u/Exact-Square-1964

I entered a competition against 23 internal machine learning projects on a global level, and in the end I won the award for the most creative and impactful project. About a week before I was supposed to receive the bonus tied to the award, I was laid off because of a "business restructuring decision."

Now every time I open LinkedIn, I keep seeing people from my old team posting that they got new titles, and it also looks like the compensation has gotten better.

I put a huge amount of time and effort into learning, building, and trying to bring something new to this company. At the same time, the people who stuck to safe, routine work seem to be the ones being seen, recognized, and rewarded.

Honestly, I don't understand the thinking behind letting go of the people who tried to change and improve things. I'm mostly sad and suffocated, and I keep asking myself whether the office I worked in is literally using my role's money and the award payout to fund everyone else's promotions.

I just sent out 6 offers for roles we're trying to fill this week. Every one of them accepted immediately. No pushback, no counter, not even a small request for a higher base salary.

Guys. I'm not going to get into a war over a few thousand extra dollars. Hiring managers usually have a pay band, and you can give any somewhat reasonable reason that you want a better starting salary, and I can usually get you something.

The reason I don't put the highest number in the first offer from the start is that HR will start asking questions. But if you ask? Your chances are very good as long as you give me some kind of explanation: years of experience, certifications, market rate, cost of living... It doesn't have to be a courtroom-level argument. It just needs to seem logical and credible.

The easiest pay bump you'll ever get in your life is before your first day of work. Seriously, just ask for it. That's all there is to it.

I was part of a company-wide layoff at a SaaS/fintech company in June. I decided I wasn't just going to apply to jobs randomly, so I approached the job search with focus and organization. I started applying on 6/18/25 and signed my offer on 7/22/25 😄 In total, I applied to 92 roles during that period. Here's what I did:

I only applied to roles posted within the last 18 hours. No exceptions. I also skipped anything that made me create a completely new portal account or record a one-way video before speaking to a real person.

I used ChatGPT to create a tailored resume for each role using the job description.

I also had ChatGPT create role-specific interview prep sheets, and I would save them as PDFs and print them out. Things like: tell me about yourself, why this company, questions to ask the recruiter, STAR answers, and a list of my biggest "wins" so I wouldn't ramble and get lost in interviews.

If a role required more than 4 rounds, I politely withdrew. For the job I accepted, I had a 45-minute video interview with the department lead, a 50-minute interview with the hiring manager, and a 25-minute phone screen with the recruiter. I know this isn't everyone's experience, and depending on your field/level you may need to be more flexible. You have to decide what works for your circumstances.

This part will seem a little woo-woo, but it was the most important step for me because it worked.

I asked ChatGPT to write a fake offer letter for the exact job I wanted. I put in the start date, the pay range I wanted, the hiring manager's name, signed it, and dated it 7/17, which was the same day I interviewed with the hiring manager. The mock offer letter and the real one ended up looking very similar, and that still makes me laugh.

I hope this helps someone! Good luck to everyone who's looking, and feel free to AMA.

I just made a mistake that broke hundreds of clients' websites. I'm usually the person who pays very close attention to detail, and it's very rare for me to mess something up. Like, it basically doesn't happen.

This happened during a long, tedious process where I was working with data made up of dates, IDs, fields, settings, and all that fun stuff. I had about 160 things to review one by one. My manager is genuinely a good guy, but he's under pressure from his manager, and he usually doesn't double-check my work because he trusts me, so there isn't much I can fix on that front right now.

I feel boxed in at work because there are only 3 people who are connected to this in one way or another, and in practice most of it falls on me and my manager. There are a ton of random things I have to keep track of, and I've been in this role for 7 months, and honestly I'd been doing really well.

I've made a few mistakes since I started here, but nothing even close to this level.

The issue itself was fixed in under 12 minutes and didn't cost the company anything. But now everyone is losing their minds, the witch hunt for who's to blame has already started, people are tagging the head of the company in multiple channels, and all fingers are pointing at me.

Do you have any advice? What should I do in this situation?

After I had to leave my job as a legal assistant at the end of last year to take care of my mom after she fractured her spine when she slipped in the bathroom, and after 812 extremely exhausting job applications, I was finally offered a position as a legal secretary with a £5K increase over my old job. 🥳

Wishing everyone good luck, the job market is honestly really awful right now!

After six very difficult months of applications and waiting, I finally made it through 😭 I saw so many people here posting that they got offers, and I kept asking myself when my turn would come. And now I'm writing one of those posts too. Honestly, I was just one step away from giving up. I started thinking that maybe no company would ever give me a chance, but somehow things worked out in the end.

If you're still applying or sitting there waiting for that YES, take this as a reminder to keep going. The right hiring manager/company will recognize your value and what you can bring, and they'll want you on their team. Don't stop now! Edit to add: Guys! I really didn't expect this post to get all this attention. I want to thank you all for the congratulations and kind messages. I probably won't be able to reply to each person individually, but know that I'm reading them and I appreciate every comment here! Thank you so much to all of you for being so kind. Wishing everyone success in their job search 😊