u/No-Abalone-4267

I am a graphic designer for over a decade and honestly I just don’t have it in me anymore. Constantly learning new software, always updating my portfolio and struggling to gain employment all the time. I know being good at a job always involves learning more skills but this industry doesn’t seem to value us at all and expects more and more for less as the years go on. AI is just devaluing us more and I’m just finding marketing to be very soulless. BUT I’m good at it. I don’t want to switch careers to something I’m possible bad at. This is what I’ve come up with:

- Pilates and fitness instructor (would involve some training and take awhile to get my foot in the door with clients BUT not as expensive as a full blown degree). Maybe one day owning my own studio but I know that would be YEARS down the line. I can also do this on the side while I continue with my current career until I feel more settled

- hairdresser (I like talking to people, I already have a decent sense of shape and color but obviously this is totally different. I also already work in a “service” like industry being a designer. I have to listen to what people want and translate it into a visual. But this involves going back to school and there is a chance I could suck at it. Also a chance I don’t make a lot of money. Seems like my area has a million hairdressers)

- therapist (the most schooling and has a possibility of emotional burnout. Also I just paid off my undergrad loans so taking on debt isn’t exactly exciting. BUT I really really feel like I could be good at this. I don’t want to be a social working though and I’m a little concerned about dealing with folks who could have major mental health problems where they could hurt themselves or others. Also seems more stable for income than the other two options)

What do you think given the current job market and future career trajectory for this careers? I have been debating these 3 different paths for a long time and would love outside thoughts

So basically to make a long story short our 3rd friend was taking care of a sick family member and having mental health issues. This is a group of friends with a 10+ year history. We typically do a yearly trip together as we don’t live that close anymore. We all noticed our 3rd friend seeming depressed and thought getting together would cheer her up. Well basically the other 2 friends were pretty dismissive once it came time to make formal plans and gave me the impression they couldn’t care less to get together with our 3rd friend.

So I went on a trip with said friend just the 2 of us. And now our yearly trip has turned into just us 2 which has still been fun. Seems like my other 2 friends are fine with never seeing this other friend again unless it’s super convenient for them. That’s fine, not my role to force people to continue to be friends with one another. I had also witnessed other behavior over the years of them being less than stellar friends to my 3rd friend which contributed to her finally deciding to stop seeing them at all. And I very much understand and in general their treatment of her has kind of tainted how I view them now. It’s hard to see a friend go through a hard time, jump through hoops to see her friends over the years (she does a lot more traveling to see us) and them barely put any effort or thought into her feelings.

The issue is I live closer to these other 2 friends and they still want to make plans with me. Maybe it’s immature of me but I didn’t love how completely uncaring they were towards a longtime friend during her rough time. Maybe they just outgrew her but the correlation rubs me the wrong way. In general I now find them to be friends who just want fun and convenience rather than people I’d turn to during a hard time. I’m trying to just re label them in my head as “casual friends” vs the close knit group I thought we were vs just dropping them entirely. They technically didn’t do anything to me personally. But I’m feeling… fake around them now? I had even told them how I felt about everything and they apologized but that was it. They never said “oh I didn’t mean that” or something. Just “yeah I’m sorry that was me not being a good friend” and then that was… it? I also feel like I’m almost being a disloyal friend to my 3rd friend still hanging out with them despite her never saying “don’t hang out with them anymore” or anything.

Overall it just feels so juvenile and silly. But it’s hard to not feel like these once good friends aren’t as caring as I thought them to be? What would you do?

I do a lot of work practicing at home on my own. I’m nervous for my upcoming training that I haven’t been doing “enough” classes myself to become a teacher. I mostly go here and there to in person classes vs adhere to a strict schedule.

It’s only the first course of many to be certified so I can def start going more, but honestly the cost is what’s stopping me more than anything. I originally wanted to get certified on the side of my full time job but I’m now recently unemployed. So I thought it was a great opportunity to focus on instructor training, however I’m a little scared of the additional expense going to classes now. What are your thoughts?

It took forever to land a job out of college in 2015. I had to take a job that paid less than if I worked a retail job at the mall to get my foot in the door. Then I had to take a job a level down a few years after that. Then I got laid off at the height of Covid. Had a few good years I thought I was moving up 2020-2023 and now I’m back to being miserable and unemployed. Been searching for something for well over a year.

At this point I’m ready to throw in the towel. All my friends/family members in healthcare/construction have been doing fine this whole time.

When do you decide the career path you decided on is no longer worth it?

I’ve done therapy a few times over the years and I think it’s been nice to just have someone listen to me ramble about things that bother me so I don’t offload onto friends/family. But I don’t think I’m really learning anything or gaining new skills anymore. I know what I need to work on and actively try my best to do that but the sessions are starting to feel… repetitive and silly? Like I’m paying for a friend to just listen to me and go “yeah I get that” which makes me wonder how do you know when it’s time to stop therapy?

Just had an interview where I could immediately tell the vibe was that they though I was “too well spoken” and had almost too good of a portfolio of work for the level of work the company produced. They all read off a sheet of paper and when it came time for me to ask questions they could barely answer me. I have never had a more awkward 30 mins of my life. I would be shocked if they asked me for another round or offered me anything. I fully expect to be ghosted

If you’re super entry level… ok maybe I get it. But if I have 10+ years experience with well known brands and a well thought through portfolio with lots of case studies… it feels insulting TBH and is a bit of a red flag that the company is looking for some free ideas. Right? Especially when it’s obviously for a new project yet to be released. What do you guys think? I just got assigned a project so I can “showcase my creative storyboarding abilities” even though I shared an entire extra book of work related to social media videos I’ve made and I’m pretty close to just saying yeah no thanks. I’d rather spend my unpaid time on pitch decks for potential freelance clients

Not saying the intern doesn’t deserve the role, honestly probably deserves it more than me but like… what is going on lately? I’m almost ready to bow out of the role but it’s 6 figures and close to my house (very rare for my type work) so I don’t want to give up. But like it’s feeling weird. I don’t know who is getting taken advantage of more me or the intern at this point

Used to make 106k as a senior associate and this job is for an entry level role at a startup. My last gig was fully remote (obviously not holding out hope for that again) and this would be 2 days in office. I’m significantly over qualified but I mass applied for things last week in a panic (even though I have savings for 1 year and husband pays all the bills easy) and the startup seems interesting. But I’m thinking I should hold out for something better but I also don’t want to regret it either. Was initially thinking I’d just freelance/work for myself for a while. What do you think?

I use the words interrogated because it was not an interview. An interview usually means some back and forth conversation. Instead they just asked question after question (which was already answered on my resume). The interviewer went in on me asking “do you have experience with print? Events? Email design? Web design? Motion? Have you worked at a startup before? Have you worked in b2b before?” Like my god the listing says “0-3 years experience” what are they expecting? Like yes I have that experience but I have a decade working in the industry. Someone right out of college couldn’t possibly achieve everything they are looking for. This market is out of control. It has solidified for me that freelance is my only real option anymore if I want to stay in the design field.

I don’t think I’ve gotten a single interview from any application that requires a cover letter and I’m wondering if it’s because I’m using AI to write them. I have a general template I wrote myself and adjust it accordingly. Is this how others are going about it? I assume no one reads a cover letter anymore but not having one is a way to weed an application out

I was initially a consultant for years and was told they wanted to keep me fulltime because the companies policy around contractors was changing. Was told this was the only role available at the time (below my real work experience at the time) but they would promote me quickly… well 3 years later and shocker they never did.

Instead my workload increased, I learned new tools to benefit the team, and was told there was not budget for me. Then my boss hired someone above me which essentially pushed me even further down the org chart and the new boss took away some of my stretch responsibilities and actually took my past work and repackaged it as her own. Instead I got more lower level work but higher volume of it.

My breaking point was when our team went from 4 to 2 and I was expected to believe it was a “great opportunity for me” I called them out on it and was told I was at risk of being labled “unhappy” which didn’t bode well for me at the company. So I put in my 2 weeks and now they are panicking about replacing me and not being able to find someone with my skill set at the current job description. I just opened the new job description for the role and it says 3 years experience… I have 11 years (more than my new manager I might add).

Obviously I was being taken for a ride for years and let them do that to me. Now I’m having a hard time selling my true experience level because of the downgrade. I also unfortunately have started to believe the BS that I’m not ready for leadership despite doing the work and getting GLOWING recommendations from teammates and higher ups. How do I get past this and get a job I actually deserve? I plan on going back into consulting to re-level myself before I ever consider another fulltime role again.