u/Dark_shadoww_81

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I’m 25, working a sales/banking job I genuinely hate. Every single day I think about quitting, but the job market is scary af and I can’t afford to just sit unemployed for months.

The thing is… I really want to switch into tech. Maybe data analytics, SQL, Excel, Power BI, something along those lines. Not because of “passion” or some LinkedIn motivation crap, but because I want a life where I’m not mentally drained 24/7 chasing targets and getting taunted for numbers.

Problem is:

- I don’t come from a tech background

- I’m not an engineer

- Most people around me already seem ahead in life

- After work I’m so exhausted that staying consistent with learning feels impossible

And honestly the internet makes it worse sometimes. Every roadmap feels like:

“Just learn 17 tools, build 9 projects, grind LeetCode, network, optimize your resume, sacrifice sleep and maybe after 2 years someone might reply to your application.”

Like bro 😭 how are normal people doing this while working full time?

I’ve started learning Excel and SQL recently and I do enjoy it when my brain isn’t completely fried from work. But I keep overthinking whether I’m too late, too average, or just chasing another escape fantasy because I’m unhappy with my current life.

Would genuinely love to hear from people who switched into tech from non-tech backgrounds.

- What role did you start with?

- How long did it realistically take?

- What skills actually helped you land interviews?

- And most importantly… how did you stay consistent without losing your mind?

I don’t even need a “dream job” anymore. I just want work that doesn’t make me dread waking up every morning.

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Turned 25 a month ago and honestly I don’t even know if I’m living anymore or just dragging myself through days.

I work in sales at a bank and I hate this job so much that I think about quitting literally every single day. Constant pressure for numbers, targets, insurance, FD, cross selling, acting fake cheerful in front of customers while internally feeling dead. My boss clearly wants me gone so he can promote his favorite employee into my position. Daily taunts, daily passive aggressive comments, daily pressure. It’s exhausting.

The funniest part? My family doesn’t even know how miserable this job makes me. They don’t even know the reality that I work in sales because “bank job” sounds respectable from outside. My father would support me if I quit, I know he would, but I just don’t want to become another burden on him after everything he’s already done for me.

Financially I can survive maybe 6–8 months without help if I leave. But then comes the fear.

What if I fail?

What if unemployment destroys my confidence even more?

What if I leave and still don’t manage to switch careers?

Every day I compare myself to friends in IT or metro cities building skills, traveling, dating, actually living life while I’m stuck in this semi urban posting that I never wanted in the first place. I grew up around small towns my entire life and always dreamed of experiencing metro city life once. Fast life, independence, cafés at midnight, meeting new people, feeling like life is actually moving somewhere.

Instead I feel frozen.

I want to switch careers. Maybe account management, operations, analytics, maybe even move abroad someday. That dream of leaving India for a while still lives in my head constantly. I want to experience another country, travel, grow, become someone else for a bit. But every single day I feel “late” for that dream. Like everyone else already started their life and I’m still standing at the tutorial screen.

And then there’s personal life.

No relationship. No emotional connection with anyone. Not even craving love desperately, but sometimes it hits me that I’m missing an entire part of life everyone else seems to experience naturally.

Meanwhile family has started the marriage conversations too 💀

Brother I can barely survive Monday mornings right now.

Honestly this post is messy because my brain is messy. I even gathered my thoughts with AI because I was too mentally exhausted to structure this properly myself.

I don’t know if I need advice or if I just wanted someone to hear me for once.

Did anyone else completely lose themselves at 25 and somehow recover later?

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I turned 25 recently and instead of celebrating, it feels like I’ve been curating a full-blown museum of things that didn’t work out.

Every room has a theme.

One room is filled with career choices I thought were “safe” but somehow still blew up. Another has all the goals I hyped myself up for at 2am and quietly abandoned a week later. There’s a section dedicated to “almost had it” moments — where I was this close but still managed to fumble.

I’ve even got a special exhibit for my job. On paper, it’s fine. Stable. Respectable. But in reality, it feels miserable. I’m really not happy with it. I keep telling myself I’ll switch, I want to switch… but I’m lacking consistency to actually learn and make that move. So I just stay stuck in this loop.

Then there’s the family section. Not terrible, not perfect either. Just a constant background pressure — expectations, comparisons, the silent “you should be doing better by now.” It gets in your head more than you want to admit.

And the biggest, most annoying wing of all — my posting.

I grew up in a rural area my whole life, always telling myself “one day I’ll make it to a metro city, I’ll have that life.” That was the plan. That was the motivation.

And somehow… I ended up right back in a rural posting again.

It’s not even that rural life is bad. It’s just that it feels like I never moved forward. Like I ran a whole race just to end up at the same starting point.

I’ve got a whole section for consistency issues too. I’ll be locked in for a few days — gym, learning, discipline — and then suddenly my brain just logs out like “yeah we’re done here.” No warning, no reason.

And if I’m being honest… it feels like I’m just planning to live rather than actually living. Like life is always “starting soon,” but never really starts.

And relationships? Yeah… that exhibit is still under construction, but not in a good way.

What’s weird is from the outside, nothing looks that bad. I have a job. I function. I’m not completely lost. But internally it feels like I’m always behind, like everyone else got the manual for life and I missed it.

I keep thinking I should have figured things out by now. At least something solid. But instead it feels like I’m constantly restarting.

The only thing I’ve been consistent at is overthinking and second-guessing myself.

I don’t even know if this is a rant, a confession, or just me trying to make sense of things. Maybe I’m not alone in this. Maybe a lot of us are just quietly figuring it out while pretending we’re not.

If you’ve been through this phase and came out the other side… how?

Because right now, my “museum” is getting a little too crowded.