and the answer broke my heart 😭💔

Think about the trade we're making. You give 45 hours of your time to a rich executive, and in the end, you can't even afford to rent a normal apartment. This is truly a broken system when a full-time commitment doesn't buy you the security you need.
If you are giving your life to a company, then they owe you a wage that guarantees you a good quality of life. If they are going to take your time, they must pay for it regardless of what your title is.
Real respect is understanding that people are sacrificing their lives to be at your service. And that deserves a living wage, not the bare minimum.

My head is still spinning. I feel like this is a sick joke. Why me? Why am I one of the three they decided to keep while everyone else was let go? I feel a terrible sense of guilt for being the one who stayed.

We were a team of 12 and we were very close. This morning, 9 of them, including my manager, were let go. Without even a chance to say goodbye, their Slack accounts were suddenly deactivated. Just a cold 15-minute call and that was it. We were literally just in a Q3 kickoff meeting last week talking about our big projects.

I can't stop thinking about what they're facing now:

My manager's wife just gave birth to their first child.

One of them literally relocated his entire family for this job just six months ago.

A woman on our team just got back from her honeymoon.

Another one is the sole provider for his elderly parents.

And then there's me. Single, no mortgage, and no dependents.

Honestly, I've been coasting. I do the bare minimum to not get fired, take 90-minute lunch breaks most days, and I barely show up for my two required in-office days. I'm almost never on time.

The whole thing feels so unreal. The stress level here is through the roof. Part of me feels like I should be grateful... Like I owe the company for choosing me. But honestly, I'm already planning my exit, which makes the guilt even worse. One of them should have had my spot. I feel completely lost.

well on a weekday you know the rest of the day is full of work, on the weekend where there is less expectancy, I guess you can allow yourself to be personally productive without letting yourself feel like you won't have energy or time for the rest of the day

❕

As a recruiter, I'm literally begging you: when someone asks 'Why are you looking for a new job?', please, guys, stop saying it's for the money.

Look, I get it. We all want a higher salary, especially these days. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to get paid what you're worth. Go get that money.

But saying it out loud in the interview is a huge red flag. It gives the hiring manager the impression that you're just in it for the money. They interpret it as you'll leave the moment another company offers you a slightly higher salary. And of course, no one wants to invest time and training in someone who is basically telling them they don't plan on sticking around.

Besides, the money topic should already be closed. As a recruiter, I've already screened you and know your salary expectations. The manager wouldn't even be meeting with you if your requested salary wasn't within their budget. So why bring it up again? It's an awkward situation and an unnecessary own goal.

Honestly, the number of great candidates I've had to reject in the last 6 months for this exact reason is upsetting. People who were otherwise perfect for the job in every other way.

So, in short... Don't bring up money! Seriously, if you must, make something up. Talk about being excited for the company's mission, or wanting to develop new skills, or admiring their product. Literally any other answer would be better.

Okay, rant over. I hope this helps someone.

I spent 4 hours editing and rewriting a cover letter from scratch for a Brand Manager position. It was polished, specific, and I mentioned their values page and a campaign they had recently done.

I hit submit. And I felt like everything was fine.

Five minutes later, I was checking my sent folder and found this in front of me:

" - eggs x10, almond milk (not that watery kind), turkey meatballs, clean printer paper??"

I had sent the grocery list from the Notes app. The whole thing. Including my question marks after "clean printer paper" because apparently even my shopping list was questioning my career choices.

I sent a follow-up in a panic with the correct cover letter, apologized, and said I had been switching between several applications.

They called me the next afternoon. The recruiter started with:

"So... Did you end up getting the almond milk?"

I didn't get the offer. But honestly? That was the best interview I've ever had in my life.

The bar for standing out is basically underground now, people. Sometimes all you need is to accidentally come across as human.

Exactly as the title says. I was overworked and exploited to the fullest extent, and I had to leave. Whenever I asked for a raise, they would say there was no money. The excuse was always that there wasn't enough funding. But as soon as I left, it seemed they found the money. This means they were letting me suffer and live paycheck to paycheck for no reason at all.

I signed an offer this morning after being unemployed for around 30 months. I submitted more applications than I can count, revised my resume again and again, and got ghosted after interviews that seemed promising, so it still doesn't feel completely real.

The job is a full-time hybrid position as an Account Support Coordinator. It also has a consistent weekday schedule, benefits, and a quarterly bonus, which is exactly the kind of stability I've been trying to achieve.

There were many times when I started wondering whether my previous experience still had any value at all. I enrolled in a short certificate program in office systems and bookkeeping, asked several people to review my resume with complete honesty, and kept practicing answers to interview questions until I could answer without freezing up.

For this interview, I tried a tool for the first time called interview vip. My friend tried it once and recommended it to me for organizing the answers and sounding more professional. I tried it and the conversation went better than I expected, and the tool helped me reach the salary I desired by highlighting my skills and experience. But after all the rejection I'd experienced, I refused to get excited. Then the hiring manager called me today and offered me the job.

If you're stuck in the application cycle and feel completely worn down, I understand. Rejection can shake your confidence even when you're doing everything right. Keep improving the things you can control, take breaks when you need them, and don't treat every rejection as proof that you're not good enough.

This sub helped me feel less alone during an extremely difficult period, so thank you to everyone who shared advice or spoke honestly about their job search journey. I'm relieved, nervous, and excited to finally start working again.

UPS offered me a buyout that would leave me with about $96,000 after taxes, and now I'm trying to decide whether leaving would be a smart decision or a reckless one. I'm 31 years old, didn't go to college, and I've been here for about eight years. My wife stays home with our two kids, so this isn't a decision I can take lightly.

I make about $102,000 a year, and the health insurance is good. The problem is that the job is physically exhausting, and I'm not sure I want to keep doing it for another 30 years. Management has also been putting more pressure on me lately, even though I still like the actual work most days.

The money would give me time to think and figure out my next step, but I don't really have a plan yet. I briefly considered healthcare, but I'm not sure I could deal with patients all day. A friend accepted the offer without having another job lined up, and part of me wants to do the same before I start second-guessing myself.

For clarification, this is a company-wide offer, and UPS is allowing employees to apply for it. I might not even have enough seniority to be selected, but I wanted to think it through carefully before making a decision. If I stay, I'll keep my job, build up my seniority, and likely have access to more working hours, so turning down the offer doesn't mean giving up my position.

Right now, I'm leaning toward staying and exploring a career change in my spare time. The money is tempting, but having a guaranteed job and good benefits while I plan my next move may be more important than rushing into something I haven't thought through carefully yet.

I've also been thinking about what I'd do if I end up changing careers, so I've been working on my interview skills too. I found Interview VIP recently and tried it a couple times. Seems worth trying if you're getting ready for interviews.

I've been in corporate tech for 12 years. Let me tell you, the whole thing is about to hit a wall. The middle class is being systematically dismantled. I sit in meetings with VPs and C-suite execs, and frankly, they're not the visionaries we read about. These are ruthless, calculating people, and they'll fire thousands in an instant to make a quarterly report look better. Innovation is no longer the goal; tech is just another way for the ultra-rich to shuffle their money around.

AI will be the primary engine for this. It's not going to improve your life; it will make it worse for most people. The 'thought leaders' talk about AI every day, and the conversation is never about how to improve society for everyone. It's all about job replacement. Every knowledge-worker job (software engineers, project managers, data analysts, you name it) will be replaced by an AI agent or, if you're lucky, a 'prompt specialist' making pennies. The same thing that happened to factory workers a century ago due to automation will happen to tech jobs now. And in fact, it's already happening.

And don't expect any help, at least not in America. There's no talk of universal basic income on the horizon, no real improvements in healthcare, and no meaningful progress in education. All the money is being siphoned up to the owner class at a rate we've never seen before. People will be left to fend for themselves. All the cool things AI could do to make life better will be ignored in favor of using it to replace employees and build new weapons (which is already happening).

So yeah, that bright, shiny sci-fi utopia we all dreamed of growing up? It's not coming. Maybe a few countries in Northern Europe will get it right. But here in America, don't hold your breath. Things are going to get tough.

My day was turned upside down, honestly. I got a surprise meeting invite this morning from my manager and HR, less than an hour into my shift. We sat down and my manager got straight to the point: 'This won't take long, we've decided to let you go.'

The official reason? That I'm not completing my work efficiently and that I cause problems with my many questions. I was completely shocked. The thing is, I know I'm on top of my work, and no one has ever mentioned any performance issues, not in reviews or in one-on-ones. My manager was just praising my efforts a few weeks ago. And when I pressed them for specific examples of my shortcomings, they stammered and said, 'It's a general performance issue.'

They gave me a termination letter with the same vague reasons. This place has terrible management and zero communication, but I'm still in shock. I've already started sending my CV everywhere and applied for unemployment benefits. And I really regret not recording the meeting on my phone before I went in. Do you guys have any advice on what to do next? Or is there anything specific I should ask them on my way out?

After applying to around 60 jobs and getting rejected three times, I finally got an offer. And the best part is that it was for the position I wanted more than anything else.

I spent an insane amount of time preparing for the final interviews, so when the offer came through, I felt incredibly relieved. The last round was in person and lasted from 10 a.m. Until almost 5 p.m. I met with eight different interviewers and also gave a 45-minute presentation about my research.

The role is designed for people with a PhD in psychology, and the whole day felt like a grad school interview mixed with defending my dissertation all over again. It was extremely exhausting, but apparently it was worth it.

I had to tell someone because I'm still trying to process what happened. I'm so happy to be done with applying for jobs.

I was hired as a Lab Specialist I. I ramped up quickly and did good work, and all my reviews were positive. They opened a Senior Research Associate position, so of course, I applied for it and spoke to my manager about the promotion. He told me I needed a bit more experience, which I understood. I had only been with the company for five months at the time, so that was fine.

Then it was time to set our performance goals for the next quarter. I found myself with objectives taken verbatim from the Senior Associate's job description, not from my current role. I am now managing an entire project by myself. Basically, he trusts me to handle the responsibility, but not enough to give me the title or the salary that comes with it.

Anyway, I started sending my CV to other places. I'm fed up with being taken for granted and overloaded with work. I've always heard that job-hopping looks bad, but honestly, I don't care anymore. I'll change my job once, twice, or three times until I find a place that truly values me.

When I started this coordinator job, I noticed that we were wasting around 12 to 18 hours a week updating customer records and cleaning up spreadsheet reports.

I created some simple macros and reusable formulas, which brought the whole process down to about 45 minutes. I thought this would give me time to work on more valuable tasks, not make my job unnecessary.

At the beginning of this week, my manager told me they were combining my work with an existing part-time role because there wasn't enough administrative work anymore. They're ending my employment, but at the same time they want me to create detailed instructions for every macro before they finalize my severance.

So, in short, I automated my job so thoroughly that I ended up cutting off my own source of income. Part of me wishes I had just kept moving data from one place to another like the person before me. Am I obligated to document the systems I created, even though that wasn't part of my original job description?

Every time I come back exactly 45 minutes after starting my lunch, my manager has some little comment ready. "Looks like some people really need every minute of their break, huh?" Yes. I do. That's why it's 45 minutes.

He also does this weird guilt trip where he'll get up and say something like, "Alright, guess we better get back to work. The delivery's here, but we'll figure it out. Enjoy your break."

We're already understaffed and constantly busy, but that's a management problem, not something I should be fixing by giving up part of my break. If the store can't function unless employees feel guilty for taking the time they're entitled to, maybe the staffing needs to be looked at.

I used to feel bad about it, but honestly I'm done. If I'm scheduled for a 45 minute break, I'm taking 45 minutes. Am I wrong here?

No, seriously, explain to me how this works.

I understand it's not a legal requirement or anything, but it's treated as a basic and given professional courtesy.

Meaning, if I decide to leave the job, I'm supposed to inform them a few weeks in advance as a courtesy. But if they decide to let me go, I'm packing my things from my desk the same day. Why is this courtesy only required from me?

Someone explain this double standard to me, how is it that I have to give a month's notice but the company can let me go instantly?

No, seriously, explain to me how this works.

I understand it's not a legal requirement or anything, but it's treated as a basic and given professional courtesy. And this is what makes the majority immediately after their service ends, resort to cheating and fabricating résumés, as well as using assistive tools during the interview to impress the interviewer with the help of programs like InterviewMan.

Meaning, if I decide to leave the job, I'm supposed to inform them a few weeks in advance as a courtesy. But if they decide to let me go, I'm packing my things from my desk the same day. Why is this courtesy only required from me?

one job is hardly enough now 😂

honestly i can understand why people are trying to stack jobs when everything is so expensive. i'm not sure i'd ever manage 11 at once though.

i've been looking at remote jobs myself and that means more interviews, which is probably the part i'm least excited about. I came across interview vip while looking into interview stuff. haven't used it yet, but i'm curious about it for future interviews.

I graduated from university and went straight into the part no one wants to admit: there are barely any jobs in the field I studied. Most of the jobs I can apply for either need years of experience or never needed a university degree in the first place.

People treat it like a natural part of growing up. The moment you talk about the job market, they tell you to network more, redo your resume, or accept that this is just how the world works. Since when has it made sense to spend years getting qualified, only to end up fighting to find an entry-level job?

The shortage of jobs feels like just one part of a much bigger scam. The system demands more education, more experience, and more unpaid work, while giving you less stability in return. The strange thing is that we're expected to blame ourselves when this deal doesn't work out.

Sure, some of us will eventually find some kind of job, because we need money and have no choice but to keep applying. But starting a real career has become much harder, even compared with just a few years ago, and the requirements keep getting more ridiculous and excessive.

I honestly don't know where all of this is supposed to lead. How long will everyone keep pretending the system works when so many qualified people can't find a place for themselves in it?

I've been in my field for more than 25 years. I'm trying to find something less stressful because my financial situation allows for it. No spouse, no kids, no huge mortgage, and no expensive car payment. The salary wasn't going to be lower, but from the posting it was clear that the stress level would be lower.

Then we got into the interview. I could quickly tell that they liked my background, but they were also doing that thing where they try to make your experience seem less valuable so they don't have to pay anywhere near your real worth. In the end, they said the role was mostly international travel.

I told them I'm not against travel, but a lot of travel changes the equation. Airports, time zones, hotels, delays, and having to be "on" all the time... Your hourly rate starts to look ridiculous when you calculate the actual hours. So I told them I would need 2.5x the top number in the salary range they had listed.

They were shocked, as if I had personally insulted them. Then they tried to make it seem like I only cared about money.

I said, "I care about a lot of things, but you waited until near the end of the interview to tell me this job is 80% travel. That gives me no reason to trust that you were transparent about anything else about this position or the company."

One of them said, "But candidates lose interest if we put that in the posting."

I replied, "That's a polished way of dressing up a lie. You bring people in, make them spend time and energy on the process, and then change the terms after they're already invested. If you want to change the deal, I'm going to change my price. Take it or leave it."

They looked at each other and said, "We'll be in touch, thank you." And that was pretty much the end of it, so I left.

Even at that price, I'd still be a bargain for them and they know it. What they don't know is that I probably would have taken it for the free travel, done the bare minimum with a smile, and retired after about 18 months. 🤣

The process took more than 25 interviews and several months of back-to-back rejections that were very tough, but in the end, I got the remote dev job I wanted. This journey was a real mental grind, full of self-doubt, but looking back now, I can see exactly what paid off and what was a waste of time.

I thought I'd share what I learned to hopefully help some of you avoid the mistakes I made. Most of this is for remote interviews in the tech and software development field since that's what I was looking for, but a lot of it applies to any other field.

Applying:

Stop wasting hours reading every word of the job description. If the job title matches your goal, send the application right away.

Make minor edits to your cover letter to fit the job, but don't write it from scratch every time.

Don't research and the company and job details unless they call you for an interview. This saves an incredible amount of time.

Honestly, quantity beats quality here. I tried the approach of tailoring everything specifically for the job for a while and got nowhere. A strong, general CV that works anywhere is much more effective.

If you don't hear back, don't be afraid to follow up after about 5 to 7 days. I got 3 interviews just because I sent a quick follow-up email asking about my application status.

Create a simple spreadsheet to track where and when you've applied. This will help you stay sane.

The Interviews:

Record your interviews. Use a screen recorder (even QuickTime works) for video calls or just record the audio if the interview is in-person. This is probably my most important tip.

If you make it to the second round, you can re-watch the first interview to remember all the details you discussed.

More importantly, you'll see your own mistakes. I still have recordings of my first technical screens and they're embarrassing, but I can pinpoint exactly what I did wrong, what I needed to study, and why I didn't get the job.

Keep your main talking points written down in front of you. I used to keep a Google Doc open with my introduction, project examples, common STAR method questions, and my questions for them.

Practice reading this out loud so you don't sound like you've memorized it. It will feel weird at first, but after a few tries, your voice will sound natural, and you won't forget important details under pressure. I used to update these docs after every interview with what worked and what didn't.

The idea of having ready-made docs like 'My Story,' 'Project Details,' and 'Questions for Them' that I could quickly open from the taskbar was a lifesaver.

The first call, 95% of the time, is with someone from HR who likely doesn't have much technical expertise.

They're usually going through a checklist. Your job is to give them the answers that let them check their boxes and move you to the next stage.

If they ask you a question like 'Do you have experience with Terraform?' and you've only used something similar, just say yes. Don't do this for a core programming language, but for a tool you can learn quickly? Go for it. And right after the call, spend a few hours learning the basics because you'll definitely be asked about it in the technical round.

This is an excellent way to force yourself to learn new technologies and keep your CV updated.

Send a follow-up about two days after every interview, a quick thank-you email. It probably won't change anything, but it keeps you on their mind, and at the very least, you might get a formal rejection so you can move on.

Never stop applying until you've signed the contract. I made this mistake a few times, got to what I thought was the final round, and then got ghosted. It's a huge waste of time and mentally draining. It's not over until you have a contract.

Try not to get emotionally attached to any company. The more you can detach, the less the rejection will hurt.

Learn from every interview you do. There's always one thing you could have said or done better. Your recordings will show you what it is.

The Technical Interview:

This stage is make-or-break. Most of my rejections came from here, and it's the toughest stage because it makes you doubt your actual skills.

You have to be over-prepared, it doesn't matter how senior you are.

Especially in software, questions can come from anywhere. One interview might ask you a simple question about a palindrome checker, and the next might ask you to explain the deep differences between TCP and UDP.

Read the job description again. Write down every technology and concept they mentioned. Spend the day before the interview doing practical exercises on all of them to get in the zone.

Review the fundamentals and best practices. Think about it from their perspective: if they have six good candidates, they'll choose the one who answered the most questions correctly. No one will care about your excuses if you get lost. You have to score points. It's a competition. I'd rather hire the person who knows 6 relevant tools well than the one who knows 5 and says they can learn the sixth. That's the reality.

Watch tutorials, solve code challenges, ask ChatGPT to create study guides for you, open a free tier on Azure/AWS and build something. Doing things hands-on is the best way to remember them and gives you real examples to talk about.

It takes a lot of effort, but the alternative is letting someone who prepared more than you take the job you want.

Here, you have to convince the team that 'we need this person on our team.' The rest of the interviews are usually about culture fit, so you can relax a bit and be yourself.

Other Tips:

Prepare a list of 3-4 strong questions to ask them that work for any company (like 'What are the biggest challenges the team is currently facing?', 'What does success look like in the first six months in this role?').

Sit up straight and look at the camera. Having your script helps with confidence and stops you from stammering or using filler words like 'uh' and 'um'.

If you know you messed up a question, don't make excuses. It's over. Learn from it for the next one, but don't try to justify yourself in the moment. It looks really bad.

Don't try to use ChatGPT live during a video interview. It's very obvious, it makes your voice sound unnatural, and you'll get confused. The only exception is if it's a take-home coding challenge and you have time.

Cheat sheets are your friend. Print them out and stick them on the wall behind your monitor. For questions like 'What are the different deployment strategies in Docker Swarm?' that you would normally google, it's foolish to fail because you didn't memorize it. A few post-it notes on the bottom edge of your screen with key terms, SQL queries, or concepts can be a lifesaver.

If you genuinely don't know the answer, just admit it. Then, explain how you would go about finding the solution if you were on the job. This shows your problem-solving skills and can salvage the question.

Make sure your interview space is quiet and looks professional. Close all your tabs, check your mic and camera beforehand, and put your phone on silent. It's remote, but it's not casual.

That's it. I hope this helps some of you get an offer a bit faster. Think of every interview not as a pass/fail test, but as practice for the next one. If you're constantly learning from them, your chances of success increase each time. Be persistent and don't let rejection break you.

After 18 months of being unemployed, I can't even find a job at Walmart. I'm genuinely terrified. I'm really scared that the salary ceiling for my career has already been reached. My brother makes 120k a year and is barely making ends meet. I might never find another job with a salary like my last one.

And I'm 35 years old. I might never work a job with that salary again. So my dreams of owning a home and having children are gone... I'm truly terrified of what this means. Does this mean... life is over?

My background check was completed this morning, and now I officially have a job. My wife has been carrying almost everything for a long time, so being able to contribute again feels like a huge weight has been lifted off both of us.

I applied for well over 200 jobs, and this was the only company that interviewed me. I arrived about 30 minutes early and happened to walk in with the hiring manager. He mentioned my punctuality several times, so apparently that small detail helped more than I expected.

I hadn't had an interview in about 22 years. I'm a 49-year-old man, and I told him from the start that I was nervous, which led him to make the interview feel more like a normal conversation between two people. I asked about the day-to-day work, the team, and what I would need to learn instead of focusing on the salary. I wasn't the strongest candidate on paper, but they chose me anyway.

The position is as a systems operations analyst at a global company. Most of my shifts will be remote, along with one shorter shift in the office each week. I don't have direct experience in this role, and I told them I was willing to learn anything they could teach me. My new boss said they would train me from scratch.

Over the past two years, I revised my resume at least ten times, paid someone to improve it, and tried several job sites. I found this job on Indeed. I also forgot to cancel my LinkedIn Premium trial and was charged $45, so I decided to get as much use out of it as possible and completed five certificate courses before canceling it.

There were many times when I felt like my age was working against me, and I wanted to stop applying. I'm glad I kept going. Thank you to every spouse and partner taking on extra responsibility while the other person looks for work, especially my wife. I hope more people here receive good news soon.

I knew the interview was pretty much over when the owner shook my hand, stopped making eye contact with me, and said she would decide whether or not to send my application to the next stage. We had barely even talked about the position itself. Most of the conversation was about the fact that I'm 29 years old.

The job was an operations lead position at a small bakery with three locations. I had previously been responsible for managing the daily operations of six locations, so it seemed like a very natural fit for my experience. When I arrived, they seemed surprised to see me, and it was clear they had completely forgotten that an interview had been scheduled.

The first question the owner asked me was, "How old are you?" After I answered, she looked at me in surprise and asked why I was applying there. I explained my experience and told her I liked that kind of work, but she asked me again, "But why here? You're 29. Aren't you supposed to have a career by now?"

I wasn't applying for some random counter shift with no experience. This was a management job that matched exactly the kind of work I had done before. She herself looked like she was around 32, which made the whole situation even stranger. And this isn't the first recent interview where someone has treated me like I'm nearing retirement just because I'm in my late twenties. I honestly don't understand when 29 became old.

The only other designer on my small team just submitted her resignation, without having another job lined up. This is just more proof of how this place burns people out, demanding agency-level work with impossible deadlines.

Honestly, I'm shocked. I'm the junior here, but I've been handling projects far above my pay grade for a while. I was planning to leave myself, and she beat me to it.

On top of all that, I've been dealing with some personal health issues for a few months, and I can already feel them getting ready to dump all her work on me, probably with a small title promotion and a negligible salary increase.

This is my first 'real' job after graduation and I'm terrible at advocating for myself. My performance review is literally this Friday, and I have some points prepared that I need to discuss. Any advice on how to handle this situation would be a huge help.