r/careeradvice

Currently working a *very* cushy job. About 40-50 hrs. a week. Low stress. Great pay. $67.5/hr. Only worked here about 3 weeks.

A new job opportunity appeared paying $73/hr. All OT is paid double. 70 hours a week minimum. This is at a Data Center. The job is mine if I want it.

An extra 164k in comp is almost too hard to ignore, but I worry that my reputation will be harmed if I job hop right after starting a new one. Plus my current job is basicallly stress free and easy. The new one will be long hours and if what I hear is true, fairly stressful.

Would I be insane to turn down this opportunity? What should I do?

> edit: to all the wannabe mathematicians in the comments. $67.5/hr is not my total comp. There exists things called bonuses, holiday pay, per diem, etc.

DoorDash and big tech seem to skew young from what I see, but I realize that isn't the same as having actual age data.

For people who've worked in tech into their 40s and beyond, what did your career look like? Did you stay in an IC role, move into management, switch to a smaller company, or leave the industry?

I'm especially interested in people who stayed technical. Are older engineers less visible because they're concentrated in certain teams or levels, or do the demands of these jobs push people toward other options?

I don't want to assume everyone disappears at 40. I'd like to understand the paths that aren't as visible in early-career conversations.

I started a new job as a pizza delivery driver , first day went great. Not a problem , management seemed happy. Only thing was the boss asked me about my life and seemed a bit rattled by the fact that I had bright future ahead of me.
I graduated with a bachelors and I’m studying for law school , he made it a point to tell me I “won’t be making money for 8 years as a lawyer”. Already that was a bit insecure but whatever.

Next day , I tried helping another employee lift something heavy, I was told not to help. The kid was still struggling and so I asked him if he needed help again. Boss overheard this and started pressing me about not listening and asked if it’s going to be a problem. I said no of course it just seemed like he needed help. Manager proceeds to fire me on the spot. As he was paying my last money in cash he asked me rudely if I had “100’s” I said no I’m broke and he whipped out money almost to flaunt it at me. When I asked why I’m being let go he said to “figure it out at my next job” and “to please leave his store”
I’ve never had an experience like this with a boss, worked for years and anytime I had conflict or made a mistake it was always fixed immediately.

EDIT- the kid was literally shaking on a step-stool trying to lift boxes from the top of one of those big drink fridges

I recently graduated a technical school with an associates degree in industrial maintenance and landed a gig at a very new manufacturing plant.
The company I work for pays very well for my area (30/hr) and has great benefits such as a quarterly bonus, good healthcare, and a 10 percent shift premium.

The problem is that it’s menial and all I do is checks, and filter changes. It’s very laid back, but feels boring to me. I thought I would be diagnosing technical problems, using tools and what I learned in school to gain skills learning different machines.

I am coming from a residential HVAC background where I was constantly grinding to get through the day to get the client heating and cooling by the end of the day. At that job I was making 19 an hour which was horrible for what I was doing, but I got a ton of satisfaction from my old job even if I was working as hard as I could.

I just expected more and I want to develop a skill set where I can fix malfunctions everyday.

I don’t plan on quitting this job for a while since it pays and I want to save money, but I am just underwhelmed and hoped for something more.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, and if so what did you do about it?

I (26M) have been in the hospitality industry my whole life. Started at 14 working the front desk for a dry cleaning chain, made my way to a pizza joint, worked my way from dishwasher to delivery driver to prep chef to pizza chef to server to bartender, where I then took my leave to work the oil pipelines in the northern Midwest for the better part of a year. Came back to the dry cleaners, made my way into a nightclub to Barback and bartend, then on to a rather well known restaurant in my current area, where I barnacled, bartended, took a lead bartender role, and then left for another well known restaurant doing what I thought was bar management. Ended up getting abused as essentially a glorified lead bartender and had to fight for a bar management position and more pay before I fully realized ownership just sucks and I needed out.

Conveniently, the restaurant I was at prior gets the ownership share bought out from the group it was under and is now owned and operated by a single chef. The woman I trained to take my position and is a good friend of mine was actually the one to offer me the bar manager position.

I was hired under the impression I would be given a trial period, working the weekend as lead bartender and the other half of the week as bar/floor manager, which started great up until the past few weeks, where I seem to do what is asked of me by chef, and we agree upon something, only for him to make the opposite decision and announce it in an email chain a few days later.

This has made me felt generally underutilized/what am I even here for if you go the opposite direction of what I advise anyways.

Combined with my personality shifting to where I’m enjoying waking up early in the morning and getting on with my day as opposed to my current schedule of mostly starting the day around 2pm and wrapping up at midnight, I’m really having intrusive thoughts about changing careers.

Primary issue is I’d be starting over, again. Plus I don’t necessarily have a bad thing going, I’m just generally unhappy with a job I expected I would love.

Has anyone done this kind of career change before?
Any advice?

Theoretically, I’m making just short of 4k/month hourly now, 40-45 hours a week, and would love to keep that going, just on a more traditional 9-5 or 10-6 schedule.

For a little more context, most of my experience is self taught, I deal with a lot of logistics and number crunching currently, and practically no education. I dropped out of college 3 times in various design fields just because I couldn’t handle the workload in addition to working full time to make a living.

TLDR - stuck in the bar management pipeline, practically no other experience, do I have any options for getting out?

They’re still introducing me to the team, and I’m already planning my resignation.

I started roughly three weeks ago. Another interview process that began before I joined has now turned into an offer that’s a much better fit for my career. I’ve accepted it, signed the contract and cleared the checks.

I’m in the UK, have one week’s notice and plan to tell my manager on Monday.

The decision is made, but I feel guilty about the time they’ve spent hiring and onboarding me. How do you actually say “thanks for hiring me, but I’m leaving” without launching into a ten-minute apology?

Anyone left a job this early? What did you say, and how did your manager react? Managers’ perspectives welcome too

V

I quit McDonald's a couple months ago after being there 4 months. I quit on very good terms. The gm, and restaurant operator both told me i could alaways come back. So I applied, and had an interview today. The gm is on fraternity leave, and idk where the restaurant operator is. It was some guy I never met before who interviewed me. It took like 4 minutes. He confirmed that I worked there before. He asked why he should trust I won't leave again in a couple months. I told him he can't really. He then asked me why they should hire me. I told him im a hard worker, Im easy to get along with. Im good with the customers, and ill always be on time. He said he'll talk to the owner and see what he thinks. I think he'll have good things to say about me, but i thought it would be easy to get re hired. I just with the people who said I could come back were there

Can anyone give me the ranking of the best engineering specialties, depending on how much the field is hiring, the salary, flexibility, and AI safety

Hello all,

Don’t have anyone to talk to about this so coming to reddit for opinions.

I’ve been working at my company for over 6 years, and the last couple of years it has been going downhill. Regular layoffs in certain departments, customers regularly terminating contracts, slashing expenses and travel benefits, hotels went from 200$ Mariotts to 110$ max per night hotel, and a very top heavy organization.

I started a new position in a department about a year ago, and it was going great until they hired a new external VP that has completely derailed the progress my boss and coworkers were making, and turned it into “his way or the highway”. He even cursed me out in a meeting in front of the whole department because I questioned his decisions. Needless to say I’m unhappy and I can kind of see the writing on the wall, and rumor has it the company is trying to sell within the next few months anyway.

However, my immediate boss and coworkers are good people, and me leaving puts them in a bind and I feel guilty for leaving. Call it loyalty, but I know they’ll be upset with me leaving. I’ve had all my friends put in their notice as well from the other departments and the CEO sends them a nasty message sometimes about how we are “tarnishing our name by quitting”. I have a new job lined up that is a 30k raise, with a very healthy bonus and an insurance package that the company pays for all my family’s premiums.

Anyway, just looking for some outside advice comments to help ease this transition, or just to call me a wussy and do what I need to do for me and my family.

I finally left my minimum wage retail job as of yesterday. I've gotten so tired of making $18/hour in 2026 in a goddamned vhcol area after finishing my cs degree. I made $18/hour in 2019, before college (close to $30/hour in 2026 dollars in terms of purchasing power). I'm free, finally. No savings or anything. I had to pay off like 30k in student loans making $18/hour.

I have been making less than 66% of what I made as an 18 year old in terms of purchasing power 7 years later, after graduating college and everything. I was horrified at the realization. That's why I quit.

The Despair I felt from this is what creates criminals, what causes the end of lives... this Despair is causing 10x the level of Deaths to Despair compared to the Great Depression. *That*, my friends, is the true state of this country.

Many econometrics are approaching or have reached 2008 recession levels. Some, are approaching Great Depression levels. it's game over for our economy. And there is no epilogue, nor a respawn button.

I'm now unemployed. I'm a NINJA. No Income, no Job, no Assets. I'm the dark of the night. The Despair that haunts humanity, that will end our society as it stands. The second biggest mistake of my life was going to college.

If I was kicked out at 18, I'd have become a homeless criminal and/or a drug addict by 19. I cannot afford rent, so given that, it's financially irresponsible to exist. This is the end of my career, or lack thereof.

I can't even get a gosh darned sales role that pays $25/hour. What a dream that'd be, over a 33% pay bump from what I've made this year... only to still make less than what I made when I was 18.

I have no money for another round of schooling, nor any real work experience. Just swe internships... and retail. I can't pivot with that. So what do I do?

Three sentences into prepping for an interview last week I went to reread the posting and it was gone. Pulled down. Every bullet point I needed to remember, evaporated. Now I save the PDF the moment I hit apply (takes four seconds, do it while the tab is still open). Future you, sitting in a parking lot before the interview, will be grateful.

I’m a designer and I have a new manager who has been essentially redoing all my work. I’m known as being a strong designer in my industry but I’ve been working under a new manager for a few months and he has completely redone my work overnight before a client meeting more than once. As in, it’s a completely different design. Ahead of this there hasn’t been any conversation about my work not being up to scratch or even that he wants to see something else or another direction. So I’m always pretty surprised when I see the design updates that were never discussed and just appeared overnight.

I’ve never experienced this before and It’s pretty demotivating. Not really sure what to do in this situation because at the end of the day the design needs to be something the manager approves of but I really feel like my job is pointless or like I’m doing something wrong or maybe even that I’m actually not as great a designer as I thought when this happens.

What would you do in this situation? I’m not particularly tied to this job but it’s not great timing to look for something new at the moment. The one thing this job has going for it is that it is relatively stress free compared with the same role at other companies but I’m still getting those Sunday scaries and just really don’t want to go to work anymore because of this.

I am a leader at a startup. Another leader in a different organization emailed me and cc'd my boss and his boss with false allegations. I did reply to the email stating what he said was false and to provide evidence. He hasn't replied yet. I see this person at meetings and we have to interact about 2hrs a week.

The character of this person is that he undermines people, as I have heard from some employees.

Should I go to HR and forward them the email? Or should I look for another job and lay low?

I graduated in 2022 with a BFA. Wanted to work in publishing, journalism, or a nonprofit in the arts. Tried getting the right internships but never did.

In 2023 I moved to nyc. Since then I’ve had the cliche string of odd jobs. Teaching, dog walking, art handling. I’ve kept writing through all of this, and publishing (book reviews and interviews mostly). But I’m tired of the odd jobs.

I have tried every possible “career pivot” strategy you could think of. Re-ordering the experience on my resume, sending networking emails/linkedin messages, reaching out to alumni. I even started a reading series two years ago that me and one other person are still running. It’s been successful, drawing big crowds and even getting some media attention. I’m grateful for the friends I’ve been making and the fact that it’s been successful. It’s also been a good place to “network” but hasn’t produced a job. I meet agents, editors, etc every month. But I’m still in my day job that I hate.

It feels like I’m out of options. I’m really depressed and feel like if my career hasn’t started by now it never will.

I’m applying to fully funded MFAs this fall. Something I never thought I’d do. But if I’m able to spend 2-3 years focused on improving my writing, and hopefully getting some new skills in teaching and editorial work, then it’s worth it.

What do I do?

Looking for career advice from people who have been in high growth startups.
I’m currently very early at a startup and effectively the #2 operator outside of the founders. I work extremely closely with them and have a lot of influence over how the company is being built.
Current comp:
• $120k base
• $24k target bonus
• 30% of gross commission on deals I personally source
• Company averages around 12.5% commission, so effectively ~3.75% of sourced premium goes to me
• 0.25% equity from joining very early
• Fair amount of autonomy
• Allowed to do occasional consulting/side deals as long as they don’t interfere with the job

The biggest upside is probably the exposure. I’m close enough to the founders that I’m involved in decisions well outside a normal department head role: operations, distribution, hiring, partnerships, product, strategy, etc.

Alternative opportunity would be joining a substantially larger/later stage startup as the #1 person running a department/team.

Potential compensation there:
• $200k to $250k base
• OTE bonus potentially another $200k to $250k for hitting roughly 2x base quota
• Equity unclear, but potentially earn additional equity through sales/performance
• Much larger team/company and significantly more resources
So potentially $400k to $500k OTE versus ~$144k fixed/target today plus commissions and early equity.

The part I’m struggling with is career trajectory.
At the smaller company, I’m basically learning how an entire startup gets built from a few feet away from the founders. If it succeeds, I could potentially grow into a COO/President type role or have a much stronger foundation for founding something myself.

At the larger company, I’d have a much bigger compensation package and get experience being the clear #1 leader of a meaningful function, managing more people, revenue, budgets, processes, etc.

So:
Would you rather be the #2 person close to the founders of the entire company, or the #1 person in your function at a much larger startup?

How much compensation would you realistically leave on the table for founder proximity, early equity, and broader operating experience?

And for people who made either choice, which one ended up being better for your career 5 to 10 years later?

About a year ago, a colleague of mine called me a "hyprocite" and a "bi-polar b****" when I said that I wanted to take up driving lessons again as I decided some time ago to not to continue my lessons. And about a week ago she called me "illiterate" because I got confused with a story that another colleague was telling me. Within the span of this past year, she has called me various names and although I've given her some push back I have not called her any names. She knows that we don't like each other, so this is not just some "friendly" banter. Also I would like to add that although there were other people at present when she said these things, those colleagues are her friends and they aren't really mine, so I am not sure if they'll confirm what I'll report.

I am undecided whether to send my bosses/HR an email regarding what has happened. This company I'm working at does not really care about the employees, but I'm not this might get my colleague to back off as she's someone that seems to respond to people that are more powerful/higher up. Alternatively, I'll start pushback giving her a taste of her own medicine. I can start commenting on her looks (she has insulted about my looks before regarding my baldness, dress sense, my age) as I know it'll hurt her since she's not exactly a supermodel. Just unsure what to do.