer. These are not 'office workers' with their 'assistant managers',» she wrote and added a screenshot.
And this is a dialogue about refusing a recruiter because the candidate admitted that he just wants to make money. «What should I feed the Cat for?», — the participant of the dialogue, Junior Manual QA Engineer Ivan Podlisnyak, ironically comments.
And here is the story of an unfinished hiring in the Genesis ecosystem.
Digital Content Writer and Marketer Marta Kravs told how she actually received an offer, which was then withdrawn without any arguments.
«This is my first post on LinkedIn, in which I want to share the simply «extraordinary» process of going through all the recruitment stages at PlantIn from the Genesis Tech ecosystem for the position of Content Writer/Editor. Spoiler: even after the offer, if you honestly asked for a few days to think about it, and then confirmed your agreement, you may simply be faced with the fact: «We are withdrawing the offer and continuing to look for other candidates,» she said.
According to the specialist, after going through all the stages of the interview, including the test, which took about 8 hours, the technical part, and the bar raising, the recruiter wrote back to her almost immediately and made her an offer. «At that time, I was already in the final stage of an interview with another company, so I told her that I would think about it and come back with a final decision in just a few days. The recruiter assured me that everything was okay, they were putting the vacancy on hold and waiting for me with a decision,» Marta noted.
Two days later, the girl returned with a positive decision, to which she received a response that the offer was being withdrawn.
«Maybe things wouldn’t have looked so bad on their part if they had written to me first with such a decision (which is still not okay). That is, the following comes out: I refused another company in favor of PlantIn, and they already dumped me. In conclusion, I spent a month going through all the stages, which could have been allocated for communication with other companies. On their part, this is completely unprofessional and simply inhuman. I am writing this post to protect other candidates from my mistakes,» Marta noted. .
Kateryna Danilevska, Head of Recruitment & Employer Branding /Talent Acquisition Lead, published screenshots of candidate questionnaires with quite provocative questions.
«Are such questions OK in a candidate questionnaire in 2026?» she asked, analyzing the vacancy for a foreign economic activity manager.
The employer is interested, in particular, in what charity is and what positive character traits the candidate has, as well as the living conditions.
HR manager Diana Prus told how she encountered ageism and rejection because of her age.
«A couple of days ago I had an interview. Before that, I worked as an HR manager for several years, and applied for a similar position. I had an interview with the CEO and the owner of the company — everything went very well. We left the interview in a good mood. They said: 'We’ll give you feedback in a few days.' They call. And they refuse. The reason? I’m 25. And 'how can you hold a management position at that age?'» the specialist said .
HRBP Kateryna Leonova described a case of how employers deceive candidates using the example of a specific vacancy.
«A recruiter recently wrote to me on LinkedIn: HRBP position, 08-20 schedule, low salary. She says: „This is temporary, these are the times, then we will raise it.“ When? „As soon as business goes up.“ Reviews about the company are, of course, negative. Yes, there are exceptions. But they happen much less often than „sweet“ promises. Don’t let beautiful words replace specific conditions. Don’t lend someone else’s business your own time and nerves. Value yourself,» she advises .
As an illustration of this approach, Kateryna showed a vacancy for an SMM specialist who is offered to work temporarily for free.
«"We are a family, but we are not yet successful.» How do employers fool themselves? If you hear these phrases during an interview or in the first days, then don’t expect a miracle. Run. Because „temporarily“ in the office dictionary usually means „forever.“ „There is no career growth now. But opportunities will appear.“ (And in fact, these are opportunities to work for two for an additional 5,000 UAH.) „These are additional responsibilities, literally for a month.“ „There are no benefits yet, but we are just developing a package,“ „The salary delays are temporary. You won’t abandon us in difficult times, will you?“, — advises the specialist.
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«We decided to give preference to candidates with classic, stable experience in companies.» QA Team Lead spoke about the employer’s rejection due to her freelance experience. There is a discussion on LinkedIn with 100+ comments
Ukrainian IT professionals are once again arguing about what constitutes «stability» in IT. This time, the reason was a post by QA Team Lead and career consultant Inna Dvoinikova, who, after two years of freelancing, faced an unexpected problem — Ukrainian IT companies are in no hurry to consider her for long-term positions.
Ukrainian IT professionals are once again arguing about what constitutes «stability» in IT. This time, the reason was a post by QA Team Lead and career consultant Inna Dvoinikova, who, after two years of freelancing, faced an unexpected problem — Ukrainian IT companies are in no hurry to consider her for long-term positions.
«After two years of freelancing, is the path to Ukrainian IT companies closed?» Inna asked. The girl posted a screenshot of a potential employer’s rejection.
According to the specialist, she has been testing for over eight years. Before freelancing, Inna worked in Ukrainian, Israeli, and German companies, staying in each project for several years and going through the full product development cycle — from launch to supporting stable versions.
«I changed companies not because I was ‘bored,’ but when development stopped. When there were no budgets for automation and the development plan was ‘out of date,’» she explains.
This, according to Inna, was the impetus for freelancing. During this time, she managed to work with Web3, AI, and GameDev projects — both in the format of long-term full-time cooperation and short-term engagements. This experience taught her to quickly enter new domains, build processes from scratch, and work with chaos.
However, the irony of the situation, says the specialist, is that today Ukrainian companies actively invite her as an interviewer, performance review expert, speaker, and «coming-in» QA Lead — but are not ready to consider her as a permanent member of the team. «When I say that I’m looking for a stable company or product for several years, I often hear: 'you’ve been working freelance for too long, it’s unstable,'» she notes.
This, Inna believes, exposes a deeper problem in the market: freelance experience is often perceived as a risk, even if it is backed by years of responsibility and real results. «If a specialist from different domains and many years of experience is a risk, then who do we consider stable? Middlemen who leave after a year due to lack of development?» asks the IT professional.
Send vacancies that you think contain strange requirements for candidates to [email protected]
