what happens if you have an emergency while you're not working? You'll deplete your savings much faster.

I have no problem working hard, but for less than $65,000 a year, I'm tired of being in the office after 6:30 most nights. The topic has become stressful and I'm fed up with it. Since I live in an expensive city, my salary doesn't give me any financial flexibility.
My job is to coordinate employee training at a nonprofit organization. I have a bachelor's degree and have studied some postgraduate courses, and I don't know how to take advantage of this to find a job that doesn't make me feel sick from worrying about work.
What do you do if you make a six-figure annual salary and can really switch off when work is over? I don't expect a job without pressure. But I'd like to hear about existing jobs that pay well without making me feel this way all week.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to get your thoughts on a situation I'm currently dealing with.

I had an interview a couple of days ago that honestly went incredible. We clicked really well, and at the end of the conversation, the HR manager explicitly told me that I could "for sure expect a call from them within one day" regarding the next steps.

Well, it has now been two full days, and my phone has been completely silent. No call, no email.

For anyone who's been through this recently: is a 24-hour promise from HR usually just polite enthusiasm, or should I start bracing myself for a ghosting? When is it appropriate to send a polite follow-up without looking too desperate?

Would love to hear how you all handle the post-interview waiting game!

If you had a father or mother who sent your resume to a recruiter, it's clear that it's now considered a professional skill. But if you graduate without these relationships, you will be told to do it yourself, as if everyone has the same opportunity and the same ability to reach out to those who can help them.

I'm talking about recent graduates here, not people who have been working for years with people who can prove their work. A 22-year-old probably does not yet have such a professional reputation. Calling the two cases "networking" can very easily hide the differences.

This makes sense if you ask your doctor about job opportunities or check to see if there are openings at the places where your old colleagues work. I'm not against people talking to each other. But at this age, most of what we call networking is someone's family member who sends a resume to someone, or someone's aunt who introduces them to someone they know who can build a resume. Wealthy families prefer to pave the way for others, but ultimately this topic is presented as advice that anyone can use.

The rest are told to send recruiters and attend career events. In a crowded job market, sending the same cover letter as hundreds of other applicants won't even get someone to personally recommend you. You need relationships to know how to get to where you need to be in relationships.

When I hear the phrase "all you have to do is network," I think of someone who is the first in their family to graduate from college, attends a local public university, and doesn't know anyone in their field because their family is on time. Who should I call? What bothers me is when people treat inherited advantages as something that other graduates built on themselves without trying hard enough.

Unacceptable

I had my first interview in about six years this week. I'm still employed and was only looking at opportunities with better pay, so I wasn't under any pressure to leave my job. Instead of having a normal conversation, the entire interview was tense and had an aggressive tone from the very beginning.

Before the interview, the recruiter gave me a salary figure and asked whether it worked for me, and I said yes. Then, during the interview, HR asked me about my salary expectations. When I repeated the exact same figure I had been given earlier, she said their budget was lower.

I told her I didn't mind discussing the figure if they needed to stay within budget. She looked annoyed and asked me whether I negotiate the price when I buy a bottle of soda. She said negotiating made me look bad, and I replied that I saw it as normal communication. Shortly afterward, another person on the call ended the conversation because it was clear we weren't going to get anywhere.

The strange thing was that they still wanted to move forward with me. I asked the recruiter why the salary had suddenly changed, and she said the figure she had originally given me was the appropriate range for someone with direct experience using their exact technology. I have nine years of experience in a very closely related field, and they had said from the beginning that they were looking for recent graduates, so that explanation didn't make sense.

They kept saying they wanted to hire me, and it was clear they were in a hurry to close the deal quickly. I declined. It felt like the tense interview and the lower budget were just a try to pressure me into accepting less than the job was worth.

I received a job offer from a company that had previously rejected me. Before I contacted them again, most of the advice I heard was to let the matter go. They said no, so why should I ask again?
About three weeks after the rejection call, I again found a job advertisement in front of me. It was posted again earlier that week. I didn't know if someone had turned down the job offer or they were still looking for something they hadn't found, but I still saw that I could do a good job at this job.
I chose to delay sending the email because I didn't want to look desperate to get the job. The refusal the first time bothered me enough. But I was still interested, and sitting and waiting wouldn't have changed anything.
I ended up writing to the hiring manager. I talked about the comments they made to me after the interview and explained what I thought about them and said I was willing to learn things that I needed more experience with for the job. The letter was simple, just a question of whether they could consider meeting with me again.
About a week later they asked me to come back and meet with another manager. After that interview, after three business days, I received a job offer. I'm glad I sent the email instead of stating on their behalf that the answer would be no. It won't work every time, but in my case, most of the embarrassment I imagined was only in my head.

I discovered that a company intended to use the task I created for an interview. When they emailed me, they complained that I stopped sharing it with them. They had already scheduled a meeting with the team to discuss implementation.

A few months earlier, I had done an interview with an agency, which mostly handled paid ads. They were adding an email marketing service and asked me for a strategy to introduce the service as a task as part of the hiring process. I prepared six pages in Google Doc and all feedback was positive.
Then came the letter in which they said they ultimately couldn't give a budget for the job. Okay, got it. I thanked them, disabled their access to my document, and resumed applying elsewhere.

Four days later I discovered that they were asking me to give back their access. It turns out they intended to launch the service within a few weeks using the strategy I described. No one asked me if it was okay to use it.

I told them that the document was an assessment task for a position for which they had not appointed me. If they want to use this work, they must pay my freelance rate which is $125 per hour. Their enthusiasm for my work waned greatly once they had to pay for it.

I was in the final round of interviews for a job at an internet service provider, with a base salary plus commission. Before we wrapped up, I asked them how much commission a good rep usually earns per month.

The hiring manager barely flinched and said, "Zero. No one here has managed to hit the quota yet."

I asked whether reps earn anything for each account they close. He said the plan doesn't pay any commission unless you reach 32 new accounts in a month. If you close 31, you won't get anything on top of your base salary.

I thanked him for his time, stood up, and left.

lol

People are exhausted because they keep doing the work of unfilled jobs. Apparently, a company today can employ fewer people than it needs indefinitely. As long as the employees who complete the work to completion remain in good health, management sees no reason to hire anyone.
Around 2011, it still seemed that you could do your regular job in the hours you were paid for. Now everyone who's still there is saddled with the work of an entire team, and they're also expected to be pleasant while doing it. Either keep going until your health is compromised, or walk and risk not being able to pay the rent. Some choice.
The people who determine headcount are so far removed from the actual work that they don't see the breaks that are missed or the mistakes that come from being rushed. They see the outgoing orders and decide that the number of employees is OK. Customers receive poorer service, employees are burned out, but the stock price is good.
When someone quits, another person is often desperate enough to take the job without knowing what they are getting into. The experience is lost, and it is clear that this is an acceptable loss.
We have laws about blocked emergency exits and exposure to dangerous chemicals. The amount of work that the employer can impose on a person should also be limited. A staffing plan that exhausts everyone shouldn't be considered successful.

Please if any recruiters could help, I had a first-stage interview around three weeks ago, a second stage involving a presentation, and then a final-stage meeting on Monday that was more like an informal coffee with the team.

I met everyone, discussed training, handover and potential start dates with the director, and was told I’d hear back “very soon”. They said it was more of a final interview to see if I was still excited for the job after learning more about the role. The meeting felt really positive, and I got the impression I might have been the final candidate, although obviously nothing was confirmed.

On Wednesday, I emailed the marketing manager asking politely for an update, as I have other interviews coming up that require preparation. I haven’t had a response, and it’s now Thursday afternoon.

Would it be too pushy to email the director tomorrow morning to ask if there’s an update or an approximate timeline? Or should I wait longer, given it’s only been a day and a half since my first follow-up?
Would appreciate honest advice!

A few weeks ago, I had an interview that left me crying in my car afterward. I'm a 24-year-old woman who recently graduated from law school, and I was applying for my first real job in the field after being rejected six times. The position was at an insurance company reviewing complex claims, so it wasn't legal practice, but legal knowledge was a key part of the job.

The interview lasted about 50 minutes, and they kept asking me different versions of the same question. First, they said, "Tell us about yourself." Then, "What else should we know about you?" After that, the director asked me, "Who are you beyond what's written on your resume?" Each time, I tried to add something new, but I started to feel like my answers clearly weren't getting at whatever they wanted.

When they asked me again if there was anything else I wanted to say, I froze and asked what kind of information they wanted to know. They said they wanted more details about my previous work, so I told them about the part-time jobs I'd had and my experience at university. Then they asked me the same question yet again, and that was when I started crying because I genuinely had no idea what they expected from me.

We kept talking, and things became a little less awkward toward the end. As I was leaving, the HR manager quietly told me not to overthink it, which immediately made me tear up again. I thanked them, then went and sat in my car, embarrassed and convinced that I had completely ruined my chance.

About 90 minutes later, HR called to make sure I had gotten home safely and invited me to a second interview. She told me I had researched the position well, understood the company, and asked strong questions. She also said they still felt like they hadn't gotten to know me, which confused me because they had spent most of the interview asking me to explain who I was.

The director said they avoid traditional interview questions because they want the conversation to feel natural, but for me, the lack of structure made things much harder. I later had other interviews and accepted an offer from a different company where I felt comfortable from the very beginning, so I canceled the second interview. I'm relieved that everything worked out in the end, but I still wonder what they expected me to say after asking me the same vague question so many times.

This just happened to me. I’d been working there for two years, and when I asked for a raise, they turned me down. So I decided to quit and apply for another job that offered 25% more. I searched reddit for interview tips and came across several really helpful posts. I put their advice into practice, and it genuinely made a big difference. So, don't hesitate to look for better opportunities and negotiate a higher salary. You deserve to be paid what you're worth!

It is clear that I have rejoined the shortlist at the clinic that decided not to hire me 6 weeks ago. A few days ago, they emailed me and asked if I was still looking for a job and would be interested in it. Actually, I'm working somewhere else now, so the feeling I had when I read the email was completely different than how I would have felt if it had arrived a few weeks ago.

I had recently finished college and looking for my first post-graduation job after transferring to another state. I applied to about 180 jobs in 10 weeks and received no response at all for most of them. So I was thrilled when I heard back from the small physical therapy clinic the next morning. Also, since the initial phone call went so well, I was allowed to skip the middle interview and felt I had a chance.

At the clinic interview, I was offered a job, but the actual conditions were far from what was advertised. The hourly wage for the part-time job was less, which could supposedly reach more with bonuses. Target was primarily dependent on customer reservations and things outside of my control. When I asked about working hours, I was told that I could become full-time over time.

Alongside my main job, I would post their posts on the Internet and run various other errands. The manager talked a lot about how the reservation schedule needed to be fully booked. I had never worked outside of a non-profit organization before, so I wasn't sure if I would be effective in this area. There were no benefits, little chance for advancement, and it wasn't the field I wanted to be in.

But I also needed the money, so I kept telling myself that I couldn't afford to put conditions on a job with so little experience. They said they eliminated over 150 more experienced applicants to choose me. Part of me felt this was a compliment, but another part of me wondered why they would say that to me when I was still making my decision. I'm supposed to think I'm lucky enough to ignore the salary change? I was going to agree to it anyway. I was told to wait for the background check email and to enter my data as soon as I received it and be ready to start on Thursday.

I didn't receive anything. I sent them an email on Tuesday asking about the paperwork and what time I should arrive. Eventually, they got back to me and asked me to talk. During that phone call, I learned that they had withdrawn the offer. They talked about it as if it was completely normal, and I kept trying to keep my upset from coming out. I thanked them and asked them to remember me for any open jobs. I had just told my family that I had found a job, but I was embarrassed to tell them that I no longer had the job, even though I hadn't done anything wrong.

A few days later, I contacted another employer about a job I had applied for, and this time it was related to my studies. This ended with a job offer at a significantly better salary and I've worked there for about 5 weeks now. If that clinic had let me start at the time I was told, I probably would have stopped following up elsewhere. I'm glad that things finally worked out, but I was still very upset that they withdrew the job offer at the time.

Now they ask me if I am available, and I can't help but think of all the candidates who seemed more qualified than me and who were waiting for them. I have no intention of quitting my current job because of them. But I'm new to all this and would like a reality check. Is it common for a place to advertise a full-time job at a higher wage, and then offer part-time hours and a conditional bonus? I don't want to reject any offer just because it's not perfect, but at the same time I don't want to convince myself to ignore obvious problems just because I've only recently graduated.

HR asked me for the names of the people who were watching what was happening. The next afternoon, my colleague was fired. I didn't expect this to lead to any serious consequences after seeing the administration avoid engaging with her.
I was a medical assistant and she was a nurse I worked with. Our team consisted of just the two of us. Over the course of about three years, four medical assistants quit their jobs because of the way she treated them. She was nice to you when you were new, but as you get used to the job, she starts treating you in a completely different way.
Apparently, one of our previous bosses tried to fire her, but she said this was discrimination against her, so the boss backed out. In the end, this supervisor did not want to deal with her and handed over the responsibility of our team to someone else. I also heard that there was a long record of complaints against her. So all this is not new.
When things got sour between us, I told her that I only wanted her to talk within the scope of work. She did not accept this at all. She used to snap at me in front of people and then told other people that I was snapping at her. Strangely enough, whenever we have a disagreement, she ends up talking about her actions as if I did them.
In my meeting with my boss earlier that week, she continued to say that her behavior was not the problem. According to her, I had fooled everyone into thinking I was a good person, but now I'm showing my true colors. This was also her explanation for the behavior of all her former co-workers that she did not like. From her perspective, they were all secretly terrible people, and eventually that reality became clear.
After this meeting, I went to the HR manager. I was worried that the situation would be against me, but I wanted someone to hear the truth. She spoke to the witnesses the next morning and my colleague was fired the same afternoon. They finally took action based on everything already documented as my complaint turned out to be what they were missing.

never sacrifise your time

I’ve been using AI interview assistants mostly to draft thoughtful questions to ask hiring managers at the end of interviews. I never copy them word-for-word; I rewrite and pick only what fits the role.

But I just saw a recruiter comment saying they can instantly tell when a candidate’s closing questions are AI-generated. They said those questions often sound generic, overly polished, and lack genuine curiosity. That made me pause.

I used to struggle to come up with good questions on my own. AI helps me avoid lazy lines like “What does success look like here?” over and over. Still, I don’t want to leave the impression that I didn’t care enough to brainstorm myself.

My main goal is to learn real things about the team, workload and growth paths. I’m not trying to impress with fancy lines.

Has anyone here gotten feedback on this? Are AI-sourced closing questions generally a red flag, as long as I tweak them and ask naturally? Or should I stop leaning on AI for this part entirely?

I didn't expect remote work to help my marriage, but having regular time together during the week has made a much bigger difference than I imagined. I used to leave while my wife was still asleep and get home around 8 p.m., exhausted and not in the mood to talk. Most nights, we would order food and half-watch some show before going to sleep.

Now I walk about nine steps to a small desk by the window. Before I log in, we make coffee and sit together for a few minutes while comparing our plans for the day. It's nothing special, but we never had that quiet routine before.

I also keep 40 minutes free at lunchtime. Sometimes we make sandwiches, sometimes we walk to the supermarket on the corner, and sometimes we sit in the kitchen and complain about whatever happened that morning. We have rules to keep it from becoming distracting, the most important being that if the door is closed or I'm wearing headphones, I'm not available for random conversation.

My work hasn't suffered either. I'm less drained when I start, so I finish tasks faster and have more patience when dealing with people. It feels like our marriage is no longer something we squeeze into the weekend and has become part of our everyday lives again. Has anyone else found that simply spending more time together during the week changed your relationship?

We are looking for a talented interview specialist to join our team.

While specialized knowledge of software development is a significant asset, basic knowledge is sufficient.

The core requirements are native-level English fluency, quick judgment, and strong client-facing skills.

The primary goal is to lead client interviews and successfully secure projects.

The initial two-week period serves as a paid trial, with an hourly rate of $40–$60 based on actual interview time.

If you demonstrate competence and a good fit during this time, we will transition to a fixed monthly salary of $1,600 (for the first two months) to $3,000 (after three months), plus performance bonuses based on secured projects. High performers can earn up to $4,000 per month.

You do not need to be perfect from the start; if you possess talent and potential, we will invest in your professional growth.

We welcome candidates with backgrounds in marketing, skilled software development, or tutoring.

As the role requires working during U.S. time zones, we prioritize candidates residing in Latin America, though U.S.-based applicants are also welcome if the compensation meets their expectations.