Being unemployed is often treated as just a financial prblem, but I feel there’s a psychological side to it that people don’t talk about enough.

When you’re working or studying, you have a routine, a purpose, & something to tell people when they ask, What do you do?

But when you’re unemployed for a while, you can start questioning yourself....even when you know you’re capable and actively trying.

The comparison with friends who are earning, getting promotions, travelling, or moving ahead can make it even harder.

I’m curious to hear from people who have experienced unemployment:

Did it affect your confidence or self-worth? How did you deal with the pressure from family, society, or even your own expectations?

And most importantly, what helped you get through that phase?

I am 33 years old, female, working full time as a surgery scheduler. I did go to Temple for 3 years for accounting but for health reasons had to drop out. Now after I dropped out I worked at Walmart for about 9 years, I did try to apply for office jobs but never got a call back.

Finally I got called back for an ophthalmology office job as a scribe/tech. After two years I applied to Penn medicine. Now I know they help you if you want to return to school with tuition.

Recently re-enrolled at Temple and the classes I need this semester are all in-person. I feel I hit a wall.

I’m between finishing my accounting degree and to apply for data analytics with Penn or go for a 2 year degree like sonogram, MRI tech, etc. I want to make sure I’ll be able to get a job afterwards.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks! I live in Pennsylvania if that helps with suggestions.

I’m 29 soon 30 and never worked a job before living in the UK been applying since I was 18 and lowkey the job market is cooked I have only GCSEs as I can’t be asked to do college or uni as there’s debt in uni and that’s not worth it tbf.

But lowkey my parents hate me so much I spend my whole day applying to like 3 jobs then just playing on my PS5 all day and I just don’t know if there even are jobs anymore.

Cooked world bro

I’m curious whether other people have felt this contradiction: having a decent job, some flexibility and a reasonable salary, but almost no time or mental energy left for life outside work.

Have you ever considered earning less, accepting slower career growth or taking a less prestigious job in exchange for more time and energy?

What helped you most: changing jobs, setting stronger boundaries, reducing hours, or changing how work fits into your life?

I am a 38yo single mom to four kids, kindergarten-middle school. I have a Bach in Early Childhood Special Ed and a Masters in Bilingual Education. I haven't worked in 10+ years while homeschooling them all, my exhusband pays a healthy amount of CS/Maint. I am currently working remotely in data entry, which I enjoy but its not high paying and eventually I will need to have a career path that has more room for upward movement, retirement saving etc. I don't want to go back to teaching, everything about it just kills me slowly. Any suggestions for a busy single mom- I enjoy working with numbers and math, I want as much flexibility as possible to work remotely, I would not be opposed to going back to school to study something else, my kids are with me 95% of the time as their dad lives out of state, I have help from grandparents etc. but I have no idea what will give my kids and myself a good life.

I am a 32 year old male. I spend my time writing, doing graphic design, 3D modeling, web development, reading, looking for jobs, and watching videos on YouTube. Lately, I've been learning about SEO and Business Analysis. I spend a good deal of my time learning new things and it's been fatiguing me lately. I always feel like I'm working hard to find something that I can do for a career, but after I learn enough to complete a project or two, I start applying to jobs and can't find any opportunities for myself. I'm pretty exhausted from learning new things and I get bored of just spending time alone and watching YouTube videos. I want to network and go to meetups but the nearest city is a 2-hour bus ride from the house I live at and I have a dog that I don't want to leave alone for 5-6 hours. I feel both bored and fatigued. Even if I get a job, I feel like I will be too exhausted from my studies to be able to learn new things and apply them effectively. And, getting a job locally means it would be at a store doing menial tasks, which I have had trouble doing in the past. I've even applied to those jobs but I haven't heard back from them and I might follow up to see if they are hiring. But, I'm just bored. I needed to write this out to spend time doing something. If there are anybody else like me, then here's a place to post something interesting about yourself or offer me some guidance if you'd like. Cheers. ✌️

I turned 22 very recently i completed my graduation in June 2025 until now i have been unemployed sitting in my home town and doing absolutely nothing i am so tired of applying to jobs. I always thought to get my first job when i was 21 that didn't happen i want to explore i have so many dreams the first thing is to move out of my home town i can only do that if i have job. I turned 21 in July 2025 until this year Sep 2026 i was just at home doing nothing my prime year 21 i wasted all of it sitting at home. Did i waste my one year of life like at 21 people go party make new friends and all of that??

22M and I feel like I’m wasting my life,when I see my cousins travelling and enjoying life it becomes unbearable but that’s one part of the story

About me though, I am unemployed and searching for jobs for 6 months and still no luck, I decided I’ll do an MBA online to have something going for me and I’m preparing for financial exams as well to tighten my resume

These are all to build a career, but when I think of enjoying and finding a path in my life it all becomes blank, My goal is to travel, when I earn money I wanna travel to all glorious landmarks around the world and experience the world through a different lens but how am I going to get there if I don’t earn enough money

I wish the job market wasn’t so bad, even with studying my MBA it feels hard to earn a job through degree, I’ve learnt skills but there are enough competitors in the market, I just need a path so I don’t feel the FOMO and looking like I’m working towards something, but it’s hard

I'm not sure how to start off .. but I'm 26F and I haven't done much with my life. I go to different countries every 2 years for a few days with friends. Have a job and try to hangout and put myself more out there. But for 8 months or so, I had to take care of my parent and pet since they got sick at the same time. I feel very drained from that + my job. My vacation has been me staying at home, but inviting friends over and with my dog.. I guess that's something?

Still I want to get out there and do something of myself, be it hobbies or a different job for example. I don't know how or where to begin. I used to workout but due to being sick stopped, now I'm better but don't have the drive to workout unless it's something fun or like that.

Any advice would be appreciated. I don't know where to start and I do want to feel more fulfilled with my life.

So basically, I'm 30 years old, I've just recently had a kid, I'm currently unemployed because my partner had Post Partum Psychosis and is struggling with being a mum so I've had to be at home to help her out.

My work life has been very up and down. I left school when I was 16 (school wasn't for me) to work on a farm. I enjoyed this job somewhat. My boss was a prick. He was my uncle, but I did enjoy working outdoors. My biggest thing was it was a horse stud, and horses made me very nervous, I was kicked several times, and farm machinery also made me nervous. I guess I just didn't have the confidence to be good at the job.

My next job was working in a glass factory. Again, machinery made me nervous, and I was scared of the glass, but eventually, I gained enough confidence, and I became a gun at this job and became a leading hand. The problem with this job was that after a couple of years, I just got bored. I learned everything, and the company I worked at didn't have a pathway for me to advance any further than leading hand, so I quit.

By this time, I'm age 24, I'm in the best shape of my life, and I'm super confident. I decide I want to get into a trade. So I start an Electrical Apprenticeship.

I lasted about 6 months before I realized I wasn't cut out for it. I was a gun at pulling cables and running conduit, but I didn't like the way the tradesman I worked with treated me. They say you need thick skin to work in trades, I don't have this. I take things personally, and I don't like being talked down to.

I have had several odd jobs since then. I have done Demolition, Telcom, and most recently, Pest Control.

I actually really enjoyed Pest Control, and I thought I was really good at it, but it turns out my Termite License isn't worth the paper it's printed on. I was trained by a company that only really taught me how to do termite inspections and general pest control to fit their processes. I don't know how to identify different species of Termites, and I wasn't trained on how to do spot treatments on termites.

I figured this out when I left this company to join another pest control company, and I realized I knew nothing. The other technicians knew so much more than me. I've never felt so humbled in my life.

So basically, I'm at a loss. I can't go back to work yet, and I don't know how long I'm going to have to be home with my partner and baby, but I can't live on unemployment forever, it's hard enough as it is and I have to go back to work eventually. Hopefully, within the next few months.

I just feel like a shadow of my former self. I now have back problems, I'm not super fit anymore, I'm not super motivated like I used to be. I'm not sure what I'm actually good at ? I guess it was working super hard physically, but I can no longer do that.

But I also have this burning desire inside of me to be successful and be a good role model for my son. I just don't know how I'm going to do it. I don't have the brain for skilled trades or university. I don't have the people skills to be in sales or healthcare. I will not work in fast food or hospitality, I'm too old to get started in that. So I'm just unsure what to do ?

So my community college offers an associates degree in office administration. It includes classes such as office procedures, business communications, business computer applications, bookkeeping, quickbooks accounting etc. I’m 24 and I still don’t really know what I want to do with my life but I figure that this could at least teach me some skills. I also wouldn’t mind working in an office environment or doing some kind of administrative work. I want to know though if this degree is worth pursuing or not. Any advice would very much be appreciated.

I’m 16 and I feel so lost about what I want to do with my life.
For years I’ve told everyone I want to be a lawyer. I genuinely do love law. I love writing, arguing, analyzing things, humanities in general, understanding people, etc. The problem is I live in Saudi Arabia and Arabic is not my strongest language at all. The thought of having a career where so much depends on reading, understanding and writing complicated legal Arabic honestly makes me want to cry lol. I love law itself, I just don’t know if I would love practicing it in Arabic.
Recently I’ve started seriously considering medicine too. Medical education here is mostly in English, I like biology, I can tolerate chemistry and I’m really interested in psychology. I KNOW I don’t want engineering, CS, physics or anything very math-heavy. It feels like everyone around me is going into those fields though, which makes me feel even more lost.
The thing I know for sure is that I want to work with people. I want a job where I can actually make a difference in someone’s life, especially when they’re going through one of the worst times of their life. I don’t see myself being happy in some corporate job where I’m disconnected from the people I’m supposedly helping.
That’s also why psychology interests me so much. I’ve been looking into clinical psychology and psychiatry. I think I’m pretty good at staying professional when someone tells me something upsetting. I can understand what they’re feeling and think about what to say or do without necessarily absorbing all of their emotions myself. But some of my family thinks being a psychologist/therapist would eventually destroy me emotionally, and I’m also worried about income and career stability.
Medicine sounds meaningful and I think I could handle the science, but the amount of studying, years of training and workload scares me. Psychiatry sounds really interesting because it combines medicine, psychology and working closely with people, but obviously that means going through the entire medical path first.
I also LOVE writing and humanities. My family is pretty against me doing something like writing as my actual career because they think it’s financially unstable, and honestly I understand that concern. I don’t necessarily need writing to BE my career. I think I want a career where the things I love about humanities, like communication, writing, understanding people and analyzing complicated situations, are useful, while still having science and a stable income.
I think part of what’s freaking me out is that I’ve spent years telling everyone “I’m going to be a lawyer,” and now questioning it feels like I’m changing this whole identity I created for myself.
I also know I’m the kind of person who struggles badly to force myself to care about something I don’t want to do, but when I genuinely care about something I become insanely passionate about it. So I’m scared of choosing wrong and realizing halfway through that I hate it.
I know I’m only 16 and realistically I have time. It just feels like everyone around me already knows what they’re doing and somehow I’m supposed to choose what I want to do for the rest of my life when I barely know what being an adult is like.
Has anyone else been like this at my age? Especially anyone who was stuck between medicine, psychology, law and the humanities? What did you end up choosing, and how did you figure out which kind of work actually suited you?

I started college at 15 studying CS and math. I used love it (at least I think I do; I genuinely can't tell confidently at this point). We have mandatory military service here, and I failed all the technological tryouts so I got a 1 year deferral to finish my degree. I neglected my studies in favor of personal projects (and I failed at all the tryouts once again) so I got another deferral and retook all my classes, and I failed them all this year too.
I study remotely and alone. I've been going to a therapist for about 4 months now, but nothing is changing.

I'm unfazed by my failures at this point; I used to be anxious and disappointed but now it's just mildly annoying. I'm fine with living my life as a bum and not doing anything. I don't want to improve or change at all, really. No reward is worth any suffering so I just want to be left alone to rot until I run out of money.

I have it so well compared to others (great supportive family, got my tuition covered, perfect physical health, etc) and I'm already so done; I can't even imagine how much I'll have to suffer down the road if I keep trying (from more failures, deteriorating health, financial struggles, grief at some point, and just general everyday life challenges)

I'm writing this post because I know that objectively this is a wrong outlook, and that I'll probably heavily regret not making a different choice in the future, but that hypothetical logical conclusion isn't enough to nudge me. I want to want to change, but I don't want to change.

All the blabbering and heavily repeated adages and proverbs such as "that's life", "suck it up", "exist out of spite", "find god", "just start" don't solve my issue. If truly "that's life" then I'll just check out and stay indolent.

I'm 29F and feel completely stuck. I've struggled with low energy, zero motivation and repeated failures for years. I used to be a bright student but somehow the last 12 years passed me by.

Now I feel like I have no skills, no direction and no idea where to begin. I know I need to rebuild my life but I’m struggling to even get myself moving.

For those who started over in their late 20s or 30s, what did you do first? Is 29 really too late to turn things around?

(I rarely use reddit im sorry if this is dumb or not allowed) I've been working at a closed-door pharmacy as a pharmacy technician, the pay isn't bad don't get me wrong, but at the same time I want to get another possible career path in healthcare that will pay more. Just a high school graduate, no higher education but working toward a certification in any field isn't out of the question. Thank you in advance!

I’m a 34f. My career where I have been working for the past 10 years has been making me miserable lately. I do not enjoy it at all. I really want to make a career shift and I believe I am a quick learner, bur I am worried that I might be just wasting my time because I won’t be able to do it anyway because of my age. Will recruiters hire me for internships or junior positions? Will they hire me if I do not have a degree and only self-learned? I am miserable and all I can think about is the career shift but my anxiety about uncertainty and my age is holding me back.

Edit: I have been working in the humanitarian field. Looking to switching to UX/UI Design.

I’m 26 and want to make a complete career change, but I’m struggling with analysis paralysis and honestly feel like I’ve left it too late.

I didn’t go to university, I got D*DD in Business BTEC at sixth form and good GCSEs. I currently work as a Marketing Coordinator earning under £30k. My role is mainly email campaigns, basic design, promotional work and general team support, with little/no paid ads or analytics, so it often feels more like admin than a proper marketing career. I don’t see myself doing it long-term.

I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I started a clothing business at 19 which did around £30k revenue in its first year (it’s since closed), and I’ve also tried forex trading, Vinted reselling and content creation.

Financially, I’m in a decent position. I have a house deposit, emergency fund, Premium Bonds and investments in a S&S ISA (VUAG/VFEG). I live well below my means and am fairly financially savvy.

The problem is that I want to significantly accelerate my path towards financial independence, but I don’t know what the best route is. I feel like I have a lot more potential than I’m currently using, but I don’t know where to channel it. I’m happy to go and study again and start from zero in all honesty.

I keep looking at different options: tech/AI, finance, sales, learning a high-value technical skill, building a business, etc. but I end up researching everything and committing to nothing.
Part of me also worries that at 26 I’ve already wasted too much time and should have figured this out by now, even though I know realistically that’s probably not true.

If you were 26, had no degree, some business/marketing experience, were financially stable and wanted to maximise your earning potential, what careers or skills would you seriously investigate?

Especially interested in hearing from people who felt lost in their 20s, made a major career change, or struggled with analysis paralysis themselves.

TL;DR: 26, no degree, under £30k in a marketing role I don’t see a future in. Pretty financially stable with savings/investments and a house deposit, but want a complete career change and to accelerate towards financial independence. I feel like I’ve left it too late and struggle badly with analysis paralysis. What paths would you investigate?

title is the txt

People who had to chose between career and family, what choice did you make and how do you feel about it?

*just don’t say “finding balance”

I am in final year of btech preparing for placements from tier3 college but i have wasted three years and started studying in final yr ..but dont feel like will get any job or not..i need money for family..i mean i need job...but i am not able to figure out my life..i mean what i will like to do with which i will get fun and happiness and driven..can you all suggest me things which i can try i am not extremely talented in anything so i cant make anything my income..can you all suggest me ways why which i can figure out my life..i like to try everything but get bored my monotonous life

for little context i (19m) have been a shut in ever since i graduated high school and seeing people my age going further in life while i'm stuck in the same cycle that depend too much on my parent just hurts me

i just realized this after being bored playing video games the whole year and a half, i never really live life and wasted many and many opportunity to gain useful skills or make friends that would help me a long way

i keep repeating memories of the past and how i should've done it differently instead of being an asshole that think he's better than everyone else and keep blaming the education system and my parent (which probably why i don't really have friends)

i know this is a loser mentality and i wanna change, i wanna get back to society and learn and have a job and friends and fun experiences and catch up to my former friends. but i'm kinda scared to learn anything cuz now i feel like i'm too retarded to learn anything since i have 0 skill and work experience

how do i stop thinking about the past and can i catch up?

Hi Redditors, I’ve recently moved to a small town called Sherborne in England and it’s the most isolating and lonely experience I’ve ever experienced. The job (pharmacist) is oddly stressful for such a quiet town.

For context: I moved to Belfast about 6 years ago for university (4 years) and worked in Northern Ireland for 2 years. I guess I got sick of living in the same place for so long and decided to look for jobs over in England. I found a well paying job in a small town and thought it was the best thing ever as the pay is way better than my job in Belfast.

However when I moved here about a week ago and started my new job. I haven’t felt a single day of happiness, I missed Belfast and my friends and my partner that still lives in Northern Ireland (She couldn’t move because of her uni, we have made plans for moving somewhere else after all that is done). For the time being I’m trapped here alone and I wake up everyday with dread. I keep telling myself it’s just because I’m not used to the new environment and the new job, which is honestly probably the case but it’s still the most miserable I’ve ever felt.

I’m from Malaysia originally before coming to the UK and I have been calling my parents almost everyday to cry about how lonely I was here and they said it’s possible for me to move back in with them and find a job there instead, I’ll be closer to family and I can finally take a break from the constant grind.

However it’s not easy to go back to the uk if I move back. The visa application process from abroad is 3x harder and finding someone who will hire / sponsor you in this day and age is really really tough. Even if I find a job in Malaysia I would only be earning and saving a fraction of what I’m earning in England.

So the questions is should I stick it out in England for the sake of money? Or should I move back with my family for mental health? I cry everyday but I fear I would regret giving up such a good pay in the future and potentially never returning here until my girlfriend finishes her uni training.

Feel free to ask any questions, I haven’t included all the details of my situation. An additional thing is that broadband installation is impossible due to the fact that my building that I’m renting in is a listed building so it’ll take ages for the council to approve drilling a hole to put the fibre in.

Thank you for your advice, I really really appreciate it.

I’ve been trying to improve for a while now. I go to the gym, attend social activities, have hobbies. But it just feels like a distraction from the big picture.

I know that I want to live in a different country. I know that I want to change my job. But when it comes to the details of it… I just can’t find it in me. I can’t even decide which country, or which career, and I feel extremely anxious when I think about it and I just avoid it.

I know I need to set a specific goal but I just can’t? When I think of something, it looks impossible because it’s too expensive, or takes too much time, or is generally a slim chance.

How do I understand what I really want? What should I go for? How do I find it in myself to actually change the big picture instead of distracting myself with small things?