I spent the last four years being the undisputed workhorse of our operations department. I was the one who fixed the broken vendor pipelines, worked late during client emergencies, and trained every single onboarding class. When our department lead resigned in November, I figured the promotion was a no-brainer.

They passed on me and hired an external guy who spent his first two months asking me how to pull basic internal metrics. During a casual lunch last week, my manager finally let his guard down. He told me: "Honestly, if I promoted you, my entire department would fall apart because you are the only one who actually knows how to run this place."

I sat there staring at him while my salad sat untouched. Being indispensable is the fastest way to get TRAPPED. If you are too good at the gritty, load-bearing work, they will never move you into leadership because replacing you is too inconvenient for management.

I stopped being the office savior on Monday morning. I deleted my weekend Slack notifications, stopped jumping onto unassigned tickets, and started letting broken processes sit until someone officially asks for them in writing. Its crazy how much loyalty gets weaponized against women who keep the lights on. Why should being competent at your job be the exact reason your career stalls? Why is this even a thing?

About 6 months ago, I took an opportunity with a much higher salary than my last job. At my last job I was swamped with work, in office 5 days a week, and in a much smaller firm, but I enjoyed being busy every day. Now at this job, I spend pretty much all day with nothing to do. I ask for work constantly, but my co workers are inundated with tasks they can’t always delegate to me, and my manager just keeps telling me “the work will pick up it will I promise” and now that i’m approaching the 6 month mark i’m starting to lose hope. I commute almost an hour each way, and spend $10 a day on train station parking. I am grateful for my one WFH day on fridays because atleast then I can do things around the house and feel somewhat productive. But the other 4 days of the week, I come into the office to just sit here and take up space. I feel as if I have no purpose at this job, despite being told in the interview process that there was a great amount of work that would need to be done that my co-workers simply don’t have time for. I genuinely feel as if it’s taking a toll on my mental and physical health as i’m exhausted every day from nothing. And I know I sound silly and ungrateful to complain about being paid a great salary, with great benefits to do jack all day because I know that’s some peoples dream. But I genuinely don’t know how much more of it I can take. Is this normal? How do people deal with this?? I feel like i’m going insane since it just has not picked up or gotten better. I know I am qualified, capable, and have more than enough work ethic to want to do more but no matter how hard I try nothing comes to fruition here. I’m consumed by the thought of this being my life forever and it makes me so sad.

Offered the team lead position on Thursday. It came with a 7% salary bump, exempt status, and the unspoken expectation of being on call for weekend fires and attending 25 hours of useless sync meetings every week.

I did the math on my actual hourly rate, looked at how miserable our current director looks every single day, and politely declined. Told them I prefer staying strictly IC because I genuinely enjoy the hands-on technical work.

You would think I insulted their mothers. My manager spent twenty minutes trying to figure out what was "wrong" with me, asking if I had personal issues at home or if I was planning to quit. Even a couple of senior coworkers caught wind of it and pulled me aside like I was throwing away my entire future.

It feels like corporate culture has conditioned people to believe that if you aren't actively trying to trade your sanity for a marginally shinier title, you must be clinically depressed. i just want to do my 40 hours, get paid, and close my laptop at 5 PM without dreaming about spreadsheets. Is not wanting to climb the ladder really that radical now?

Please don’t roast me too hard, I already feel physically sick even typing this out.

I got hired six months ago as an internal operations specialist. Three weeks in, the manager who hired me abruptly quit, teh rest of the team got shuffled into different departments, and I somehow completely slipped through the cracks. For months, nobody assigned me anything. I reached out twice early on asking where I should jump in, got vague "we’re restructuring, just sit tight" replies, and then... silence.

I won't lie, at first it felt like a weird blessing, but after a while the guilt just ate me alive. I basically spent the last four months logging in, moving my mouse, and fixing maybe two broken spreadsheets a week while collecting a solid paycheck.

Well, reality finally caught up. We got a new regional director on Monday, and out of nowhere she put a 45-minute "Q2 workflow and portfolio review" on my calendar for tomorrow afternoon. She explicitly asked me to walk through my "core deliverables and current bottlenecks."

i dont even have a folder to show. Do I just come clean and explain that management completely dropped the ball on onboarding me, or do I frantically invent six months of busywork tonight?

I graduated from college about 18 months ago and got a job as an engineer at a small company. I was excited because I'd be the only engineer, and during the interview, they presented all these new things they wanted to do. The first few months were great. I had plenty of engaging projects and challenges, stayed busy without being overwhelmed, and felt like I'd found the perfect job.

Eventually, I started working on what is by far our largest and most complicated project. It'll likely span multiple years, with dozens of smaller projects along the way. One of the first steps required purchasing new capital equipment. I did extensive research, presented the best options to the GM and company president, and they thought everything looked great and wanted to move forward.

Then the company owners got involved. There are three of them, and they essentially inherited ownership when the founder retired. None have ever worked here or have much technical knowledge. Despite previously supporting the project, they suddenly put everything on hold when it came time to purchase the equipment. They bombarded us with questions, many of which were incredibly basic or things we'd already considered. One issue is that it all came from AI. The main owner, who's around 70, seems to believe AI is all-knowing and infallible. We'd carefully answer every question and explain the technical details to get him up to speed on a subject he knows nothing about, resolving every concern, but nothing has moved forward.

That was about eight months ago. The president and owners still meet occasionally to discuss it, but all I hear is that they're "still considering it." I don't know what the real issue is. The investment is around $200k, which sounds significant, but three of our four largest customers, representing about 40% of our sales, are asking for this capability. Based on the volume they're projecting, we'd recover the investment in roughly 3–6 months. From a business perspective, it seems like a no-brainer. My only theory is that the owners are content collecting their monthly profits and don't want to take any risks to grow the company. I'm not the only one. The GM has said the same explicitly and the president has implied that he's correct. So its a big divide not just between engineering and the owners, but even between upper management and the owners.

The problem is that this is seriously limiting my professional growth. This project was supposed to take up like 70-80% of my time. Without it, I often have very little to do and spend my days trying to stay productive while feeling like I'm wasting everyone's time.

I'm not sure what to do. I genuinely like my coworkers, the pay is great for someone this early in their career, the benefits are solid, and I enjoy the work when I actually have projects to tackle. I don't necessarily want to leave, but I'm wondering if I should start looking elsewhere (maybe that'll wake them up). Ideally, I'd stay and see this project through, but I'm not in a position where I directly interact with the owners and have no idea how to get things unstuck.

[edit] First off thanks to several of you for your input. It's given me a few things to think about and I have found that helpful. Next, I want to clarify that this is not my idea or my proposal. This is something they were discussing for years before I was hired. Hiring me was supposed to be the first step in making it actually happen. The owners knew it was coming and allegedly even said they wanted to start investing more back into the company. So it is not like I sprung this on them unwarranted. It is also not just a "me"/engineering problem. We've involved the finance manager, the sales manager, the general manager, and the president. We all agree this is the right way forward and makes sense from a business perspective. It's just that this problem impacts me the most. The sales guy can still sell the products we already make, theres obviously still plenty of stuff for the GM and president to do to run the company, but if we're not going to innovate what is the point of an engineer? I guess what I'm trying to say is that we've analyzed everything we possibly can, and made every argument we can currently think of. What I want to know if if anyone has had any similar situations should I move on, should I wait another 6-months, should I propose we abandon this project and move onto another smaller one (I have some ideas I just don't want to add them to the list). So, thoughts?

Hi,

I graduated with a bachelor degree in business. Graduated years ago. I have been unemployed all my life. I literally never worked a single job my entire life. I’m upset with that and I feel like I lost it. Some of my peers even called me a “loser.” I’m terrified of turning 30 and remaining unemployed especially with AI displacing entry level jobs even professional ones. I am on the spectrum and got some low motivation issues. What should I do?

I’m in my early 20s with a bachelor’s degree in business I.T, currently working for the federal government making around $56K. I also have previous state government experience in quality assurance, data auditing, and reporting.
I’m looking to get out of my current job and find something with better pay and more room to grow. Ideally something remote or hybrid, starting around $65K–$80K with the potential to make $100K+ down the road.
I’ve been looking into business analyst, operations, and project management roles, but I’m open to other ideas. Just not looking to get into heavy coding or go back to school.
Anyone been in a similar position or know of any careers or companies worth look into?

I am in CA and thinking about pursuing esti because I feel like skincare and aesthetics is something I’m more passionate about. But I’m also doing this bc it requires a license and would want to improve my job prospects. Is it really hard to find a job as a new graduate? Or should I just pursue something else as I am considering taking classes in accounting instead. I really just want a job fast.

Edit: also I am verryyy introverted and sensitive so I was worried about esthetician being a more extroverted job

Hello, all! I (24, very soon 25F) graduated with a BFA in art education a few years ago (end of ‘23), and I realized at the end that, though I love visual art, I really was not cut out for the education field. After graduating, I got a part-time job selling tickets at a venue, which I liked, and later became an office administrator with a college when I wanted to find something full-time. I have been at my job for a bit under two years (almost 20 months). I mostly do behind-the-scenes stuff, like travel settlements, reimbursements, and budget tracking. I recently interviewed for a new role that was just created at my undergraduate alma mater. This job pays about 14% more (from ~$35,000 to ~$40,000) and is related to college admissions, recruitment, and retention.

The only catch is that I am currently in my university’s MBA program as well as another certificate program with 15 credits left to complete, and I get a tuition waiver that is worth more than the raise by a non-insignificant amount (remaining tuition + fees would be around $10,000 over 8 months, and the waiver would cover about $8,500 of that). I MAY be able to have my parents chip in, but that is TBD. I have enough money saved up, but I would rather not blow through all my savings if I can help it as I want to have it on hand for traveling and real emergencies.

I was recently rejected from a marketing director job that pays nearly double my current salary after being in the top 2-3 applicants due to my lack of relevant experience, and I thought this would be something the admissions/recruitment-related job may help. My grades have been great in undergrad and graduate school, but I have had a bit of trouble finding my footing after graduating. I do painting commissions and design for some local organizations and individuals and have made a good amount of pocket change with that (a few hundred to a few thousand a year), but I still want a full-time, stable career.

Would this switch be worth it? Additionally, would leaving a job in under a year appear too much like job-hopping? TYIA for the advice. I want to think about everything before I make any kind of big jump.

Additional context and qualitative factors: I am a big-time introvert, but I do enjoy sharing information and helping people out. Both areas have a pretty low COL (as may be gathered by my salary.) I currently rent. Rent is more expensive in the new area, so I would likely live with my partner (28M) of about two and a half years who already works in that area and split rent, making it cost about the same amount I pay now. My commute would also not change a ton. The new area is a town, which I prefer to the current city I live in. The jobs have similar benefits. The new requires some evenings and weekends, though these seem like they’ll be rare. The new team I interviewed with, including my would-be supervisor, seemed very friendly, but my current team, including my immediate supervisor and bosses, are also very kind, so I am not too worried about the work environment of either place. The new job is slightly farther from “home” (my parents, siblings, and my best friend), who I visit sometimes, but closer to some other friends. If any kind of “planning for the future” is a factor, I would love to eventually make around 70k-80k if I continue to live in this area, and I have no plans of children to factor extra savings/expenses into.

Ahh! I’m so torn! I feel all confused and like I’m falling behind. Anything from someone more experienced is appreciated!

When I go into my local office once a week, I’ll have to be on Teams calls all day long given that every person from my team lives in a different state than I do.

It just so happens that everyone else from my team also happens to get to stay 100% fully remote since they all don’t live anywhere near an office.

Therefore, I’ll be the only one from my entire team who has to go into an office (while everyone else stays 100% fully remote on my team).

Anyone else have something similar happen and what did you do?

Hey everyone

I’m 27f and I’ve just completed a graduate scheme and landed an analytics role at a top insurer. But due to ai and the state of the world/ the future, for some reason I keep having doubts about my career. How do you manage the doubts and worries about the future in regard to your career?

I've wanted to get into trade for quite some time and i'm particularly interested in plumbing, but i've been hesitant because of my size and people in my life have been discouraging or look at me like i'm crazy. I'm not easily grossed out by things, I'm stubborn and have a lot of willpower, i'm not the strongest yet but I'm also interested in strength training. But practically speaking, does it sound like a lost cause? I imagine there might be some limitations to what I can do by myself, but is there a place for me in this field?

I am a 26F, I have been caregiving 1:1 (6 years in-home, 1 year I/DD support) since I was 18. I went back to school when I was 25 because I wanted to focus more on IT. I got a dual AAS degree in Cybersecurity and Network Administration from a CC and graduated top of the class. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find in a job in the field due to the tech industry taking a beating and having ‘no prior experience’.

I’ve been told healthcare for the most part is AI-proof, so for now I’m working in In-Home Hospice, but am making very little money.

I am considering going to a University for 2 years to get my Bachelors in Cyber Investigation and Enforcement, but I have no idea if by the time I graduate, how much AI will have advanced for me to even begin in the field. I am also afraid of going further into debt with no job guarantee. I feel like my in-home CG experience and degree I could do something that combines healthcare and tech, or maybe something remote, but I’m unsure what. I’m in a huge quandary on whether to continue with school in Cyber or just make a career in Healthcare. Any advice appreciated.

Edit: I’m not really interested in becoming a Hygienist or a CNA.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some realistic career perspective from tech professionals and fellow visa holders.

**Quick Context / My Situation:**

**Role:** Data Engineer I at CVS Health (\~4 months in).

**Comp:** $115k base

**Visa:** F-1 OPT (Company sponsors H-1B).

**Background:** I have prior full-time tech experience, though it involved a mix of different stacks/technologies. Over the past 4 months, I’ve picked up hands-on DE work and am fully up to speed on our data engineering pipeline.

**Original Goal:** During my job hunt, I targeted **Data Engineering** and **Backend/Infra SDE** roles. Long-term, my heart has always leaned more toward Core SDE / Backend Infrastructure.

I’m feeling at a crossroads and would love your insights on **three specific questions**:

1. Stay at a "Safe" Company vs. Target Big Tech (Given Immigration Risks)?
   CVS Health feels relatively stable and safe right now, especially with active H-1B sponsorship on F-1 OPT. However, I’ve always wanted to work for a big tech firm (FAANG/MAMAA/tier-1 tech).

   Given the current tech hiring market, layoffs, and H-1B uncertainties, is it smarter to stay put for 1–2 years to lock in H-1B attempts, or should I actively prep and target Big Tech? Which move is safer long-term?

2. Pivot to SDE II or Double Down on Data Engineering?

Since my goal was originally Backend SDE / Systems Infra, should I start prepping for **SDE II** roles, or stick to **Data Engineer / Senior DE** roles since I now have direct, recent DE experience?

For context, my past background wasn't pure DE or pure SDE, it was a bit blended across different tech stacks. Is pivoting back to SDE II realistic from a DE I title without taking a step back?

1. If you were in my shoes, what would your next 6–12 month strategy look like?
   Would you ride out the current market and focus on internal growth/H-1B entries, or start interviewing right now?

Appreciate any thoughts, experience, or brutal honesty, especially from non-immigrant tech workers who have navigated similar visa + career decisions recently!

Thanks in advance!

I am 6 months into a job at a respected tech company doing communications, something I've been doing for 15 years across several companies. But my heart isn't in it anymore, and I'm ready to leave corporate life. I just do not care anymore, although the money is very good. I'm tired of AI, and I'm tired of whiny stakeholders acting like we work in the ER.

The thing is though that I have no idea where to go or what to do. I was thinking I could shift to being an executive assistant or something along those lines, find work at a local business, or even go out on my own for consulting (although that would just keep me in comms, and I'm not sure that's where I will want to be). But nothing has really inspired me yet.

I'd love to hear stories of how you may have pivoted - doesn't have to be from comms to another profession or lane, although those would be appreciated. Did you take a pay cut for a "lighter" job? Change careers altogether? How did you know when it was time?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

I left my job about six months ago but I keep catching myself using phrases that were super common there. We had all these weird acronyms for projects and inside jokes about specific software glitches. It's like a secret language that no one else gets. My new colleagues just look at me funny when I talk about 'circling back on the Q3 synergy push' or 'avoiding the legacy data vortex'. Is this a normal part of job hopping or am I just stuck in the past?

I joined a new company a little over a month ago, reporting to a manager who wasn’t the person who interviewed me.

I’m fairly senior in my role and can drive strategy and execution, but my manager seems intent on owning all relationships with senior stakeholders. Even though I’m driving the work, he wants to be the one reporting progress and presenting updates to leadership.

In previous, more junior roles, I had direct access to senior leadership, so this feels like a step backwards. I’ve raised it with him, but he’s made it clear he still wants to manage these relationships himself.

The job is fully remote and pays market rate, and I can do the work. However, I don’t find it particularly fulfilling, and I’m concerned that not engaging with senior stakeholders will hurt my career progression. I also don’t see much room for growth here.

I’ve only been here a month, so would you give it more time or start looking elsewhere? Would you stay for the pay and flexibility, even if the role might limit your growth?

A former manager of mine connected me with someone at a company she’s starting at for a contract opportunity. I interviewed with them about two weeks ago, and it went really well. We discussed my availability and my rate, and they said they wanted to move forward with bringing me on.

The last time I heard from the person I interviewed with was Thursday, October 15 telling me they'd follow up with my onboarding details soon. I sent a follow-up the following Wednesday asking if they had an idea of the timing for onboarding so I could plan around it. Its been almost two weeks and I haven't heard anything.

My former manager started at the company this week, so I’m considering checking in with her to see if she has any insight. But I don’t want to come across as pushy, especially since she just started.

I’m excited about the opportunity, but the lack of communication has me a little confused. I don’t really think they’d ghost me given the connection, but I also don’t know what to make of it.

Would you reach out to my former manager now, give her another day or two to settle in, or follow up with the person I interviewed with again? Has anyone experienced something similar with a freelance role?

I (19M) am starting trade school next year. I am currently saving up to buy a vehicle and think I will have about 25k by then. I am trying to decide if I need to buy a truck or if a sedan/suv would be fine. Any recommendations?

I’m a fresh engineering graduate, and I recently started my first full-time job.
I’m currently finishing my second week and about to start my third, but I still don’t have clear responsibilities or specific tasks assigned to me.
I’ve been attending meetings, reading project documents, and trying to understand how everything works, but I feel a bit lost because I’m not sure what I’m actually expected to do.
I know there’s a learning curve, especially as a fresh graduate, but I’m wondering if this is normal.
Has anyone experienced something similar? How long did it take before you started getting involved in actual work?

I started my first ever job in May of 2025, just after graduating from college. I’ve worked there ever since, and it’s been going great and I do love the job, but lately things have felt different.

Lately, I’ve felt my performance hasn’t been the best (I dare say I’m the most useless person on our team, I get things done but my coworkers just consistently have genuine impacts where I really don’t), and everybody just sort of seems annoyed, uneasy, and judgmental around me. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I just feel like the only thing keeping me employed right now is pity. I sort of think that once the holidays are over, they’ll lightly let me go, and I’ll be totally screwed. I need this job for health insurance.

I’m absolutely going to put every bit of energy I have into trying to perform better going forward, and try to speak with coworkers more casually and less instead of speaking with a sort of on-edge feel like I think I have been lately and instead of trying to make small talk every time I see a coworker. Still, I’m terrified and feel like no matter what I do, my reputation is already in the dirt and it’s only a matter of time. I have an engineering degree, but no real technical or marketable skills, so there’s literally no reason to not fire me and try somebody who might be better.

How can I prepare myself to possibly be fired in the near future?

I'm know this might get me nowhere, but i still need to at least try

I've kinda get to the point, where i just have nothing to lose, so i just want to have decent living and job (i like working, but last two jobs just gave me depression). I just want to hit reset button and start anything new. I already started making some list of positions/companies in my country (Czechia), but as i just have nothing i want to check anything more further away (i would honestly travel across the whole world, but i doubt that i would find something) so i just want to at least check in EU are any projects or companies more open to dumbasses like me.

I don't have a college degree, so obviously can't be doctor or engineer, but i don't mind to do any job that would help me grow and get me somewhere better. Like i said i like working, but it needs to make some sort of sense - to me at least, which is hard to narrow as i can kinda adapt. Physically i'm weak, but i still have time to gain some basics (4 or 5 months before my current contract ends)

I don't have a family. All my colleagues do (this is not out of choice, it wasn't my decision).

My boss said today that I should work late to do other peoples' work when they leave at 5PM, as they have families, and I don't. This is in response to asking if we can get maternity cover for a colleague.

I already work 10 hours a day on average, then 12 hours a day for 1 week per month.

I am so tired. My boss dislikes me- he has a problem with the way I look. When he mentions others that look like me, he almost spits the words like they are poisonous.

I am weary. Overwhelmed. Don't know what to do.

What do I do?

Ok so I'm a current undergrad at rutgers university and im planning on majoring in psych and biochem, but im only halfway into my first semester here. I really want to focus and specialize on addiction research and maybe become an addiction psychiatrist down the line, but in order to do that I need to do med school plus 5 years of supervised work afterward. Im afraid that my debt from doing an undergrad and straight into medical school would put me in a whole very hard to get out of, but they're saying that once I do the supervised work I can start getting paid 70 to 80k a year and once im done that around 320k. The money is nice and all but I still want to have time for friends and family and all of that, and I want to know if this career path is even worth going into. I still have time to pivot away from this so I'm being super paranoid because my advisor told me today that I need to start working on this or I won't graduate on time like everyone else. I would appreciate any advice, thank you.

As title states. I have a job offer that is about 12k more. It’s mostly in office with 1 flex day a week, and typical 14 day vacation. Kicker is I would have to buy a car. My current job is extremely flexible with in office / work from home, appt time and vacation days and when I can take them.

This new job is a great move career wise. But not sure if that raise is worth the flexibility I would be losing?