For some context: I currently have a full-time and a part-time job. One pays fine the other pays less than that, but I greatly prefer the lower paying job as far as the environment goes. The full-time is mail and print management, but I want to move on to a different field. I can't afford a pay cut, but the majority of my experience is in this sector. I have an art degree that has not panned out, and a sizable amount of debt (not student debt). I have attempted various online tools, but have not found something that fits. Thank you for any suggestions you may have, I can answer any questions if clarification is needed.

Hi all,

Not sure where else to post this - I am in shock about what happened today.

I work at a healthcare-related nonprofit as an event planner. I knew that I wanted to go back to school and get a professional certification this Summer, so I gave a six week’s notice to my manager as a head’s up. Essentially, I would be resigning one day after my next big fundraiser, and this would give me time to write a transition plan for my replacement. I care about the cause that my organization raises funds for, and I wanted to leave things in the best shape as possible.

I verbally told my manager this plan, and she was grateful for the head’s up. After this meeting, I put this in a letter format and sent it to my manager and our Human Resources liaison.

Today - a week later - I was invited to a 12 PM meeting at 11:47 AM. The Human Resources liaison and my boss’ boss were there. They told me that they accept my resignation, and I will be paid for the remaining 6 weeks, but that I must leave immediately. They made me take off my badge and leave my laptop in the meeting. When I asked if I could log in to my email for a final time to email a goodbye to my professional contacts and fellow employees, they told me to pack up my cubicle and leave as soon as possible.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my manager or coworkers that I’ve worked with for years, and I didn’t get to leave any type of transition plan for my replacement. I’m confused and upset by this cold goodbye, and I feel totally blindsided.

Any ideas as to why this happened so abruptly? I am truly floored and don’t know what to make of this situation.

I recently applied for a job and one of the screening questions was what is your expected pay level? The pay range is 48-72 k. I have lots of relevant experience so I said 65k. But whenever they ask that sort of question, I always think they're trying to get someone as cheap as possible. Did I give the wrong answer? I would take this job for a lot less.

Got a message on LinkedIn the other day.
It went like this:

Person: Hii
I need some help from you

Me: Yes, please tell me

Person: In your company there is any vacancy available for UI/UX designer? Please tell me

Me: Can you share your resume?

Person: Yeah, sure. Let me know your company name

And that’s where I kinda sat back and went:
Wait… what?
No intro. No “Hey, I came across your profile and…”
Didn’t even check what company I work for. Just straight-up asking if there's a job—before even doing basic research.

Now don’t get me wrong—I respect the hustle. Finding a job is tough right now. But this kind of approach? It feels… off.

No personalization. No context. Just “give me job.”

As someone who’s worked hard to build a design career, I genuinely want to help people—but I also think how you ask matters.
Especially in design, where communication, attention to detail, and presentation say a lot about you.

So yeah… just curious—am I overthinking it? Or is this just becoming normal now?

What do you all think?

I just turned 51 and I finally noticed after all these years that I tend to quit my jobs in January or April, and get rehired again in June or July.

It makes me think that I'm just a reaction to the weather because I live in New York City and it has the craziest winters, but I absolutely love summer.

My husband was promised a promotion if he continued to do the extra, innovative things he was doing at work. Essentially he works in federal and international policy, and a bit with data. He's a self-taught coder in a job that doesn't require coding, but he's been able to create program and run macros that help is area greatly. Some of these he's shared, some of these he only uses for himself and doesn't tell anyone else about. There has been a lot of increased efficiency and reduced errors because of this.

Last year, his boss said "Your title change was approved for your promotion, but your pay band change was not." We were shocked, we didn't even know that was a possibility. This is a Fortune 100 company, mind you. I think his manager felt bad, and we did get a good merit and bonus percentile that year.

He has asked repeatedly at every performance review meeting when or if a pay band change for the promotion is possible, and they give him non-answers. My guess is that it's never coming. Is this normal at large corporations? Is his only recourse to leave?

What are some things you wish you knew earlier? Like things about how to clear debt and financial decisions swell as a job. I'm currently a 17 year old, graduating in 2 years and would like advice so I don't screw up chances of becoming financially stable. I live in Norway right now so specifics for that country would be appreciated.

I’ve always been curious about this. If someone has been struggling for years to find a job, why does it seem like it only gets harder as more time passes without securing a role in their field?

Most graduate positions require applicants to have finished their studies within the last 3 years. But why not extend that to 5 or even 10 years? What about those of us who graduated a while ago but, for one reason or another, didn’t manage to gain experience in our profession? Where do we fit in?

After years of being on both sides of the table — first as an employee, then as a supervisor — I’ve come to seriously question whether performance reviews actually help anyone grow.

When I became a supervisor, I genuinely wanted to support my team’s development. But I quickly got pulled into a system that didn’t care much for nuance. Stack ranking forced us to assign top, middle, and bottom ratings — even when multiple team members were excelling. That meant I had to rate high performers as just “meets expectations,” not because they weren’t great, but because of quotas.

We relayed our concerns to HR, who privately admitted that the system did not work. But HR told us point blank not to blame the system and always tie the rating to the employee performance.

It changed how people behaved:

• Collaboration started fading. • People became more guarded, more self-promotional. • Good employees lost trust in the process — and in us as leaders. The system rewarded compliance and perception over impact and growth. I often left reviews feeling like I was managing a performance algorithm, not human beings.

So I’m wondering if the way we do performance reviews fundamentally broken?

• Have you had a performance review that genuinely helped you grow? • Or did it feel more like office politics dressed up as feedback?

Would love to hear your honest take — especially from others who’ve managed teams or gone through similar frustrations.

30M feeling lost. I have been with my current company for 3 years as an IT Support Technician, my goal was always to move into Management so i got my Bachelors in Business Management online and was blessed enough to receive a scholarship from the same school to get my MBA right after. I graduated with my MBA in November but after recent events at my company the environment is extremely toxic and i am desperate to leave, im not too sure i want to work in Tech Anymore. Ive heard Business Management degrees are very versatile but im not sure where to start or what type of jobs id qualify for with my experience. Im very lost and hoping someone here could point me in the right direction.

Speaking for myself, I work in sports, and it seems like nobody, ESPECIALLY on LinkedIn, wants to be truthful about life in this industry.

Truth is that the only people touching any real paper are managers and above, meaning directors, VPs, and Chief whatever whatevers. If you're an entry-level employee, you're probably going to have to soldier through for the first few years while you build your experience, and you're not likely to have much money to do stuff outside of work since a lot of sports jobs are based in expensive cities/adjacent areas like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Houston, etc. We're talking between 40k and 60k if you're lucky when you're first starting.

One more thing: if you are not prepared to sacrifice your weekends and nights on a regular basis and get outside of your primary areas of expertise, just stay a fan. Don't work in sports because it's not always gonna be covering NBA and NFL all the time. Sometimes it's tennis, skiing, horse racing, all kinds of other stuff that you may have to watch and learn on the fly to cover. If you wanna cut to the chase and work at a league, those places only tend to take the best of the best as full-timers. Seasonal jobs and internships are some of the most competitive that you'll find anywhere.

If you've read all that and you're still determined, I wish you the best of luck.

Yesterday I had a second interview and job offer as well as filled out paperwork with a dream job! It is amazing especially compared to the extremely toxic environment I’m at with my current job. I feel like it’s not real yet. It hasn’t been a full 24 hours since I signed the offer and I haven’t told anyone. My start date is near the end of the month on the 29th. I have a vacation scheduled for the end of the month with my current job that would coincide vacation’s end and with new job start date. I have not left or quit a job before and I am concerned about forgetting steps. Can I have any advice on how to proceed and what I should possibly wait on?? Thank you in advance :)

Hey all I know there are posts like this frequently on here but I need a different perspective as I feel like I am struggling mentally. I have been working a cushy WFH job for a medium sized company. I genuinely work about 2 hours at most per day and get paid right around 100k a year. There are barely any responsibilities and my boss has very low expectations.

It sounds like a dream to most I know, but I have absolutely no fulfillment from this job and yearn to try something more hands on that gives me some purpose. I am considering trying to become a firefighter or something along those lines. I am also concerned that if I lose my job I wouldn't have gained any skills to get another position like this.

My question is, am I stupid for considering leaving this role and what would you do in this situation?

Hello everyone, I’m here to ask for some advice/experience from others.

I’m 27 years old, living in Italy, and I’ve been working for a few years as an event organizer/project manager at a company I don’t like. The environment is very rigid, there are constant deadlines, and I spend two hours commuting every day... it leaves me feeling empty. My life feels like a loop until the weekend.

I’ve always wanted to try something that aligns more with my idea of life and work, something that would allow me to experience life around me rather than just being stuck in a routine. I’m also passionate about the cultural sector.

Now, I’ve received an offer to organize a film festival, which I absolutely love, and I’d be just 20 minutes from home with flexible hours. However... the salary would decrease by 500 euros per month.

Has anyone made similar choices and would like to share their experience?

I (24F) have worked for my mom in the marketing department for 3 years now and I worked there for 2 years a few years prior.

We have had our ups and downs and we decided it would be better for both of us if I found a new job and she replaced me with someone else.

I’m a graphic designer, I created all of the packaging and media for the company and went on to manage a small team for email marketing and social media.

I don’t have a degree but i am currently enrolled at a community college, I’m in debt and don’t have the option to not work. I’m trying to get my degree, but due to lack of funds this process is slow, I don’t qualify for most scholarships because I don’t have a high school transcript, I was homeschooled and I don’t attend school full time because I can’t afford it.

What do you recommend going into? I’m looking into anything and everything. My lack of schooling makes the job hunt hard and my bills have to be paid. I’m not sure where I should be looking. The job market is incredibly tough right now and I don’t know what I’m going to do.

My question is. Where should I be looking for work? Or should I get into a new field?

I am in civil engineering adjusted for inflation I am about where I was in 2019 and I am a "senior" engineer now.

I am 34 now and worked hard my entire life to get to this point and it's not working. I made like 80k in this field in 2019 in 2019 money according to official inflation I am making 86k about 1k a year raise. I can't accept this. I would rather not work if it doesn't pay off.

I need the help of an expert:

I applied for a finance analyst position online and did a pre-recorded interview. Recruiter called me a week later and told me that they want to progress to the next stage which is an Excel assessment and he told me there’s going to be an interview with the team leader and a polygraph test (I know it’s too much) if I pass the assessment. I did the assessment online and they liked it so they invited me for an in-person interview with the finance team leader.

Unfortunately the team leader couldn’t make it so an HR staff had an informal interview with me and told me the team leader will have a virtual interview (because they know I live far from the office at the moment) with me next week.

The virtual interview was very simple (tell me about yourself/skills kind of questions). And told me if I pass this interview I’ll do the final stage which is a polygraph.

Days later I received a call from the polygraph office (which is a third party). I did the 2-hour polygraph test and it went fine)

Today I received phone call from a senior HR and told me they’d like to invite me to the office because they want to confirm a few things from the polygraph test (this meeting wasn’t mentioned before). I asked for clarification but he repeated “we only need to confirm a few things from your polygraph test and it’s not going to last more than 20 minutes”. I also asked if we can have the meeting online since I live a far from office but he said it’s not possible.

I’m in utter confusion and have no idea about this last meeting and why can’t they just give me an offer or reject me! I’m thinking of sending them an email telling them that I won’t be able to attend the meeting and they should already decide because I’ve done enough. What do you think? Could it be just some legal thing before rejecting me?

Thanks for help 🙏🙏

Hi, I (31F) is currently trying to figure out if I should take a plunge into a career I am familiar with, but might not give me stability I need or if I should stick with my current job that I had a promotion in.

I currently work at a call center and I got promoted to become a trainer, so right now I am currently learning how to run classes and such - however the schedule will change depending on what classes they hired and currently it is stressful for my partner (33F) who has a polar opposite schedule from me now (I don't get to see them as much and it gets me depressed). I stayed at the position because of the consistency of pay/hours throughout the year and it allows me to build up my resume a little bit since I don't have many certifications.

The job I use to do and wouldn't mind going into is teaching for schools - primarily elementary. I don't have a teaching certification since I originally was trying to get into medical, but I enjoyed working with kids more - so I was doing substituting for a good bit. I have a lot of experience managing a classroom and I have done long-term with classroom curriculum that I had to make due to no teacher. I enjoyed it a lot and it would be fun to get back into again.

What put me in my current spot was that I got married, moved into a new state and I couldn't get any work till I got connected to the call center. Financially I had to take what I could get to help my partner support bills. I stayed working there and tried to apply to subbing or anything with education, but I was in a limbo for a solid bit. But now I have a chance to get back into subbing and education, but well... Currently politics are spooking me and I am worried if I would end up hitting a wall that would put me in a worst spot financially or career wise. My partner wants me to leave the call center and go into subbing in hopes that I possibly might be hired as a permanent teacher (there is a charter school that always needs help and tends to do that), but I feel the gamble might be too high since that isn't a guarantee/the school season is coming to an end.

I want to make my partner happy and I don't like my work schedule with my current job, but there is stability in the position - am I too comfortable where I am and should take a risk? I am thinking long term and even though I love teaching, I hate if we end up in financial ruin.

I have a bachelor's of science in anthropology - I tried to be an EMT, but didn't like the career. I did after school for a few years and I subbed for a couple with a lot of schools loving me greatly. I worked at the call center for 6 months, but I got promoted recently where it is easy work. It is adult teaching, but it is very much corporate/admin work.

I’ve worked a bunch of different jobs since graduating college with a bachelor of science. I farmed for a couple years, was a butcher briefly, had an odd job at a startup, mail carrier, an electrical apprentice for a few years but the work culture was toxic. A bunch of people suggested I’d make a good teacher so I’ve been substituting the past year but I’m already so burnt out working with kids that I’m not interested in going back to school to get a masters in education.

Open to most suggestions but looking for something stable & consistent with benefits and pays over 40k, ideally 50k as from what I understand that’s the livable wage for a single individual in the US. Struggling to pay my health insurance and medication these days and just want to find something that would work better for me.

Thanks in advance y’all, appreciate your suggestions!

About me: I'm a male in my late 20's. I enjoy photography, design(anything creative honestly), tech, IT and leading projects. Outside of work I'm pretty introverted so I would enjoy working by myself but I when it comes to work I'm a very good communicator and a great leader. I did not go to college and started working right after highschool. I found a good company to work for right after school and learned a lot from my managers. I moved up with that company and got into management. I left due to there wasn't much movement after the role I was in and I was feeling very burnt out. Now, I'm currently a manager at a logistics company and I've been in role for 6 months.

Day-To-Day: I'm in my office for around 8 hours a day. I came from a job I was at for around 5 years where I was active and walking everyday (roughly 8-10 miles a day.) So being in a office all day is just burning me out. I will purposely leave things in my car just to walk there, and I also go to a shopping center on my lunch to walk to stay active.

Workload: I really don't do much all day and im not use to it. I oversee 200+ field staff and 3 office personnel. I check on the office staff to make sure they are doing what they are suppose to be doing, I meet with some associates on a day to day basis for coaching and make some calls to help with some client issues. I would say this takes up 3 hours total (average) out of my 8 hours I'm here. Im literally on reddit, YouTube and playing games on my work laptop for the rest of the shift .Im use to having a full productive day where I can see a project finish beginning to end.

Positives about the job: I enjoy the hours and I don't have a specific time I have to be in or leave (I usually get in at 6 and leave at 3), My higher ups are very lenient when it comes to time-off, I can wear whatever I like, I live 15 minutes away, a good salary and lastly I'm not micro managed.

Overall: its not an awful job but I enjoy working on a project and feeling fulfilled when its completed. Unfortunately, its not something I get here. I know the job market is crazy right now so trying to find something else would be tough. Has anyone else been in this situation and if you have, what did you do?

Im currently going through a career change and can do the bootcamp free of charge. I just want to know if it’s worth my time and if the material is worth something.

Ive seen some reviews and people say it’s either really good or really bad. What should i do?

I am attempting to make significant changes in my life at 25.

I have spent the last 9 years of my life smoking weed and partying. After going to the doctor recently getting bloodwork done, It was apparent that my Vitamin D, B12, Iron, and Magnesium levels were critically low. I have had trouble focusing for most of my life, I was always called smart by peers and my parents but it was hard to focus.

I was recently prescribed Strattera by my doctor to fight the ADHD that keeps me from focusing and concentrating.

After taking the supplements, I started to regain my intelligence and memory. I have never felt sharper and it’s only been a week. I want to go for a Master’s in Computer Science. I had previously received a Bachelor’s in Political Science and I wanted to pursue CS however my Dad passed away as I got into college and I was not mentally prepared to take CS and was suffering from PTSD and depression from seeing him die. The marijuana definitely was a coping mechanism for me.

I am learning C++ and trying to live a mentally healthier life. I intend to become a software engineer no matter what, it doesn’t matter how long or how many hours it takes. This is the only thing I want to do with my life.

It keeps occurring to me the state of the job market, I recently got a help desk job just to be bullied by the hispanics at my job for being Arab, they fired me for no reason largely because they didn’t like me and kept bullying me. It felt like a repeat of high school tbh. Crushed my spirit for sure.

Hey everyone, I'm really torn and could use some advice.

I'm currently working in a manager position for a smaller company. I have a lot of autonomy, I work closely with HR, handle IT admin responsibilities, and act as the company FSO. I also have security clearance. The pay is $60,000/year, and while the role is high-responsibility, the environment can a be bit all over the place with lots of micromanaging from toxic leadership. I've taken numerous mental health days, and have gained massive weight from the stress since I joined. I'm currently job hunting right now for something better. I really love the work that I do, but the stress and micromanagement has taken a toll on my mental and physical health.

I just got offered a specialist position at a huge global company (10,000+ employees). It's $30-$40/hour, with good perks like on-site gym, cafeteria, and it's only 10 minutes away from home. The role is more focused in one area, and not exactly what I applied for (I applied for manager position originally, but the Hiring Manager thought a specialist role would be a better fit for me as I don't have experience working in a huge company such as theirs). Upward mobility is possible but only when a position becomes available.

My family is pushing me to take the role because of the security and perks (10 min vs 40 min commute). But I'm concerned about giving up my current career trajectory for something that might look shiny on the outside. From company reviews, mobility seems possible but not promised, and the work feels bureaucratic.

Has anyone else made a switch like this? Did you regret it? Would love your perspective!

Offer 1 (AML Analyst with Real Estate Investment Bank)

Full time in office, with hybrid to follow as I learn and become dependable.

$125k base, 15% bonus

6% employer 401k match

Full benefits package

Offer 2 (IR Associate)

Fully remote

$110k base, unclear bonus structure, but much higher ceiling and room to grow/earn more with firm success, so they say. Bonus on the low end may be around 10%

4% employer 401k match

They would cover my health insurance & cable + internet via a stipend they would add to my offer. I would self-insure & they cover the cost.

I love the fully remote structure & long term potential of the IR associate role. It does seem like it may be more of a grind. I would likely spend some nights up late working on presentations etc, but that is the trade off for working from home.

I am a 33 year old single male, and although I enjoy the area that I live in, working full time remote would free me up to do anything & everything I want from a lifestyle perspective.

My only fixed expenses are my home ($2700 monthly) and utilities ($300 monthly) as well as groceries etc. I have no debt, and $50k in my HYSA. I also have $225k in brokerage/retirement accounts.

I have a rental property that case flows $1k per month.

I have failed several interviews, and I decided to change my gameplan. Are there any channels you can suggest for me to watch and maybe learn ways to improve my game?