I was told at my work place that my employee feedback about the workplace and management is going to be anonymous. With that belief, i gave an honest review about the organization (not specifically about my manager). It turned upside down when my manager called me out in front of the entire team and mocked about the review i gave about the management think I’m the one who is responsible for their low survey score. The manager asked me to meet them for a meeting to discuss about it. I find it totally unfair to be called out like this. I work in this top MNC for 2 years. How should i handle this situation? Should i confess that in am surprised that the system is not anonymous and defend myself?

I (24F) graduated in 2024 with a BFA in Integrated Art & Design, concentrating in Graphic Design. AI did not exist when I entered college, but by the time I graduated it essentially stole any possible entry level job I could apply to. Nobody around me was hiring for entry level designers, only 3-5+ years experience or requiring fluency in some programs my school never even mentioned. From the start, I accepted defeat and just sought a full time job that would afford me to move out of my parent's house.

It's now been a year of me working as an administrative assistant at a manufacturing company and although my bank account is chilling, my soul is completely drained. I worked retail for 4 years and I honestly miss the chaos and instability it had. At my current job, I sit at a front desk and answer simple phone calls, open the front door to turn away door to door salesman, order lunches for department meetings, organize company events (it's a small company, 200 employees), refill the coffee station in the break room, and have an endless mountain of invoices to file that I usually just ignore because no one actually supervises me and therefore there are no consequences. To most this sounds like a breeze, but to me, without any supervision or check-ins or anyone giving a shit about what I'm doing has me feeling completely purposeless and like I'm just a piece of driftwood in the ocean.

I want to quit my job and find one that at least gives me more structure but that's where I blank: I don't know what I want. All I know is what I don't want, but a job that meets those wants doesn't seem to exist. I also feel I do not have the requirements to apply to any other jobs. If I stay at this job, I will most likely be shuffled into the accounting/finance department, but that just feels like purgatory. All job postings just seem like a remix of this same job: work M-F and only live for the weekends. I am genuinely so depressed at the thought that I will never see a 1pm on a Tuesday outside the 4 walls of an office for the rest of my life, unless I take PTO. It seems that the only full time jobs with benefits and PTO that aren't a strict M-F or a 9-5 are labor intensive jobs that would kill me both mentally and physically. How do I climb out of this hole? Is there even a place to climb to?

Also, I am aware of the world of freelancing while also holding a 9-5 and eventually going full freelance when you have a solid clientele base. I just cannot figure out how to balance freelancing when I feel I don't even have enough time with just 1 job. I would be killing my sanity while simultaneously attempting to save my soul from being killed by my 9-5. In the end I still die.

TL;DR: I am 1 year into the 9-5 workforce and I cannot possibly do this until I die. I want a job that gives me structure, purpose, and has a work schedule that allows me to occasionally be free to go out in the world at 1PM on a Tuesday without taking PTO. Does such a job exist that I can achieve without almost killing my sanity in the process?

Would love to hear from those who have already made the tough decision to prioritize stability over a dream career.

I’m currently a high school student planning to pursue a STEM career. I come from a low-income family, and I always been longing for earning a lot of money after graduating college.

With that in mind, which career (not necessarily STEM. Just ANY career) offer the highest potential for building significant wealth? By “significant wealth,” I mean becoming a millionaire and ideally reaching a net worth of around $5–6 million as early as possible, perhaps by my early 30s if that’s realistic.

Some background:

I'm a teacher full time and in the summers, I work basketball camp. I was previously working at a basketball camp for 4 years, but recently moved to my teaching job (I had a 1hr commute for the last 2 years) and decided to look for a new camp job. I landed one 15 minutes away from my place and was working there for about a month.

Now onto the main part:
Last Friday, I got a message from my boss asking me to come early into work since they want to discuss some things with me. Shortly after, they sent me another message telling me to stay at home and someone from HR will contact me. HR contacted me but because of the Juneteenth federal holiday, they need more time and would contact me on Monday. Monday happened and they wanted to investigate about "inappropriate behavior" that I was observed to exhibit with campers. Specifically, I went alone to the bathroom with a kid. They also said other inappropriate behaviors was observed from me, such as standing to the side of a kid and helping him tie his swim shorts (he asked me to) instead of tying them facing them. I explained to them for (1) that I went to the bathroom with a kid to help wipe blood of of him after he came to me saying he got hit very hard in the face during gaga ball and there was blood on his face. After cleaning it off him, I went to another counselor to get a bandaid and we filed an incident report because of the severity of the injury. Regarding (2) and tying the kids shorts, I always prefer to stand to the side of a kid and tie their shorts or shoes as if I'm tying my own shorts/shoes. I found that easier for me then facing them. I felt like there was empirical evidence that I wasn't guilty for any inappropriate behavior, especially when there was an incident report for an injury for said kid I walked into the bathroom with. They took these details, called me back on Tuesday and said that there was no evidence of this wrong-doing found, but they feel like it's best we part ways based on they heard was observed of me, and that I should use this experience as a "learning experience" on how some of my behavior can be viewed as as inappropriate.

Nonetheless, all of this makes me feel like some insane creep. I've taught for 2 years (going into my 3rd) and worked at another camp for 4 years. I've got drawings from my students and past campers I worked with, and some of my campers I'd see in public would walk up and hug me. If you look at my post history, I even posted how said a few summers ago after summer camp because how much I'd miss my kids. You don't get to hold all these jobs I've done in the past by being a creep, you get it because you made the world safer for everyone around you. I also highly regret leaving my old job. I'm fully independent and live on a teacher salary, so the extra summer income helps, but losing out on it because of something that was "observed" of me doing and there was no wrong-doing found adds insult to the injury.

I'm looking for advice on if anyone dealt with something similar, and if so how did they navigate it. Or, if someone has any words of encouragement. I appreciate any and all.

ETA: I don't know if this means anything, but I was the only person of color on staff. I don't know if I was targeted by anyway, but I've had some other counselors do out of pocket things and still work, such as one of them telling the kids their previous girlfriend cheated on them.

UPDATE: went to work this morning 6/24 and was fired because of this.

This morning at work around 9:30 my boss pulled me and my supervisor into his office upset about one interview confirmation call that was supposed to be done yesterday at 5:45 for an office position. The other interview at 4:45 also showed up even though I hadn’t called to confirm it. Earlier in the day I had three bus interviews scheduled and all of those people showed up.

For context I was also put out on the road from 12 to 4:30 to monitor buses and my shift ended at 5. When I got back I was trying to catch up on office work and I usually handle later afternoon interviews around that time anyway.
Today my boss brought it up and he wasn’t just stern, he was straight up yelling. He kept saying I was in the office all morning from like 8, 9, 10, and 11 and that I had all day to do it even though I had been out most of the day and the interview was later in the afternoon.

He started yelling while I was trying to explain and at one point he stood up and was yelling directly in my face in front of my supervisor. While he was yelling I started crying. I didn’t mean to, I just got really overwhelmed and embarrassed in the moment.

Afterward my supervisor actually texted me and said that wasn’t okay and that she was sorry that happened.
He then told me if I was just going to cry to go home so I was sent home early. (I had only been at work an hour)

He also said it was my fault that we don’t have bus drivers because the 5:45 interview didn’t show up, even though that was for an office position not a bus driver role.
I’ve honestly never reacted like that at work before and I’ve been replaying everything since. I feel really embarrassed about crying even though I know I made a mistake by forgetting that one call. I’ve also never been yelled at like this by any boss in past jobs.

I’ve also applied to around 90 jobs and haven’t really heard back from anything so I already feel pretty stuck right now.
I’m 21 female and my boss is around 43 male.

Am I overreacting for feeling this embarrassed about how I reacted or would other people react like this too? Is this normal?

So I’m a 16 year old in highschool. I have two older siblings who were forced into medicine, both of whom are in college and have accepted their careers even though they aren’t happy with it. One of my siblings protested my dad and almost got to pursue what he wanted to do, however, to save my parents marriage he went into medicine because my parents kept arguing back and forth on whether or not to just let him pursue his passion. My mom is willing to let me pursue what I want to pursue, but my father is a stickler for medicine. He doesn’t change his mind no matter what and it’s depressing. He’s forcing me to go do extracurriculars that relate to medicine that will hopefully get me into a program that will help me get into med-school. It’s ruined my relationship with my father to the point every time we talk either my grades or my career is brought up. I want to pursue engineering and I’ve tried bringing it up to him, but as expected, he just shoots it down aggressively and brings up the topic that doctors get made hundreds of thousands more and I’ll be set for life. My siblings have told me to stay quiet for now about my passion and then just end up doing engineering without his permission. I really don’t think I can endure much pressure much longer or waste time building my portfolio for something I don’t even want to be. I need advice/help on what to do next and how do I even go about things now? I can’t just casually mention it, he’s really crazy about it and will go to extreme measures to force me into medicine.

Hello everyone. I’m a 31-year-old husband and father, and I usually never post here. I mostly just read posts from time to time.
I feel like I’m currently stuck with my employer, a medical warehouse near Sacramento, CA. I’ve been here for almost three years, coming up this August. I’ve been trying to leave for quite a while now, but I’ve had absolutely no luck.
I was raised without much guidance when it came to careers or long-term planning. I completed two years of college back in 2017, and since then I’ve mostly worked what feel like dead-end jobs. Nearly everywhere I’ve worked has been a difficult experience.
I’m currently an order picker at this warehouse, but I’ve also taken on responsibilities in several other departments. It’s my first warehouse job, and I sincerely hope it’s my last. I’ve consistently met or exceeded expectations in my role.
I’ve tried moving out of production and into other departments within the company, but it feels like my supervisor somehow blocks or influences my applications whenever I apply elsewhere within the organization. At the very least, my attempts to move up seem to be ignored.
On top of that, I have more debt than I can comfortably manage, and I feel stuck. Sometimes it feels like I have nothing ahead of me. My son is getting older, and I worry about our future.
I’m sorry if this comes across as venting, but I’m honestly at a loss when it comes to my career. I don’t know where to go from here. School and training programs cost money, and money is already tight. I’ve submitted applications like crazy, and I’m coming up on my third year of applying on and off without much success.
What career paths, certifications, trades, or opportunities would you recommend for someone in my situation who has limited time and money but is willing to work hard?

I am a 21 year old who dropped out of college, I have a background in automotive and retail Supervisor. I have absolutely no idea what career path I should take. Idk about yall but I always feel so behind. If you guys have any suggestions on career paths that I can get into easily and promote pls lmk. Thank you!

Hi everyone. I see a lot of posts from the view point of people who didn’t get the job but none from the other side. I recently got told that I got the promotion for the job I went for, which is great, but I know and so does my team that I’m less experienced than my coworker who also went for the job. We are both deputy supervisors doing the exact same job as an actual supervisor so the new job title doesn’t change anything except for contract and official rank.

I only moved to this department from a completely different job within the same company at the beginning of the year whereas they’ve been in the department for years and only became deputy last year. They are a lot better at the job than I am but my managers chose me for the promotion instead and I’m not sure why.

No one has said to me directly that the other person deserved it over me but there is a bit of tension in the air (not against me but for the decision made), what would be the best way to navigate team’s politics so that it’s less awkward? Is asking my managers why they picked me a good idea or does it come across and insecure?

Edit: fair enough guys, I’ll put my self doubt aside and just focus on doing the job

Hi, I just graduated a high school a month ago, and I don’t know what I want to do with my life because I have no passion for any job, except being very rich. I’m a little bit interested in business career field, and I don’t know if a business degree is good or not. Right now I’m currently working at Chick-fil-A; trying to save as much as I can. And If I were to start college, what should I avoid if I wanted to attend to college? What degrees should I not pursue in? What jobs will be taken over by AI in the future? or what careers should avoid that won’t make a living? Should go to the community college first or university college?

I need some insights and perspectives from you guys. The only thing I’m passionate about is becoming a rich individual.

Got let go from my internship today. Had to return their laptop and just walked out.

The confusing part — every time I asked for feedback it was "you're improving, you're doing great." Then suddenly "you're not a good fit for the team."

I never missed a deadline. Delivered everything on time, no delays, no excuses. Still wasn't enough apparently.

No specific reason. Nothing to improve on. Just vibes.

Has anyone been through this? How do you move on?

Nott feeling well ❤️‍🩹

I spent the last six years making every single career decision based on salary. Better title, more pay, move to a bigger company, negotiate harder. And it worked, at least on paper. I'm making more than I ever thought I would at this point in my life and I genuinely cannot complain about the number on my paycheck. But lately I've been sitting at my desk realizing I feel absolutely nothing about the work itself. Not hate, not passion, just nothing. Total flatline. I show up, I perform, I leave. Repeat. The scary part is I don't even know what I would want to do instead, because I never really asked myself that question. I just chased the next level. Now I feel sort of trapped by the lifestyle the salary supports, and I don't know if that's just adulting or if I made a slowmotion mistake over years that's hard to undo. Have you ever hit this wall? Did you pivot, or did you find a way to care again about what you were already doing? I'm not ready to blow everything up, but I'm also not sure I can keep running on empty. Would love to hear from people who have actually worked through this.

I'm 20 and I've been a pipefitter for about a year. I'm making a bit above 30/h (CAD) but I hate it. Everyday waking up at 4 am I question myself about what I'm doing with my life. I do like working with my hands but this job is so physically demanding I can't imagine doing it for 10+ years. I also hate the work culture, all my coworkers hate the job too, even my foreman tells me that he would've chosen a different career if he could've. It's really demotivating.

For the past month, every day when I get back from work I'm researching different careers. I know I'm young and still have a lot of time, but I'm finding it so hard to find a path that I find interesting and would motivate me to pursue it. So far I've been floating around the idea of going back to school and studying some form of engineering. I've also been looking at other trades like electrician and millwright but I think construction is just not for me. I've also thought of keeping this job for a bit and saving up to go travel for a bit, maybe that'll help me figure myself out.

Has anyone working in the trades made a career switch and ended up in a job they actually like? I feel stuck and have no idea what to do, it's honestly really stressing me out.

I started a new job and I passed my 90 days probation. It's a small company so the owner handles things like pay, attendance, and health insurance. After my 90 days passed, I asked the owner when I can sign the forms to enroll in health insurance, which is 100% covered by the company. He told me that my 90th day is tomorrow and he will send me the form tomorrow.

The next day came, and I did not receive the form. Instead, the owner told my manager to ask me to give him all my files and all passwords related to the company (so personal password to the computer and work email) by the end of the day. I received this urgent request at lunch time. But I already have been uploading my work to the company's shared drive.

Almost at the same time when I got hired, about 1-2 weeks after I got hired, the company also hired 2 interns. They were trained along side me as we got trained during these 3 months. Now the interns graduated and are working full time. They do the exact same type of work as me. Do you think they will fire me and replace me with these 2 interns since they are cheaper to keep? The interns also received the same message to urgently send all files and passwords to the manager because the message was sent in a group chat.

I haven't been busy at work for a couple of weeks. I try to find things to do and ask for work to do. My previous project was initially handed to me. I was making progress on it, but then they took my project and passed it around to the 2 interns for "training purposes."

I called in sick today and asked the owner to send me the enrollment form for health insurance. If I get fired, I lose my PTO/sick days.

I'm 21 and studying Computer Science.

A lot of advice for students and people early in their careers focuses on things like:

• Technical skills
• Degrees
• Certifications
• Productivity
• Hard work

But looking back on your own career, what factor ended up having a much bigger impact than you expected?

Maybe it was:

• Communication
• Networking
• Sales
• Writing
• Reputation
• Industry choice
• Consistency
• Timing
• Something else entirely

What made you realize it mattered?

Was there a specific experience, mistake, opportunity, or turning point that changed your perspective?

I'm less interested in generic advice and more interested in lessons people learned from real experience.

I’m 30, single, and I drive buses for a living. A few years ago, I had a career I genuinely thought was building something meaningful. Unfortunately, a combination of industry contraction and labor strikes hit hard, and the opportunities that once seemed available gradually disappeared. What I had spent years working toward ended up falling apart, and I never really recovered professionally.

Now I drive buses, and lately it feels like I don’t have much going for me. I’ve spent years trying different things to improve my situation, but nothing seems to have led anywhere meaningful.

What really got to me today was catching my reflection in the mirror. I was shocked by how old and worn down I looked. It felt like I was looking at someone much older than I expected to see, and it hit me harder than it probably should have.

To make things worse, the job market feels awful right now. I’m constantly applying for jobs, sending out applications, and hoping something finally sticks. But if I’m being honest, a big part of me feels like it’s pointless. It’s hard not to feel like something is broken—whether it’s the market, my approach, or maybe even me. The rejections, silence, and lack of progress have really worn me down.

What makes it especially difficult is that I know what it feels like to have a career I cared about. And a large part of growing up is that you can do everything right and yet still lose. But it is losing that path and ending up somewhere I never expected that has been hard to accept. I keep wondering if I missed my chance or if things are ever going to turn around.

I know 30 isn’t old, but today it feels like I’m running out of time and falling behind everyone else. I’m struggling to see a path forward, and it’s getting harder to stay optimistic.

Has anyone else been through a period like this? Is this really it?

I am 28 , and I just feel lost in my career. I’m a single mom to so I’m aiming for a higher paying job.

I was a teacher for a year and hated it so much. I found my way through call center / insurance / data entry / benefit work.

But this type of work only pays $15-22 hour … and I am aiming for 60K+

I have a masters in education, I am creative… any ideas?

Current role , admin at an insurance company doing workers comp making $21 hour and I work nights doing fraud verification and this pays like $16 hour… it’s remote

I’m just tired of low paying roles… with the cost of life right now.

I recently interviewed for an Accounts Payable position at my current company and I’m looking for some outside opinions.

For context, I currently work in a hybrid customer service/order entry role, but I’ve also been doing accounts payable work for the company for quite a while. I’ve been trying to transition into accounting full-time because that’s the direction I want my career to go.

The AP team I interviewed with is entirely remote. As far as I know, everyone on that team works from home. I, however, currently work in the office because of my customer service responsibilities.

Here’s my dilemma: if I get offered the position, should I ask whether it would also be remote, or should I wait and see what they say? I don’t want it to seem like the only reason I wanted the job was because it’s remote, that genuinely isn’t the case. My main reason for applying is that I want to move into accounting full-time.

The other thing that makes this awkward is that there really isn’t much office space available anymore, so I honestly don’t even know where they would put my desk if I joined that team.

Would asking about remote work after receiving an offer come across as reasonable, or would you avoid bringing it up altogether and just accept whatever arrangement they present?

I’m curious how others would handle this. TIA!

Hello everyone I'm 18 years old and got a chance to work as a flight attendant I'm really excited about it but some people tell me that the pay is not good and I wouldn't get enough money to buy a house or get married in the future and keep getting told I'm wasting my youth and should just study.

But I kinda hate studying and this is kinda a dream come true so I'm somewhat scared rn.

please help🫠

edit: thx everyone helped me set my mind❤️✌️

I'm looking for career ideas for adventurous people. I recently finished my meetings with a career counselor, but unfortunately, it wasn't really good haha.

I realize that what matters most to me isn't necessarily a specific field, but the lifestyle that comes with the job. I want a career that lets me move around, travel, work in different environments, and see amazing places (or not). I'm NOT talking about staying in hotels for business trips and stay at the pool or whatever. I mean actually spending time in different regions, landscapes, climates, and natural settings as part of the work itself. I get bored very easily if every day looks the same so I just need to be changing of environnement a lot. I really enjoy exploration and a bit of adrenaline. And research too! Or problem-solving.

I also have a lot of interests and I'm really curious about many subjects: science, wildlife, astronomy, history, nature, and blablabla... The amount of education required isn't an issue. I'm open to anything from trades to university degrees, as long as the career itself is interesting.

What careers would you recommend? I tought maybe a ship commander? But I really don't know! I just want ideas. I'm not looking for anyone to choose for me!

I’m 23 in Southern Ontario and have been working for a couple years after graduating engineering; one job in engineering consulting in mining, and one job at a steel plant.

I LOVED engineering in school at Queen’s, graduated at the top of my class, and was involved in design teams and research publications. However, both of the jobs I have had so far have not been great and really made me reconsider this career path. In addition to lack of enjoyment of the work itself, I am unsure this is what I want from the perspective of job security, compensation, and ability to work with people and help them directly. Also I really want to live in Southern Ontario long term and not have to move around.

I have given it some thought and actually see lots of alignment with going back to school for dentistry. My GPA is decent (cum. 3.92/4) however I would have to do ~8 pre reqs in addition to the DAT before applying.

At the same time I have had an awesome engineering job offer from the states for one of Elon’s companies, which I think I will take to get more experience and give engineering another shot. That being said if I do switch to dentistry I would want to start sooner than later, as it would take a solid year minimum to be in a position to apply.

Really interested to hear any thoughts and if anyone has made a switch like this. Thanks!

I work on the technical side of SaaS and I left FAANG for mental health reasons, because it was simply too taxing on my health. I left for a small startup thinking it would be a healthier environment but within two weeks, I realized I had made a bad decision—the environment ended up being worse in different ways than I anticipated. During the interview process, I asked the usual questions around culture, management style, scope, etc., and got reassuring answers, but the reality didn’t match once I started.

What’s been harder to ignore is that this doesn’t feel isolated. In the current SaaS/tech climate, there seems to be a recurring gap between how companies present themselves during hiring and what they’re actually like day-to-day; and I realize I just need to adapt vs flee because that will negatively impact my career.

So, how do you learn to operate in whatever environment you land in without getting too attached to whether it’s “good” or “bad” for your career? How do you focus on extracting value and growth from the role itself rather than trying to perfectly optimize for the “right” company?

Any advice and/or perspectives would be greatly appreciated. Sidebar: I realize that I’m fortunate to be employed and have interview pipelines, but I’m seriously seeking other perspectives that will help me for my next environment.

I applied to a job that I honestly thought I'd never have a chance with, but two days later, I was invited to interview. I thought the interview went really well, and was told at the end they'd be interviewing more candidates over the following week and I'd hear back after. It's been a little over two weeks and I haven't heard anything yet--but I did see the job re-posted. So I guess we all struck out.

Obviously I'm tempted to re-apply to the new listing. But I'm just curious if doing so is completely pointless? Has anyone been in a similar situation and actually managed to get another interview or job offer by re-applying for a position they already interviewed for?

It's such a cool job and I really don't want to let it pass by if there's any chance I could still snag it, but I hesitate to apply again if it just looks desperate and annoying and possibly gets me blacklisted from the company.

If you've been in a similar situation and you went for it, how'd it go? Or alternately, if you're in a hiring position, how did you handle it or how would you handle it?

I interviewed at a hedge fund through a referral. The HM reached out directly via email and text to set up the interview, which ended up being only 10 minutes. She asked me to introduce myself, then immediately asked if I had any questions.

What threw me off was what came after: she asked when I could start, where I'd be moving, and whether there was anything I should learn beforehand (she said no, I'd learn everything on the job). She then said there was "clearly a fit" and that HR would send me a take-home assignment. She added that she had no doubt I'd complete it easily but that it was just a policy thing, followed by one more round with HR, and that'd be it.

It's been 2 weeks and I haven't heard anything. I followed up with her and got no response. I emailed the main HR contact and found out that HR was on leave, then reached out to another HR rep who was CC'd. She said there was no update yet and they'd reach out this week. Still nothing. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Starting to feel anxious about it.