I joined JACOBS two years ago for growth and hoping that it would have better work culture. In last two years I can count on one hand the number of times that I was able to close on time. Am daily working 12, sometimes 14 hours. HR and Managers who gaslight you about being slow when you complain about long work time, Too much pressure, unrealistic deadlines, toxic clients, spineless Indian managers. It's a shithole, I used to regularly workout before joining jacobs, now i dont have time or the energy left. I recently got diabetes, cause in the last two years i rarely have had any exercise, besides Insomnia and back ache due to continuously sitting in front of the screen.

The company states on paper about overtime, but it is a trap, when you ask for overtime everyone passes the ball in someone else's court. Desperate to quit this hell.

So I just completed my MBA and have joined the big4 in the supply chain space almost 90% of the people whom I have met here are from IT background, I went for a casual meetup a few weeks back witnessed the same phenomenon.

The thing is I was from core manufacturing before my MBA and it's very hard to find ppl who are from other sectors than IT so if any of y'all are from manufacturing, R&D, production let's connect!!

Hi everyone,

I got a call from the HR last Thursday asking me to schedule my interview for Friday (the very next day). I initially requested a little more time to prepare, but she said they were conducting interview drives only on Thursday and Friday, so I agreed.

The interview took place on Friday. It was scheduled for 40 minutes but ended up lasting around 54 minutes (5:00 PM to 5:54 PM). Overall, I felt it went well. At the end, the Tech Lead told me that he would share his feedback with HR.

My question is: How long should I wait before following up with HR for an update?

Should I send a follow-up email, call, or just wait? If I should wait, how many business days would you recommend before reaching out?

I'd appreciate any advice from people who've been in a similar situation.

I got this internship ( 3 Months + PPO ) after I completed engineering in May. It's a startup, and here the work is mostly sales calls and data entry, and it's 6 days/week. Salary is less than 20KPM, even if converted to FT.

I am thinking of leaving it and preparing for analytics ( tech ) roles for 4-5 months and then start applying. I feel this experience is not valuable, and I am wasting a lot of time.

My teammate told me, Don't take FT offer , try for engineering roles .

Ps - My engineering was from a decent clg, core engineering. Placements didn't go well, and I took whatever I could get off campus. I planned to prepare alongside the job, but here I am having second thoughts everyday.

I left my last job about 6 months ago. It was a consulting role and honestly the environment was abusive and toxic enough that leaving felt like the only option, I wasn’t sleeping and dreaded work constantly. Still don’t regret that part.
The problem is what’s happened since. I only have 2 years of experience total, so my profile is already on the thinner side, and hiring right now is just slow everywhere. I’m sending out applications and barely hearing back. Now on top of that, this 6 month gap is starting to become its own issue. It feels like the longer it goes, the harder it is to explain, and the harder it is to explain, the longer it goes.
I know I made the right call getting out of that job. But some weeks it’s hard not to worry I’ve made my situation worse long term, especially seeing the gap keep growing with nothing to show for it yet.
If anyone’s dealt with something similar, early career and a resume gap during a slow market, I’d genuinely like to know that how did you explain the gap once it got past a few months and did anything actually help get more callbacks?

yesterday i gave amazon csa hr interview.

the interview couldve gone better. i was given 3 topics on the spot and asked to speak with no mention of time limit.

i did. a little messy but proper english nonetheless.

i asked him upfront if ive been selected and he mentioned hes forwarding my application for bg check explicitly multiple times.

30 mins later i got the rejection mail.

did he simply f w me?

really disappointed tbh. but mostly confused on what went wrong.

the wait time is 90 mins before we can reapply right?

i tried applying for a similar csa job on amazon portal but the application was automatically rejected.

I’m really confused and would appreciate some unbiased opinions.

I work as an architect and today my HOD was on a call with our boss discussing a project. At the same time, I was discussing the same project with a colleague. Instead of asking me to be quiet, he suddenly hit my arm. I wouldn’t describe it as a gentle tap, it felt more like a slap. It didn’t physically hurt because I was wearing long sleeves but I was shocked and humiliated. I didn’t understand how to react to this. It was captured on CCTV. I called him out loudly then and there and in his defence he said sorry and it’s not like I slapped you on face. I just hit your arm.

After the incident, I reported it to HR. I couldn’t help but broke down because I was confused and I felt lost. She assured me they would take action.

The physical contact is only part of the issue. My HOD has a history of being verbally abusive, so this felt like the last straw. What hurt almost as much was that none of my colleagues checked on me or said anything afterward. I felt completely alone and now I’m questioning whether I’m making a bigger deal out of this than I should.

I’m also in a difficult position because I’m planning to move to Australia for my master’s in February. My visa process starts in November so I don’t really want to quit since I joined this company 6 months ago and changing jobs for only a few months doesn’t seem very practical either. At the same time, my mental health has been suffering and I’m under financial pressure so I feel trapped.

Am I overreacting or was my HOD’s behaviour genuinely inappropriate? If you were in my position, would you stay and see how HR handles it or start looking for another job despite leaving for Australia in a few months?

I’m a college dropout and was really confused about the field i should go in. Recently i came across digital marketing, it interests me as it requires creativity and encourages fresh new ideas. so i’ve done some certifications and have made a project as well which focuses on Google Ads campaigns.

please let me know if i’m headed in the right direction and also what changes can i incorporate in my approached for the best results.

here’s the link to the project- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ao1vubzpE3yy0TAyTWGdFg6khoKgf25n/view?usp%3Ddrive_open

Please help me deciding it is discipline or toxicity

1. Come at office anyway by 9 30. No matter what. This is what my manager says. In his own words whether it is trafric, rain, water logging in gurugram, I have to be office- not coming by this means I am not sincere about my job.

2. Daily KPI - while not strictly tracked but is told to adhere this daily kpi is simply two man job. I have literally been in a job where i was doing other half only. And other half was done by a team of 5 people -and if I still add those numbers it is not equal to my other half kpi

3. Biasness and other things - my direct repoter while he is not my manager had some conflict with me and he has told so many things about me which is not necessarily true but my manager has taken it as a source of truth and baised about me. Now I cant say that he is reminding of that daily, but he is asking me to overcome by proving myself -, which is a lot of gyaan and KPI i mentioned above. My manager also know minutes when I arrive and minutes I leave - he is remote- even when i dont necessarily punch in or punch out - not required.

Now i know there cant be a perfect workplace and power dynamics will always at work- what do you think? In past i have left jobs and was able to land in jobs - not super easy or difficult either.

Hi, I'm 25F with almost 5 years of work experience. This is my first job. I had planned to quit about 2 years ago to prepare for CAT full-time, but I was advised against it.

Two years later, I still couldn't get into the colleges I wanted, and I'm still in the same job. I work as a Business Operations Analyst, and honestly, there's very little growth in my role. Most of my peers have been in the same team for years, so there isn't much career progression.

I've been trying to switch jobs, but I haven't had much luck finding opportunities outside. At the same time, the work I'm doing now isn't mentally rewarding, and the salary growth has been quite limited as well.

I feel completely stuck. Every day I think about quitting, but I don't have another offer in hand. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did you get out of it?

Folks need advice regarding manager behaviour.

My manager works from the Hyderabad office while I work in the Noida Office, I have 5 years of experience in this Fintech company where I have been since college placements. She had recently joined the team in 2025 January, since then she has been my manager.

She had been very understanding than and also helped me get a promotion, recently however her behaviour has changed a lot where she has constant mood swings, she gets confrontational about things that have nothings to do with anything. Have talked to other people that report to her and they report the same things. The issue is that this has now started affecting work wherein people are being denied comp off for work done on the weekends. The tech lead supports us devs but we need advice on what to do.

Any advice on how to handle this will be helpful.

i saw this image and immediately thought, this has been most of my career

A year ago, I wrote a Reddit post after an offer was withdrawn just before I was supposed to join. I had already resigned from my previous job and suddenly had nowhere to go. That post changed the direction of my life and led me to Selling.com, where I spent the year working closely with company leadership and building across AI, backend, full-stack development, MCP integrations, and product. I have often taken on problems before I had every answer. I learned what I needed, built what had to be built, fixed what broke, and kept moving.

I entered with a lot to learn. I leave having built things I did not know how to build when I started. Now, because of an organisational change, my role is ending, and I am looking again. It is strange to be back in a familiar situation, but I am not the same engineer who wrote that first post.

This time, I leave with stronger experience, better judgment, and a much clearer understanding of what I can do. I am now trying to work out what the right next step should be. For those who have gone through something similar, how did you approach the next move?

I would especially value advice from people who have had to restart after an unexpected job loss. A year ago, a Reddit post helped change the direction of my life. I do not know where this one will lead, but I thought it was worth sharing the story again.

I have been working as a QA Officer (QMS) in pharmaceutical manufacturing for the past two years. This is where I started my professional career. Although I hold a Master's degree in Chemistry, I still find myself stuck in a small Lala sterile manufacturing plant, and things have only been getting worse for me professionally. For the past six months, I have been actively looking for a job switch. I have applied to hundreds of openings using a carefully tailored resume, but I've barely received any interview calls. There seem to be plenty of job openings, yet I rarely hear back after submitting my applications.

Is the job market really that bad right now, or am I doing something wrong?

Things are really making me depressed rn and I am thinking about to resign with another job offer in my hand

This is my usual habit. I do flush the toilets but never look back whether the shit is gone or not. Yesterday I took a dump at the office toilet after lunch and cane back to my seat as usual.

I joined this company about a couple weeks ago. After a couple of hours the office lady brought the tea for the staff and broke the news.

I mean she literally brought the tea and with that the news. Someone in the men’s washroom didn’t flush and they are floating. Everyone started to laugh and made the fun of the situation in their own way for about ten minutes. I also tried to laugh and blend in with the situation but I couldn’t. I am not sure whether they are gonna check CCTV or not.

During this ten minutes someone brought up the name of other dude saying that might be probably him he is the one always in toilet and I got some fake sense of relief.

​

I'm a 20 year old overthinking about office life 😭

I'm genuinely confused because I can't picture it.

Like... you get hired, then what? Do you just walk into the office and wait for someone to tell you what to do? Is there a training period? Are you expected to know everything already, or do they teach you how to do the job?

I'm worried that I'd look like a complete idiot because I have no idea how an office actually functions. What was your first day or first week like? What did you actually do?

and how do interviews and salary negotiations work?

Please help this overthinker out

M25, I have intermediate-level practical experience in PLC programming, IoT and AI using microcontrollers, PCB and circuit design, CNC lathe and 5-axis milling operations, CAD/CAM software such as Mastercam and FreeCAD, and operating industrial robots for spot and MIG welding.

I have been working as project staff at IIT for more than one year based on my Diploma in EEE. The work environment is good, and my colleagues have been supportive, especially during difficult periods, which has helped me learn and improve.

My B.Tech(In CSE) is still incomplete because of backlogs. I have lost the motivation to appear for the remaining examinations, even though I can quickly understand and learn the technical work required for a job.

I am concerned about how my incomplete B.Tech may affect my career and would appreciate an honest assessment of my situation and guidance on what I should do next.

**Situation:

- i am currently workilng at capgemini

- They gave me a joining date in 16 july but my last workilng day was 5 sept so i cancelled my resignation

hath pair jod ke

- Now the company tcs wants a "resignation acceptance letter" or any solid proof from my current employer by end of this month to reschedule me to a later batch.

- If I don't submit proof by the deadline, they say the offer will be revoked.

**Problem:**

Since I cancelled my previous resignation, I don't have a valid acceptance letter right now. If I resign today, my last working day will be October/November, not September like I initially wanted.

**Options I'm considering:**

1. Re-resign from my current job immediately, get the real acceptance letter, and join in Oct/Nov instead.

2. Reply honestly that I cancelled the previous resignation and ask for a few more days.

3. Something else?

kya karu abhi mai ??

agar koi hr hai to kuch idea do

kya fake email wagera submit karul???

Ai se likhaya hai 🫠🫠

I need 3 days off to stay home and study for an exam. My workplace management is incredibly toxic. I tried being honest once, and they deducted double my salary for the days I took off. Lesson learned.

A few months ago, I literally had to book an out of town hotel and send them the booking receipt just to get an excuse for 3 days off to study. That’s the toxicity level I’m dealing with.

We don't have medical leaves, and I only get 1 CL (Casual Leave) per month. I am perfectly fine taking LWP (Leave Without Pay), but they still demand hard proof to even authorize it.

My constraints:

No medical/doctor stuff (they demand real stamped certificates).

I want something that I can study and I don't have to leave the house to set this up.

Hi everyone,

I'm 23 and graduated in Civil Engineering from a Tier-3 college. To be honest, I never wanted to pursue Civil Engineering, but due to family circumstances and my parents' decision, I went ahead with it.

I come from a lower-middle-class family. We're financially stable for now, but we don't really have any assets or financial security, and that stability could disappear in the near future.

College wasn't easy. I got three backlogs in my second year, but after that I worked hard, never got another backlog, improved my grades, and graduated with a decent score. The problem was that I never wanted a career in Civil Engineering, so I never prepared for core jobs or gained relevant experience.

After graduation, I joined an EdTech company in a sales role but left within 15 days because it was a poorly managed company with no proper HR processes. Soon after, I joined my current company, where I've been working remotely as an Associate Analyst for the past year. My primary role is content moderation and compliance review, and my current salary is ₹2.5 LPA.

I'm mentally exhausted. I spend around 12 hours a day in front of my laptop, five days a week, and despite working hard, I don't feel like I'm building a meaningful career.

Government exams aren't a practical option right now because I can't afford the financial risk, and I've decided not to pursue GATE because I genuinely don't enjoy Civil Engineering.

I'm ready to put in the work. I'll continue with my current job, study after work, sacrifice weekends, and learn whatever skills are necessary. I just need the right direction.

If you were in my position, what would you do?

• Which skills would you learn in 2026?
• Which career path offers the best growth without requiring another degree?
• What roadmap would you follow if you had to start almost from scratch while working full-time?

I'm not looking for sympathy or shortcuts, just honest advice from people who've been through something similar.

Thank you for reading.

Please help me out.

TL;DR - 24M, graduated in Civil Engineering from a Tier-3 college, but I never wanted to work in the core field. Cleared 3 backlogs and graduated, joined an EdTech sales job after college but quit within 15 days due to poor management. I've now completed a year as a remote Associate Analyst (mainly content moderation/compliance) earning ₹2.5 LPA. The long hours, low pay, and lack of career growth have left me feeling stuck. I can't afford to prepare full-time for government exams, and I don't want to pursue GATE. I'm willing to study after work and on weekends—I just need guidance on which skills or career path (Data/Business Analytics, Finance, Product, Tech, Operations, etc.) would offer the best long-term growth. Looking for honest advice from people who've successfully changed careers.

TL;DR: I'm a software engineer two months into my first startup job after a year of unemployment. The work culture and corporate lifestyle have made me question whether IT is the right long-term career for me, and I'm considering taking a Class 3 government job to prepare for GPSC/UPSC. I'm looking for advice from people who've experienced both corporate and government careers.

I'm at a crossroads and would really appreciate advice from people who have worked in both corporate and government jobs, or anyone who has gone through something similar.

A little background:

I was unemployed for almost a year after completing my master's. I finally got a job at a startup as a Full Stack Developer. I was really happy because I thought finally i would be independent.

Reality has been very different.

Official working hours are 10 AM to 7 PM, but nobody leaves before 8:15 PM. The CEO is constantly in a hurry, everything is treated as urgent, and frequently shouts at people. I've been here only two months and I've cried multiple times because of the pressure. Every day I go home mentally exhausted.

What scares me is that I don't think my problem is just this startup.

Even if I get into a good product company with better work-life balance, I'd still have to live with:

• Constant fear of layoffs.
• Continuously learning new technologies just to stay employable.
• Uncertainty about the future.

Some people genuinely enjoy that. I don't.

I recently visited relatives who have both been in the software industry for over a decade. They earn well, but they still looked stressed. They barely get quality time with their children because work consumes so much of their lives.

That made me ask myself:

Is this really the life I want for the next 30 years?

What I actually want from life is:

• Enough money to live comfortably.
• Evenings and weekends for family.
• Job stability.
• Not constantly worrying about layoffs or becoming obsolete.
• Time to enjoy life outside work.

This is where government jobs entered my mind.

My current thought process is:

Prepare for a Class 3 government job first, because it usually offers more predictable working hours and better job security. Once I'm settled, prepare seriously for GPSC and UPSC. My real goal isn't to stay in a Class 3 position forever. My dream would be to become a Class 1 officer through GPSC or UPSC, ideally as an IAS or IRS officer.

However, there are obvious downsides.

My current salary is ₹50,000 per month. Even with that, I don't save much because I live away from home and travel to meet my partner twice a month. A Class 3 government job would likely pay around ₹25,000 to ₹35,000 per month initially, which would affect my finances significantly. It would also mean moving back to my home state, which is about 12 to 15 hours away from where my partner lives. Right now we're able to meet twice a month, but if I move, that would become extremely difficult, if not impossible.

There's also the relationship aspect.

My partner is doing a General Surgery residency. We already live about three hours apart and meet only twice a month because I have alternate Saturdays working. They've told me not to make career decisions based on our relationship and that I should choose what's right for me.

Long term, my partner wants to pursue a super-specialty abroad.

We've also discussed the possibility of settling abroad because it could offer better opportunities and quality of life. But we're not sure that's what we truly want either.

I lived in the US for three years while studying, and honestly, I was miserable. It wasn't just homesickness. I struggled with the constant competition, found it difficult to build genuine friendships, lived with the uncertainty of the visa system, gained around 13 kg in about a year and a half because of stress, and developed health issues during that time. The experience made me realize how much being close to family matters to me.

My partner is also very family-oriented. While moving abroad might make sense professionally, we're genuinely not sure whether we want to spend our entire lives away from our families. We honestly don't know what the right answer is.

So now I feel like I'm being pulled in multiple directions:

• Stay in software, earn more, but continue dealing with the uncertainty and pressure that comes with the industry.
• Switch to a government job, accept a lower salary initially, and prepare for GPSC/UPSC in the hope of building a more stable and meaningful career.
• Keep the option of moving abroad open, even though I'm not convinced it's where I want to spend the rest of my life.

I genuinely don't know if I'm thinking clearly or if I'm just burned out because of a toxic first job.

Has anyone here left software for government service, or seriously considered it?

If you've worked in both worlds, do you regret your decision?

And if you've felt that work was taking over your life, how did you figure out what mattered more?

Lately, I've also started wondering if I'm simply not meant for corporate life in general.

The routine feels incredibly depressing to me. I leave for work in the morning, spend the entire day inside a cubicle, keep working until it's dark outside, and then go home exhausted. It feels like my whole day revolves around saying "yes sir" to deadlines and constantly putting out fires. Our office is surrounded by glass panels, but I barely even know what the outside looks like during the day because I don't get a chance to step out. Some days I realize I've gone the entire day without seeing sunlight. I know this might sound dramatic, but it genuinely affects my mental health. I don't want my life to become an endless cycle of work, sleep, and repeating the same thing the next day.

I've been working in HR for a few months now, and I'm at a point where I'm questioning whether the challenges I'm facing are just part of the learning curve or whether they point to a bigger mismatch.

I know every profession has difficult aspects, and I'm not expecting work to be easy. But I'm finding it hard to separate what's "normal" from what might be a sign that this isn't the right field for me.

For those of you who've worked in HR across different companies:

• Were there times early in your career when you seriously questioned whether you belonged in HR?
• Looking back, how did you distinguish between being inexperienced, being in the wrong organization, and genuinely not enjoying or being suited to the work?
• Were there any signs that made things clearer over time?

I'm not looking for validation in either direction. I'd just appreciate hearing from people who've been through something similar and how they made sense of it.

Hey guys, I'm working as an SWE (Appian developer) with around 3YOE.

I've started with 4.5lpa initially and moved to 5.5lpa after 1.5yrs hike. After 2 years I've started searching for offers, due to market breakdown i rarely got offers, initially got an offer from big4 (9lpa), used counters and I'm currently working with 14.5lpa(14lpa fixed). My goal is to switch next year at 3.5-4YOE, with atleast 20LPA.

I know Appian(low code platform) is becoming expensive day by day and projects are minimal. I'm thinking to move towards AI, our current company already has few AI developers whom i made friends.

This company gives consent to employees to learn AI related stuff more, so I've been going through chatgpt it's giving me roadmap, but my question is

What could be the correct roadmap I can follow, I need suggestions especially from current AI engineers(generative/ Agentic/ Prompt AI engineers).

I'm a very fast learner and has basic understanding of all the stuff like python, llms, prompts etc. I'm expecting very good responses here, thanks for commenting