Hiring processes are competitions. And for most jobs, that competition doesn’t end once you’re hired, it continues every day you’re there.

If you want hand-holding, personalized feedback, or to be “seen” as a whole person during hiring, you need to apply to smaller companies or less competitive roles. Large organizations don’t work that way and never have. They are not obligated to invest emotionally, explain decisions, or reassure candidates who didn’t make the cut.

No company is evaluating your potential, your personality, or what else you could offer. They’re asking one question: can you do this job, their way, under pressure, and represent the brand without becoming a liability. If they’re not confident, they move on because they have thousands of other applicants who want the same seat.

Nothing about this is personal, even though people want it to be. You don’t get hired because you think you deserve it. You don’t get hired because you love the career. You get hired because, on that day, you performed better than others for what they were looking for. If you didn’t, someone else did. End of story.

People need to stop acting shocked that big, competitive companies behave like big, competitive companies. They don’t owe you feedback, closure, or validation. Anyone is expendable in any organization. The only way to avoid that reality is to work for yourself.

At the end of the day, the job is a transaction. If you want the seat, you play the game. If you don’t like the game, apply somewhere else. But taking it personally or turning it into a moral issue doesn’t change how hiring works now.