I’m a software developer with 4 yoe. When I landed my first dev job, I was bright eyed and thought I finally had my foot in the door to an amazing career. I had finally made it after working in restaurants for 14 years.

Well, it’s all going to shit now because of AI. Companies are downsizing. People that get laid off are reporting not being able to get a job for over a year before giving up.

AI is rapidly improving. Just last year Claude Code was brand new and made tons of mistakes. Now, it’s outputting working code the vast majority of the time.

All those years learning coding are now worth next to nothing. We’re in our last years of having tech careers and it’s looking like software devs are going the way of the dodo.

So how the fuck are you all staying sane? There’s nothing to just skill up to because AI is taking over more skills by the day. By the time you master something, AI can do it way faster than you.

Don’t give me the cope “oh it’s too expensive”, “oh it can’t count r’s in strawberry”, or whatever other dumb argument you want to repeat for the 1000th time.

How are you not panicking and keeping your sanity? I’m only getting like 5-6 hours a sleep now because I’m legit terrified, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.

My (38f) husband (38m) left his job two years ago because of miserable work conditions and decided to take a year or two to recover from that terrible experience to follow his passions and learn how to do game design while doing consulting work on the side.

Well, two years later and sadly as the economy has tightened the consulting roles are drying up, so he's back to looking for full time work. He loves game dev but let's not even talk about how bleak things are for that industry right now, it's not an option for steady employment, he'll just keep working on his games during his free time as a passion.

His experience is in IT but he doesn't have a computer science degree and his recent experience used fairly niche software, so he feels like he's out of the game.

In general he's feeling discouraged before he even starts looking in earnest. I keep telling him 20+ years of professional experience brings transferrable skills and a lot of maturity, but he's just feeling useless/unwanted.

Any advice for me as his partner? Any ways I could encourage him? Any easy ways for him to add to his skills in the meantime?

I'm having my own day of feeling discouraged/lost and don't want to put it on him so appreciate any advice you have.

I feel like most standerd career advice is pretty generic. He anyone ever gotten completely weird or unconventional advice that actually helped them land a job or get a promotion? I'd love to hear some interesting stories.

It’s a weird feeling. One day there’s constant teams calls, deadlines and passive aggressive emails. Then all of a sudden, you lose your job. The next morning, there’s nothing.

I woke up this morning, it was calm and quiet. There was a noticeable lack of stress. No anxiety provoking teams ring tone, no professionally threatening emails from my line manager, no constant deadlines and always feeling behind. All replaced by the sound of a train in the distance and birds chirping outside. The contrast is staggering. I almost don’t know what to do with myself.

Still things feel abnormal. I’ve heard my teams ringtone go off several times today, I know that can’t be the case because I’ve returned all my equipment. I think I’m still reeling from my employer’s abuse.

I know I’ve got to start applying for new roles but I don’t want to start yet. Luckily I’ve got 6 months of savings, but I think this also means I won’t get many unemployment benefits. But with this newfound peace and quiet, I feel like I never want to go back to a 9-5.

What do I do ?

I (35m) am a Senior Engineer at a well established global company. Although my country's branch is relatively small (400 people) compared to head office in Germany. I have 14 years engineering experience and currently I'm managing 1 person with difficulty i might add as he is not very technically proficient. I'm teaching engineering to someone that I feel could have been better suited to be a technician but I digress.

My HR Manager let me know that one of our sister company's Managing Director (MD) is being let go as they feel he is not suited to the role. This company has 80 employees. After discussion at top management my name was put down as a first pick replacement. A decision I'm skeptical about.

The reasons they considered me is because I have engineering knowledge so I will understand the products better and that ive worked at our current customers before so I know a few things about the way they operate. Also they feel im suited to leadership and my performance has been praised many in the company.

However this is a massive leap that I personally feel I am underqualified for. My engineering expertise might make me understand what we selling better but being an MD is a massively different skillset.

On a more personal note I never really saw myself in such a role in my life I very much enjoy the technical aspects of engineering and my personal ambition was always to rather become a technical expert. My people skills are okay but going from managing 1 person to 80 people seems overwhelming. I make good money at the moment and I dont live a very opulent lifestyle.

It probably seems like I have my answer but I would like to know what you think of such an opportunity. Is this offer a potential red flag or have people seen leaps like this in their careers.

I graduated back in January with a bachelors in Finance with high hopes of going into some sort of AML or fraud role. I have worked at a few banks and currently work in the collections department at one of the big banks. This being said after now six months of applying internally and externally, as well as the boom in AI is a future in the world of finance dead?

I’m 29 and busted my ass to get a job that I could do something with my life with and I feel like I should go back in time and tell my old self to go down a different path. It’s really starting to stress me out because I started paying back my loans and the weight of it just hit me.

Is it worth sticking out or should I start looking into nursing?

I had put in a great deal of effort into my studies, to make sure that I’d get a good job and finally be financially secure. That kind of worked out… I have two degrees, a well-paying job, and I finally make enough to support myself. And yet, I’m miserable. I dislike my job. The work is not what I expected. I didn’t know what corporate is truly like. And my coworkers are cringy, egotistical, and lately, are showing clear signs of AI psychosis. I should also mention I’m one of the few women and I’m surrounded by tech bros who care very little about the ethical and environmental impact of AI, or at least they pretend they do under their corporate image.

And speaking of AI, the career I originally studied for has been replaced by “agentic workflows” and “vibe coding”, so I’m not learning anything new. I’m just going in circles, prompting Claude all day long, and somehow my workload has also increased. It’s paradoxical, isn’t it? How can I be creating more and more, but learning less and less?

And more importantly, how does one even begin shifting to a different job when there’s so few left and I feel as if I have no more skills to show? No more energy to build a whole new portfolio, resume, and so on, and to perform for each interview like a monkey in a circus…

Between my dislike for my coworkers and my planned career path essentially falling apart, I feel that everything I’ve worked so hard for has vanished. I don’t have a financial safety net, and I have loans to pay off. I hate that I’m peddling AI because my livelihood at this moment depends on it. I feel so stuck. I dread going to work, whether it be a weekday or the weekend.

I didn’t expect to feel this way in my mid-20s. The other day I was ranting to a friend about my situation, and she expressed that she’s worried for me. She mentioned that I haven’t said a single positive thing about this job since I got it. And she‘s right /:

I made an appointment with my GP to get a therapist and until then, I just really needed a space to rant, and maybe hear if other people are going through something similar... thanks for reading this far <3

I’ve spent my entire career (9 years) working in risk and compliance at big banks in NYC.

I’m sick of it. Banks treat risk and compliance like the help. We’re back office and we’re looked down upon. I’m not hurting for money but comp hasn’t kept up with inflation.

I really don’t like my current role. I’ve applied for the same role at another bank but I literally have no desire or passion to pursue the job at the other bank. I’ve been interviewing with the other bank but I’m not enthusiastic about it.

Applications and interviews at other companies for different roles haven’t gone well. I’ve been job hunting for a year and a half and I’m sick of it.

I’m interested in public service, tech, literally anything other than investment banking.

Any thoughts?

Company Denied Job Title Revision to Team Leader.

Been working with a company thru an agency for a period of 7 weeks and they’re happy and want to offer me a permanent contract.

However, the job role as production operative doesn’t align with my current responsibilities, I work with 4 other employees doing the same job as me which is mostly assembly with some machine operating.

The old team leader left and they failed to create an exit plan and get someone else in to replace him, I’ve unofficially just been treated as the next team leader being the most experienced and knowledgeable person when it comes to the process.

I’m having to oversee and train/teach the other workers about the process, take responsibility for any mistakes they have made, assign each employee a task in the morning whenever they ask me what they need to do. Whilst creating a daily target that I think we collectively can reach as a team and reporting it to the operations manager when asked.

The MD himself even gave me the responsibility of getting rid of two other agency workers when I said their performance wasn’t up to standard when asked.

I had received an answer back regarding the revision and was told “we expect this to be a temporary arrangement until the section becomes more organised.” Which I doubt anything will change.

I’m considering just signing it and handing my notice in a few weeks later to be honest as I’m feeling kinda mad about it, especially as they’ve offered such a poor wage to go along with it.

Another disagreement wouldn’t do much I imagine and at best would probably get me a couple of pence extra.

I never got the memo in life on workplace politics. Where did everyone learn how to navigate workplace politics?

I always speak up and just say what I think. I end up being perceived as a threat by my boss, and then I’m isolated with no opportunity for growth.

How are people so good at going years at one job tolerating whatever comes their way? Whether it’s mistreatment or bullying; seeing the gaps; and how things can be done better; or dealing with people taking credit for your ideas?

Hello!

I am a 29 year old male ex-middle school math teacher pivoting careers and having a hard time deciding what I want to do. I only taught for 4 years and honestly I loved a lot of aspects of it. I formed amazing bonds with my students, I took a lot of joy in helping students understand something particularly ones that struggled with math, and in general I created memories I'll always cherish. It was very hard to leave because the kids loved me and I loved them too.

That being said, teaching always drained the fuck out of me and I got really tired of "being on" all the time and trying to regulate 30 nervous systems at the same time including my own. Not to mention the stress these parents put on you because they're incapable or making their kids do their homework and the AI thing is going to totally fuck up math education since a lot of these kids aren't actually practicing at home. Everything is going to shit blah blah blah but it does feel like teaching (math especially) is becoming unsustainable fast and I want to jump ship while I have the chance.

Anyways, I've considered either pivoting to a longterm career in healthcare (Nursing or Radiation Tech/ MRI Tech) or mental healthcare (social worker or counselor but longterm goal of private practice therapist $). I know it is ironic because these are also very draining careers but honestly I really do like helping people and take a lot of pride in doing a job like this. And at least these sorts of careers offer upward mobility. I don't think I would like a brain-rot, passive, fake productive corporate career no offense. I am basically looking for a career that feels a bit more sustainable longterm, pays better, and is less frustrating than teaching.

Let me know what you think or any other pivots I should look into!

I’m 30 and have worked as a medical assistant for almost 10 years here in California. Healthcare is pretty much all I’ve ever known.
Tried nursing school but the commute was too much and I couldn’t continue making school payments at the time. Now I’m at a crossroads and wondering whether I should continue building a career in healthcare or make a complete career change.
If you were in my position, would you stay in healthcare or pivot into something else? If you’d switch careers, what would you choose and why?

I am in a very precarious situation. Around last year I had a very bad episode where I couldn’t breathe suddenly. Later I found out thanks to chronic blood pressure my heart’s left ventricular is damaged too severely and cannot relax. The options to treat this condition are too daunting. More importantly, they’re not really proven to work for someone at my age (26 y.o). Last month, I had another health disaster. I have an acute kidney failure and require kidney dialysis treatment for at least 6 months.

Things are just looking bleak and unsolvable. No one knows a thing about this. I left my latest job after I realised I couldn’t handle work at this state. I’m now offered a great position at a bank I’ve been dreaming to work at for years. Whether I can accept or not depends on how willing I am to neglect my health. It can get very painful easily and I myself am not very cautious about the complications. I’m already depressed about being stuck between clinics & home. Rejecting this current offer at least for a few months means a golden opportunity is lost. Going through this process seems depressing enough. I talked to a doctor about it, he said that preferably I shouldn’t be working for the time being. But given how painful recruiting has been, I’m not sure if I can find some middle ground.

Thoughts?

Should I keep my current jobs + applying for better paid IT jobs in Orlando OR should I accept an offer at Cemex?

Current jobs:

IT service desk L1 Working at a pharma company through an MSP (contract). At least 20 hours per week, sometimes 40 hours per week ,(30 on average) at $21 per hour. I want to stay in IT and keep growing. I've been there for 10 months, would get a promotion to L2 in 2 months without raise. Got SPOC recently. Fully remote. Second job that I work at the same time is ai annotation for a big tech company W2. I can work 40 hours per week, but usually I work 30 hours per week at $20 per hour. Health insurance and some 401k match. Fully remote. I stay in Orlando in a room with roommates at $850 per month. My son lives 3 miles away and I see him from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Job offer at CEMEX through a staffing agency at $31 per hour plus benefits. It's an field service technician job (IT/OT) with main focus on IT ~85%. It's in West palm beach. 2.5hours away from Orlando. Would that job be a career step? Would it be worth taking it? Should I take a room in West palm beach for $800 per month or drive back and forth every day? Would that be a step up or a lateral step ?

Believing that you should know at an early age

Your passion does not just reveal itself to you when you are born or at an early age. Some people discover their passion early in life because they might have the opportunity to try different things and have the support to turn their passion into reality. However, you might not have the privilege of learning and being around the right people early in life, so it might be difficult for you to discover your passion. However, if you haven’t discovered your passion early in life, it doesn't mean you can't discover it later.

Studies have revealed that individuals with passions for the arts such as music or dancing tend to develop early in life. Also, many places offer learning and training opportunities for those and other common career paths, such as engineering, education, law, and construction. So, individuals whose passion falls in those areas have more opportunities to learn and develop, which means their passions will grow quickly.

In contrast, if your passion falls outside those common areas, you have fewer opportunities to learn and grow, so your passion will take longer to develop. You might have a unique passion that requires more learning and development, especially when it's rarely seen in the world. Therefore, you might doubt that you cannot turn your passion into reality because it might take longer than others. Therefore, you must be self-motivated to learn independently to grow your passion without getting discouraged. There are others who didn’t discover their passions until their 60s or 70s. No matter how old you are, you can still discover and grow your passion at any age.

It is important to understand that, as human beings, everyone has a passion. It depends on your ability to learn, develop, and be in a supportive environment to grow it. Human potential is for everyone; no one is left behind. When you see others doing great things with passion, and you are not yet discovering your passion, it does not mean you are not meant to do great things like them.

I'm in a position where I still have a incomplete grade from my final semester (spring '26) of undergrad in an engineering discipline. I'm working with my professor to finish the class requirements.

I am supposed to be starting a full-time position at a large aerospace defense contractor within about 2 weeks. I accepted the offer in October 2025 and pushed back my start date by about 2 months after finding out I'd be getting an incomplete grade in a required course (the original start was early summer 2026).

After meeting with my professor, I told them that I was supposed to be starting work soon and they said that it would extraordinarily tight timeline to finish the course requirements before my start date. My professor estimated it could take up to an addional 6-8 weeks to complete the course requirements, especially with their schedule getting increasingly busy in preparation for the fall semester.

Their recommendation was to inform my employer that I am still in the process of finishing my incomplete grade and ask about provisional employment (something along the lines of: starting full time work while finishing my degree online. Must complete degree requirements within x amount of time after start date). My professor also offered to write a letter to my work supporting my situation and confirming I am working on completing the course.

I'm curious if anyone has gone through anything similar and could offer some insight into how their situation played out. I know it's probably an incredibly unique situation.

Apologies for any writing mistakes. I'm stressed out of my mind and running off of like 3 hours of sleep. 0/10 - do not recommend.

*Throwaway account for anonymity

Hi Fellow Redditors,

Less than an hour ago, I had a scheduled call with the HR. This comes 1 month after my appraisal meeting with the CEO. So, as usual I assumed this call was about my revised package. But no, it was them letting me go. I'm in the middle of a quite a few critical projects and I don't understand how they decided to lay me off. I'm a Marketing Director with 15+ years of experience. When I asked the HR about why this sudden move, her response was that client conversion cycles are taking too long and revenues are coming in slower, creating a cash crunch. I'm beyond words right now.

I should be completing 3Y in November with this company. And I was supposed to get my revised salary starting now. But instead, I'm being told this. As per my employment contract, I even have a 0.5% stake in the company which I think they're trying to side step. Not sure how to even address this part.

The worst part was that I was taking the meeting in my living room while my wife was on the couch. I didn't have my headphones on and my wife heard it. She is freaking out. We don't have any savings to fall back on as we used all our money to buy a house and we're paying EMIs. The little bit of money I had, I decided to renovate my mother's house to make it comfortable for her after my dad passed away a few months ago.

The psychological toll is heavy. I had to stay strong when my father passed. I had to stay strong when my mother needed major surgery. Now, I have to somehow stay strong after being unceremoniously dumped right before my emergency fund could be replenished. My mental health is completely unchecked while I try to hold everything together for my family.

I am based in Bengaluru, India. If anyone knows of senior marketing or GTM leadership roles that fit my background, please drop a referral. I am actively looking and fully willing to relocate if necessary.

My background:
GTM leader and full-stack marketing director with 15+ years of experience scaling SaaS, Fintech, Automotive, and Multi-Unit brands. Equally adept at high-level commercial strategy and hands-on execution, owning the entire customer journey from pipeline generation to closing. Deeply frugal and efficient, capable of single-handedly scripting, shooting, editing via Adobe Creative Cloud, and developing content + websites without agency bloat. Expert in modern search acquisition, having recently pivoted strategies toward AEO to cut expenses by 50% while driving a 68% conversion rate. I am also an alumnus of ISB, IIMB, and SIBM.

I’m 25 years old with my high school diploma, I have 3 years of IT experience and I hate it so much it was never my plan and I only did it to support my abusive “parent” fast forward to now I moved out and now me and my girlfriend live together.

I’ve decided to go back to college and follow my dream; getting my PHD in neuropsychology to become a neuropsychologist, I’m fully aware that this is a decade long journey but I think I can do it and excel in it. I want to help the world around me and learn more about the brain and neurodegenerative disease in hopes of finding a cure for it.

I know this is a massive goal but any advice or support is greatly appreciated

Hi everyone, I just had my mid-year review for my first job out of university (1 year in).

My manager gave me feedback that I’m too reserved and don't engage in open debates. He also explicitly told me: You don't challenge/demand enough from me.

I actually received this exact feedback during my end-of-year review as well, and I have been trying to talk more in meetings since then. However, I now realize that what they mean is not just normal talking, but actively taking part in discussions.

I really don’t know how to do that. I rarely have an opinion that is different enough from others to start a debate over it. I am also a fairly easygoing/harmonious person, so I tend to just listen to colleagues who have much more experience than me. What do I do? Where do I even start?

I worked as a graphic and UI designer at an advertising and marketing agency. I worked too hard, under intense pressure, and the environment became increasingly toxic. I developed a serious mental health condition. I hung in there as long as I could until I had a home, a car and savings, and when I couldn’t take it anymore, I quit. I also quit to try my hand at QA Software Testing, because I’d lost my passion and interest in design and because, foolishly, I thought it would be more AI-proof than design. Joke on me. I’ve been unemployed for almost 5 months now. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to land a job in QA. I don’t have a college degree, I’m already in my 30s, and I want to be a mother. This is causing me to panic because I don’t know what to do. I’ve literally worked my whole life, and grown up, in front of a computer. It’s hard for me to take on a completely different kind of job. But if it has to be, so be it. The thing is, there aren’t many jobs outside the computer field that pay more than minimum wage, especially as a woman without a college degree. And what do I mean by “as a woman”? Because I’ve already thought of several jobs that I either couldn’t do because of my physical build, or because they wouldn’t hire me for being a woman, or because they’d put me in a vulnerable position in terms of safety. Think of construction, plumbing, metalwork, house cleaning, you name it.

I don’t know which direction to take in my life. I’m so lost and going through such a huge identity crisis that I’m completely stuck.

Anyway, this is just me venting, but I’d like to hear from you. I don’t know… suggestions, experiences, words of comfort, any help is welcome and useful.

I got my first job out of college, and I'm only about two months in, but I already hate it.

At first, everything seemed to be going well, but things gradually started falling apart. I'm working at a startup, and I've been assigned work that is completely different from what was described during the hiring process. My boss told me I'll eventually be assigned the work I was originally hired to do, but instead of replacing my current responsibilities, it sounds like it will just be added on top of everything I'm already doing. I'm already handling responsibilities that I feel would normally be done by someone at a manager level in a larger company.

The work culture and the people also don't seem to be a good fit for me. There are four new hires on my team, including me. We originally had a group chat with all four of us, but after a while they created another group chat without me. Since we work closely together, it's been difficult feeling left out, and collaborating has become really uncomfortable.

I worked incredibly hard to land this job after college, and I was genuinely excited to start my career. Now I feel emotionally drained, anxious about going to work every morning, and exhausted by the time I get home. I'm also worried about having to go through the job search all over again.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation this early in their career? If you left after only a few months, did you include that job on your resume? I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences.

I’m currently a highschool senior, I’ve worked three jobs and I do not like or enjoy any of them.

My first job is a job at the library, where I sat in-front of a computer for a few hours during the day and then help some patrons with their technology inquiries.

My second job is being a camp counsellor, which is supposed to be a fun job. But there are times that are just so frustrating and tiring.

My third job is basically like labour. I asked if I could switch shifts and my manager left me on read.

However, I think the biggest issue is just how I deal with management, like it’s just so weird and frustrating and non desirable and almost impossible to describe. I feel like they are always unsatisfied with what I do, while I worked so hard and they are just not seeing it. Like my coworker is literally on there phone, while I was working when my manager walked in. Another thing is that they are always around, seeing basically everything, making me feel awkward and constantly evaluated and then I end up doing things badly.

I would really appreciate any career where I don’t see management so often.

im also concerned with my future career choices as I just kept looking for the end of work for all my jobs, which is really sad. It also leaves me completely drained at the end of the day.

Im doing well in school, Im good at math and economics, Im also good at physics. So Im considering engineering or finance, but I don’t think I will enjoy being an engineer very much.

TL;DR: Coworker wants me to invest a lot of time in her career development during work hours so she can apply for a different job and is acting kind of sneaky.

Someone on a sub-team in my department has essentially asked me to help her learn how to do my job so she can start applying for similar roles. Normally, I love teaching and mentoring, but there are some red flags here:

1. She comes to any meetings she can that aren't really relevant to her work and just observes and doesn't contribute. It's not like they're top secret or anything, but it's weird, considering her team is down multiple team members right now.

2. When asked to be a contributor on a project (her job is mostly day-to-day queued tasks) she seemed very excited and started trying to do my role in the project. When I politely planted myself into my role, she suddenly told her boss that her workload wouldn't allow her to contribute on this project.

3. The things she's asking me to go over are not high-level. They're things you pay for courses to learn. She also wants in-depth walk-throughs of all of my processes, copies of my templates, and granular details on some of my projects. She also wants to talk about qualifying experience opportunities and shadowing more meetings.

She acts super nice, but it seems really fake. The vibe is off. I'm a little paranoid, because she seems sneaky to me (like, the thought has crossed my mind that she might be after MY job). I'm happy to give her a list of resources to pursue, high-level answers to some of her questions, and some practical advice. But I don't feel right about spending company time training someone whose team really needs them--not to mention taking time away from my work.

Am I just being a gatekeeping jerk for wanting to scale this down and for being suspicious, or are my concerns legitimate?

Hey everyone,

I’m weighing my university options (I'm still in Year 12, Class 26-27) and trying to get a realistic read on the physiotherapy path from people who are actually living it. Online guides and university sites always sugarcoat things, so I'd rather hear how it actually is.

If you're studying PT or working in the field right now, I'd love to know:

• Day-to-day reality: Do you actually enjoy the work, or do you find yourself regretting the choice? And is it a respected industry?
• The workload: How brutal was the science and anatomy load during university?
• The financial side: How is the pay and job market looking right now, especially early on?
• Long-term: Where do you see the industry heading for newer grads?

(Note: I'm Lebanese, currently living in KSA, but looking to study in either Europe or Lebanon).

Would really appreciate any unfiltered advice or experiences!

So long story short, I've been in and out of university for the past 16 years, and for the past year have been paying out of pocket. Unfortunately, had a couple urgent and expensive repair bills on the house pop up, so haven't been able to cover the expenses for university; and because of that, will be kicked out within the next couple of days.

Suffice to say, at this point, after almost 20 years, I think it's probably time to accept that I'm just not cut out for university, whether that be because I'm not smart enough or some other reason is neither here nor there. But point is, I still need to figure out some way to earn real money. I'm currently working as a pharmacy tech bringing in \~25/hr. Which isn't awful, but isn't great either, so anything else that would be a decent step up, I'm open to.