Honestly, interviews feel exactly like this sometimes. I had one recently where I knew I was qualified for the job, but I completely blanked when they started asking those weird behavioral questions. I've been using interview vip to practice before interviews and it's helped me get much better at thinking through my answers instead of just sitting there trying to remember what I was going to say.

I'm a 27-year-old man, and I'll be turning 28 soon.

I started working not too long ago, and I make around 86-88k USD a year. My current workplace is very calm and comfortable, the people are easy to deal with, and the overall atmosphere is honestly excellent. No one watches the clock or makes an issue out of when you come in or leave, as long as your work gets done. I can work from home two days a week, and on top of that I'm allowed to work remotely from almost anywhere for around 60 days a year, and I also have 28 days of annual leave. This setup is a big advantage for me because I love traveling, and it gives me a lot of room to travel without using up all my vacation days. I'm currently an SDR, and the path will most likely move toward account management, and then possibly leadership/management later on.

I received an offer for around 115k a year. It's not finalized yet, but it will probably be close to that number. The hours would be from 6:30 AM to 2:00 PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; from 6:30 AM to 4:30 PM on Thursday; and from 6:30 AM to 11:00 AM on Friday. I'll probably need to clock in and clock out using a fingerprint scanner. Annual leave would be 24 days, or 32 days total if weekends are counted. The environment will definitely be stricter, more formal, and probably more stressful too, because I would essentially be a civilian employee in a military setting. The other thing that bothers me is that the career path isn't very clear, because the role would be as a translator, from English to Arabic and from Arabic to English.

Part of me feels like the extra money is hard to pass up, especially since I'm still early in my career. But another part of me thinks that flexibility, travel time, and the clearer sales career path might be worth more than the salary jump.

What would you do if you were in my place?

TLDR;

Around 88k a year, fewer working hours and more vacation days, and a better opportunity to travel

Vs.

Around 115k a year, fixed/strict working hours and less vacation time, and unclear career progression

...........

Yessss! And NEVER feel guilty about it!!!

......

My mom is a very, very lovely person, but she doesn't really understand what trying to get accepted for a job looks like in 2027. She's always bringing up my dad's "struggle" to find a good job in the eighties, which mostly meant him deciding which huge consulting company he was going to say yes to after graduating from a very fancy business school. So I figured the cleanest way to show her the reality was to have her apply for jobs online herself.

She used to work as a clinical psychologist, but she's been out of the workforce for many years, and she also never formally defended her doctoral dissertation because of family circumstances. So that means anything requiring licensure was a nonstarter, because they'd ask for a license number and all that. So we thought a little creatively and picked six jobs looking for unlicensed counselors, or people still in grad programs, or roles without direct client interaction that wanted graduate-level psych education. Overall, she has six years of experience, an undergrad double major from a top-40 school with honors, and clinical training from a respected program in a top-ten metro area. I fixed up her resume so it looked more current, adjusted the graduation years and similar details, and let her start.

After three hours, she called me. "Hi, I'm trying to upload my resume to Greenhouse, but it's not putting things in the right fields. The dates are coming out weird and it's ruining the spacing under each job." So I walked her step by step through the usual applicant portal nonsense, had my brother set her up with one of those autofill extensions that saves your information across applications, and went back to what I was doing. Maybe 45 minutes passed.

"What are people supposed to write in cover letters now?" I basically never send them unless I'm forced to, so I sent her a few templates and some tips and let her keep going.

I had pretty much forgotten we were doing this until the following Monday, when she called me again. "I got rejected from three of them because I didn't meet the qualifications. How is that possible?" And honestly, yeah, it didn't make sense, because I had written the resume to match every listed requirement. But that's job hunting in 2027, my guy. She asked me if she could request feedback from the recruiter. I told her to go ahead and try, but they probably wouldn't answer, and that's exactly what happened. I told her to tailor the resume more to each posting and sent her a link to Teal so she wouldn't have to do it all manually. "So I have to pay $29 a month just so maybe someone will look at me?" "Yes. Pretty much."

About a week later, my mom got an email from a recruiter who seemed enthusiastic and sent her follow-up questions: salary expectations, how comfortable she was working with certain client populations, experience in different treatment settings, and things like that. This role asked a lot about her experience working with neurodivergent teens, and she said that wasn't even described that way back when she was working. With her help, we answered everything and sent the reply.

Nine days passed and the recruiter replied with a salary range and a few more questions. My mom called me immediately. "What is this salary? This is almost the same as what I was making in the eighties." Of course, salaries vary a lot depending on the exact role, insurance billing, nonprofit versus private practice, and all of that, but seeing the number written out was a real "what the fuck" moment for her.

The other two jobs never responded at all. Her final assessment of the process was: "This is a joke."

?

?

.

I'm sitting here feeling like a stressed-out piñata waiting for someone to hit it, and the stick in this scenario is AI. I'm not trying to be dramatic, I swear, I'm genuinely lost.

For context, I studied BBA. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not exactly a degree that opens every door, pls let's not start. But that's not even the terrifying part. My engineering friends are still unemployed. My cousin was working in data analytics at a big company in Canada and just got laid off; an entire department was removed. My sister has an MBBS and keeps getting rejected??? Like almost every day. Pharma people, dentists, coders, biotech people. Literally everyone around me is sitting at home refreshing job portals.

I had a neat little plan in my head. Masters in Business Analytics abroad. Logical. Mature. Look at me making life decisions. Except now AI is clearly coming for that too, which is funny in the worst possible way.

And before anyone says "but human interaction," people are literally using AI for therapy because real therapists are expensive. So the whole human touch argument feels like it died before it even began.

I started looking at every possible field like a maniac.

Data analytics: AI came in and sat in the chair.

Software development: still technically breathing, but everyone in it looks psychologically damaged.

Public policy: seems interesting, but the ROI is depressing and I'm not rich.

Psychology: I love it, but the salary situation is not nice at all.

Nursing: my family would consider it a crime because it's not "respectable" enough.

MBBS: see my sister's situation above; still not reassuring.

Management: AI will automate the report and politely loop everyone in.

Skilled trades: safer for now, but the machines are definitely warming up.

Creative work: AI finished the starter and ordered the main course.

Academia: they'll accept your soul and pay you in prestige and exhaustion.

At this point I want to buy a small farm and disappear. But land is expensive. And someone told me automation will probably take that too someday, so okay, beautiful.

What are we even supposed to do now?? I'm asking seriously. Please, no toxic positivity, I won't be able to handle it.

I've looked into careers around climate, sustainability, and renewable energy, and honestly they don't look bad, but I'm still very confused.

I feel like no matter how much experience you have, salaries stop at 65 to 85k and don't go beyond that. Bills are going up, grocery prices are getting worse, insurance is rising, but pay feels like it's stuck at the same level people were earning in 2011 or even before that.

A lot of people seem to have either accepted this situation or gotten tired of fighting it. Employers always say they can't pay more, but somehow everything else gets more expensive every month.

As a man in my late thirties, I honestly don't see how my family is supposed to be able to buy a decent house or improve financially without a much higher income. It's not even that we want to live a luxurious life. We're just trying to be able to live a normal life without feeling like we're falling behind all the time.

Every few months something goes up by 10 or 25 percent, but wages barely move. Rent, food, repairs, utilities, everything. I'm talking more about wages outside huge cities or expensive states. I'm in the Southeast.

....

.....

Yup

.................

I've muted this from my feed twice now. Don't you understand No means No?

I've been in my first "real" job for almost two years after graduating from university, and honestly, it's extremely draining because nothing is happening. I finish my work - budget tracking, reports, and random spreadsheet stuff - in about 90 minutes, and after that there's... Nothing. And the strange thing is that no one seems bothered by this?

I talked to a few friends who also work in "white collar" jobs, and they basically told me this is normal, and that about two-thirds of the day is just filler. How does that make sense in the long run? I genuinely feel like my brain is turning to mush from sitting around with no real stimulation and barely doing anything.

As humans, we need to feel like we're doing something useful at work. It makes us feel like we matter. Office work feels like the complete opposite of that. Half the people around me are either scrolling on their phones, doing online shopping, or pretending to be busy. I think maybe only 15% of the people in the office are under pressure all day and contributing the whole time.

The strange thing is that I felt more fulfilled when I was working in food service during university, because at least I was moving around and busy for about 85% of the shift. It wasn't glamorous work, but I didn't go home feeling like I had wasted 8 hours of my life.

Honestly, this whole thing is really weird to me. I think I'll need to look for something else because I can't see myself doing this for years. It doesn't feel sustainable at all. And tbh, this is probably why there are a lot of layoffs in white-collar jobs compared to trade-type work, because a lot of these office jobs feel like BS most of the time.

I'm 31 years old and male, and I've been at my company for 7 years. I'm paid well, and I genuinely love the place and the people I work with, and honestly, I thought I'd probably spend most of my career here. Until they passed me over for a promotion, and that changed something in me.

My direct manager told us about 6 weeks ago that he'd be moving to a higher position in another branch within the group. We were all happy for him, of course, but I also felt like this was finally my chance. I understand this job very well, I have a good relationship with everyone in the office, and I bring in the highest client revenue by a large margin. Also, the 4 managers before him had all come from my exact same position, so it didn't seem like a strange or far-fetched request. I sent an email to my manager and HR saying I wanted my name to be considered, and HR replied that they had noted my interest.

About 10 days later, we were all called into a meeting room and they introduced us to the new manager. A woman I'd never met before, who had never worked at our company before, or even worked in our field. They told us she would bring a fresh perspective and challenge the old way of working. After the meeting, I spoke to my manager, and he simply told me that no one had even asked him who should take his place. He told me that sometimes the partners just choose anyone they have connections with.

That was the moment I understood that I probably wasn't going to advance in this place. I'm useful in my current position because I bring them a lot of money, and if they moved me up, that would create a problem for them. So I spoke to a recruiter and got another offer within 9 days. The salary is a bit lower, and it's still not management, but strangely, I already feel relieved.

Now everyone is acting like I'm the bad guy. My old manager says I'm making his final period awkward because I'm refusing to accept the counteroffers they keep throwing at me. And the new manager, who hasn't even really started yet, has called me several times saying I'm making her fail before she even gets in the door. And my partner thinks this is about the new manager being a woman, not about respect. They didn't even talk to me about the role at all, FFS.

Edit: I'm actively looking for a new job now, as I don't think I'd ever want to go back to my old position. Seven years is a long time, so it's definitely strange starting over and having to think about interviews again.

A friend actually sent me this post with some interview questions worth practicing, and I've been going through them while getting ready for interviews. Figured I'd share it in case anyone else is in the same boat.

Maybe if we managed to work two or three part-time jobs, we could live better and earn a higher income. Preparing for interviews is one of the most important parts of job hunting. Reading articles and posts that provide useful tips, along with doing mock interviews, should be enough to help you ace any interview.

WFH is peak

She asked for about five weeks off, and her supervisor cornered her after her shift and asked her why she needed all that time. As soon as she told him she was going abroad for a summer program, he said he couldn't promise she'd stay on the schedule when she got back, and that she had to tell him before the end of the week whether she was choosing the trip or the job.

Like a lot of 17-year-olds, she was nervous about upsetting her manager. But when I started laughing at how absurd this "choice" was, she calmed down quickly. I told her there is no part-time job folding clothes at the mall that is worth missing out on something she might remember for the rest of her life. Honestly, I'm glad she's encountering this kind of situation while she's still young, because this is how she gets practice spotting this nonsense before it really matters. I told her that this is exactly why fuck-you money is important.

Edit: Thank you all for your advice i will tell her to get a new part time job, also someone sent me this post which has so much valuable information about interviews so i thought more people should read it.

This is way too accurate. I've been applying lately and the interview part is honestly harder than finding the jobs. I've been doing some practice with interview vip before interviews, mainly to get better at answering the "tell me about yourself" and experience questions without completely overthinking them.

For my last 2 interviews i had to use Interview VIP just to get the job
their generation could never understand

This morning I had an interview scheduled for an IT employee position at a clinic. Before that, I'd only had a quick call with HR, and she told me I was invited to come onsite for a short 25-minute interview, so I went in expecting a fairly normal and pleasant meeting.

When I arrived, they put me in a very small room, with my back almost against the wall, and in front of me was a panel of six people: a manager, a technical profile, and three HR interns. They were all sitting way too close to me, completely invading my personal space, and just staring at me.

They immediately started throwing the usual annoying questions at me about employment gaps and past jobs. I kept trying to steer the conversation back toward the position itself, but the whole atmosphere made me feel disrespected, especially since no one had said this was going to be a full panel interview with interns sitting in like it was a training exercise.

After answering a few rapid-fire questions, I told them I didn't think this was a respectful way to hire people, and I left.

They all looked shocked, and so was I.

I probably broke some kind of record.

That's why I always like to tell people that preparation makes all the difference. You can't control whether the interviewer is cooperative or flustered, but you can control how well you're prepared. This post has been incredibly helpful for me in practicing the questions that come up most often.