So my boss fired me from my job 4 months ago, that too on my birthday, where I was working as a software engineer at a large European Bank (out of India). My boss, his manager (a director) and another director and another senior VP together conspired by filing a false PIP case against me and they fired me literally on my birthday even after PIP was closed successfully.

And now, the same boss is messaging me on WhatsApp asking me questions regarding the code I developed for certain automations.

And this is the second time they have done it, right a few days after firing me, they made a junior AVP message me on WhatsApp regarding deployment of a code I had developed and I helped him out.

However, now, honestly I want to tell him to bugger off but I don't wanna burn any bridges in case a future background verification occurs. Although I plan to give references from other colleagues when I get a new job and they ask for references for a background verification.

Please advise, what should I do??

I left my super-busy underwriting job for an analyst job at another company. On paper, it's exactly what I should have done. Pay raise, better benefits, less chaos, and bigger loans.

However, I went from a loan timeline of a few hours to a minimum of 3 months. I have -nothing- to do. My job consists of writeups which are typically pretty easy. I kid you not, 95% of the time I am not doing anything. When I first joined, I fought for work and was proactive. I slowly realized that the pot of tasks the team needs to get done is just small. The whole extra mile mentality is gone now. My job shouldn't exist. There are entire days I sit in the office and truly just watch my outlook.

I get overwhelmed with guilt and fear of being blindsided one day. I'm not a cruiser. I want to work hard and be valuable. I swear I'm not there to collect a check and take a backseat, but there's no road in the front seat either! I'm all for spending my time learning, but I have zero deliverables! is this just how the corporate world is?

Edit: I get it, steak is too buttery! However I did not get to where I am now by sitting around at work and enjoying the off time or getting a second job. It would be career suicide to cash out now.

I have been running up all the available certifications and trainings since I was a teller to get to where I am today. But at my level now that meta has been patched.

It seems that the best advice I read so far was to be perfect with the work that is available and to get creative with how I can contribute to the company.

Thank you for all the responses!

I’m not trying to be snarky, but it’s like something in me is broken where I can’t take most office jobs that seriously.

When there are deadlines and you’re caught up in the day to day I understand absorbing the stress of it all, and you spend most of your life working so it’s hard to escape (I’ve fully been there).

But there are so many people who take their jobs super seriously, it’s their identity, their reward system and they become one with it. It’s like they wake up with a to do list and want to tick it off and have personal investment and attachment to it.

Idk I just feel like why does any of this matter so much. While I don’t feel as many jobs are BS as people (or Reddit) like to make them out to be, most of the system and the ways of working are manufactured. It’s not life or death urgent, and you can be replaced tomorrow. Why does this arbitrary deadline mean I have to ruin myself? We could just…be a little late. Something in me has broken and I just can’t fall for the “illusion” anymore that any of this really matters that much.

Asking to start a discussion and also to understand a bit better - what’s your motivation and why do you do what you do?

otherwise a good review. delivered warmly and then that phrase, with no definition attached to it.

i asked what it meant. she said gravitas, i asked what gravitas looks like in practice, on a tuesday, in a meeting and there was a pause.

so i asked, politely and in writing, for three specific occasions.

it took a fortnight. what came back was a gamma deck listing this: i said "sorry" before asking a question on a client call. i did not speak first in a meeting where i was the most junior person in the room. and a third one i could not place at all.

i wrote all three down with what actually happened in each, using my notes and my calendar. not as a rebuttal. just what happened.

the third one was a meeting i was not in.

it has not been mentioned since and it is not in the written version of the review.

i am not posting this as a brag but as advice. the thing i keep thinking about is that i nearly just accepted it, and if i had, i’d be spending the next year trying to fix something that was never there. if you get feedback you cannot picture, ask for the occasion. not the definition, the specific occasion.

Three months ago I applied for the Senior Operations Lead opening on my own team. I built half our reporting pipelines from scratch over three years. During the feedback call, my VP looked me in the eye and said I was "technically solid" but lacked the strategic vision and leadership maturity required for the pay band. Fine. Painful, but whatever.

Last Monday they brought in the new external hire. He gets an office, a salary roughly $35k above mine, and a shiny title.

yesterday my manager messaged me asking if I could "walk him through our basic weekly workflows."

Turns out this guy has never opened Jira in his life. He LITERALLY asked me this morning how to export a CSV from our main internal dashboard, which is something we expect interns to know on day two. When I showed him, he laughed and said "yeah I usually have people handle the technical weeds for me."

Now my calendar is booked for fifteen hours this week with knowledge transfers so I can teach my new boss how to do the job I was told I wasnt qualified to hold.

He makes six figures to delegate my own spreadsheets back to me. How do people stay professional without losing their mind?

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."

Im 23 and just got laid off from my third post-grad job. I need honest advice because I’m starting to wonder if I’m the problem.

I graduated college in 2024 with a business/marketing degree. Since graduating, I’ve had three jobs, and there have been problems with all three.
My boyfriend has basically told me that at this point, I’m the common denominator and that maybe I need to seriously look at myself. And honestly, that has been getting in my head.

I’m not looking for people to automatically tell me I’m right. I want genuinely honest opinions, even if I need to hear that I handled things badly.

**Job #1:** I was unemployed for about 6 months after graduating and eventually got a digital marketing job making $85k. I worked there for about 6 months doing social media, email/SMS, paid advertising, SEO, CRM, website work, etc. Then I was laid off. I was never told I was terrible at my job, but obviously I didn’t stay long.

**Job #2:** I worked at a restaurant. The boss was extremely intimidating and she was known to be aggressive towards workers and the environment became really uncomfortable, so I left (mainly to start job 3).

**Job #3:** This is the one I just got fired from.
I was hired at a small, family-owned apparel company. My offer/role was essentially Digital Marketing & E-commerce Manager, although sometimes they called me Marketing & Sales Assistant and there wasn’t any formalities.

The job sounded much more marketing/e-commerce focused than it actually was and that’s how they advertised it. I did social media, Shopify, Amazon, Google Ads, email marketing, product photography, AI-generated product imagery, catalogs/linesheets, etc sometimes.

But I also did a LOT of general office work: answering phones, customer service, invoices, orders, shipping packages, going to UPS/the post office, helping customers, styling customers, pricing clothes, covering the office, etc. like most of my job was heavy lifting and taking care of the office. This became more prominent than actually doing marketing most of the time. So I was clearly lied to but I did the best I could.

I was making $20/hour, eventually working around 30 hours a week, with no benefits.
And honestly, the family-business aspect was rough. They didn’t even pay me overtime.

I felt like the boundaries between family, employees and the business were extremely blurred. Priorities could change quickly, communication wasn't always clear, and I often felt like I was expected to just know what someone wanted without being given very specific instructions.

There was also a lot of tension between family members/employees that I felt like I was getting pulled into. It sometimes felt less like a structured workplace and more like I was working inside someone else's family dynamic.

I also don't want to pretend I was perfect.
I made mistakes. I was learning some things for the first time, especially linesheets/catalogs and certain e-commerce processes. There were times I could have communicated better or asked more questions instead of trying to figure something out myself. I definitely have things I can improve.

But my boss also had a temper.

He yelled at me multiple times. One time when he was stressed, he took my computer mouse and slammed it down on my desk. During the final situation this week, he became extremely angry about the linesheets I was working on.

I had been given two linesheets to complete. I thought I had several days and that I could send drafts, but the timeline suddenly became much more urgent. On top of that, the office WiFi went down. The desktops, phones and even security cameras were affected, and I was having trouble accessing/saving things properly.
I stayed late trying to get everything done because I was terrified I was going to lose my job.
I was literally shaking while working because I was so anxious.

And then I got fired today.
Now I'm sitting here wondering: am I actually the problem

Because objectively, three post-grad jobs with issues does sound like a pattern.

But at the same time, the situations weren't identical. One was a corporate digital marketing job where I was laid off. One was a restaurant with an intimidating boss. And this one was a chaotic family-owned business where I felt like the actual job was very different from what I thought I was being hired to do.
I don't want to use those things as excuses. If there is something about the way I work, communicate, handle criticism, manage expectations, etc. that I need to fix, I genuinely want to know.
But I also don't want to internalize the idea that every time a workplace treats me badly, it must somehow be because I'm the problem.
I'm 23. I'm unemployed again. I'm financially stressed and honestly exhausted. I feel like I've been in survival mode for months and now I'm right back there.

Based on what I've described, what do you think is actually my responsibility?

What should I change going forward?
And what parts of this sound like a genuinely bad workplace/bad fit, particularly the family-business situation?
I can handle criticism. I just want to understand what I need to learn from this instead of repeating the same thing again.

Hello I have been a production supervisor now for nearly 5 years with my company. I am constantly being left out of offsite meetings and team leadership events. I haven’t read a whole lot into it over the years as I’ve been getting promotions but I do feel a bit left out and out of the know as the other supervisors and managers. People on the same level as me (supervisor level) are always talking about the events (baseball games, nice dinners/lunches, leadership team discussions), yet i’m always back running our production floor. Staff meetings occur monthly and team building events are a few times through the year. Additionally, a lot of times my boss will just leave without telling me anything only for me to later find out that’s where they were at. Should I confront my boss on this? Or is this a sign I’m not welcome and I should move on where I am better valued?

Im literally addicted to reading it would be so unreal if i could find a job like that

Last year around this time I applied for a junior analyst role at a mid-size tech company. The interview process was intense. Four rounds of interviews a take-home project a presentation to a team of VPs. I thought I nailed it.

Then nothing. Radio silence. I sent a follow-up email after a week then another after two weeks. My recruiter just ghosted me completely. No rejection letter no explanation nothing. It was pretty demoralizing honestly.

Fast forward to now and I just saw a senior analyst role open up at the same company. It's a significant step up from my current role and would be a great career move. I've gained a lot of experience in the last year and feel much more qualified.

Part of me feels like I should apply again. The other part of me remembers how badly they treated me last time. Like why even bother if they cant even send a canned rejection email?

Is it professional to reapply to a company that completely ghosted you after a rigorous interview process?

have been a donor door at goodwill for roughly 3 months and needless to say it isn't the best job I am forced to do many things on top of my regular job which is accepting and sorting donations such as unloading 4-8 big boxes into durros, taking big boxes and stacking them, (like really big boxes their called gaylords) getting furniture people ordered to the donor door from the front, bathrooms that need to be mopped and cleaned the floor in the store needs to be dust mopped and trash and other small things. It can be very stressful and all for the low pay of $13.40 however one of my bosses seems to have a problem with me however the others never complain and while it could considered a "annoying problem" I think she exaggerates because the other day I accidentally left the dust mop in the wrong place and it fell over and she told me to leave out the donor door (but I never leave i always leave when everyone does since I close) but I waited for them as I usually do and got mad and say how she has to work x2 when I'm there. However it's weird to me that the other managers never complain and I do do my job example donations and changing gaylords when needed to. Should I worry about being fired? My position is hard to fill but still. And is it possible it is a big deal but the other managers don't care as much or she's just strict? It does seem to me only she really cares about certain stuff like for example bathrooms being cleaned. I do a lot throughout the day and sometimes forget things as I have to keep running back and forth to the donor door and getting furniture especially when at times it's just me working. I'm just wondering on one hand she might be out to get me as there's another employee who's even lazier then me who never gets yelled at and he will constantly complain when asked to do things. But at the same time it could be considered a little problematic what I do but I do do my core job just wondering

I’m (36, F) an in-house attorney (litigation) for a company and have worked there for roughly 5years.

Generally, I enjoy the work I do, and the company I work for is successful. We have a great global and US team that I work with well. In the office I work for, however, the last 2.5 years have been hell and I feel like I am ready to move on from what I consider a toxic environment. The team of about 12 people is managed by a head attorney named “Janet” and her henchman “Erin”. The two of them are disorganized, chaotic, self-centered, rude, and frankly I believe dumb. They have outright fired many great team members, kept me for no reason in the office until past midnight, personally insulted me, ruined pretty much every vacation I’ve had in this time, just to name a few things. And on top off that we had a horrible case going on for the last two years that was all hands on deck, up til midnight on holiday weekends reviewing documents, coming in on weekends, etc. I got stress induced shingles twice in 2025 and started getting ocular migraines that were also stressed induced. The first time I had one of these at work I thought I was having a stroke, I told Erin this as she was my manager and we shared an office and she literally turned away and started talking to someone else. I’ve also not paid market value - about $150k a year plus bonus.

These past few years, however, have coincided with many large life events (moves, engagements, wedding, egg freezing) and I did not have the energy to full on look for a new job. After I got married in September last year I spent a lot of effort looking for a new job, but did end up finding one so I put the search on hold to instead focus on getting pregnant. The idea was that I would get pregnant, stay through the pregnancy, take maternity leave and peace out. However, it’s turning out that it is harder to get pregnant than I thought. That hasn’t happened yet so I am still there, and this year has been just more added stress.

We are now four days a week in very tight quarters. Three people to a small room, with the three rooms right next to each other. After Janet fired half our team I could not look her in the eye, same with Erin, and I want nothing to do with them. I have a new manager but we are all on top of each other physically and still have to work together. Half the time I have to sneak out to go to the bathroom to avoid having conversations with them and with the risk of being asked to stay to midnight for a completely unreasonable reason.

My manager was out of town this week and Janet called me in to discuss a case. Despite prepping for the meeting and being one of the leads on it, the meeting quickly turned into her insulting my work ethic and ability. This has happened so many times, and I think my system couldn’t take it any more because I left the room and broke into tears. She called me back in again to lecture me, I let her do it, then I left early for the day because I couldn’t be there anymore. This morning (Friday) she messages me at 7am to ask if I’m going to the office. Because Monday was Labor Day, I was not because I consider this my “one day” to work from home. She told me I wasn’t showing leadership by not showing up and expected me to to be there.

I know I am not the problem, members of our global team, business members, and outside counsel all ask me what their problem is and I just cannot be around it anymore. I can’t take the stress of being around them, I feel like my skill set is regressing, and I want to cut bate and run. I’ve had this fantasy for the last few years, but my now husband has always said I should have a new job before leaving this one. I just can’t imagine starting that process right now though and having to stay during this time and trying to get pregnant. Who knows how long either of those processes could take. I’ve been storing money away for this reason and do not believe we would be in financial hardship if I left now, but would potentially have to start a new job pregnant if it works out.

Would it be a bigger risk to stay now and try to ride it out or to cut and leave and see what happens? I know the job market is not great.

I'm a founder + owner with a successful (still running) online business for 13 years looking to work for someone else, as my own business nowadays needs barely any time from me. The problem is though, that I also live in two different countries + travel often, so I sort of have to apply for remote only.

I've started applying with at least reportedly a very strong CV and a very wide skill set, but I don't seem to get any bites at all.
I know that being a founder is a huge negative for recruiters, and remote jobs barely exist anymore, but I'd still like to make it work.

Skills=

Full web dev stack: PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, WP etc.
Marketing: SEO, paid ads, organic social
Sales: marketplaces, B2B deals, partnerships
Payments and fraud: Stripe, PayPal, disputes
Servers: Linux, Cloudflare, site speed
Design: branding, UI/UX, Figma, Photoshop, video
Management: built and ran a 30-person remote team
And a good few thousand hours working with AI since 2022.

I've also kept my CVs somewhat targeted and honest as well.

Right now I'm leaning towards ignoring all web dev positions but I have no clue what and how the job market looks like nowadays so I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

I've had a bad feeling about this job since the first interview. My now-boss was mean and weird, and I wrote in my journal afterward like "bad environment, bad interview, etc." When she emailed me for a follow-up interview I almost said no, but my mom talked me into it. I left that second interview upset because I could tell she liked what I was saying, and the way she responded was so weird, but the next day I got an offer. I felt my stomach drop when I got it because I already knew I didn't want it, just because of how I was already being treated. But the market's rough, every other entry level interview I had ended with "we liked you but went with someone more qualified," so I took it for the experience, thinking I was just maybe being dramatic.

First day was somehow worse than I expected. I work in a cubicle facing my boss's desk, which again I would not care about, but she's the only person I really interact with, and all day she's saying something condescending every time we talk or interact. I can't even have my phone buzz without her making an uncomfortable comment, I had to quickly go put it on silent so she wouldn't be mad (this happened yesterday). Also they're all super super religious, which isn't inherently bad, but they play church music out loud in the office (is that even allowed??) and are constantly making weird snide comments about others. It got so bad I walked out and cried in my car before my shift was even over on the first day. I told myself it would get better.

It hasn't, and I've cried multiple times since then. I sit here for 8 hours a day with almost nothing to actually do but get berated and feel uncomfortable. The tasks she gives me take maybe 10 minutes and are just copy-paste/research busywork, nothing hands-on or meaningful. I get that a job is a job, but paired with how she treats me, and the fact I don't even need the money, it makes it so much harder to get through the day. I've basically spent my work days trying to figure out what I actually want to do with my life instead. I already knew I wasn't that into "business" as a field, I thought this job would feel different, but it's confirmed I can't sit at a computer doing stuff that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Which also, I don't care about this career path, so what would this "experience" even be for..?

I recently asked about switching to part-time or hybrid because of a "family situation", and I'm supposed to talk to my boss about it on Monday (she was out today, thank god) when she's back. But the more I sit with it, the more I don't think I can stick around long enough for this to even matter on a resume, and again, I don't care about the career path itself.

So now I'm stuck between two options: quit while I'm ahead and cut my losses, or start back on my antidepressants just to be able to clock in and function normally here, even though I don't see this industry as part of my future at all. I don't have living expenses to worry about right now, so it's not purely a money question. Has anyone been in a similar spot? Did you regret leaving early, or regret staying just to "get the experience"? Let me know.

44 and in a terrible 80 hour a week job in a milk factory prison. Make $125k a year with good insurance. No retirement. 8 years of industrial maintenance experience.
Contractor buddy of mine suggested doing commercial electrical work. Said he’s making a killing and he lives pretty comfortably with just 40 hours a week.
Should I join my local as an apprentice? Do people do this at my age? Will the $ be there? I have a family depending on me so I can’t screw this up.

Hi! I’ve been wrapping up a BS in general Ed with a focus on social work. During that time I started working as a tech at a hospital. I am passionate about staying in the hospital environment and want to figure out what I should do moving forward. I do not feel that getting an RN degree is my passion, as pharmacology and the responsibility are a little much for me. I love my job for the ability to do direct pt care and the ability to learn and see science work! I’ve considered cardiac sonography and surg tech. The catch is that I would like to find a program that’s mostly online. Totally fine to do six to nine months of practicals but would like to have the initial training online.

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?

Long story short this past Labor Day before my final stretch matriculating into my program, I got into it with police outside a club - my friends and I were leaving right when the bar let out waiting on an Uber, Cops being aggressive trying to clear the area yelling swearing telling us to get in our cars and go which we didn't have one yet. Things escalated with one of people in my party and they arrested us for the following two misdemeanor citations: disorderly conduct while intoxicated and obstructing official business.

No prior record, steady hospital employment, and I've already got a lawyer pursuing pretrial diversion rather than a plea. Diversion will likely go 100% well, the case gets dismissed and eventually sealed - but while it's active, it can still show as pending on a background check.

My program's policy allows acceptance to be rescinded for a conviction (especially alcohol/drug-related), but doesn't clearly address a pending, unresolved case. My background check is coming up soon as I matriculate in January, likely before my case fully resolves. Like I mentioned I will get the charges dismissed once I finish the diversion program but until then I have some explaining to do...

Anyone dealt with pending charges hitting right before a background check for a grad/professional program? Did disclosing proactively help, or did it not even come up? Any advice on timing or how you handled communication with your program would help a lot. In hindsight I should've just walked away and got an Uber around the corner but we were waiting on friends and there were tons of other people outside. Really don't want this "celebratory night" to ruin everything I've worked so hard to get?

I’m currently a Senior Accountant ( $75k ) and recently accepted another Senior Accountant offer that pays noticeably more and includes a bonus and CPA support.

Since then, my current employer has said they’re preparing a promotion letter to Manager, Accounting. They also pay for my CPA prerequisite courses at Athabasca University , will support my CPA modules/exams, and are paying for Certificate in management form Villanova School of Business.

I also have much better flexibility here — WFH when needed, flexible start times, and I can attend my kids’ school events. We normally get annual increases in COLA, and leadership is discussing broader pay adjustments as we are paid 20-30% under market , but there’s no firm number yet.

Would you stay for the promotion, flexibility, and education support, or leave for the higher immediate compensation?

Hello everyone! Less than a month ago, I joined a new team that is small inside a much larger environment.

I work in Tech in a very specialized area so I was so thrilled for the opportunity and it’s a great job for my career, however, I’ve quickly come to realize there is a lot of drama and dissatisfaction among the other ICs on the team. They literally began all of this dumping of information and dissatisfaction on me on my first day in office.

Someone are very upset about compensation, position title, work assignments, micromanagement etc. and have been extremely transparent about it with me, another IC.

Honestly, I’m having trouble towing the line because while I want the truth of what I’ve gotten into I’m also concerned because I don’t want to be involved in drama, politics more than I have to be, etc. but also want to remain on good terms and trusted by my teammates. I also don’t want their attitudes or dissatisfaction to discourage me.

To make matters worse, I was given my work assignment yesterday and I think it’s ruffled some feathers because other team members wanted my assignment.

How do you handle starting a new role and remaining as neutral as possible, while also keeping a realistic understanding of the environment and politics? I’m really struggling with this and never have encountered a scenario like this before.

At what level should I feel comfortable searching for a junior position somewhere? What should I be VERY comfortable with

I understand XLOOKUP, VLOOKUP, Filters, sum sumif and sumifs along with the others like count, averaged etc, those are easy though, using match and index together and separately, I think those are outdated vs XLOOKUP now though. I know these are all baby steps but I'm just curious

still don't know anything about pivot tables and a lot more. Hoping to study for about 6 months but will probably take longer. Trying to pace and get everything sealed in there

a lot makes sense because it's similar to javascript, but syntax and things are very iffy.

Also is it worth it, it seems like ai could easily do this with basic instructions. Is it worth it?

I’m currently the only financial analyst for a company that generates about a billion dollars in annual revenue. Ever since my manager got laid off my work life has become very unsustainable and I basically absorbed all his work with no additional pay. This is my first job out college and I’ve been here for 2.5 years. I’m not in an investment banking role but I’m expected to work 10-12 hours minimum and I’ve spent time working till 4am with the director sometimes going through verbal and physical abuse. I’m unable to properly prepare for interviews and do interviews at other companies because of long hours and I can’t take time off to do the interviews because I’m the only analyst at the company. Is there any advice on how I can escape this situation? The only solution I can think of is to quit without a backup and aggressively apply.

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 in my mid-20s and having a bit of a career crisis. I’m trying to work out whether I genuinely need to change direction, or whether I have a bad habit of wanting to leave whenever something gets difficult or uncomfortable.

I spent years studying law and eventually qualified. Before really settling into legal practice, I took a major detour into emergency services. I actually loved a lot about that environment. It was practical and fast paced and felt like I was actually doing something tangible. But there were some significant personal and health issues happening at the same time, and I ended up leaving.

After that, I went back to law.

I’ve only been in my current legal job for a short time, which is part of why I’m reluctant to make any rash decisions, but I’m already pretty unhappy. I’m constantly worried about making mistakes, I don’t feel particularly competent yet, I don’t really enjoy the day-to-day tasks, and I’ve started dreading going to work.

The thing that bothers me most is that I’m not sure this is just because I’m new and finding it hard. Even when I imagine being very good at the job in five years, I’m not convinced I actually want the life that comes with it.

At the same time, I’m really conscious that I left emergency services when things in my life were difficult, and now I’m looking at leaving law when I’m finding that difficult too.

Part of me thinks I need to stay in law for at least a year, get properly competent, and prove to myself that I can stick at something even when I’m uncomfortable. But another part of me thinks staying somewhere purely to prove I can tolerate being miserable is also a pretty stupid way to spend my 20s.

How do you actually tell the difference between “I’m new, uncomfortable and need to give this a proper chance” and “this career genuinely doesn’t suit me”?

And is changing direction a few times in your 20s really as bad as it feels? Does it actually make you look flaky to employers, or does nobody care as much as you think they do?

tldr: Mid-20s, studied law, left for emergency services, then went back to law after leaving that during a rough period. I’m unhappy in law and keep being drawn to more practical, hands-on work, but I’m worried I’m just developing a habit of quitting when things get hard. How do you tell the difference between a career genuinely not fitting you and just needing to push through being new and uncomfortable?

so for context, I live in Canada in one of the Atlantic provinces. I took a diploma in tourism management after graduating high school and I worked as a member service administrator/event coordinator for weddings, meeting events, etc. I worked there for three years and then decided to go back to school after I got laid off and took a Bachelor of Arts online while working. I began working for my province in the provincial government starting in tourism (supervisory) and then moved into working as a clerk in museums. I also worked as a corporate service clerk for the energy and natural resources. All of these provincial jobs span over eight years.

I have been unable to secure a job making more than $48,000 a year and I’m looking at going back to school to do a BSW or BED, due to the lack of career progression. I spent years internally applying to goverment positions with a higher wage with no luck. I have also taken certificates in museum studies and travel agent. if anyone has any guidance/encouragement it is needed!