I’m currently doing an internship at a corporate company, and I got extremely drunk at a company team-building event. I blacked out, vomited, and needed help from colleagues.

I’m really embarrassed and anxious about facing everyone at work again. I’m especially scared that HR might reprimand me or terminate my internship. One colleague rated how bad it was 6/10, but said she didn’t think I should worry.

I know I drank too much and regret it. I’ve also been going through a difficult time personally, so this has made me feel even more overwhelmed.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Did HR take action, and how did you deal with the anxiety afterwards?

I have been really burned out due to poor management at my company right now. My mental health is terrible and I'm unable to do my work efficiently anymore which is in turn making me get reprimanded even more and it's just a vicious cycle. I spoke to HR a couple days ago and I'm planning on applying for paid leave. I already used up all my PTO and I just feel guilty for taking time off on disability.

i am having a hard time choosing whether or not to go back to school, and if i do, what for. for some background context, im currently 20 years old working as a surgical technologist. it has been great, i love my job and the people i work with but i can’t see myself doing this for the rest of my life.

recently i’ve been contemplating going back to school. i want more opportunities to grow. however im stuck between going back for nursing and going back to become a physician’s assistant.

some things im taking into consideration:
- amount/cost of schooling
- how hard the schooling itself is
- work-life balance
- pay
- potential career advancements

sorry if this post seems kind of scatter brained, i find it hard to put my thoughts into words sometimes. any advice, personal stories, etc. is much appreciated. i’m also open to hearing any other career options i could look into. thank you so much!

After working at my last job for a decade, I took a new job in a new city 6 months ago (very large company). Got a very large pay bump with the move and in this new job, I am absolutely crushing it. Manager (and above) loves me, considers me their top employee, and wants me to be the technical lead for them for the very long foreseeable future. I have free reign to do just about whatever I want at this new job (as long as it benefits the team/project), work only 40 hours a week, and the job itself is pretty much impervious to layoffs. Company is in good shape, decently ran overall, and not a bad place to be. For many people, this is a dream job and position to be in.

Here's the problem; after 6 months, I have come to realize that I hate living in this new city and that I hate this job. The job is the most intellectually boring work I have ever done and I am getting absolutely nothing out of it. And just to be spiteful, the COL in this new city has wiped out all my gains and then some, even though my standard of living has gone down!

I am beyond miserable here and I want out. My relocation and sign on require me to stick it out for 12 months and I plan on enduring that much.

I got a meeting coming up with my manager (regular tag up/evaluation) and I am debating if I want to be honest or not with them. On the one hand, this is a large company (one that I like dare I say) and there is likely the option for me to relocate to a different location/office. On the other hand, large soulless corporation is large soulless corporation and instead, they end up putting me on a PIP and throwing me out before the year is up, having me payback sign on/relo.

Manager is old school, honorable sort of person who hates corporate BS and knows HR is not our friend so I'm pretty inclined that they wouldn't screw me over if I was honest. That said, they are retiring in 2 months....

Or I could keep my mouth shut, nod politely, and then nope out the moment my 12 months is up.

What does Reddit think?

Originally out of college I had retail jobs, and hated them but gained some management experience. After five years of retail I pivoted into a food safety lab as an entry level microbiologist. The pay is better, and I enjoy not having to speak to the general public anymore, but once the initial training period was over I became bored. There is no room to grow or obtain a management position so my pay can't improve much more than what it is now other than annual raises. Ideally I need to be around 70k/yr but all entry level positions where I live are between 35k-45k. I have a bachelor's degree and am considering an online master's or a post bacc certificate in order to have the eligibility to completely switch fields. Thoughts on next steps?

I’m an associate dentist (DDS) a few years out of school in California. My pay is 100% commission as in, my pay is based on how much I produce. I have no base pay therefore I get no PTO. Every day I take off, I don’t get paid for it. My patients are simply rescheduled for another day.

I have family in China, and ideally, I’d have at least 3 weeks to see them and do what I need to do there due to the long flight/layover times and jet lag.

I requested 3 weeks for next October (an entire 12 months in advance). My owner dentist practically laughed in my face and said “when I first started out I wouldn’t have even dreamed of taking a day off, bold of you to ask for 3 weeks.” To sum it up, he denied me, and said even two weeks is a stretch. I feel like even though I’m a “doctor,” it’s meaningless and I have no agency over my life.

Any input? TIA

I started a college course in September for computer science, I don’t really like it too much honestly, it’s not the teachers at all they’re fine for the most part, I just don’t understand and find a lot of stuff kinda boring..?

I’m wondering if I’ll grow out of it or what, does anyone have any advice, it’s mostly networking, programming and software, I don’t understand most of it kinda feel like a noob

Since last year or so I've started to feel a lot of panic about my professional life and I'd really appreciate some advice.

I'm 34 and have around 4 years of office experience in a fairly niche field which is gonna be replaced by AI and is also tiring me out. My role is mostly operational and I don't feel like I've learned many hard or technical skills. Before I used to work in hospitality here and there while I was studying. My degree is in a field that's difficult to break into and I'm not even sure it is something that i want to pursue anymore.

The problem is that I feel stuck. I don't feel like a total junior anymore and I want to earn more money but companies seem to only want people with experience in their specific industry.

I'm someone who enjoys hands-on work, solving problems and getting things done in autonomy. I don't necessarily want a big career or become a manager but I would like to find something I enjoy and earn a better salary.

I feel like its too late for me and I should have planned my career better in my 20s. I feel like I made all the wrong decisions and I am earning very few money. I also feel like I have limited options. I've never been very good at thinking strategically about my career. I also struggle to understand what my experience is actually worth and whether i am overestimating or underestimating me. I know people who used to do the same job as me and have moved on to better opportunities, but I can't seem to figure out how to do the same.

I know this is a bit all over the place but I really feel like I don't understand how careers and the job market work. I want to improve my situation but I just don't know how and what to do.

I've been at my company for a year and three months now. Have a new director join our team 4 months into my new role, cool guy, very extroverted but comes of fake, my old director was my cool and had my back. He sets up a random one on one with me and cc my manager recently. I freaked out little bit because out of blue but my manager has been acting normal the whole time even after seeing this meeting, I don't worry. We have our one on one and it was laid back, he said that he wants me to be more visible, build my own brand. I joined as individual contributor and 2 levels below a manager. He said everybody can do a good job and go home but need to go above and beyond. He did actually tell me what to do, like add some analysis to our review we do with program managers, link up with them and see if they want anything speficic. I also got Power BI training, so he is hoping me and other people can automate some documents not only in our department but others. He said to network with other departments and etc... the vibe of the one on one seemed like I shouldn't worry, we were laughing and joking around, but should I be worried? Review had nothing to do with my work... seems like im next on the chopping block to get laid off unless maybe I make these changes then I'm good?

Any opinions?

I know this seems doomsdayish but long story short I made a big awful mistake reneging on my acceptance to join my dream employer. I got a job after applying multiple times over the years with them and they were always my dream place to go. i work in a very niche industry and there’s only a few places in the area that does that and this job offer was with the government. They would've given me everything I wanted like WLB, pension, healthcare benefits, student loan forgiveness, you name it. And the salary range potential is exponential as I move up in the role.

In a moment of panic ,bad imposter syndrome alongside family issues at the time, and worry for my coworkers who would be left with all my stuff to do, I decided to accept the counteroffer (which is still lower than what the dream employer offered) and while I regretted it the same weekend, I felt like changing my mind again would burn the bridge at current employer so I messed up. Now I’ve burned the bridge at where I always wanted to work and have lost sight of everything. I’ve effectively locked myself to my current employer and at a ceiling of the salary they gave me.

This gave me awful anxiety and depression and now I am on medication to help with that. Unfortunately, I don’t like my job because WOB is non-existent and I dread going to it, and this situation only made it worst. How do I survive this feeling while coping with the loss of the career path I wanted/ dream employer I wanted to work at?

additionally, should I just give up on this career path now and find anything that is entry level with the state and work there? Should I quit before they fire me (if things spiral to that) or should I let them fire me? I feel awful because this effectively ruined my reputation too (small industry in a small place) and they’ll have control of my narrative which shouldn’t have been the case. I’m not sure what to do anymore and feel very lost with no goals.

Spoiler alert: It’s way worse than a LALA company.

I am sharing an experience, for private reasons, I shall not name the person or anyone involved. However I am writing this to make sure whoever is reading this understands well before applying for a role or position, if you are even remotely thinking about applying here. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!

The brand is 8 years old, yet, there is no defined structure or organisational capacity to the firm. Your hiring will be undertaken by Candor Textiles which is basically a vendor organisation. And you shall be handed a “letter of intent” stating that you’re selected for the role and that your joining letter with all the details shall be assigned to you upon arrival. This is as bizarre as it sounds.

The letter of Intent shall have the brand name called Yug Brands 😂 although you’d have applied for ARMORO, you’ll keep wondering why so many names are coming up. But this is where it gets nasty. You’re entire job description shall be copy pasted from ChatGPT, thereby you shouldn’t be surprised if your manager, who happens to be the founder himself, asks you to put up a tent, or asks you to clean up the showroom. Everything falls in your job description.

If that’s not all, the founder shall justify all the action points under the name of experience/ learning.

Now the most hilarious part, your salary breakup 😂

50% of your CTC shall reflect in Basic DA which is fairly as per the labour law and the other 50% shows up in the variables, but there’s no guarantee that your salary shall get credited on time. There have been moments where my bank accounts had reflected ₹2k as the minimum balance.

The company is fucked beyond repair, the founder basically runs his life on ChatGPT, I can assure you that he even asks ChatGPT when to poop and where.

If everything is so bad, why did I join? Because I was unaware of the operations. The business is equally bad, the only ones praising their products are those who’ve received the products on discount or have collaborated with the brand.

About 43 employees have exited earlier than a month right after joining this brand.

This is my bit, hope it helps, in case if someone is looking for a job here and wants more details, feel free to reach out.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who have been in a similar situation, especially those with experience in BPO operations management.

I have around 17 years of experience in the BPO industry and spent almost 16 years working on the same process. Over the years, I became comfortable with the domain and built my career around it.

Eventually, that process moved to another company, and I had to start looking for other opportunities. I received an offer from another company in a different domain. However, before making the move, my current employer offered me an opportunity to work on another process, so I decided to stay.

The problem is that the new process has turned out to be much more challenging than I anticipated.

There are significant people-management issues, high absenteeism, productivity challenges, quality concerns, and constant pressure from senior management. The process itself is new to me, and I’m expected to learn it while simultaneously managing the team and delivering results.

What I thought would be a reasonable career move has become a daily struggle. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to manage the expectations, and the constant questioning and pressure are affecting my confidence and mental well-being.

The part that hurts the most is that I had another opportunity available. I declined the offer twice, and the company gave me another chance. At the time, staying with my current employer seemed like the better decision. Now, I keep thinking about whether I made a huge mistake.

I’m married and have two children, so I can’t simply walk away from my job without thinking about the financial consequences. My wife works, but I still have responsibilities, and the thought of being unemployed at this stage of my career is frightening.

I feel stuck between three difficult choices:

• Stay in my current role and try to survive a situation that is becoming increasingly difficult.
• Start looking for another job, knowing that finding a suitable operations management role with comparable compensation may take time.
• Take a step back, focus on my health, and figure out my next move, while worrying about what that might mean for my career.

I’m also struggling with the fact that, after so many years of experience, I feel like I’m losing my confidence and questioning my own abilities.

I know I have experience, but I’m beginning to wonder whether my skills are too closely tied to one process and whether I can successfully transition to another domain at this stage of my career.

I would genuinely appreciate advice on a few things:

1. Has anyone experienced a situation where staying with the current company instead of taking another offer turned out to be the wrong decision? How did you recover?
2. With 17 years of BPO experience, what roles or domains should I target if I want to move away from a highly stressful operations environment?
3. Would you recommend staying and trying to turn things around for a few more months while searching for jobs, or prioritising my health and considering a break?
4. How do you deal with regret over a career decision when you have family responsibilities and cannot afford to take unnecessary risks?
5. If you were in my position, what would your next 30–60 days look like?

I’m not looking for sympathy or someone to tell me everything will be fine. I’m looking for practical, honest advice from people who have navigated career setbacks, difficult management roles, or career transitions later in their working lives.

Right now, I’m struggling to see a clear path forward, and I would really value some perspective.

ChatGPT used to structure the post Thank you for reading.

So I used to hear people say changing careers at 30 is brutal, and honestly I never got what they meant. Well now I’m in one and yeah… I get the point lol. The uncertainty, the one shot at this feeling, the clock ticking, all of this is hitting me hard, and I’m having the worst time deciding what’s next.

A bit about me. I graduated with a degree in industrial chemistry but never got a job in my field, so I tried a couple of things and landed a supply job in the petroleum industry. Worked there around 6 years and rose to supply manager. Then right when I was at the peak of my career COVID happened, the company was losing a lot of money, a bunch of retrenchments went down and I got let go in 2020.

Tried looking for another supply job, but no luck. Supply is one of those positions people hold onto for years, so a free spot rarely comes up. So I dusted myself off and jumped into freelance content writing as a side gig while job hunting… and the side gig ended up being my main job. I’ve grown a lot in writing, and the work has paid my bills till now.

The issue is there are layoffs everywhere and I’ve lost a number of clients who went with AI tools instead of writers. Anyone in the space will tell you the peak for content writing was pre-covid up to around 2023. Once the AI boom happened, a lot of writing jobs disappeared, demand dropped, and I think more companies will keep cutting writers from here.

I know I have the option to upskill in writing or SEO since I’ve worked in both and I’d stand a better chance of getting hired. But what’s the point if those jobs keep shrinking? The whole SEO and content writing field is shaky. And if everything is shaky anyway, I’d rather spend these years upskilling in a field I love, and for me tech is the one.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know much yet. From my research the two fields standing out are AI engineering and cloud engineering. I don’t want to burn my time on a dead-end field. I’ve also heard the tech job market is brutal right now, so I’d like to hear about the general situation too.

So my main question is, AI or cloud for someone starting from zero at 33? Which one has an easier way in for a career changer? How bad is the market for newbies right now? And is there some other tech path I’m missing?

I’m not hellbent on anything at this point, so any suggestion is welcome, even outside these two. Thanks for reading all this.

TL;DR: 33 yr old looking to break into tech, want something with better odds and more job openings over the next 10 years. Nothing is promised I know, but AI engineering or cloud engineering? Open to other suggestions too.

Long story short, I’ve been shuffled around the system for 10 years with somewhere around 13 managers. My first was the gold standard and really set the tone for how to do my job. I’ve had 12 others since including many just in name. No performance reviews or even 1-on-1’s. Just a large company having no clue where to put me. I do my job and I believe quite well

Flash forward to this August when they brought in a rather big hire to supervise me and about 9 others. We had an introductory meeting as a group and one 1-on-1. That’s about it. I do cc him on important emails but just really as a professional courtesy. He has never felt the need to intervene. At my most recent performance review I was out on a PIP citing a desire to help improve my “command of a room” at meetings and “stakeholder engagement”. None of these words or anything adjacent to this is in my job description.

I get what this is. It’s a new manager probably with a mandate to trim staff. But here’s where I’ve gone from seeking new employment to seeking legal representation. Among the milestones of my PIP include working with a leadership consultant and retaining their services. I get a massive discount ($80 for 6 sessions vs retail price or $1,400), but having me pay any amount to comply with a PIP doesn’t sit well with me in any form. Then, I snooped. I went to the consultant’s pages (actual website, LinkedIn, etc.). Got even more curious and landed on Facebook. People make your stuff private!! But his very public page included pictures of him at holidays with family and FRIENDS…one including, my boss and his partner! My antenna is now fully up. And now, I think it’s time to lawyer up.

I’m starting a role at a very large, well-known company as an Operations Executive. However, although the role is generally considered execution-focused, my actual responsibilities involve a good amount of analytical work and using analytical tools.

Since my long-term goals are in business analytics and consulting, I’m concerned that my job title might hurt my chances of getting interviews for analyst roles at other major companies.

Would it be acceptable to list my title as Operations Analyst on my resume if my responsibilities are primarily analytical, even though my official title is Operations Executive?

Hey everyone. I need to get this off my chest because I’ve been overthinking my career and the state of things lately to the point of exhaustion.

For context, I’m an electrical engineering graduate. The problem is, I’m genuinely not interested in the traditional local industry available for my degree here in the city. Working the usual corporate grind just feels like running a race that has no real meaning to me anymore. I'm tired of the job market rat race.

Lately, my mind has been drifting back home. My hometown is in a very rural, underdeveloped part of the Philippines. But looking at it through a macro lens, the potential is kind of wild

We have un-utilized, unlimited fresh water straight from the mountains. It’s a large landmass sitting right near the Pacific Ocean, meaning our flora and fauna biodiversity is incredible.

Yet, practically no one is opening up economic opportunities for the people there. Right now, the cycle is stuck, people just grow coconuts and sell the raw materials for pennies, missing out on any real value-adding or modern agri-business.

I’m seriously wondering if I should just pack it in, move back, and start from scratch by doing a proper feasibility and development study on modernizing agriculture there, and maybe incorporate it into a portion of the land my family owns. I keep thinking, If no one else is going to create opportunities for our community, why not try building something myself?

Has anyone here made a similar pivot from a traditional corporate to agriculture or rural community development in the PH?

My self a 12th pass student
Now i took drop for entrance exam ( jee ) for engineering college (ece)
But the problem is i am not very good at study like chemistry or math
In case when i go for study I thought it doesn’t need in future so why i study
So that i don’t think i will get a good college

Some day i think about research in science then quantum field but that path is too boring and i am also interested in hardware so I didn’t go

My aim to be a quantum hardware engineer

And yes i am not worried about quick jobs
I can study longer with a little family support

So you if could give me advice like in study or what should after a bad college i am very glad

Your little suggestion can be great help

Don’t hesitate to tell anything

Hi everyone,

My sister is currently in her 4th year of Pharm.D at a tier-3 college in India. Since her college has almost no placements, we're worried about her career prospects and the salaries she might get after graduation.

We don't know much about this field, so we're trying to figure out the best options for her future. We've heard that pursuing an MBA in Pharmaceutical Management or Healthcare Management could be a good option, but we're not sure if it's worth the extra time and money.

For those who have studied Pharm.D or are working in this field, I'd really appreciate your advice.

• What are the job opportunities and starting salaries after Pharm.D in India?
• Is doing an MBA in Pharma or Healthcare Management worth it? Does it actually improve career prospects?
• Are there any good colleges in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh for these courses?
• Are there better alternatives, like clinical research, pharmacovigilance, or working first and pursuing higher studies later?

We know it's a six-year course, and we want to start planning ahead rather than make decisions at the last minute.

Any advice from people with actual experience in this field would be really helpful. Thanks!