A techie's humorous anecdote about how he landed his friend a job at Dell in the early 2000s has sparked a wave of nostalgia and disbelief online. Jack Forge, a user on X (formerly Twitter), shared the story of how he simply told his manager that his friend was "cool and liked to party." To his astonishment, the manager asked him to share his friend's resume, and within three days, his friend was hired and sitting at a desk.
"Tech hiring in the 2000s was crazy. I once got a friend hired at Dell by telling my manager that he was cool and liked to party. My manager asked me to bring in a CV, and we got him on board. The guy was hired and at a desk within 3 days," he posted.
The post quickly went viral, amassing over 3 lakh views and prompting a flurry of responses from users who shared their experiences with the hiring process in the early 2000s.
Many commented on how drastically the job market has changed since then, with one user noting that current hiring practices often involve multiple rounds of interviews, cover letters, and assessments. Others shared their own stories of landing jobs through unconventional means, such as showing up for an interview and being the only candidate present.
"I was hired in 1999 because I owned a black T-shirt, LOL. It wasn't so easy, but I had built a website in 1998, which made me some sort of web expert," one user wrote.
"I remember putting my resume on MonsterBoard in 2000 after having been in the Dominican Republic for over a year. I submitted it, closed up, and walked downstairs to have tea with my girlfriend and my mom, and the phone rang. I was invited for an interview at Endemol (the biggest media company in Holland at that time) and was hired on the spot, LMFAO. I worked there for 5 years doing all kinds of awesome stuff. Good times," another stated.
"Just from the last week, I passed 5 stages of interviews, including 2 soft skills verifications and 3 technical assessments (questions, live coding on HackerRank, system design). I was denied. Even a consultant told me he was surprised because he hadn't had anyone pass all these stages recently. It looked to him like the company I was applying to had just found someone else on their own," a third individual wrote.