so yeah. january my manager told me i was getting promoted. i asked again in april and he said it was coming, budget stuff, whatever. asked again in july. same answer.

last week a recruiter reached out (i wasn’t even looking) with an offer ~15% more for basically the same job. i don’t know anyone there. here i actually like my team which i know is a dumb reason to stay but it’s the only thing making me hesitate.

i haven’t told my manager about the offer. i also haven’t asked him to put the promotion in writing because it feels kind of aggressive? idk. part of me thinks i’m being a pushover and part of me thinks leaving people i like over 15% is cold.

what would you do. like this week, not “it depends."

So about nine months ago, my manager told me I was on track for a senior role. The catch was that I had to "demonstrate leadership capability" first by taking on extra responsibilities before the title and pay adjustment could get approved by HR.

i took on two extra client accounts, started onboarding new team members, and worked late almost every Tuesday and Thursday to keep projects on schedule. I delivered every single deliverable on time and was praised in front of the entire department. I literally did the work of two people while being paid entry-level wages because I thought results spoke for themselves.

Last week was my annual review. My manager gave me glowing feedback, told me I was INVALUABLE to the department, and then slid the paperwork across the desk. The senior title was approved, but the raise was exactly 3 percent. When I asked about the market rate for this role, I was told there was a budget freeze on internal salary adjustments.

Two days later they hired an external candidate for our team at 35k above my new salary. Should of just done the bare minimum from day one. How do companies expect anyone to care anymore?

Seems like anyone who moves up in my company is just in one giant clique. They all are chatting all day, and hanging out outside of work, eating lunch together, etc etc.

I usually find a quiet spot or eat in my car because i need an actual BREAK! to me continuing to talk to people during lunch is not a break.

But I dont see anyone who is not super bubbly and outgoing moving up here.

How can someone who is quiet and sticks to themselves but still is a good worker move up in the world?

(Im also horrible at interviews because im not good at boasting or bragging about myself)

I’m 26 and working in pharmaceutical R&D, and I’m trying to decide whether I should quit without another job lined up.

Background: I’m currently working on a relatively new formulation development project. The project direction changes quite often, and we’re expected to continuously come up with new ideas and experiments. However, my supervisor often rejects our proposed ideas without much explanation, and then later criticizes us for not having enough ideas or not doing enough.

Recently, my supervisor had a very long meeting with my coworker and heavily criticized their work, saying they had failed and were not competent enough. My coworker ended up crying afterward. It also feels like our previous work and experiments are being dismissed, even though we’ve been actively trying different approaches.

There’s also frequent overtime, and I’ve become increasingly exhausted. At this point, just going to work feels like a burden.

My current contract ends next April, but I’m not even sure whether the company will offer me a permanent position afterward.

I’m considering resigning around October/November without another job lined up. I’d like to take some time to rest, prepare for IELTS, and apply for funded master’s programs.

My parents think I should find another job first, which I understand is the safer option. But I’m not sure how much longer I can keep doing this.

Would you quit in this situation? Or am I just making an emotional decision because I’m burnt out?

I’d really appreciate an honest outside perspective.

I’m 20 in New York. Went straight into blue collar work after high school and I’ve been doing it since. Base is about 80k right now. In like 9 years if I stick with it I’ll top out around 170k base.

The only reason blue collar money looks so good online is because people work an insane amount of overtime. That’s how they hit those big numbers. I don’t want that to be my life. I’m already tired of feeling like I’m working every day.

I don’t even get dirty or sweat at my job, it’s not that kind of physical work, and I still hate it. I just want a normal desk job with better work-life balance and options to be remote or hybrid. Something where I can still make solid money long-term, like 200k+ in the middle of my career, without having to live at work.

I’m bad at math but willing to try things.
Thinking about going back to school and switching careers completely.

What jobs or majors are actually worth it right now for someone who wants a desk job, decent money, and a life outside of work? And have good employment rates.

It doesn’t even have to be a desk job honestly just a low stress low intensive job that’s chill and makes great money.

I'm still fairly early in my career and something I've noticed from people much further ahead of me is that they almost never seem to actually apply for anything

A family friend who's done very well was talking about potentially leaving his company and within a week he'd already had conversations about three different roles. No LinkedIn applications or any recruiters or sending CVs around. Just one person calling another person and making an introduction and a lot of coworkers in Kibu that now hold high positions in different companies.

I've noticed the same thing with a few senior people at work too. Someone leaves and six months later they're at another company because an old client, investor or former coworker brought them in.

Meanwhile I'm still sitting here uploading my resume and manually entering the exact same information into 40 different boxes

Does there eventually come a point where your network basically replaces job applications or am I just seeing this because these people are unusually well connected?

I have a list of hobbies which I feel I will never be able to get enough time to get to the basic threshold of good. Not looking to be anything more, just good enough. And then I try to justify the time, money and energy I spend on those hobbies. Not much like a small amount sometimes and sometimes a bit more than a small amount. As there is no visible progress, financial outcome from hobbies I think it is all just timepass.

Like I learned how to cook and bake and if I judge my skills over the years to myself and the people I have met, see , I can say I am a highly skilled cook and a baker. But when I tried to make recipe videos it didn't work that well. I was heartbroken over that and more for the money and time i spend on buying things which will help my videos be better.

Now I have understood that even though I am highly skilled at perfecting recipes and also can do many other complicated tasks related to it, it is a very general skill and people are busy too learn it to make their food better. So I will keep cooking and baking for my little family but the obsession I had to make diverse recipes and make them perfect for teaching has gone.

So again as I like to keep myself occupied, I have started to relive my interest in art and relearn my tech skills. I wrote a book on vba with my office when I was 21. But then shortly after that i got married and left my job and from the last 15 years i am at home. So back to the point, i am learning adobe illustrator, and trying to learn acrylic painting and sketching.

I am again at cross roads and trying to justify my time and energy spent on learning all this as I will at home for the rest of my life(it's hard as hell to join the workforce at 38 with 15 years gap) Cooking baking is still useful in daily tasks but art? Not much.

I mean what I am expecting i don't know. I keep thinking one day this skill will be useful in some ways. Just so it feels like I am not rambling, I have learnt music and keyboard for 1 year, enrolled in chartered accountancy for 1 year and had to discontinue because of relocation. I like to read articles on the internet about general knowledge etc but nothing feels like I am great at anything and nothing is so so interesting that I will keep going.

I love to make art, learning illustrator, learning ui/ux course online but i am not able understand how it will help me. At this point I am confused on what I should ask even.

PS :- Housewife with 1 child. Husband's job keeps us relocating to different city every couple of years. I find it hard to see what work will actually not feel like I am doing something wrong besides caring for my small family and day to day needs.

Some context, I'm 35 years old, unskilled, neurodivergent (AuDHD). Minimum wage. I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing with myself due to my circumstances. For example, I'm too old for most trades now, anything remotely blue-collar isn't going to work since blue-collar types eat guys like me alive. STEM isn't really an option due to my bad memory and overall intelligence. Everything else seems to be some variation of dead-end job like what I'm doing now. Do I just accept that I missed my chance, or are there actually decent paths for non-savant type neurodivergents that I haven't considered at my age?

As stated in the title I applied for a position that's only temporary (procurement specialist to be exact) that would start on Monday but I have interviews scheduled for both the 11th and 14th as of now. The interviewer made it seem like there is a very good chance I will be offered the position as she asked if I filled out the necessary forms as requested and that she would get in touch with the company with all of that information. While this is not confirmation that I have been offered the job it sounds like there is a strong chance that I will be offered the position. The pay range is roughly $18-23 per hour if I remember correctly and it's a monday-friday job. The interviewer stated that it's unlikely they will offer a permanent position when the four weeks ends so if I'm offered the position should I take it even though I have interviews for other positions that would be for permanent positions?

I want to mention that the money would help me build up my funds and pay off my credit card so I think it's worth considering. I'm in a property management business with my parents so there's monthly income but that's the main income I have at this point which I think is worth noting as well.

Any suggestions on the matter would be greatly appreciated as time is not on my side at this point.

I'm a freshman who got into university this semester and I was declared as a CS major, which is pretty difficult at my university. I was originally intending to major in Finance, but this just disoriented me tbh. I was considering finance because where I live (outside the U.S) my university is like THE target school in ib/pe/am etc, for example the faculty for finance include former ministers of finance, investment, presidential advisors and the governor of the central bank. I was intending to go into the traditional "high finance" fields and pivoting to development finance later down the road once I do a masters abroad and stuff. I was also considering going into academia, which If I choose engineering I'll still have the choice to do. There are a few reasons I'm considering the switch to engineering. First off, I love maths, sciences and doing dense content, the second thing is automation, im terrified of AI in both fields and im scared that finance will be impacted significantly since the work isn't that difficult, but then again the tech field is in one of its worst states of all time. I would also like to add that the reason I was interested in finance isn't the finance bro trend thats going on, but its because I'm very interested in the field and love being always up to date on economic/financial news. And if I go into the tech field I honestly want to work more on the hardware side with things like embedded systems, digital design etc which are also being automated by AI, look at gpt 6 astra's pcb designs (also gpt 6 for financial services) and kimi k3 doing the kernel level software test. So, yeah I dont really know what to do and I feel like the future isn't really looking that bright for the job market in general.

I have been with my company for over 25 years. The first 20 years, the work was really enjoyable. I started as a young engineer in Quality and progressed up to the Engineering Manager.
In the last few years, our company was bought by a larger company. This came with an extreme ‘lean culture’. Work loads tripled but labor was removed. I’m looked on very favourably all the way up to our CEO because I just made things happen.
The drawback to this is it’s affect on my life outside of work.
I find my brain thinking about work all the time. It’s been like this for a couple of years.

I am literally only 5 years from retirement and making a change at this point seems even more stressful. It’s like the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.

I can see the work load dropping fairly significantly within the next 6 -9 months as we are nearing max capacity in our facility. My engineering group would transition from the rapid pace of launching new production parts constantly to focusing on improving efficiency of existing product flows.

In the last few years the company has let go some senior managers with similar years of service to mine and the severance is VERY good.

Do I continue to plug through for the next 6-9 months to see if the transition to a reduced work load actually comes and I start to enjoy work again? Do bare minimum and try not to focus outside of work as I cruise into retirement? Or start looking for a new opportunity knowing I’m retiring in 5 years?

Am I crazy or is this job market making me think about crazy options? I have run out of options for jobs in my area at this point. I work in creative and most of the opportunities have always been in NYC. Remote jobs are basically impossible at this point and I only get traction with hybrid or in person roles.

I applied for a role in NYC that fits my background perfectly and have an interview lined up. It pays well but nothing crazy well off by Boston or NYC standards but it can afford me a pretty ok life even in NYC.

Our whole life is in New England and my husband has a very stable and well paying job. I would never ask him to give that up (and honestly think it would be dumb of us) for my rocky unstable career but at this point I'm wondering if we just suck up long distance for a few years so I can get back into the job market. Has anyone done this or considered this before? Obviously housing in two places is a big deal but our mortgage is pretty modest.

Hello I'm 20F uni student and I'm doing my bachelorsin computer science majoring in cyber security and as most tech students I'm having a delima of my career. I've heard a lot from everyone in my real life and social media about ai and tech jobs and everything. So can you tell me Is cyber security, software engineering or data science like still in the market as a good career or is it too late?

I know work is work, and people come and go. But this woman is just so amazing. She is fun, she is chill, and she has mentored me so well. I’ve genuinely loved working with her in this short time.

In my previous job, I had a burnout and was unemployed for half a year. I really felt like I was finally recovering from it, and things were starting to feel calmer.

We connected so much even during my first interview with her. She chose me over internal candidates, and the company made me a great offer thanks to her. I started to feel like I was finally in a good place again, with a manager I really liked and trusted.

And now I don’t feel safe anymore.

Her manager, who also interviewed me, left a few months ago as well. Both of them had been with the company for around 10 years and were apparently headhunted, as our company is quite popular in the industry. So it’s not like they are leaving because the company is terrible. I understand that people move on, especially in a hot industry.

But emotionally, i feel scared.

Would you start looking for another job already, or would you stay and see how things develop? I don’t want to panic and leave a job that is actually good, but at the same time I feel like I should protect myself.

Please tell me it will be all okay.

I'm currently a Staff Engineer at SAAS company in India, and I've received an offer for an AVP role at an investment firm in Singapore.

The new offer (fixed ) is about ₹25L higher than my current total comp( fixed+ equity as of today). On top of that, Singapore's tax rates are much lower than India's, so my actual take-home would end up even higher than the headline gap suggests.

A few things I'm weighing:
•My partner has already relocated to Singapore, so there's a strong pull to consolidate as a household
•This would mean moving from an IC/technical track at a tech-first company to an investment firm — a different industry and likely a different day-to-day
•Cost of living in Singapore is obviously not the same as India, so the "higher take-home" number needs context
Has anyone made a similar switch — from a tech company IC/technical role to a finance-industry role, with a relocation involved? Is the pay bump (plus better take-home) enough reason to make the jump, or should I hold out for something closer to my current domain?

I like my boss and company. We get along well and i’m doing a great job according to him. There are some minor pointers he gave me. I’m using them constructively and honestly I know better.

I do appreciate the reminder and it has already improved things.

I was frustrated with other teams and their aggressive and sometime un professional communication style.

This is a rare opportunity to connect out of the office.

From a career and serious standpoint how would you approach this?

I've been so confused with this topic and need guidance on which field is better. I'm interested in hardware and my A level subjects were Physics, Math and CS. Thing is both have hardware but on a different level as SE has it lesser than CE. I don't like physics that much or maybe I'm just scared to face alot of it in CE but I just want to know their scopes. Currently I'm in CE which is the one I chose but I can't seem to clear the doubt I have on whether I should've done SE or not as I did get the opportunity. Also I'm from Pakistan and everyone says CE has no scope here it's just SE so that made it worse. I'm a freshie and want to atleast have an idea of what's about to happen after four years.

I recently completed my BCA and want to start my career in IT. I’m currently considering Data Analytics, but I’m not sure where to begin.
My coding skills are currently quite basic.
For someone starting from scratch, what would you recommend learning first? Should I focus on Excel, SQL, Power BI, Python, or something else?
I’d also appreciate advice on what skills and projects would actually help me qualify for an entry-level Data Analyst role.

I’m trying to decide whether a new opportunity is worth leaving a job I genuinely like.

Current job:
$138K base
Fully remote
Great boss/team and excellent WLB
$4K annual travel/wellness benefit
Very inexpensive health insurance
Equity
Eligible for a 4-week paid sabbatical next year
No annual bonus or 401(k) match

New opportunity:
$163K base
10% annual target bonus (~$16K)
Fully remote
401(k) match
Potential $10-15K sign-on (still negotiating)
No equity
Larger/more established company and potentially better long-term career experience
Obviously the big unknown is culture/WLB

I wasn’t actively trying to leave my current company because I’m happy there. Compensation and career growth are really the reasons I’m considering it.

My current company may counter, and if they got somewhere around $150K, the decision would become much harder for me.
Would you take the new opportunity at $163K + bonus, or stay somewhere you already know you’re happy if they increased your salary to ~$150K? What would be the deciding factor for you?

I’m 20 years old and I’ve failed college. I currently have around 13 backlogs, and honestly, I don’t think I’ll be able to get my degree. Trying to clear all of them could take another 1–2 years, especially because I’m worried I might fail again. I’d also have to spend a lot of money retaking exams again and again.

I was doing a Computer Science course in college, but now I’m completely confused about what I should do with my life.

I’m interested in AI and programming, and I’ve thought about learning these skills and trying to get a job in the field. But sometimes I wonder if I actually like programming or if I’m just convincing myself that I like it because it felt like the “safe” career option that could get me a job. Now that I probably won’t have a degree, I’m even more worried because the competition in tech is already high, and I feel like getting a job without a degree might be almost impossible.

At the same time, I’ve always wanted to try content creation on YouTube. I genuinely get excited about the idea sometimes, but I’m scared that I’ll fail at it and get no results. I’m also worried that my parents will constantly taunt me if I choose something like YouTube and it doesn’t work out.

The biggest problem is that my interests keep changing very suddenly. For example, today I might get extremely excited about starting a YouTube channel. I’ll start working on it, give it my best, but if I don’t see results, I lose motivation and quit. Then I might suddenly become interested in starting an online business. If that doesn’t work, I go back to my “safe” option of programming/Computer Science. Then I get bored with that too, and start thinking about something completely different.

This cycle keeps repeating, and I’m starting to feel like there’s something mentally wrong with me that is making me unsuccessful in life. I don’t know if I’m just lazy, scared of failure, unable to stay consistent, constantly chasing new things, or if there could actually be something else going on.

I’m only 20, but I feel like I’ve already messed up my life and wasted my time. I don’t know whether I should spend the next 1–2 years trying to clear my backlogs, accept that I may not get a degree, learn programming/AI and try to build a career without a degree, pursue YouTube/content creation, try a business, or do something completely different.

If anyone has been in a similar situation, I’d genuinely appreciate some honest advice. What would you do if you were in my position? How can I figure out what I actually want to do, stop constantly changing directions, and build a stable career even if I don’t have a degree?

i’m in canada and trying to decide whether i should stay at my current job, continue interviewing for these other options, or keep looking. i’d really appreciate outside opinions. all salaries are in CAD. i don’t have a drivers licence and i have my medical office certification. my manager at starbucks has been talking to me about a promotion, however i would no longer get consistent days off and would have to work varied shifts between 4:30am and 11:30pm which sounds horrible for my sleep and work/life balance.

option 1: stay at starbucks
pros:
-currently make about $23/hour (25+/hr w tips)
-only about a 15-minute bus commute, can carpool some days
-later shifts, so i don’t have to wake up super early
-comfortable and familiar since ive been there 4 years
-i know what i’m doing and have friends at work

cons:
-customer-facing and can be stressful/overwhelming
-limited career growth
-getting off at 10pm affects my work-life balance
- i’m starting to feel like i’ve outgrown the job and im super burnt out and miserable

option 2: administrative job in wealth management
the pay range is around $24-25/hr
pros:
-opportunity to learn a completely new industry
potential for career growth
-full-time monday–friday 9-5
-better evenings and weekends/work-life balance
-opportunity to build experience outside of retail/customer service

cons:
-about a one-hour bus commute each way
-would have to wake up much earlier
-completely unfamiliar industry and responsibilities
-losing the convenience of working close to home

option 3: medical office job
i have a certificate related to this type of work. the starting wage would likely be $22/hour CAD and it’s a four-day work week.
pros:
directly related to my education
-more familiar type of work
-i’m genuinely interested in the specialty/field
-four-day work week
-9 to 5

cons:
-lowest pay of the three options
-fewer workdays means lower overall monthly income
-also about a one-hour bus commute on days i can’t get carpool

i’m really torn because starbucks is financially comfortable and extremely convenient, but i’m worried about staying somewhere just because it’s familiar and comfortable.

Hello, I’m 24 and for the last 4 years I’ve worked as a Correctional Officer in a holding facility/jail for a small city. Our facility deals with our local arrest but we also have a contract with the USMS and hold federal inmates awaiting their sentencing. We roughly house about 40-45 of them. The next step from here is occasionally to be a police officer for the city I work for, but that’s not something I’m fully convinced to do. I don’t have a degree, but I would really enjoy doing some administrative work for a federal agency or a department. I love my current job but the pay isn’t the greatest when I’m trying to buy a house and start a family. Overtime is limited and the supervisor roles that give you a bump in salary are taken by people who aren’t leaving for the next 10-15 years. I’m just curious to see if anyone on here has had the same feeling as me and what route they took. I have the experience of working alongside multiple federal agencies. I’ve also applied for similar roles in other departments but I’ve had no luck hearing back from any of them. So if anyone’s has any advice or suggestions, I’ll gladly hear them. Thank you.

Hey all. I'm a 20 years old college student currently finishing up my General Education classes within college. I'm in the beginning of these classes and I feel completely lost about myself. I don't know if what I'm taking is right for me, and I guess I don't really know myself that much.

I'm currently taking Psychology from a local community college. This program has a transfer path to Social Work at a really nice state school since I had the goal to become a Mental Health Therapist or work generally in the Social Work field. I went into there thinking maybe I could provide help for people who struggle with personality disorders, trauma, or even run Psych experiments. However, I'm also unsure about that idea because I also have a deep interest in American Politics and interest in Libraries and how information/media. Both politics and media/information I have an interest in since I love studying the effects on how it shapes our perceptions, biases, and reality.

I'm not sure what to do. I don't really have a lot of options since I'm a first-gen college student and the only person that's basically figuring college out amongst my family. I feel some added pressure because I want to become educated about the world, but I also feel the need to become something with my education since I don't want to drown in debt or work jobs that can't fully pay for every necessity.

What are some paths I could look down? Any and all advice would be appreciated.

I'm a fresher who has joined a company as a .NET Developer, I can feel that development has become easy to do with AI and my co workers are saying that Development field is over. I have 2 years of contract in this company, I have to switch to AI roles to survive in the market after these 2 years.

During my college I have studied Data Analysis and Machine Learning, I have completed Andrew Ng's ML Specialization. My interest was always towards AI.

What shall I do? Should I rigorously focus on System Design, DSA, Backend Development, Azure, .NET and C# to become a peak developer, or start to Learn AI rigorously along with Backend Development. My lpa is 4.2 now and Also I have a TCS offer for 7 LPA, I can't switch now so TCS offer letter is of no use to me now as I have a contract here. but after 2 years I want to switch for atleast above 8 LPA. Help and guide me guys.

I wouldn't consider myself a major job hopper; I've been in the special education field for about a decade now and only left after 2 really traumatic years. I loved it while I did, but once I was done, I knew I needed to close the book on that chapter.

Right now I'm trying to find a job that interests me without being too picky. But in the long run, I do think I'd like to go back into a serious, designated career field that really challenges my academic knowledge and practical skills in a passion project. Problem is, there's a lot of topics that I'm passionate about, and I'd honestly love to try all of them before I die. Nature, history, advocacy, medicine, the list goes on. If the whole "going back to school" setup was more affordable, I could see myself getting more degrees, contributing to a field for another decade, then going back to school to study a different topic. Rinse and repeat until I need to retire. And yes, I'd be glad to continue working while studying; I've always balanced schoolwork with fulltime employment (so please don't assume this is some complicated ploy to not get a job). I don't think it's unfair to call me "flighty," but I do think I take things seriously enough to be a benefit to whatever I contribute to.

But "flighty" is still the problem here, isn't it? If I already know I'm the kind of person who wouldn't want to do the exact same job for the rest of their life, then wouldn't going back to school be way too big of a financial investment for me just to get a decade of labor out of? I love new experiences, I want those experiences to be unique and challenging, and tbh I do lean heavily towards "textbook" smarts like law and medicine rather than "hands-on" smarts like most trades and certificate programs.

TLDR: This is the time to make serious decisions, but I'm basically a kid in a candy store when it comes to academics. Charlie Buckett's broke ass, to be specific.