u/Comfortable_Fee5936

Hey guys, I hope this is the right community. :)
I’m f21 and I feel constantly stressed. I just want to be happy without always worrying about money or feeling anxious.

I’m originally from Germany and left in August 2023 (right after graduating) to go to the US as an au pair, but had to leave after 3 months due to issues with the family. That really affected me because it had always been my dream. After that I went to Hungary for a month to figure things out, then moved to Portugal in December for a content reviewer job at google while I started studying International Marketing remotely.

In Portugal, I was happy for the first time, (grew up in difficult family circumstances) but shortly after turning 19 I had my first panic attack and developed hypochondria and death anxiety. At the same time, I was working full-time, studying full-time, and doing a 20h unpaid internship, yet still felt behind. Financially it was also stressful, with very little money left each month. (200€ for groceries and life, had 900€ before rent etc.)

In 2025, my Portuguese girlfriend and I had to leave Portugal because we couldn’t afford it anymore, and we moved to Berlin. Even though we had a nice apartment and jobs, we both became very depressed. After 6 months, we moved to Belgium for her studies. I got a sales job but was let go after 3 months (they replaced roles with AI), which hit me hard. Now I work as a bartender while finishing my bachelor thesis.

My anxiety is more under control now, but I still feel like I’m behind in life and can’t fully enjoy anything. I really want to go back to Portugal one day, and currently I’m saving about 1k/month with the goal of eventually buying something there.

The problem is: even though I know I’ve done a lot, I constantly feel like I’m not doing enough. I’m worried that working as a bartender now will hurt my “career,” especially since I’ll graduate soon, but I enjoy it right now. I feel like life is rushing by and I can’t slow down or enjoy it. Like I am not saving enough so I won’t be able to go back because we won’t be able to save enough for an apartment loan or No one will want me anymore for a marketing job or I will get diagnosed with a bad sickness even though every doctor told me I am more than fine.

(And I know there is basically no career yet)

Sorry for the long text and thanks in advance! :D

Hi guys,
I lost my full time job last week and I was wondering if I am eligible for unemployment benefits and how it works?

I came to Belgium in Dezember 2025 because my partner studies here and because I had this job offer. We came from Portugal where I have been working since December 2023. I saw that it also counts as worked days within the past 2 years. I worked from January until now here in Antwerp.

I am 21 and actually also a student. I am originally from Germany, where I still study fully remotely. (Until Dec 2026) Could this be the reason why I might not be eligible for unemployment benefits?

I am in Antwerp, I am taking dutch classes but it is only A2 right now. I really wanna work and I am sending applications daily to everyone (retail, cleaning, cafes, bars, marketing)

Where can I apply? I am registered at VDAB but couldn’t find any info regarding that.

Thanks guys!

Hey guys, (already sorry for the length of the text)

Last Friday I got fired from my first SDR role. I started on Feb 10, had training until March 10 (1 week email basics, 2 days cold calling, rest product training).

From March 10–31 my target was 6 meetings. I worked at a B2B SaaS startup and was onboarded with another SDR who had 3 years experience. He got 3 meetings in March, I got 0. For April, my target was lowered to 4, his increased to 8.

We did account-based targeting, researching stakeholders and creating weekly presentations. I had 100 stakeholders and wanted to increase that, but was told to focus on quality. I ended up calling ~30 people/day, emailing and sending DMs. About 2 picked up per day, leading to ~3 conversations per week.

This month my colleague got 2 meetings, I still had 0, but some good conversations. We had weekly feedback on emails and calls.

They told me they didn’t let me go because of my skills, but because they realized they need someone with a deep tech background and expected too much from me. I’m still disappointed because I was improving.

I also wish there had been more hands-on coaching (e.g. live calls), especially since my manager said it’s “easy,” but even my experienced colleague struggled.

What makes it worse is that I moved to this city for the job, and on the day I moved in, they first asked about my new apartment and then told me the bad news.

I’m overall disappointed because I was really invested, working unpaid overtime, thinking about the job even on weekends, and constantly pushing myself. I was giving 110%, consistently improving based on feedback.

Just last week, my manager said that the whole team still needed to work on clarifying use cases, which weren’t even fully defined internally. When I started there, I developed bad acne that has almost cleared since being let go.

Despite that, I genuinely liked the challenge and believed in the product, which makes the outcome even more disappointing.

Hey guys,

My gf and I recently moved to Antwerpen and we are still confused. While we always put the trash in front of our door in Brussels, it seems very different here. We don’t have the A Card yet, which is why we bought the expensive labelled bags because my gf read that we need these since we don’t have an A Card yet.

Where do we bring them now? (We live in Linkeroever)