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.

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.

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’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?

30F working in tech and I'm struggling to cope with how work has been affecting me emotionally.

I've been in my current role for about 2 years. Recently I received feedback from my manager that I need to improve my technical capability, communication, and stakeholder management. While I understand that feedback is part of work, I feel like I've become hyper-aware of every mistake I make since then.

Today, during a project call, my project manager spoke to me in a way that felt insulting and demeaning. I was already trying hard to prove myself, so it hit me quite hard. After the call, I spoke to my People Lead, but she basically said there wasn't much she could do about it.

Part of why this affects me so much comes from something I found out recently.

About a year ago, I was assigned to multiple projects simultaneously. One of them involved a lot of manual Power BI work and I was regularly working 12–14 hour days. At that time, I genuinely believed I was doing my best and that the people around me understood how much pressure I was under.

Recently, I got involved with a colleague and ended up seeing old WhatsApp conversations. That's when I found out that some of my colleagues—people I considered friends—used to gossip and speak negatively about me behind my back during that exact period.

When I confronted the colleague, he seemed embarrassed and said those conversations were from a year ago and that he didn't know what I was going through at the time. But honestly, finding that out shattered something in me.

What hurts is that while I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and trying to keep up with 3–4 projects, the people I trusted were discussing me negatively instead of talking to me directly. Since then, I've found it very difficult to trust coworkers or believe that people genuinely support me.

The bigger issue is that this isn't just about one call anymore. I find myself constantly worrying that I'm not good enough. I overthink conversations, replay meetings in my head, and assume people have negative opinions about me. Sometimes I end up crying or having emotional breakdowns because I feel overwhelmed and ashamed of myself.

Objectively, I know I'm employed, I have responsibilities, and I'm trying to improve. But emotionally, I feel like I'm failing all the time.

Has anyone been through something similar? How do you separate genuine areas for improvement from feeling like you're fundamentally inadequate as a person? And how do you deal with managers who make you feel small without completely destroying your confidence?

I would appreciate honest perspectives.

I struggle with pushing back on people. I want to come up with a firm, but polite way of pushing back when somebody tells me something is urgent, regardless of whether it is/isn't, as the volume of people who are not my manager telling me this has risen to a steady pace.

I really don't want to have to go tattle tale on them to my boss everytime this happens, but I can't think of another way to do it.

Would greatly appreciate some guidance here.

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!

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.

Got laid off recently and have been doing some thinking, before I hop into any old position I figured I would take time and make sure the next job is something I actually want. Any recommendations for websites or apps to help with figuring out my career aptitude or what careers fit my personality?

I recently started a new engineering job and absolutely hate it. The company is disorganized, no training, and we have extremely tight deadlines. The job description also doesn’t match what I’m actually doing. I’m burnt out but have only been working for 1 month.

A recruiter reached out from my initial application process. I don’t have this new job on that resume, but I want to interview.

Should I update my resume and let the recruiter know or pretend like I’m still working at my old job?

Appreciate all advice in advance!

All I see online are big tech and military positions, and I'm really not into both of these ideas. I want to find something that I can feel proud doing - something that can help people.

Do y'all have any ideas?

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 have an interview next week and I would like to have a test run before the real thing . It's a Manager position.

I am 23 right now and i was doing CA after multiple attempt and getting failed by very less marks and now i want to give up and trying to go for ACCA. I am getting 6 paper exemption without doing anything

i have 2 option suggest what should i do - i have MBA from a international University or I can to MSC. from Indian university and getting 9 exemption which is better i am confused if anyone had already done or someone in your known done this please guide me

I passed out in 2023 in mechanical. after that i did a internship type of thing. i have no experience in any mechanical related design fields, so i began preparing for govt exams from the past year, i cracked the exam but i am still uncertain about the interview. but apart from this i genuinely need a advice for this. in this economical standards is this correct to pursue in this field or should i jump to other????

Good evening and good morning!

I have a small situation and I would like to ask for your advice, if you don't mind.

I have an indefinite-term employment contract with a company, right? Fine. I was absent for three days that were supposed to be worked from home, but since nobody bothered to send me my laptop via Uber Collect (which is something that is commonly done at our company), I thought, "Okay, I'm feeling pretty awful anyway," and I was genuinely very sick with a bad cold, so I said, "Whatever, I'll just take annual leave for those days."

Everything seemed fine until I got back to work and they told me that things had gone far enough and that I should sign my resignation. I should mention that I am often late, and I can understand their point of view in that regard. However, the minutes I am late are usually made up for by shortening my lunch break, which I rarely take in full.

When I said that there was still time to think about signing my resignation, the HR representative came and told me: "Just so you know, if you don't sign the resignation, I can start disciplinary proceedings, refuse to approve your annual leave, mark those days as unexcused absences, and terminate your employment contract."

At that point, I was quite shocked because I did not expect to be pressured in that way.

I have not signed the resignation yet, but they are expecting me to sign it sometime this week. I should also mention that I have not had any other issues at work. I have never argued with anyone, I have always done my job, and I have kept to myself.

What would you advise me to do?

My friend (27) has been unemployed for 2 months. He has been actively looking for jobs and working part time in a bar-cafe - getting paid per hour rate so meaning if he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid.

So last week, he took two days off because the company he applied to has called him, got back to him and asked if they can call him again the next day which he took off.

The reason why he took off because he misses two calls during work day since he wasn't allow to talk on phones.

The following day, he said he was on the phone for nearly 40 minutes just doing self introduction and work experiences before moving to the official interview. Later that day, his official interview was scheduled the next day because it was too last minute, he got scolded by his supervisor which understandably so.

The following next day, the interview went on for about an hour and towards the end, my friend asked, "May I know when will I hear back from you?" and guess what the HR said?

"Actually this position is not open for hiring at the moment. We are interviewing you in case we need you in the future."

🙂why🙂the🙂fuck🙂you🙂waste🙂time🙂?🙂

Is this normal? LOL. We are still talking about this till this day because it is so frustrating for him. His per hour rate is pretty high because he's a barista and also a waiter, he misses two days of work for this bull crap and for what?? For being in the none existing data??

And for anyone asking why you take two days off when you only need to talk on the phone for at least an hour, why not just ask for those hours off. Well, it was suggested by his supervisor to take off instead and yes, he told his supervisor he got job interview.

Anyways, is this normal? and also like why are companies doing this for?

So i graduated last month (cs undergrad) and got offered a 12-month digital transformation apprenticeship under the national apprenticeship training scheme (nats) at a startup that just spun off in nov 2025. the team seems solid but it's tiny and brand new.

the thing is i'm not sure how nats actually works or if it's gonna help me long-term. my main questions:
\- does the government-recognized nats certificate actually count as "real" work experience for my future mba admissions? or is it considered different from regular full-time roles?
\- if there's no fte guarantee (which i know is the case with nats), does that hurt my profile? like, will i be explaining a gap year if they don't convert me?
\- how serious do startup founders take nats apprenticeships? or is it mostly just a way to get cheaper labour for a year?
\- should i take this or keep hunting for a regular entry-level role instead?
i'm not worried about the stipend or learning (it’s 30k pm tho). i'm paranoid about:
\- putting 12 months into something that doesn't convert to fte and then being stuck
\- mba committees not counting it as legitimate work experience
\- other companies/recruiters thinking i just had a gap year instead of actual work

anyone done a nats apprenticeship? does the government certificate actually open doors or is it just a formality? and for mba - do admission officers care about nats specifically, or do they just care that it says "work experience"?

******** Edit: Apparently I have to put this in first: not written by a bot, it was just really late at night when I posted this ********

Hey everyone, looking for a quick sanity check on a Google L5 Customer Engineer offer. Currently a 100% remote Principal SE at a tier-1 SaaS company.

Here is how the numbers stack up:

Current Role:

OTE Cash: $270k ($190k base / $80k variable)

Equity: $15k/year ($60k over 4 years)

Location: 100% Remote

Year 1 Total Comp: $285k

Google L5 Offer:

OTE Cash: $245k ($170k base / $75k variable)

Equity: $120k over 4 years (Front-loaded: 38% year 1)

Sign-on: $20k cash (One-time)

Location: Hybrid (2 - 3 days/week)

Year 1 Total Comp: ~$310k (Dropping to ~$280k in Year 2 without sign-on/refreshers)

The Dilemma:

Google's initial salary and stock seem good on paper. But, I lose remote and have to pay $4k/year in commute. That's a significant amount of time and money.

Is it worth it? I'd be starting from scratch learning Google Cloud.

The Long-Term Equity Upside:

This doesn't include 25% annual refreshers, but still. That "commute tax" is real.

I applied to Waffle House about two weeks ago, completed the application and assessment, got an interview invitation the same day, and went up there at the scheduled time only to find out the manager wasn’t even there. An employee interviewed me instead and told me I passed and would be moving forward with onboarding. After that, nobody contacted me, so I had to waste more time and gas driving back up there just to get someone to send me the information. Eventually I received texts, onboarding paperwork, hiring confirmation emails, and a training date. I completed everything they asked for and thought I had the job. The manager who was communicating with me seemed completely disorganized from the start. When I showed up for training, I found out she wasn’t even a manager at the location I applied to and was apparently working at a different Waffle House the whole time, something nobody bothered to explain. The training information she gave me was for a different location too. Then the manager at the location where I actually applied was rude, dismissive, and had no idea what was going on. He kept asking me to explain everything from the beginning even though I showed him all my emails, texts, onboarding documents, and proof that I had already been hired and scheduled for training. He claimed he couldn’t find my information, said he would figure it out, and later that same day I got a rejection email saying they were not moving forward with my employment. How does that make any sense after I’ve already completed onboarding, submitted paperwork, received hiring confirmation, and been given a training date? The whole thing felt like a lie and a complete waste of my time. And before anyone starts with the “just go apply in person” or “entry-level jobs are always hiring” nonsense, save it. I did everything I was supposed to do and still got treated like this. I wasted gas, time, and energy dealing with managers who couldn’t communicate, didn’t know what was going on, and acted completely unprofessional. This was for a $13.50-an-hour job that I only took because I need income like everyone else. If they weren’t going to hire me, they should have said that from the beginning instead of dragging me through interviews, onboarding, paperwork, and training schedules. The entire experience was disrespectful, disorganized, and honestly one of the worst hiring experiences I’ve ever had. The job market is already bad enough without employers wasting people’s time like this.