Fired without even being hired: Candidate gets terminated from a job he was never offered. 'It's so ridiculous'

In an era where job applications are increasingly handled by automated systems and prolonged hiring cycles have become the norm, candidates often find themselves navigating unclear timelines, vague rejections, and little to no feedback. While most job seekers expect silence or a standard rejection email, one Reddit user recently shared an experience that stood out for its sheer absurdity — being marked as “fired” from a role he was never formally offered.

According to the Reddit post, the individual had been unemployed for more than a year and was applying aggressively for any role that matched his qualifications. During this period, he accepted a job that initially sounded promising during interviews. However, when the official contract arrived, it differed significantly from what had been verbally discussed. After raising concerns, the company took several days to respond, ultimately stating that the written terms were final. Feeling pressured by his circumstances, he accepted the offer but later described the job as deeply disappointing. Over time, he decided that staying in a role where he felt disrespected was worse than being without a paycheck.

Revisiting an old application

As he resumed his job search, the candidate reapplied to a local company he had approached several times in the past. This brought back memories of an earlier experience he had nearly forgotten. Months earlier, he had applied for a role at the same company and gone through three rounds of interviews between August and November. He felt the interviews went well and recalled being told that the company would follow up the following week, citing internal discussions around changes to the pay structure for the position.


No response ever came. About a month later, he noticed the same job being advertised again, this time with a salary around $10,000 lower than before. Unsure whether the company had hired someone else or dropped him due to salary expectations, he reapplied out of curiosity but never heard back.

A surprising application status

The real surprise came when he reviewed his application history while applying again. For most roles, the status simply read “Not Accepted.” But for the role involving three interviews, the status was “Not Retained.” Based on his understanding and feedback from others, this phrase was typically used internally to indicate that someone had been terminated. To him, it appeared as though the company’s system showed he had been fired from a job he had never started.

The candidate said the situation left him with more questions than answers and described it as so ridiculous that he felt compelled to share it online.

Reddit reactions and possible explanations

The post quickly drew hundreds of comments, with many users sharing similar stories. Some recalled being contacted years after applying for roles, often due to companies migrating to new applicant tracking systems. Others pointed out that simple HR errors — such as misclicking a dropdown menu — can permanently mislabel a candidate in internal systems.

Several commenters also criticised the company’s behaviour, suggesting that repeatedly interviewing candidates before reposting roles at lower salaries could indicate market testing rather than genuine hiring intent. Others noted that regardless of technical explanations, failing to update a candidate after multiple interviews was unacceptable.