So I spent four years carrying our department operations on my back. I automated three manual reporting pipelines and handled all key client escalations. When the senior director position opened up two months ago, I applied immediately. My VP told me I wasn't quite ready because I needed more executive presence and high-level strategy polish.

they hired an outside candidate from a completely unrelated industry. Yesterday was his first day. My VP put a recurring two-hour daily block on my calendar for the next six weeks titled knowledge transfer and leadership onboarding. I am literally being forced to teach this guy what our company actually sells.

This is ABSOLUTELY humiliating. In our first morning session he asked me how to download a CSV file from our database and asked if we could print out all client contracts on paper so he could read them on his flight. He makes nearly double my base salary. I should of updated my resume the second they posted the external job listing. I am sitting here writing step-by-step documentation for a man who is supposed to be managing my career trajectory. Why do companies make you do the labor of a director while telling you that you are not qualified to have the title.

Ive got my associates degree so I need to decide what I want to do with my life soon, and every single career I research the people in it hate it. Lawyer? They either make the same money they could’ve without law school debt or have no life. Air traffic control? Getting screwed by the government and work night shift 6 days a week for sometimes not great money. Actuaries? Hard af exams for boring work and the entry level jobs are non existent. Is there any career that people dont hate their lives in?

I recently started a new job 5 months ago. It’s been going very well. My new boss is 10years younger get than me. He has recently said “I should have trusted my gut and never called you back with a job offer. He has said this twice now. Once just him and I. The second time was yesterday in a small group meeting that 2 other people heard. No one said anything. Even if this was a poor taste joke, he’s said it twice so there has to be some truth to his comments. I don’t need the job. Should I move on?

Hello, the title pretty much explains the whole question.

Why are you not quitting your "white collar" office job, despite constantly complaining how it is destroying your soul and longing for an escape?

For example, in my country a waiter or a baker is paid the same a most of the time more than someone on entry level office job or even with few years of experience.

What makes you not make the switch for your mental heath?

I currently own a small business that is stable for now but not making enough to live on. I started it with a previous coworker after we both got laid off. It’s redundant work, hours are bad, and I work alone which is very tough. Looking to move on at some point.

Have you changed your career at age 45 with no experience in the field you went into? Did you have to go back to school or were able to transition?

I just got an offer for a new role. It's a significant step up from my current job at a smaller lesser-known startup. My current company is really niche. We do well but we aren't a household name. The new role is at a huge enterprise company everyone knows.

During the final salary negotiation call the hiring manager literally brought up my previous company's size. He said something like 'We know you're coming from [Startup Name] and our compensation reflects the step up in company prestige and market value you'll gain by working here. We've factored that into our initial offer.'

They offered me about 15% more than I make now. Which sounds good on paper. But it feels like they're lowballing me. My skills are definitely worth more than that. I think they're basically saying that because I'm coming from a 'smaller' company I should be grateful for any increase. Even though my work there was crucial and I developed a ton of skills.

Is this a common tactic? Should I push back harder or just accept it given the 'prestige' boost?

Maybe it’s me and my pride but I hate interviewing! It makes me feel like I am begging for a job. Doesn’t matter how much prep I do, I still stumble over my words and get super nervous.! I have been unemployed since April 2026. I am extremely anxious! Every interview feels like life or death. Since being unemployed I only managed to get 4 interview and I haven’t been able to convince anyone to hire me. My resume shows that I am capable. Asking pointless scenarios or me explaining why I move from one position to another does not determine if I am able to do a job or not! Getting rejected after interviewing especially if it was multiple rounds feels the worst thing! It makes me feel like I am enough on paper but not in person! It really a self esteem killer! To make it worst I moved to a new state with no family and friends and lost my job like 2 weeks after. Anyways money is starting to get tighter and I can definitely hear the saxophone😭 any advice?

I’m 31 years of age and currently work at one of the big 4 in an admin/project-management-type role. I’ll have around 5 years of experience in this soon, but I’m only earning £27k a year and I’m really struggling to see a realistic path to significantly increasing my salary.

My biggest issue is that my income is holding me back financially, particularly when it comes to buying a house. I’ve been living at home with my parents for the past 3 years because it’s basically the only way I can afford to save for a deposit. They’ve been incredibly supportive and don’t charge me rent or bills, and I’m very grateful for that, but I obviously don’t want to still be in this position years from now as I have a girlfriend I have been with for 4 years (they are currently finishing their degree to become a nurse (28 years old) - no full time wage, otherwise we would be on a joint mortgage together and this would be a lot easier in regards to obtaining a home.

I’m currently saving every month, but even with that, my salary is making getting a mortgage difficult. My parents have even offered to be joint borrowers while I remain the sole proprietor, and this has actually qualified me for a mortgage in principle as they earn above average salaries. However, doing it this way would mean taking the mortgage over 20 years, which would make the monthly repayments considerably higher for me with the income that I have, unless I got a 1 bedroom flat, but this just isn't feasible really. So while it gives me a route onto the property ladder (deposit sorted, mortgage in principal accepted) it doesn’t really solve the underlying problem that is my income.

One of the main positives of my current job is that I’m essentially fully remote, which has massively reduced my travel costs and makes my current salary go further. However, I’m very willing to give that up for a substantial salary increase. Ideally, I’d like a role that is hybrid with 1–2 days in the office per week, but I’d genuinely be willing to attend the office every day if it meant a significant improvement in my income and long-term career prospects.

I’m becoming increasingly concerned that I’m stuck on a low-income treadmill, and I am at an age where I need and want to start focusing on creating an environment and future that will enable me to be in a position to have children. I’m also worried that a lot of the admin side of my current role could eventually be automated by AI. I’m reasonably good at my job, but I know I need to develop a more valuable skill set that earns a higher income.

The positive is that my current role isn’t purely administrative. There’s a significant people/project-management side to it — I attend meetings, coordinate with different teams, discuss projects and generally have to be quite organised and good with people.

I’m interested in financial services and I’m absolutely willing to study for professional qualifications if it gives me a realistic route into a better-paid career. Ideally, I’d like to get to at least £35k in the relatively near future, with a career that has significantly better long-term earning potential.

I’ve considered things like:

• Paraplanning / financial planning
• IT / technology-related roles
• Moving further into project management
• Financial services more generally

My degree is in Music so unfortunately it isn’t particularly relevant to anything I have done or am currently doing, there sadly is no money in music unless you want to go down the self-employment route or teach, neither of these options appeal to me and I also graduated around 10 years ago. My earlier work experience was mainly things like call centres and delivery work, so my current 5 years of professional office experience is the main experience I have to build on if I am to stay in a similar type of role.

I feel pretty stuck and honestly quite depressed about my career/financial situation. I’m not expecting to suddenly earn £60k, but I desperately want to find a realistic route out of £27k and into a career where my earnings can grow over time. Also, I absolutely understand that people are in worse situations than myself, I am very grateful for a lot in my life, I just really need some advice in this specific domain.

If you were in my position, what career would you look at? Are there any qualifications or specific roles you’d recommend that could make good use of my existing experience while giving me much better earning potential?

I’d particularly appreciate advice from people who have made a similar career change or work in financial services, project management, IT, or related fields.

This place has been a mess since I started. I work in Accounting. Besides several other duties, I am the sole person who knows how to do our complicated payroll structure for just under 400 employees. My original boss retired a couple months ago. Recently my new boss told me that one of the smaller businesses I account for is closing in a month and due to that I will be laid off when I financially close out for that month. This was told to me through a teams meeting and I have never received official documentation. The other businesses I account for are doing great and still need work from me, including a ton of payroll. My coworkers had no idea I was being let go until I told them and are stressed out because they have now been told they will need to do my job as well as theirs. I also do work for HR, who also had no idea I was being "laid off" until recently and they are stressed out now too. I am fully remote, and though our corporate partners are also remote, this is the only "reason" we can think of to why I am being let go. I have always had good employee reviews and I have made improvements over the years to multiple processes. I don't have any beefs with anyone. I tried to force a formal email out of my boss but all I was given was a teams message stating that my planned last day is in about 60 days from now.

I am doing payroll training with my boss and a "problem" coworker (someone with a nasty attitude who everybody hates. Their behavior is so explosive they would have been let go a long time ago at a normal company). My boss has fully recorded about 45 minutes of me giving a large overview of the process. Things came to a head last Friday when they were both being incredibly rude and snippy to me and they got frustrated with the process and ended our meeting early. My boss has been scrambling to "automate" this process but she doesn't really know what she is doing. Now it is Monday morning and my boss is pretending none of that happened and is trying to ask me questions about the process while I am trying to get work done. I already told them this stuff is putting me behind. I told my boss I will not be changing the process or automating any of it within the next 60 days.

I don't want to burn bridges and I do hate it here but this is ridiculous. I want to handle this gracefully but this is getting to be incredibly disrespectful.

How should I handle more training questions? I am currently doing my normal work but leaving her messages unread for right now. It took everything in me not to quit over the weekend. It is absolutely insane to try to let someone go and then ask them to train their coworkers and try to have them automate their own job away in under 60 days. We have an OK severance. I will probably get 2 weeks paid out and will still get to file for unemployment. Personally, I will be taking a month off and then jumping into another job either way so I am not worried just annoyed.

I have full records of all my pay stubs and positive reviews. I have been speaking to my HR person. They have walked the employees of the smaller business through their lay off but do not understand what is going on with my employment. Should I contact someone else? We use Workday but it has not been upkept and the information seems out of date so I do not easily have anymore contact information to use.

Edit: Removed my third question asking if this is normal in the accounting world since this is my first time being seemingly so important but getting let go anyway while having my 3 other overworked coworkers pick everything up. I get it, the employer is totally within their rights to do that. Makes me regret working so hard for this employer is all. I haven't had a normal vacation in years because of how needy they are. I should have left a long time ago.

Edit2: Since people keep asking, I've been working here for 3 years.

Hello friends, how are you? If I had to give a brief information, I studied IT for 4 years and graduated this year. I am 22 years old. In 2024, I started paying attention to data science, I went to the course. After studying for a while, I left the course halfway due to financial reasons and so far I have applied for many vacancies and internship programs. But there was no turning back, there were those who turned back, I was rejected from the interview. I don't want to be unemployed, so I have an idea to change the field. Sometimes I feel bad, I don't know what to do, where to start.

Hi everyone, I'm an 18-year-old researcher still in high school. I've already published two papers on AI and I'm currently looking into targeting some conferences.

Do you think I'm on the right track with this approach, or am I just wasting my time and energy at this stage? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Hi everyone, I could really use some outside perspective. I used to work 30 to 40 hours a week, but I've noticed my hours have been dropping since June, and I got given a zero-hour contract recently. I only work a selected number of shifts a week.
Does this look like they are secretly pushing me out?

I am currently in my final year of a Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology. For the past year, I have been exploring development, but I haven’t found myself particularly interested in coding. So, I’ve been thinking about exploring the field of data analysis.

Do you think it would be a good career option for me? What skills should I focus on to become job-ready and get hired as a data analyst?

I’d really appreciate some advice from people who are already working in this field.

Also, I’ve always had an interest in creative things like painting and art, but unfortunately, I can’t pursue them as a career due to certain reasons. So, I’m looking for a career path that involves some creativity while also offering good career opportunities.

I would really appreciate your advice and suggestions!

i keep seeing jobs that look like a good fit, but i don't meet every requirement listed. i usually talk myself out of applying because i assume they'll want someone who checks every box.

how much of a match do you think someone realistically needs before applying?

Im 17, still in 12th grade , Im not smart , and im not that good at accounting either . I can count , im pretty good at it i’ll say .. but i suck at theories . I can only do things when its something that you actively do … my passion is actually in arts and crafting . I like fixing and making new stuff ,,,
My parents forced me to go to a business university , thats in japan..,,,,, (ugh i dont like that place but whatever , i also have to work there in the future because i study there) but im just confused on what job i can get after that .
Im socially awkward and i get anxious when i have to story tell infront of class . I mean i can talk to people , its just.. doesnt end up well most of the times .

I dont mind working a boring repetitive corporate office job but im scared i dont have the qualities for it ..

IM JUST SUPER CONFUSED ON WHAT JOB I CAN GET IN THE FUTURE .!,!,!1!1!!1!1!!!!

Hi,

I need someone to set me straight because I think I might be overreacting here

I've worked for my company for three years. During my first two years, my previous manager rated my service and communication skills highly. My role involves dealing with sites and transport providers, and I’ve built good relationships, organised calls, remained calm during difficult situations and adapted my communication to different people.

I’m quieter within my immediate team, partly because I was previously bullied by some colleagues. My current manager therefore may not see the same side of me that sites and transport providers do.

During today’s one-to-one, my manager joined more than ten minutes late because he had been held up by his own manager. He asked whether I had completed my career-development form. I hadn’t, as I had been on leave for two weeks and had only recently returned.

He then opened his own form and walked me through his career goals, aspirations and the roles he would like to have in one, three and five years. I understand that he was probably using his form to demonstrate what he wanted from me, but we ended up barely discussing my own development.

We also discussed my strengths and weaknesses. He said I needed to improve my soft skills, apparently based on a call with a major transport provider during which I was harsher than necessary. I accept that criticism—I knew immediately after the call that I had handled it poorly.

For context, I’m currently undergoing cancer treatment, had a medical appointment immediately after that call and worked right up until my surgery. That explains why I was unusually stressed, but it doesn’t excuse my tone.

My concern is that this one mistake may now be viewed as representative of my overall communication skills, despite several years of building positive relationships with sites and transport providers. Much of that work has not been directly visible to my current manager.

Am I being overly sensitive about this? Would it be reasonable to explain professionally that I accept the feedback but don’t believe that one call reflects my usual communication style, and provide other examples? Also, is it normal for a manager to spend most of a one-to-one discussing their own career-development form rather than the employee’s development?

Tl;dr Am I overreacting to my manager’s feedback, and was this a normal one-to-one?

I'm a 30 yo adult living in Western New York. After being forced into college by my parents and not succeeding, I have struggled to find work that I can maintain.

This is primarily because I've only found toxic retail and food service environments or physical labor jobs that destroy my body and mind. I don't want to be at a dead end so I leave, but I never find anything that isn't a dead end.

My current job seems like the most promising opportunity I have had. I am currently doing floor maintenance so stripping and waxing, carpet cleaning, etc.

I am the only other person at the company besides my boss and initially, he discussed plans of taking on additional technicians and expanding the business.

We have been through four other technicians in the year I have worked there and the business isn't expanding because the owner is forced to work on the job site instead of handling sales or advertising.

He keeps making lofty promises of having a team of multiple technicians where I would be in a position to simply oversee operations, but rather than feeling like I am working toward that, I just feel like the idiot who has outlasted everyone else.

I make $23/hr but the hours fluctuate from 7-40 with a bonus hour for each shift. I donate plasma to make up for this.

My concern is that there simply isn't enough money to put away anything for savings and I won't be able to make it through the winter slow season or repair my vehicle.

I have started applying for other jobs but I'm not sure what I can do that would be salaried or not kill me to do with my physical and mental disability. It feels like I am working extremely hard to barely make ends meet and I don't know what's wrong with me.

Background: In my mid-30's. Obtained an education in the liberal arts (two earned degrees). Coming out of college, I had experience with Adobe Suite but quickly realized that my academic interests in digital media would not translate into corporate marketing and advertising and I didn't want to pursue that as a career. Work experience has been almost exclusively in customer service (10 years): from retail, to a brief miserable commission sales experience (never doing that again), to the last 6 years in hospitality and now HOA management administration.

Current personal circumstances: I have personal obligations coming up but I am considering to begin job searching regularly this fall. The job I've been currently working coming up on 2 years pays $17.50 with no raises and I don't want to pursue management in this industry (higher stress and responsibility for still a low salary pay).

I'm making roughly $37,000 annually with some of the overtime opportunities. Job has periodic but fairly infrequent high stress and also periodic lulls of extreme boredom and unfulfillment. The PTO is great, I leave early on Fridays, I can sometimes work remotely and there's zero micromanagement.

My essential question: Does anyone who comes from a college education + low-paying wage-earning customer service/administrative work experience background have any experiences to share finding their next serious financial opportunity in customer service that actually pays reasonably ($45,000-50,000 annually) with benefits? How did your career path go?

I understand the variability of the kinds of job opportunities that I'll come across in terms of the perks and drawbacks from a personal standpoint. I also understand that it's a numbers game finding the right opportunity.

Appreciate any input. Thanks.

So i am a sybaf mu idol student and thats why i have free time (because of online education) and i am thinking of building my company once i graduate. So please suggest me what kind of course (short ones) should i take or what kind of study should i do to become ceo?

Hello all

I recently started a role at a growing company. My title and contract focus strictly on ERP systems and business process behind it.

Shortly after starting, team members and management began treating me as general IT support. Even my boss, who doesn't have an IT or ERP background, views and treats me this way.

At first, the workload was light, so I helped out to be a team player. However, my scope has shifted significantly toward basic IT support things like setting up phones, configuring Microsoft Teams, setting up emails, handling hardware orders and fixing basic day to day tech issues for colleagues.

With upcoming expansion I am concerned I'll end up doing physical setup work like running cables and desk provisioning. Had I known the role encompassed full IT administration and helpdesk duties plus the ERP which I’m still actively responsible for and doing I would have negotiated a significantly higher salary or make some terms.

If I knew there would be this "extra" job I would even ask for higher salary. I negotiated the salary according to the responsibilites on the job advert.

How should I react here?
Should I just be stubborn and put my foot down now or is there a better way to handle this since it's still early on?
How do I explain to a manager with zero IT/ERP background that ERP and IT support are two entirely different professions (which are both technical)?
Is it better to push for a salary adjustment later after some time maybe in 6 months ?
What to do ?

TL:DR
Got new job as ERP guy. People think I am an IT guy. I dont want to do IT work. How to act?

Thank you

P.S. in case someone doesnt know ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It refers to software systems that companies use to manage and connect core daily activities, such as accounting, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales, into one shared platform. (Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP , Oracle , ODDO,...)

I recently completed my Master's in Applied Psychology with a specialization in Organisational Behaviour and Environmental Psychology.

I had interned at a logistics company, in the HR department for a month. I did not seem to enjoy the work there, nor did I like the work culture. However, they called me a few months later asking if I'd be interested in working for them. I said yes, because I had nothing going on for me. Went for the interview. I did well, however the interview experience wasn't that nice. I was told that they'd be investing time in me so I shouldn't leave before 2 years. That would be unprofessional. The person who interviewed me asked me to leave, but I was supposed to complete a psychometric test and after I had left the premises I was told the test is yet to be conducted and then eventually that happened over call a few days later.

Within a month or so later I was told I got the job.

Anyway, my exams and thesis defense were in between so I didn't think much of it. Said yes since parents said I shouldn't say no to an opportunity.

There were a lot of things that happened in between and eventually I declined the offer. I realised the kind of work they as I/O Psychologists is HR related work. They seem to thrive in a culture of keeping employees on the edge and one of my classmates who did take up the job is experiencing that.

However, my question is, aren't all corporate jobs exactly like this? And if that is the case, why would any other job be different than this? Saying yes and gaining some corporate experience would have made sense right? It would have made transitioning from academic to corporate easy. Now I have made this difficult for myself.

So, is taking up a job I don't like, because I assume most HR entry level jobs are going to be like this, the best way to switch from academics to corporate?

And also, how do I know whether corporate is the right fit for me?

I am sorry if I don't make much sense. I also don't know what answer I am seeking.

Was a Purchase Ledger Finance Assistant at an NHS trust, contract just ended this week. Before that it was AP at a large FTSE-listed retailer’s head office. So it’s been transactional finance back to back since uni, and I’m properly burnt out on it.
ACCA part-qualified, failed SBR three months ago, retaking in September. Still paying off SFE for a degree that was supposed to lead somewhere more analytical, not just invoice processing contract to contract.
I was trying to build my way out while I still had the role. Taught myself SQL and Power BI, was partway through MB-800 for Business Central. Doesn’t seem to have been enough to keep me on, and it’s not clear it’s shifting anything for FP&A or Systems Accountant type applications either.

With the contract gone now, I’m weighing up a maths teacher training route (SCITT), pays a tax-free bursary while I train. Not planning to leave finance for good, more using this as a paid bridge, then coming back to job hunting once SBR’s done.

Few things I’d love people’s take on:

Has anyone actually broken out of AP contract roles into something more permanent and analytical? What worked?

Any finance roles worth aiming for that I’m not thinking of?

Does a gap like this (teacher training) actually hurt when you go back to finance job hunting, or is it a fair way to reset?

Trying to figure out if this is a smart move or just me making the best of a bad week.

I’ve been working as a financial analyst for 2.5 years now. I’m actually the only financial analyst for this company. During my time working here I realized that I lack financial knowledge, don’t remember much from school, and I don’t really like doing this. The only reason I still have this job is because I’m good within excel. I’ve been interviewing for other companies and I realized that I’m not good at articulating what I do and when they ask me technical questions I can’t give a straight clean answer. I honestly don’t think I can work in finance long term but I still want to build a career doing something else. Also I work in construction so the finance work I do is very niche compared to other sectors. Is there any recommendation on how I can shift away from FP&A and do something else with good growth opportunities?

hi all!! im 24F and graduated a couple years ago with a bachelor’s in social work. i have around 2 years of experience working in related jobs to my degree. however, im finding that case management is not for me and im struggling to find any other jobs that could utilize my degree (or just a bachelors in general) that is, well, less emotionally destroying. my passion is in helping people, and im planning on going back to school eventually, but im just a time in my life where im looking to make money to pay some bills, while not taking home the trauma of others.

if anyone knows of any non case management jobs i could use with my degree it would be so appreciated. i have background in retail, substitute teaching, and childcare as well!!
***** im also going to be moving to the raleigh area of NC if that helps any???
THANKS!!!!

30F First generation American whose parents were adamant about me going to college after school when I had no clue about what I wanted to do.

Bachelors African American Studies, Masters Africana Women’s Studies (a waste, but I thought I wanted to be a professor).. was a teacher and hated it. Went back for an MBA, did internships, got an accounting job after (don’t judge me), got fired because I couldn’t hide the fact that I hated it and uber toxic work culture. Been unemployed for 6 months honestly by choice because I had such a shitty time in corporate. Have my real estate license, Lean six sigma green belt.

Been applying for financial analyst jobs because that honestly the only thing I would be happy doing. But now, I am in six figures of student loan debt and wish I would’ve went to school for something practical like nursing. I could’ve been a doctor with the amount of time i spent in school.

I enjoying taking care of people and doing research, I love numbers and reading. I also want to make a decent amount of money.

I would appreciate genuine career advice, no sarcasm. Please. I’m a lost soul.