r/Career_Advice

I'm probably just venting.

I take my lunch break every day at 12:30pm. That's been the routine since I started this job about 14 months ago. Someone called the office around 12:45pm. We don't have direct lines, so the phone rings for everyone and someone is supposed to answer within three rings. My coworker answered, and it turned out to be a potential client I had spoken with fairly recently. At the same time, I was in the break room getting my lunch ready and cutting up an apple.

As soon as I got back to my desk with my food in my hand, my coworker told me who was on the line and asked if I could take the call. I politely told him I was on my lunch break and would call them back when I was done. He pushed again, so I repeated myself. Then he responded in this annoyed tone: "...uh, alright?" as if I was the one making excuses.

Then, while he was still on the phone, he told the potential client that I "didn't remember them" and told them to email me "to remind me," and that I'd answer when I got back. That is not what I said at all.

And that's the part that really bothered me. I respect my coworkers' time. If someone calls asking for a colleague and I know they're eating, or on break, or have their office door closed, I offer to take a message or tell the caller to try again later. I don't make it sound like my coworker has forgotten who they are.

Honestly, I'm thinking about talking to HR about it, but he's one of the long-time employees who everyone seems to like, so I'm not sure it's worth the headache. Either way, for the past few weeks I've been very close to leaving even without another job fully lined up. I recently had a recruiter screen and got moved on to the next stage, which is a 50-minute in-person interview, so I'm hoping it goes well and leads to something so I can get out of here.

My real dream was to study psychology, I was very interested in the research field, but not in the actual field of therapy, so I loved the idea of studying it but not of working with it, also my math level wasn't high enough and I didn't wanted to take math at a higher level.

I have a bachelor in nursing. The pay and the terms did that I couldn't imagine staying in the field for too long. I worked as a nurse for 2 ½ years before going back to university, I still work as a nurse now 8-24 hours per week.

So I looked at different master's I could take with my bachelor's degree in Nursing.

I applied for a master's degree in IT and in global health. Global health sounded more interesting to me, but I only got accepted into the programme for the master's degree in IT. I started, I am now halfway and have a year left. I thought I could shape my own profile and I still think that it opens up a lot of doors, more than global health probably.

But I am going back in a week after a long summer's holiday, I am reading the litterature for the first week.

While I have been getting good grades, a lot of the time (especially when reading about innovation, digital transformation, etc.) I don't know what I am reading or why it makes a difference. It sometimes feels like 10 pages is used to describe something that could have been said in one or two sentences. I get a sense of the Emperor's New Clothes. It is not that I don't understand it, but it is so extremely boring.

I start to fear if a master's degree in IT will bring along opportunities, especially since my background is in health care and isn't technical?

She said she was respectful in how she spoke, which is very much like her, but I admit that at first I was a little shocked that she said it that clearly to the owner. This was a place she had been excited to work at, and had been going to since she was little. The owner who was interviewing her admitted that the amount wasn't enough to live on, and apologized that they couldn't offer more. After I sat and thought about it for a bit, I realized that what shocked me wasn't just that my daughter is usually quiet and avoids confrontation. What shocked me was that she did the exact opposite of what I was raised and taught to do.

I'm 43, and when I was around her age, I would have accepted any garbage wage put in front of me just to get started and work somewhere I loved. I probably would have acted like I was grateful while they were paying me less than I deserved. And I definitely wouldn't have had the courage to look an older person in the eye, especially the person who was going to hire me, and say no. I told her I was proud of her for knowing her worth and refusing to pretend that wage was acceptable.

Most people assume that you're the one teaching your kids, but honestly, they teach you too. That part affected me more than I expected. I kept thinking about how many times I accepted less than I deserved because I thought that was normal, or because I didn't want to seem like I was being difficult.

This sub helped me see that we all need to do this. In interviews, at our current jobs, everywhere. I started a new job recently and now I'm kicking myself for not asking for more from the beginning. The next time I get the opportunity, I'm going to do it. We can't keep accepting less than a living wage as if that's normal. Not just for ourselves, but for everyone who comes after us too. Employers can pay more, and they will if enough people stop believing the excuses. They're not going to do it out of kindness.

I'm grateful for this perspective, I just wanted to share because my daughter reminded me what it means to have a backbone. Solidarity forever.

How can I sustain myself while living like an absolute hermit? I cannot handle 9-5 stress and meeting people. Suggest me some out if the way options.

My interests are reading and writing. I am thinking of starting my own publication house. But I do not know where to begin

I am 17 right now and work at a restaurant making 17 an hour. When I turn 18 what jobs can I get? I was thinking getting my insurance license so while I do that I also increase my sales skills. Any tips ?

I received a job offer today (Tuesday) that I am going to accept. My boss is away on PTO Wednesday- Friday this week, so I planned to put in my notice the Monday she returns. That timeframe aligns well with an already scheduled vacation I have, so I don’t want to put off telling her since I can’t push my two weeks any later. I also didn’t want to tell her before she leaves because A. That seems rude and B. I wasn’t planning to sign the offer tonight, as there is a lot to read over.

However, I just got reminded that there is a big company meeting on Monday and she’s going to be engaged with that throughout the day.

I care about my boss and want to be thoughtful about this conversation. I know she doesn’t see it coming, and we are heading into our busy season, so the timing to leave isn’t ideal. I want to be empathetic and tell her at a time she can receive it, versus spring it on her at a bad time, but I truly don’t know what the right time is.

And I know all the things people will say. I’m replaceable. The company can deal with it. And that’s true. But my manager is a human being who has treated me well, and therefore it is important to me that I treat her well in this conversation. I just need help figuring out what that looks like. Any advice?

This actually happened to me a while ago, but I've been thinking about it a lot recently and finally decided to write it down.

I had been working at this place for about 14 months. At one point, our assistant manager suddenly disappeared and stopped showing up, so I ended up taking on a huge part of his workload.

My manager started training me for the position, and I was regularly working 32 to 38 hours a week. I honestly thought the promotion was basically a matter of time.

Then someone complained that the position hadn't been officially posted, so they had to go through the whole interview process.

They rejected me.

Instead, they hired a woman from another county who hadn't even finished transferring over yet.

And then they asked me to train her.

I refused.

I told them that if she was qualified enough to get the position over me because she supposedly understood supply logistics better than I did, then she could figure out how to do the job herself.

A few days later, I found out they'd started her at $24 an hour.

I was making $16.

I tried to let it go and just focus on my work, but after that my hours started disappearing. I went from regularly working 32–38 hours a week to getting scheduled for around 12.

They started giving my old shifts to another coworker who wasn't even in management.

I can't prove it, but I always felt like I was being punished for refusing to train the person they had chosen over me.

The thing that finally broke me happened during a particularly busy period.

We were completely buried in orders. I was still doing a lot of the work I'd been doing when I was getting almost full-time hours, including catching supply mistakes and making sure orders were actually going out correctly.

At the same time, I had already been asked to give up some personal time because they were short-staffed.

Then I found out that my manager had managed to arrange an extended break for herself while everyone else was expected to cover the gaps.

Something just snapped in me.

I remember standing there looking at everything going on around me and realizing that I was still putting in all this effort for $16 an hour after they'd already made it very clear that they didn't value me enough to promote me.

So I took off my lanyard and hat, put them on the counter, and said, "I'm done."

Then I walked out in the middle of my shift.

I didn't have some dramatic plan. I wasn't trying to make a statement. I was just completely finished.

And honestly, the feeling I had when I walked out was incredible.

I was terrified afterward, obviously. I wondered if I'd just screwed myself over and made an impulsive decision.

But looking back now, I'm glad I did it.

The department didn't collapse without me. The company didn't suddenly realize they couldn't function without me. They just had to figure things out without the person who had been quietly fixing everything for them.

That experience taught me something I wish I'd understood much earlier: being useful to a company doesn't necessarily mean they'll reward you for it.

Sometimes they'll happily let you keep doing more for the same amount of money for as long as you're willing to accept it.

Walking out was probably the first time I stopped worrying about what they needed from me and started thinking about what I needed for myself.

And honestly, I still think about that feeling every time I'm tempted to put up with something I shouldn't.

24M making $130k in corrections — should I switch careers to become a pilot?

I’m 24M and currently work in corrections in Canada. I make around $130k CAD/year, mainly because I work a lot of OT — around 60 hours/week. With my raise next year, I should be around $145k if I keep working similar hours.

Financially, I’m in a pretty good position. If I stay in corrections, I can realistically start living the life I want: get my own apartment, buy a nice car like an Audi RS3, travel, save/invest, etc. I’m also still living with my parents, so I have a good opportunity to save aggressively right now.

The problem is I’m not sure I want to do corrections for the next 20–30 years.

I’ve wanted to become a pilot for a while and have seriously considered making it a career. At 24, I’m wondering if this is the time to take the risk while I’m still young, single, and have relatively few responsibilities.

The downside is obviously the money.

I estimate it would cost around $100k CAD for flight training. I’d also have to cut back significantly on OT, meaning I’d probably be making around $80k/year while working and training instead of $130–145k.

So I’d basically be choosing between:

Stay in corrections:

$130k now → ~$145k next year

~60 hour weeks

Own apartment / nice car

Travel and enjoy my 20s

Save and invest heavily

Financial stability

Pursue aviation:

Spend ~$100k on training

Give up a lot of OT and income

Potentially struggle financially for a few years

Start over in a new career

Hopefully eventually become an airline pilot

What makes this difficult is that I could stay where I am and have a very comfortable life. I could get the RS3, move into my own place, travel, invest, etc. But I’m worried that 10–15 years from now I’ll wonder what would have happened if I had actually pursued aviation.

At the same time, I don’t want to romanticize being a pilot. I know there are downsides — seniority, commuting, time away from home, training costs, starting at the bottom, and no guarantee everything works out.

If you were 24, making $130k CAD in corrections, expecting ~$145k next year, and still living at home, would you make the switch?

Would you sacrifice the financial security and lifestyle for the chance to become an airline pilot?

I am 18 years old, live in Phoenix, Arizona, and am currently an electrical apprentice for the IBEW. I know already that this construction lifestyle is just not for me. I understand that this is an amazing opportunity and the pay and benefits are great, but I just feel like I cannot live with working such long and hard hours, and being exhausted from work all the time, and not wanting to do anything when I come home. I have been thinking about going to community college and taking some classes, but I am not sure what to do at all, my dad is a real estate agent and have also been thinking about something like that. I just want a career where I am able to relax and still live comfortably. I am totally open to a regular 9-5 at a desk job too. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.

I just finished law school and 25 years old. I know I'm not destined to be a lawyer, although it has taught me a heck of a lot of skills for life and the job market. I'm looking for a startup or role where I can put my skills, personality, and drive to the test. I am a people person and can bring potential investors and invest my own money. I'm not scared; I just want to put my all into something I truly believe will do good in the world. Any leads? I can relocate anywhere.

For context:
I’m a woman in her early 30s and have managed teams in the past, where I was known as the nice, bubbly and helpful manager. I have never really had relationship issues in office settings, and this is my first remote role.

I work a fully remote role that I took (taking a few career steps downward) so I could move back to my hometown. I burned out a year ago at a high-stress job after 8 years in the industry, so I have been slowly learning to do great work during the day and completely disconnect at night.
For the first 8 months at this job everything was good. I received constant praise from my leads for my communication and executive presence. Exactly two days before the incident below, my manager told me they were working on promoting me at the end of the year during our 1 on 1 and kept giving me more and more projects.

The one interaction I’d had with this Director was after I gave an annual business review presentation 5 months ago, and he said I was “really great” and told my manager in front of me (we were in person just that once) how impressive I was.

The Incident
A month ago, our Director saw an email about a warehouse fulfillment issue. He panicked, didn't ask for context, and threw an emergency meeting on our calendars for the next morning.
I came prepared with data, a summary of process improvements I’d already made, and a paper trail of emails showing I had escalated these exact warehouse issues months ago (and was ignored by leadership).
During the call, the Director (who is just a straight up jerk of a guy, tho I hadn’t worked with him before so wasn’t aware) said, "I shouldn't have to do your job for you, I have people for this but you haven't intervened." I calmly started to explain the steps we had already taken. He cut me off repeatedly. When I answered his questions, he told me I was being "sassy." I assure you, I was not, though I was blushing and probably visibly frustrated, I was never rude or unprofessional. There was no shouting, swearing or harsh language, accusations, anything.

He then stopped the entire call in front of my peers and corporate leads to tell me I was being "overly emotional" and asking why I was "taking this so personally." I didn't swear, yell, or accuse anyone. I was just stressed and put on the defensive after 4 months of being ignored by leadership who seems to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off every day.

The Fallout
Immediately after, I was removed from major projects. I panicked and sent a Slack apology to each lead for "losing my cool" just to keep the peace.
Four days later, the Director put a 10-minute 1:1 on my calendar. He told me my behavior was "shocking," that I made everyone uncomfortable, and said: "You can't act like an asshole and expect to keep working in this small industry." When I politely tried to say I was just trying to defend our process, he snapped, "That's the problem, you were aggressive," and told me he had to go and ended the call.

I just got my mid-year review back. My managers wrote one tiny paragraph acknowledging I met my goals, followed by a five-paragraph essay berating me for that single meeting. They claimed I showed up "frustrated, unprepared, and derailed the conversation into complaining." I said maybe four sentences total on that call.
I had hoped they were moving on post me saying sorry multiple times but then this second “incident” showed up in the review as well. About 2 weeks after that meeting, I replied to a lengthy email chain of an external sales rep (who my managers were ignoring) repeatedly asking me to check if we’d be interested in a new package. I asked my managers via slack when we got the first email if they’d like me to reply, they never responded. I brought it up in my 1 on 1 and was told “eh probably not but we can ask leadership” and then asked about it on slack again and was ignored. I told this guy "leadership has not been responsive so I don’t think we’re interested at the moment, but can reassess after go live” and now its being used as ammo against me (they added it to the perf review saying I’m passive aggressive towards leadership?) despite the context being appropriate and I clarified it on a call afterward. I’ve been so deferential and bubbly and polite to everyone since then but it’s still lingering clearly (the review was published today).

My family thinks I pushed back on a corporate narcissist and he is actively trying to humiliate and push me out. The rest of the company culture is good, but I did notice everyone just seems constantly stressed and irked with the director but putting on a brave face. I never noticed how everyone just seems to say yes to this guy- to be fair I am remote and have been in large team calls with him where he’s all jokey and nice.

The job market is absolutely horrific right now and the thought of job hunting gives me intense career anxiety.

Do I try to lay low, survive this guy, and rebuild my reputation?

Or is this a toxic situation that I need to run screaming from immediately?

Advice is appreciated!

I have a degree in economics and am currently looking for my first full-time job as a recent graduate, and I’m considering applying also for consulting positions. I quite like consulting as well, but I could also see myself wanting to move into finance at some point later in my career. The reason I’m hesitant is that I’m worried that starting out in consulting could essentially close the door to a future career in finance, since I wouldn’t have any directly relevant experience. So my question would be: how much does it actually matter which field you start your career in? Am I simply overestimating the importance of the first job, and is it still relatively easy to switch fields later on?

Hey, I’m a computer science undergraduate. I graduated this year and landed a job at a startup that pays well!

A software engineering role. Now I always wanted to do research but researcher in industry. And not just do a software engineer job. My passion has definitely always been research.

But, my entire life, I haven’t ever had financial security. After I landed this job, that was a huge burden lifted off me.

Then….

I got a fully funded PhD offer. With a supervisor I know well, with a community of professors too who are great and have always looked after me.

The supervisor is so excited to have me.

But the timing is so wrong.

I’m having second thoughts and struggling to pick between the two.

What do you guys know about finance, research in industry, usefulness of a phd to do big things and the phd experience itself compared to progressing as a software engineer.

My fear is doing a PhD and ending up in a job that never needed a phd and I don’t get to do research neither do I get good money.

If I had to sacrifice 4 years of pay, then later eventually get a great Research Scientist job in Industry that pays well and eventually pays high. I would be okay with that. But every phd graduate I have heard about end up in a job that never needed a phd.

Note that research is my passion and I hate SWE 😭

Help <3

I'm really interested in this, particularly from students pursuing B.Com, BBA, or M.Com.

Hey everyone, so as the title say i have a BS in CS and im kinda struggling to find a job and wanted to pivot in to something stable and internationally portable. I have narrowed down my options to doing a MS in EE focusing on circuit design or going into nursing and maybe go to NP or CRNA school in the future. During my Cs degree i took digital logic class and i was not that interested in it at that time but i did not do bad in the class and idk if thats a sign that i might struggle to stay engaged in a hardware focused career. And with Nursing im kinda anxious about dealing with rude people and dealing with bodily fluids and also having to be on my feet for 12 hours sucks(im currently working in a factory where i have to be on my feet for 12 hours and its exhausting, idk if it is going to be the same with nursing tho).
Has anyone here actually made a switch like this, how did it go for you? And if you were in my position, how would you decide between the two instead of just going back and forth in my head…

I graduated in May and I have not decided what type of job I want to do. I'm graduating with a bachelor's degree in Liberal Studies, main focuses in criminal justice, business, and sociology. Right now I am working at a call center, but I don't want to do this forever. I want a career. I don't really know what jobs I can do with it. I don't really care if it's a bad degree. It just interested me to study it. Thank you in advance for the advice.

I work at a small company of about 9 people. I got in there through an internship right after I graduated, then it turned into a full-time job, and over the 6 years I've been there, I somehow found myself with the title of VP (it's a small company, so probably everyone gets a title that sounds bigger than it really is).

We're pretty much always trying to scrape by, and I'm being paid less than what I should be getting for the amount of work I carry, because the company is always short on cash. Our income model is that we receive large but irregular payments instead of steady monthly revenue, so right now only me and three others are on salary. Everyone else is commission-only.

My manager has told me several times that as soon as things improve financially, he'll raise my salary, make me a minority partner, and things like that. Honestly, I believe he means it. He's a good person and has treated me well in many ways. But I don't think he's very good at managing the business side.

Now there's a much larger company with better funding, and I already deal with them a few times a month. I have a good relationship with someone fairly senior there, and they're looking for someone for a role that's almost perfectly suited to my experience. The benefits are much better, the work can be done remotely, and even the lowest number in the advertised pay range is about 60% higher than what I'm making now.

So practically speaking, I feel like this is the obvious and logical move.

The part that's confusing me is that at my current company, I handle most of the day-to-day operations. There are several important processes and client-related things that I'm the only one trained on and managing. If I leave, I genuinely think there's a real possibility that everything could fall apart, and the rest of the team could find themselves without jobs.

My brain is telling me to apply and think about myself. My gut is making me feel like I'd be abandoning people who depend on me. I need to hear an outside perspective.

I’m studying a business AA right now then transferring to a 4 year university to complete the rest of the two years left I don’t know what to specifically major in as well I want a job that gives me the opportunity to travel I want to reach to a career that pays extremely well like a ceo ik it seems insane but I can picture it, it will happen, I’m asking for advice on how I can get there what should I be doing now as an 18 year old, I have a credit card as well that I use frequently and a part time job

Bonjour à tous ,

J’ai besoin de certains conseils ( merci pour votre gentillesse) je suis actuellement certains que l’on appel un ingénieur d’affaires en ESN , j’accompagne des clients sur le recrutement de consultants infirmatiques . J’ai fais comme parcours de la biologie puis à partir de la 3ieme année post pas une école de commerce spécialisée dans l’IT.
Mais je me voile la face …. Cela fait longtemps que je regrette énormément de ne pas avoir fais une école d’ingénieur et j’ai essayé tant bien que mal de me rapprocher au maximum du monde de l’informatique . Ça fait donc maintenant 4 ans que je suis commercial dans ce domaine .

J’ai 25 ans et j’aimerais passer un cap , être plus proche des systèmes d’informations , être bcp plus proche également du monde informatique et pour se faire j’ai réfléchis à être Business analyst ou PO .

Je voulais donc des conseils , avec mon profil de « business developer » que puis je faire pour me réorienter ? Des formations à passer ? Est ce faisable mon projet ?

Biensur je suis ouvert à toute proposition , pas uniquement les deux voies que j’ai cité au dessus mais quelque chose de cohérent qui ou je pourrais utiliser mes 4 ans d’expérience en ESN comme un atout .
Petit plus : j’ai également l’envie robuste de développer mon propre jeu vidéo mais hélas je ne connais encore rien dans le domaine de la programmation et du dev à part certaines théorie que j’ai acquis au contact de mes clients et de leurs projets ( en échangeant avec des consultants également)

Donc voilà , j’aimerais savoir si des personnes on déjà été dans ce cas ? Des conseils ? Des idées ? Je suis preneur !

Info : Je suis en France

Merci !!

I’m about to enter my second year of college, and I still don’t know what I want to major in. I originally wanted to major in psychology, but then I found out that you usually need more than a bachelor’s degree to get a good job. I want to choose a major that can lead to a good salary but isn’t too difficult. I don’t really have any specific interests or passions, so I’m pretty open to different options and willing to consider almost anything as long as it isn’t too difficult and can lead to a good career.