u/Ok-Eye-9726

25(f)(hybrid) I need a reality check because I've been overthinking this. Earlier today, one of my clients scheduled a last-minute call. It wasn't on my calendar, so I rushed to join. I usually close all my personal tabs before meetings, but because it was so last minute, I forgot to close my personal Gmail kasi 5 pm na rin.

I thought I was sharing only my Excel file, but I accidentally shared my entire screen for a few seconds. My client ended up seeing my Gmail inbox with emails like "Company has viewed your application" "Your application was sent" and other job application notifications.

She laughed a little, and I also realized she probably saw that I had ChatGPT open in another tab. I was not worried about it nung time na 'yun kasi focused ako explaining to her paano ko inayos yung data nila. But now I'm worried because I've heard she's acquainted with our Operations Head, and they occasionally communicate about work and my client is our head's senior in UP back then.

For context, I'm being regularized tomorrow. I'm currently one of the top performers on the team (4.8/5). I handle two major client projects worth millions. I also wear multiple hats: project management, data analysis, dashboard creation, reporting, and presentations. My managers have never had performance issues with me. The only feedback I've ever gotten is that I volunteer for too many projects and rarely say no to additional work.

The reason I was applying is honestly because I feel underpaid for the scope of my responsibilities (24k) I'm just trying to look for other opportunities that will compensate me better because I'm a breadwinner. The timing was just incredibly unfortunate, and I completely forgot my personal email was still open because the meeting was scheduled so suddenly.

Realistically, how bad is this? Is this just an embarrassing moment, or is it something that could actually become an issue if the client mentions it to management?

I graduated in 2025 and I'm currently on my second job. My first job ended after 6 months due to company redundancy. It was a tough experience, especially as a fresh graduate, and I never got the chance to be regularized.

Now I'm about 5 months into my current role and have already been recommended for regularization. The problem is that I'm seriously considering resigning because the compensation just isn't sustainable.

I currently earn 24k/month and I'm the breadwinner in my family. Recently, I completed a series of interviews for another opportunity that could potentially pay 45k/month. The interviews lasted almost an hour with middle management, and now I'm just waiting to find out if I'll be invited to the final stage. But ofc, no final decision yet.

What makes this difficult is that I genuinely like the people I work with. For context, my role involves project management, client communications, data cleaning, dashboard development, presentations to executive and management committees, and pretty much whatever else needs to be done to keep projects moving. We also regularly render unpaid overtime and sometimes work on holidays just to hit deliverables.

To be honest, I was never formally trained on most of the tools we use. A lot of my first few months involved staying late, teaching myself, troubleshooting things on my own, and figuring things out as I went because I didn't want to let the team down.

A few days ago, I received my 5th-month performance evaluation and got a 4.8/5 rating. But what got me emotional wasn't the score but what my manager wrote.

"******* is the kind of employee every manager hopes to have. She's reliable, proactive, and takes the time to truly understand the projects she's handling, even when deadlines are tight and the pressure is high. She doesn't just complete tasks. She takes initiative, looks for ways to improve things, and applies feedback well enough to continue growing on her own. One of her biggest strengths is that she understands both her capabilities and her limits, which makes her easy to trust. She communicates clearly, keeps me updated, and rarely needs constant follow-ups.

She's stepped into projects that were already struggling, helped get them back on track, and built strong relationships with clients that were handed over to her. When I think about what a great project manager looks like, she's the person who comes to mind.

The one thing I'd like to see her improve on is being more flexible when things don't go according to plan. Her discipline and commitment to timelines are some of her greatest strengths, but she can be hard on herself when unexpected delays or changes happen. I'd like to see her give herself a little more grace when dealing with things that are outside of her control."

Reading that made me cry on a random Wednesday afternoon. I struggled a lot with imposter syndrome during my first job because it was a highly technical role and I didn't graduate from an IT or Computer Science program. I constantly felt like I wasn't doing enough or that I was somehow behind everyone else.

Even now, I still feel like I'm figuring things out as I go. My mindset has always been, "If this is what needs to be done, then I'll find a way to do it." I don't like submitting half-baked work, so I always try to give my best, even on days when I'm already exhausted. There have been plenty of times when I've caught myself thinking about how little I earn compared to the responsibilities I carry, but I still push through because I want to deliver good work.

That's why finding out that my manager actually sees and appreciates the effort I've been putting in meant so much to me. Honestly, I didn't even realize how much I was doing until I read her review.

Part of me feels guilty. It almost feels like I'm walking away right when things are starting to go well. But another part of me knows that loyalty doesn't pay rent, cover bills, or help me build a future.

How do you leave a company and manager you genuinely love working with when the only real reason is that you simply can't afford to stay? Also, the company cannot afford to give me a raise because it is a small organization.

F(25), 2025 grad. Got laid off from my first job after 6 months (35k salary) due to restructuring. Found a new job after a month and I’ve been here for 5 months.

Small company (~17 people). Good bosses, good coworkers, hybrid setup. Salary is ~24k. I was hired as “project manager for training + data analytics” but reality is I’m basically the entire team. Tapos I do everything: data gathering, cleaning, encoding, dashboards, reports, stakeholder presentations, admin work. So basically end-to-end delivery.

First month in, I had zero proper training. Just YouTube, Google, and AI to survive deadlines. Tapos regular unpaid OT (3–5 hours some days), multiple long-term projects stacked on top of each other and work on weekends/holidays when clients suddenly change requirements or timelines

May time na I worked on a holiday for a client presentation. After the holiday? Cancelled. New data. Everything I built became useless. Redid everything from scratch.

Capacity tracking exists in our team, and I can literally see I get assigned more complex + heavier workloads than others. But I like my team. I actually really like them. No toxicity, no bad bosses pero I’m starting to feel like the reward for doing well is just… more work. With the same pay.

And financially? I’m the eldest daughter. After bills and family expenses, I basically have no savings. One emergency away from being wiped out.

Now I’m getting interviews (some with international teams too — I worked with a Europe team in my first job). Pero iniisip ko kasi if 11 months of experience (6 months first job + 5 months current) is too early to jump again?

And how bad does it look to recruiters if I start looking this early?

Also… how do you even explain leaving without sounding like you’re just chasing money, when in reality the workload vs pay just isn’t sustainable anymore?

I’m only on my 4th month at my job. I work in research and data analytics, and recently I inherited a project from someone who got fired for incompetence. The problem is I had almost zero context about the project and had to rely on whatever outputs were already there because of tight deadlines.

Then the client conducted an audit and found a huge irreversible mistake from the previous employee’s work. Now I’m the one representing the project he left behind, answering questions and dealing with the pressure even though I didn’t make the mistake myself.

At the same time, I’ve been quietly bothered by not being regularized yet. I know the standard is usually 6 months, but during onboarding we were told high performers sometimes get regularized within 3 months. I honestly thought I was doing well because I’ve already handled 3 research projects, presentations, and trainings for major private companies mostly on my own. During my 3rd month review, they only mentioned positive feedbacks about my performance so I don't understand why I wasn't regularized on my 3rd month. I really wanted to use sick leaves and the HMOs because that is the only redeemable benefit from my lowballed salary. Meanwhile I heard some past employees got regularized early while only shadowing.

I think everything just hit me all at once today. I feel exhausted physically and mentally. Turning 25 suddenly feels less exciting and more like “is this what adulthood is supposed to feel like?”

Has anyone else experienced this kind of burnout or pressure early in their career? How did you deal with feeling responsible for problems you didn’t create?