'I thought I was already hired': Single parent's first-day firing after seven-month job search sparks Reddit support
A post on Reddit’s r/jobs has landed differently from the usual job market frustration threads. Not because the situation is more dramatic than others, but because of who is living it, and what it has cost them.
The original poster is 30, has a young son, is pursuing a master’s degree to become a Licensed Professional Counsellor, and has been job hunting for seven months. They are currently living with their parents to avoid homelessness. They have been applying constantly, showing up to interviews, following up, and trying to build a future for themselves and their child.
A few days ago, they received a job offer for a scheduling coordinator position at a mental health company. The schedule fit their life. After seven months, it felt like a turning point. They turned down another offer. They completed onboarding paperwork. They handed over their ID and Social Security card. They filled out tax forms.
They showed up on what they believed was their first day of training.
Instead, they were given a list of 15 employees with varying shifts and accommodations, shown a completed schedule briefly, placed at a desk, and told they had an hour to create one from scratch with virtually no training. When the first attempt fell short, they took the feedback, revised the schedule, and produced what they described as a significantly improved second attempt with only minor errors.
Then a supervisor told them the schedule would be reviewed to determine whether they were “a good fit.”
“That was the moment I realised — wait — I thought I was already hired,” they wrote.
A few hours later, a phone call confirmed they would not be moving forward. The caller could not explain why. Someone else would call the next day with an explanation.
“What hurts is believing that after seven months of searching, I had finally caught a break, only to have it taken away before I even got the chance to start,” they wrote.
They ended the post by saying the experience is affecting their mental health, that they are becoming depressed, losing confidence, and for the first time in a long time, starting to lose hope.
That deserves to be taken seriously. Seven months of searching, a son depending on them, living with parents, turned down another offer, handed over personal documents, showed up ready, and were evaluated and rejected on the same day. The weight of that experience is real, and the post reads like someone who has hit a wall they weren’t sure was there until they walked into it.
What Reddit said
The responses were a mix of practical advice, validation, and genuine warmth, with several of them being genuinely useful.
The most immediately actionable came first: “I would report this company. You should not be filling out tax forms and giving them your Social Security card unless you are an employee or getting paid for that day and duration of training. Reach out to them and make sure you do get paid for the time you were there.”
The second piece of practical advice was equally direct: “Sorry that didn’t work out for you, but try to call that job you turned down and see if they are still interested.” It is worth making that call. The other company may have moved on, but there’s still a chance that the job was still vacant. Explaining honestly what happened is not a weakness.
Several commenters addressed the process itself. “From what you described, it sounds like they handled the process poorly. If they intended to evaluate your scheduling skills before making a final hiring decision, that should have been clearly communicated before you completed onboarding paperwork and turned down another offer,” one Redditor wrote.
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One comment offered something more personal: “One thing I would encourage you to remember is that this experience doesn’t define your abilities. They gave you very little training, and you still took the feedback, revised your work, and improved it. That says something positive about your willingness to learn.”
Another closed with something direct: “Please don’t let one employer convince you that you’re ‘not good enough.’ Keep applying, and if possible, ask for specific feedback when they call tomorrow. That information could be useful for future interviews. I genuinely hope another opportunity comes your way soon. Wishing you and your son all the best.”
What the thread tells us
The original poster asked whether it gets better. Nobody in the thread could promise that it does, on any particular timeline. What they could offer was saying that this specific situation was handled badly by the company and not her failure.
They revised the work and improved it. They did the onboarding. They showed up. That much should be applauded.
What happened was a process failure. It is not a verdict on the person who experienced it.
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