I am currently at a job I hate and I applied to a job that aligned so closely with my interests even though it was a long shot. To my surprise, I got an interview, and it seemed to go well. It wasn't even with HR, it was with the person who would theoretically be my boss. She was really enthusiastic when talking to me and expressed that my interests and experience aligns with what she is looking for.

"We are still working on these first interviews into next week so expect to hear back from us by the end of next week or in two weeks." I waited.

That was mid-November. It's almost 2026 as I'm typing this. I have sent a few follow-up emails (one as a thank-you the day after, one the week following the time she said she'd get back to me, and then a final one around a week ago), maybe desperate but whatever. She did actually reply to the first two showing appreciation for the email and the interview, and ended them with "we will be in touch soon." What does that even mean bro?

I have been applying to other jobs and am appreciative that I even have one at all, so I'm def not putting all of my faith in this one. I'm just like...man....why are recruiters and managers like this?!?!

My ONLY cope is that the job listing is still up, and that this particular company/organization does a ton of arts and performance events (the exact department I applied to) so they have been doing back to back holiday events and programming since November...this lady is probably extremely swamped. But at this point I'm just accepting that I didn't get this job, lmao. I am definitely not going to hold onto hope for this one. Looking for a job is hell, man.