| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. 23:48 - Aug 7 with 984 views | GunnsAirkick |
I got made redundant at the end of June, I've had quite a lot of interest thankfully and I got a job offer mid-July after several interviews (so I haven't really been looking since then).
Today I got a call saying the position had been axed due to budget cuts (it's a local authority role). I went through a two stage interview, full HR process and then the plug is pulled. I'm furious as I haven't been active for the last couple of weeks bar one role I kept on the back burner just in case. Has this happened to anyone on here before? I'm glad I at least kept the other role as a backup. It could potentially be for more money too so hopefully it's a blessing in disguise (doesn't feel like it at the moment though). |  | | |  |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 00:23 - Aug 8 with 854 views | TresBonne |
Akpom? |  | | |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 00:39 - Aug 8 with 816 views | Swailsey |
Sorry to hear that |  |
| Who said: "Colin Healy made Cesc Fabregas look like Colin Healy"? | We miss you TLA |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 00:46 - Aug 8 with 802 views | GunnsAirkick |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 00:23 - Aug 8 by TresBonne |
Akpom? |
I'm a free agent now! | | | |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 01:15 - Aug 8 with 757 views | Kropotkin123 |
Interesting that you post it now. I'm on the other side of recruitment and this week I retracted the first offer in the 3-4 years I've been at the company.
My retracted offer was because new information came up regarding their management/communication style. We weren't confident it would work out and it relt reckless to pull them out of their role. We were subsequently keener on a couple of other candidates that we had rejected.
It took me about 2 hours to write the retraction email. I responded to a feedback request email that took about 6 hours of combined time going back and forth with hiring managers. That time was mainly spent in my evening, so I could foucus uninterrupted. The management wanted to present things nicely and I wanted to be more direct with the feedback, so it was actionable. Eventually we created something that we were all happy with.
My experience is that it is a pretty rough on all sides. No one wants to get to that stage and retract and offer. I don't think it is common.
I think it is better that they made the decision now, rather than wait until you joined and they make the decision in 3 months or so. It seems a little odd that they advertised in their condition, but I guess there has to be a threshold/cut off at some point. |  |
| Submit your 1-24 league prediction here -https://www.twtd.co.uk/forum/514096/page:1 - for the opportunity to get a free Ipswich top. | | Poll: | Would you rather | | Blog: | Round Four: Eagle |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 01:55 - Aug 8 with 699 views | GunnsAirkick |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 01:15 - Aug 8 by Kropotkin123 |
Interesting that you post it now. I'm on the other side of recruitment and this week I retracted the first offer in the 3-4 years I've been at the company.
My retracted offer was because new information came up regarding their management/communication style. We weren't confident it would work out and it relt reckless to pull them out of their role. We were subsequently keener on a couple of other candidates that we had rejected.
It took me about 2 hours to write the retraction email. I responded to a feedback request email that took about 6 hours of combined time going back and forth with hiring managers. That time was mainly spent in my evening, so I could foucus uninterrupted. The management wanted to present things nicely and I wanted to be more direct with the feedback, so it was actionable. Eventually we created something that we were all happy with.
My experience is that it is a pretty rough on all sides. No one wants to get to that stage and retract and offer. I don't think it is common.
I think it is better that they made the decision now, rather than wait until you joined and they make the decision in 3 months or so. It seems a little odd that they advertised in their condition, but I guess there has to be a threshold/cut off at some point. |
The recruiter is mortified, I said to him please don't feel bad as it's outside of his control. The email I received from the organisation is also very apologetic, it sounds like it has come from higher up and further redundancies are planned in the organisation.
It all feels a bit rough at the moment. I'm in software but I know a few fellow people in the industry who have been laid off and are struggling. | | | |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 05:27 - Aug 8 with 531 views | MJallday |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 01:55 - Aug 8 by GunnsAirkick |
The recruiter is mortified, I said to him please don't feel bad as it's outside of his control. The email I received from the organisation is also very apologetic, it sounds like it has come from higher up and further redundancies are planned in the organisation.
It all feels a bit rough at the moment. I'm in software but I know a few fellow people in the industry who have been laid off and are struggling. |
I’ve seen both sides
It sounds like you’ve dodged a bullet. Any company (or indeed authority) that acts in that disorganised way tells you everything you need to know about what it would have been like actually working for them
If nothing else you’ve got a bit of interview experience .
There’s plenty of jobs out there. Good luck x |  |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 05:35 - Aug 8 with 507 views | victorysquad |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 01:55 - Aug 8 by GunnsAirkick |
The recruiter is mortified, I said to him please don't feel bad as it's outside of his control. The email I received from the organisation is also very apologetic, it sounds like it has come from higher up and further redundancies are planned in the organisation.
It all feels a bit rough at the moment. I'm in software but I know a few fellow people in the industry who have been laid off and are struggling. |
That is only going to get worse it seems. Co-pilot is way too good.
I have laid off 3 UK PAYE people in the past 2 months. Just too expensive to hire people now.
Talk of raising taxes again in November is madness, the economy is already struggling, they will kill it completely.
Unfortunately, they need to take more of an Irish approach, lower taxes, and encourage business to come here. But how you get there from where we are at, I am not sure.
I am seeing another huge Pharma move UK jobs to Spain.
We need serious investment in Ai in this country, but we just lack that ecosystem vs the US. [Post edited 8 Aug 5:38]
|  |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:04 - Aug 8 with 417 views | MJallday |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 05:35 - Aug 8 by victorysquad |
That is only going to get worse it seems. Co-pilot is way too good.
I have laid off 3 UK PAYE people in the past 2 months. Just too expensive to hire people now.
Talk of raising taxes again in November is madness, the economy is already struggling, they will kill it completely.
Unfortunately, they need to take more of an Irish approach, lower taxes, and encourage business to come here. But how you get there from where we are at, I am not sure.
I am seeing another huge Pharma move UK jobs to Spain.
We need serious investment in Ai in this country, but we just lack that ecosystem vs the US. [Post edited 8 Aug 5:38]
|
as i said to someone the other day.
co-pilot is great at writing emails and summarising meetings
its ***t at making the tea and decisions.
have you ever noticed what it ACTUALLY does when you ask it a question which requires thought or opinion? it gives you 3 answers, then opts for the middle ground on the balance of probability which never gives you a definitive. its like a digital version of alan titchmarsh on the one show
youll always need the human decision element. also, c**p in, c**p out. co-pilot (and other ai) doesnt work "on its own" - its not sentient. you need to actually tell it to "do stuff"
AI isnt the magic bullet people thing it is. its a tool, nothing more
when it can pick up a spoon and add 1 sugar and milk... then.. be worried | |
| |
Login to get fewer ads
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:12 - Aug 8 with 373 views | bsw72 |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:04 - Aug 8 by MJallday |
as i said to someone the other day.
co-pilot is great at writing emails and summarising meetings
its ***t at making the tea and decisions.
have you ever noticed what it ACTUALLY does when you ask it a question which requires thought or opinion? it gives you 3 answers, then opts for the middle ground on the balance of probability which never gives you a definitive. its like a digital version of alan titchmarsh on the one show
youll always need the human decision element. also, c**p in, c**p out. co-pilot (and other ai) doesnt work "on its own" - its not sentient. you need to actually tell it to "do stuff"
AI isnt the magic bullet people thing it is. its a tool, nothing more
when it can pick up a spoon and add 1 sugar and milk... then.. be worried |
Totally get where you’re coming from — AI isn’t making the tea yet (though if Boston Dynamics ever teams up with ChatGPT, your cuppa might be in danger).
But to say it’s just good at writing emails and summarising meetings is like saying your smartphone is just for making calls.
Modern AI models are already diagnosing rare diseases faster than junior doctors — not replacing them, but spotting patterns in medical scans and symptoms that would take a human hours, if at all. In manufacturing, AI’s running predictive maintenance across thousands of machines in real time, reducing downtime and saving millions. It’s spotting microfractures and quality control issues that humans would miss — and doing it without needing a tea break.
Sure, AI isn’t sentient (thankfully), and yes, humans are still steering the ship. But it’s not just a glorified Clippy 2.0 either. The decision support it provides isn’t about sitting on the fence — it’s about weighing all the data and presenting reasoned options quicker than any human could.
Cr4p in, cr4p out? Fair. But that’s true of any system, human or digital. Give it quality input and it’s phenomenal what these tools can do.
So no sugar yet. But it’s doing some pretty incredible heavy lifting in the background already. |  | | |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:18 - Aug 8 with 340 views | MJallday |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:12 - Aug 8 by bsw72 |
Totally get where you’re coming from — AI isn’t making the tea yet (though if Boston Dynamics ever teams up with ChatGPT, your cuppa might be in danger).
But to say it’s just good at writing emails and summarising meetings is like saying your smartphone is just for making calls.
Modern AI models are already diagnosing rare diseases faster than junior doctors — not replacing them, but spotting patterns in medical scans and symptoms that would take a human hours, if at all. In manufacturing, AI’s running predictive maintenance across thousands of machines in real time, reducing downtime and saving millions. It’s spotting microfractures and quality control issues that humans would miss — and doing it without needing a tea break.
Sure, AI isn’t sentient (thankfully), and yes, humans are still steering the ship. But it’s not just a glorified Clippy 2.0 either. The decision support it provides isn’t about sitting on the fence — it’s about weighing all the data and presenting reasoned options quicker than any human could.
Cr4p in, cr4p out? Fair. But that’s true of any system, human or digital. Give it quality input and it’s phenomenal what these tools can do.
So no sugar yet. But it’s doing some pretty incredible heavy lifting in the background already. |
Im actually going to a conference next month where boston dynamics will be displaying/demoing. that will be cool.
dont get me wrong, the possibilities for AI are amazing. as you say, faster medical diagnosis, potentially coming up with cures, mapping objects, analysis and pattern matching... its exciting stuff.
but for me, overseeing ALL of that, will be the human element. for me, its about "marking your own homework" - so lets just say AI suddenly decides that 2+2 = 5 - whos verifying it? and in time - do we as human society become so reliant on it over time... that we dont question it?
food for thought isnt it... | |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:18 - Aug 8 with 331 views | bluelagos |
Offered and accepted a finance role with a small charity in Namibia, was doing really good work in wildlife preservation.
They couldn'-t get me a work visa as the Namibian govt. ruled the job should go to a local.
Didnt have a problem with the charity (wasn't their retraction) or with the authorities (Prioritising local workers over expats where someone with the skills is available) but frustrating at the time, especially as Namibia is literally the nicest place I've visited.
Sometimes things happen for a reason, far better the role is cut now than say 3 months in. Fingers crossed you land on your feet shortly. |  |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:23 - Aug 8 with 301 views | victorysquad |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:04 - Aug 8 by MJallday |
as i said to someone the other day.
co-pilot is great at writing emails and summarising meetings
its ***t at making the tea and decisions.
have you ever noticed what it ACTUALLY does when you ask it a question which requires thought or opinion? it gives you 3 answers, then opts for the middle ground on the balance of probability which never gives you a definitive. its like a digital version of alan titchmarsh on the one show
youll always need the human decision element. also, c**p in, c**p out. co-pilot (and other ai) doesnt work "on its own" - its not sentient. you need to actually tell it to "do stuff"
AI isnt the magic bullet people thing it is. its a tool, nothing more
when it can pick up a spoon and add 1 sugar and milk... then.. be worried |
I think the problem is, a lot of jobs (ie. programming) is largely repetitive. People (across the world) are largely writing the same sort of code day in, day out. Same with marketing too. So these jobs are not requiring huge amounts of thought (imo). So whilst it will not 100% replace a person, if it can make people 50% more productive, then that is still 50% less jobs, which is quite considerable.
Your analogy to it being 'just a tool' is a akin to suggesting 'machinery in a car manufacturing plant' is just a tool, isn't it? | |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:40 - Aug 8 with 234 views | bsw72 |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:23 - Aug 8 by victorysquad |
I think the problem is, a lot of jobs (ie. programming) is largely repetitive. People (across the world) are largely writing the same sort of code day in, day out. Same with marketing too. So these jobs are not requiring huge amounts of thought (imo). So whilst it will not 100% replace a person, if it can make people 50% more productive, then that is still 50% less jobs, which is quite considerable.
Your analogy to it being 'just a tool' is a akin to suggesting 'machinery in a car manufacturing plant' is just a tool, isn't it? |
I work in tech and a significant amount of work is alongside LLMs.
You’re absolutely right — if AI can make someone 50% more productive, that is a big deal. But the story isn’t just about job cuts, it’s about how programming itself is evolving — and it’s kind of wild to watch.
Yes, a lot of dev work has been repetitive: boilerplate code, fixing the same bugs, writing yet another login page. And that’s exactly the stuff AI is pumping out right now. But instead of wiping out developers, it’s shifting their focus. Less time stuck on the dull, repeatable bits — more time spent solving real problems, designing better systems, and shipping faster.
It’s like when IDEs first got smart with autocomplete. At first, people thought it was a gimmick. Now, we wouldn’t dream of coding without it. Copilot and models like GPT are the next leap — suggesting entire functions, translating legacy code, even helping juniors learn on the fly.
it is like the factory analogy, but just like car plants didn’t make mechanics extinct, AI-driven coding doesn’t kill off devs — it retools them. The dev community is already shifting: we’re seeing more “AI whisperers,” prompt engineers, and people who can architect solutions with AI in the loop. Think of it less as fewer programmers and more as a new kind of programming.
We are still recruiting developers, specifically in my teams I am hiring AI enabled developers who are skilled in python and prompt engineering, these are roles which didn’t exist before LLMs became available.
The future dev isn’t someone who types fast — it’s someone who thinks fast, iterates quickly, and collaborates with machines as creative partners. | | | |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:43 - Aug 8 with 215 views | MJallday |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:23 - Aug 8 by victorysquad |
I think the problem is, a lot of jobs (ie. programming) is largely repetitive. People (across the world) are largely writing the same sort of code day in, day out. Same with marketing too. So these jobs are not requiring huge amounts of thought (imo). So whilst it will not 100% replace a person, if it can make people 50% more productive, then that is still 50% less jobs, which is quite considerable.
Your analogy to it being 'just a tool' is a akin to suggesting 'machinery in a car manufacturing plant' is just a tool, isn't it? |
Automation is different from AI. Its easy to get the two conflated.
Automation has been around since the 70's . Think rubber ducks being made coming off a production line, or cars being made at a production plant. thats not AI - thats automating a computer to build a pre-defined product.
AI would be when the factory decides to make a more efficient, 200mph car and it comes up with a solution to do that.
people were scared when computers came along - "they'll replace people etc" - in fact, you needed more people to run the computers than you did doing the job
i can almost guarantee this will be the same. you'll need people to run the AI. People will adapt and re-skill. In the early 90's hardly anyone knew what a spreadsheet was. Now, its daily life.
A great real life example of this is Microsoft. You may have seen they made 9000 people redundant earlier this year because of "efficiencies to be realised with AI" - so they got rid of them.
the net result of this is now their Gaming and Xbox devision (includign several subsidiaries such as zenimax and bethesda that produce their AAA titles like Starfield, ESO and a few others - have now ground to an absolute halt - and are now failing businesses - because AI doesnt know what the hell to do on its own" - their CEO is about to kick the kicking of her life for that decision - its costing them millions.
TLDR - People need AI - AI needs people. | |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:59 - Aug 8 with 124 views | EddyJ |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:43 - Aug 8 by MJallday |
Automation is different from AI. Its easy to get the two conflated.
Automation has been around since the 70's . Think rubber ducks being made coming off a production line, or cars being made at a production plant. thats not AI - thats automating a computer to build a pre-defined product.
AI would be when the factory decides to make a more efficient, 200mph car and it comes up with a solution to do that.
people were scared when computers came along - "they'll replace people etc" - in fact, you needed more people to run the computers than you did doing the job
i can almost guarantee this will be the same. you'll need people to run the AI. People will adapt and re-skill. In the early 90's hardly anyone knew what a spreadsheet was. Now, its daily life.
A great real life example of this is Microsoft. You may have seen they made 9000 people redundant earlier this year because of "efficiencies to be realised with AI" - so they got rid of them.
the net result of this is now their Gaming and Xbox devision (includign several subsidiaries such as zenimax and bethesda that produce their AAA titles like Starfield, ESO and a few others - have now ground to an absolute halt - and are now failing businesses - because AI doesnt know what the hell to do on its own" - their CEO is about to kick the kicking of her life for that decision - its costing them millions.
TLDR - People need AI - AI needs people. |
My team writes code. Using AI to help, we can write that code between 4 and 10 times faster. What used to take us a week now takes us a day.
My company has two choices:
1) Yay, a team of the same size can now do 4 times as much work.
2) Yay, we only need a team a quarter of the size to do the same work.
Which do you think they will pick? Now extrapolate out across the whole knowledge economy. | | | |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 07:11 - Aug 8 with 63 views | MJallday |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 06:59 - Aug 8 by EddyJ |
My team writes code. Using AI to help, we can write that code between 4 and 10 times faster. What used to take us a week now takes us a day.
My company has two choices:
1) Yay, a team of the same size can now do 4 times as much work.
2) Yay, we only need a team a quarter of the size to do the same work.
Which do you think they will pick? Now extrapolate out across the whole knowledge economy. |
i think theres more than 2 choices
3) we can produce more.. so we can sell more and grow more
4) we can enhance our product offering.. we can make our existing products better
5) we can free up resources to work on new IP or products.
getting rid of people would be a gross over-reaction and wont end well. as ive said earlier. you still need people to run the AI - it doesnt do anything unless you get it to do it. | |
| |
| Need to vent. Had a job offer rescinded after weeks of delay. on 07:13 - Aug 8 with 49 views | _clive_baker_ |
That’s bl00dy annoying, I’m sorry to hear that.
I’m not necessarily one for fate and things ‘happening for a reason’ but what I would say is these things tend to work themselves out. Your next job is a when not if so try to remember that, enjoy the time off between roles and hopefully something good comes along soon. |  | | |
| |
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
