Recently, I was promoted to Associate level in the engineering department of a gaming company. I worked as a QA tester for about three years before being promoted to a Junior Engineer and then two years in that position before being promoted to Associate. I received a 14% raise with my promotion which is awesome, but I felt like the amount was still low (~$74,000/y).

I talked to the other Associate Engineer and it turns out he is currently making six figures! He’s only been on the team for two years. So I ask him what he started at and he said as an intern he was making ~$93,000/y which blew my mind. So, I’ve been at the company for five years, earned my way to Associate, and now I’m making THAT much less than an intern?

I ask around and it turns out apparently there was this initiative to get Ivy League interns, so the pay was higher to account for it. But, I was told that they don’t even go for interns like that anymore, but the pay is the same anyway.

So I start fuming. I don’t understand how you can look at me with a five year tenure (two years in engineering), over-performing as a junior, Bachelors in CS, only positive thing heard about me by directors and HR, at the top of their list, and say that I deserve to be making almost $20,000/y less than an intern?

On paper, I’m in the salary bracket and the raise I got was substantial, but from an amount perspective I am just so low compared to even an intern. Bottom 6% of the range and the other Associate is in the top 30%. Anyone have any experience in this situation? I’ve tried arguing with HR and the Director, but everything they say just amounts to, “Interns just make more.” It’s driving me insane walking into work every day past someone with the same qualifications and expectations that is making ~33% more than me just because he was an intern and I wasn’t.

People forget that in the 1850 about 60% of the US labor force was in farming ,with 175!years of tech innovation today that is down to 2-3% , yet we produce more food than ever.... I expect this is how AI tech will play out with white collar professional fields ..

This of course brings a lot of questions both political and economic , and how quickly this transition occurs will also have greater effects on society... Do you folks agree? And if so where should young folks put their energies towards

I work at a midsized tech company in the US, and my team consists of local hires as well as some immigrant workers. There is a coworker from India I'll call 'S', and he is super hardworking and always putting in overtime.

I was talking with some coworkers during lunch, and since it's around our bonus season, we were talking about that. We all expected to get the default performance bonus, about 9% basepay, and I mentioned that 'S' would probably be the only one getting the overachievement bonus, which is around 12%. However, one of my other coworkers mentioned that his bonus would probably still be less than ours since his base is only around $80k, which kinda shocked me since it's over 30% less than anyone else I know in our field. It's even lower than what I was offered when I first joined.

I know our company is sponsoring his visa currently, but I'm not sure if that's playing a role in why his salary is so low. Is this normal at US companies? or is it some kind of loophole to pay employees less?

I hope this is the right place to post this. I am so lost when it comes to career seeking, i’ve only ever done here and there work with not much potential for expansion. I really just want a position I ENJOY and that is constantly exciting and stressful. I am currently looking to enroll for a biology degree, but honestly i’m much more interested in trade schools, I just don’t know what type of trade i’d actually enjoy. I’m very interested in car repair, but i’ve been turned away from mechanic work and now i’m on the fence about that. Not interested in anything emotionally driven or anything with an empathetic requirement. I throughly enjoy diagnostic work or anything that requires thought and or split second decision making. The biggest thing i’m looking for is jobs with risk and some sort of stressor that will keep me on my toes, dirty/messy preferably, outdoors possibly. Does anyone have any ideas for jobs like this obtained through trade schools or elsewhere? Would really appreciate some ideas here.

For no ones surprise I'm navigating the job market. I am an industrial designer and there don't seem to be many positions for my expertise. I see everywhere that I should reach directly to the managers and ask them about oportunities. I guess my question is not much is you have ever gotten a job but more what the hell do you write on the DM without looking too desperate (I am tho). Not that I care much about to look desperate but more as in I don't want them to be directly annoyed at me.

For context: I'm in Finland, looking for a job in Helsinki, Stockholm or Copenhagen.

Disclaimer I’m not at the offer stage for any of these jobs yet. However I am currently interviewing for 2 and getting ready to interview for the 3rd

First job: Marketing Strategist and Planner. Company lied about salary and pays $55K. The client is a former client of mine

Pros: I really loved the work and know the client team already

Cons: In office 3 days a week. Less pay than the previous agency I did this work before with less responsibilities, so it makes the pay feel even worse

Second job: Media analytics. Salary is up to $65K

Pros: I’m overall familiar with analytics as it’s how I got started in marketing. The client is a major social media company. It’s fully remote. Analytics seems to have the most stability of my 3 options

Cons: I have some hesitation about crafting survey questions as I’m less experienced with that particular aspect of market research. I’m unsure if I’ll get to ask culture questions as my next (and final) interview step will be in front of manager and client

3rd job: Digital Marketer for my council member, which is in a major US city. Pay is $60K-$70K

Pros: I have a great interest in politics and this would be a great way to get my foot in the door. The work is honestly simple for me as it’s work I do on my own as a hobby for a personal brand

Cons: Work life balance is going to be terrible, I’m a mom of 2 young children. Job security will be reliant on council member continuing to be elected and being a politician.

At the moment I feel the least interested in the first job. Especially with them being misleading about the salary range. However I’m still going through the process because I don’t have any offers in hand

Very low on confidence, could anyone take my system design, decomposition case study interview today?

I’ve got a degree in Accounting & Finance and have worked in finance for a few years.

I was most recently on a finance graduate scheme at a large company, earning around £30k with funded CIMA Study support, but unfortunately failed my probation after 11 Months (probation was extended) and was dismissed.

After being unemployed for a couple of months and applying for different roles, I’ve now managed to land an AI & Automation Analyst position at another company, on roughly the same salary.

From what I’ve been told, the role involves identifying processes within the business that could be improved using AI, building automations and helping different departments adopt AI tools.

I don’t have a technical or computer science background, so it’s a bit of a career change for me.
Just wondering what people think. Is this an upgrade or downgrade from a finance graduate scheme in terms of career prospects, salary progression and long-term opportunities?

Would be interested to hear people’s thoughts, especially anyone working in AI/automation or finance.

I started at my current company almost 6 months ago and left my previous position for a a $38k pay increase.

The position I have now said that the salary is $86k-$123k/year and I landed on $90k. Tried negotiating a little closer to $100k since I was going to have an hour commute one way everyday, but they stuck to $90k due to me being new to “corporate” setting. 6 months later, I think I’m being underpaid after a few things.

1. One of my direct reports, a category manager, makes $80k/year. $10k less than me.
   
2. The average for my role is around $150k/year.
   
3. Despite being “new” to the role, I have done a lot:
   i. Identified at least 3 missing segments that we can
   explore that can increase the business profit
   ii. Have made quality changes to our assortment
   especially in our presentation.
   iii. In my first 2 quarters i have achieved and hit every
   milestone and rocks assigned
   iv. Have gotten nothing but positive praise from my.
   boss (which is the CEO)
   v. In the last 3 months alone, i have actively pursued
   4 different opportunities to increase our customer
   count and our sales.

I think I could be paid more for my role and what i have achieved so far. My problem is I can’t bring “results” to the table as it will probably take at least a year to see significant positive impact due to how the business works and the pipeline itself. I’m thinking of bringing my value as a reason.

Has anyone been in the same boat before? Is it reasonable to ask for a raise this early? I am planning to ask for a 20-23% increase (around $110k/year), is that too much? I would still be below the “posted range” for this role and even still lower for the average.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some realistic career and resume advice. I recently completed a highly intensive training program for emergency dispatching. I just started solo work this week, but because of scheduling, I was immediately placed on the 3rd shift (overnights).

The combination of the extreme stress of the job and severe sleep deprivation from the night shift is making me physically ill. I am completely unable to function on my days off and dread every single second of the day. I know for a fact that my body and health cannot handle this specific environment.
Here is the catch: I am entirely relocating to a new city in January. I only have about 8 weeks left in this town anyway.

I don't have any accrued sick time yet because my 90-day probationary window just ended. I want to quit immediately and just get a low-stress seasonal job for November and December to pay my bills until I move.

My fear is: Will it look terrible to future employers in my new city if I left this job after only 3 months (including training)? How do I explain this short stint on my resume, or do I leave it off entirely? I feel like a failure for wanting to walk away right after finishing training, but my health is red-lining

Hey all,

I've worked as a laboratory assistant for 4 years across a few labs. The work is boring, unfulfilling and stressful due to increasing workloads, equipment issues, management and incredibly slow training/little room for progression. The pay is absolute crap too (just above minimum wage). I have a bachelor's degree in biomedical science and 5 years work experience.

At this point I've given up trying to pursue a job in my favourite field (microbiology) due to the crap work hours and issues above and so would settle for anything that's low stress and decently paid. I see a job as a job now and want the most amount of money/time off I can get for the least amount of work I can do and stress I have to deal with. Bonus points if the job is interesting. Any suggestions?

need some advice. I’m a 30-year-old man. I live in a poor country. I work 330 hours a week and spend another 15 hours commuting. I don’t have any skills. I don’t have any debt, and I usually didn’t spend a penny of the money I earned last year because I live with my parents.

I have an interview coming up for a management position. I've been in the field for well over a decade with a graduate degree. I'm very qualified for the position.

The problem is I have prosopagnosia, or face blindness thanks to some brain trauma. Wouldn't recognize my own parents out of context. I generally look for little non-face related cues like tattoos, hair color, accents etcetera to help identify people but I'm not great at it. It causes a lot of social and professional anxiety.

Working from home has been great since everyone's name is right there on emails and Teams, but this position is fully in office. I'm worried my inability to recognize people will be a hinderance to being a manager. I don't want to bring it up in the intrrview and risk being put out of the running by the company, however subconsciously. But I also don't want to spring it on them if I do get the job. Any advice?

So after 5 years at a very toxic office in my 20s I along with a lot of people ended up getting laid off. This was early 2025. I was quite burnt out by this point and at 28 I went and enrolled in a teaching program. Fast forward to now I’m 30 and have only taught for a year and I’m looking to go back to corporate. So I spent the past month applying and finally got calls and now I have two interviews on Thursday. I’m now panicking.

How am I going to explain the last nearly 2 years. How do I make this sound like I’m not some flaky person? What if they don’t hire me? What if I get everything wrong?

I don’t know if I’ll get any other interviews. I’m just terrified now. I had more confidence before but I was bullied a bit by that manager and couldn’t see myself entering corporate after that job.

Does anyone know how I should approach this? Should I lie?

I’m a recent graduate in the final rounds of a good traineeship where personal development and self-reflection are a big part of the program. The interview was with an HR person and a current trainee. They said at the start that it was a safe space to be open.

They kept asking “why” and asked me to go “a layer deeper.” I said I make careful choices because I want to do things well. When they asked where that comes from, and whether my family puts pressure on me, because I mentioned them as they are important to me. I got emotional and cried. I shared personal and emotional things about my background that I haven’t even told my friends.

After that I was a bit thrown off for the rest of the interview. They still told me about the next steps, and said I could reach out if I had other offers.

Now I feel embarrassed and exposed, and I’m not sure I can face them again. Is this as bad as it feels? Does it hurt a candidate’s chances in a program like this?

Posted something similar yesterday but the situation has changed a bit.

Currently 4 months into an entry level systems engineer role in defense. Have a secret clearance. Just got an interview with another defense prime in my dream location (Colorado) for tomorrow. Currently located in the Midwest, and have been fighting ruthlessly to get out of here while I’m young and go somewhere different.

I’m currently financially obligated by my offer letter to remain in my current role until June of next year, otherwise I’ll owe the total of my relocation and sign on bonus when I originally accepted the offer in August 2025. That total is $11,500. Once I cross the one year mark in my current role in June, I’ll only owe $2,000 which is half of the relocation.

As a result of this and the fact that I’m currently in an apartment lease until next May, I don’t seriously think I’ll be able to accept an offer if I’m given one. Part of me wants to tell the recruiter I want to cancel the interview, but my gut says I shouldn’t.

What good could come from this situation? Would I potentially be on the recruiter or hiring manager’s radar and have a greater chance of being contacted again in the future (like next summer) if they have another opening?! Which of these two would it be best to stay in regular contact with in that scenario? Just looking for advice from anyone who’s been in a similar boat.

Background (quick): Finance degree, graduated early. BDR at a big tech company for a year, then ran my own service business for 2.5 years (peaked at $16K/mo, averaged ~$10K). Shut it down to move closer to family, took a remote marketing job that imploded after 7 months, then spent 4–5 months job hunting with a few final rounds but no offers.

A buddy owns a cash-offer/distressed-seller real estate company. I was embedded in the communication channel and the other agents before were crushing. They ended up leaving and he offered to pay for my license, and I'd co-own (50%) a separate realty LLC that handles all his listing deals, splitting commission 50/50. His pitch was 10 appointments a month and ~$7.5M in listing volume a year, roughly $135K to me pre-tax. I told him upfront I couldn't survive on commission only and asked for a base or draw. Got licensed end of August, moved down following week.

September: rates went up, zero appointments, company is burning cash and company cards are maxed out.

The "2 weeks" staying at his place is now 2 months

I've self-funded the realty LLC startup (~$2K)
He can't pay for my training anymore, so I'm paying a top local broker monthly myself. That broker is feeding me showings and leads since he knows my situation

I had 2 listings. He pulled one to turn into a rental, so I'm down to 1, with no traction yet
2 other deals in the works: one pays me $600. The other was supposed to pay $2,500, but he took an offer that cut my share to $1,000

~$480 in annual MLS dues hit in November
Have yet to secure another listing yet. October has been busy with appointments but no listing conversions yet.

Where i am at:
~$2K left in checking/savings by end of month after current bills
~$70K net worth, mostly invested (haven't touched it, wont touch it)

Best case, ~$1,600 coming in from current deals, with $480 of that going straight to MLS dues, plus the monthly training cost

Working full days, so no time for a side job
Can't afford to move out. One car repair and I'm wiped out

I don't think anyone acted in bad faith. It just went sideways fast and I'm stuck in the middle. But decisions keep getting made that cut into my income, and I have no say in them.

The question:
If I stay, the pipeline could pay off, it's my only real path to income right now, I'm building a network, and the city isnt my favorite but its better than hometown. But there's a long lag between work and pay, the company can't afford a base, I can't move out, my cash keeps draining, and there's no room for a side job. If I go home, I can focus on landing a local job, live stress-free with food and housing covered, and hustle for side money. But I'd be back to square one, could lose momentum on my listings, risk getting complacent, and my income potential drops to zero. There's also a third option: the broker training me offered to bring me onto his team, but that would mean cutting ties with my buddy's company and potentially my only housing option in the city.

How would you think about the opportunity cost here?

I'm 25, I've bounced around a lot, and I'm worried I'll still be bouncing at 30. I don't want to give up on building something, but I'm tired of being broke on active income.

And here is a final point: if you were to ask, what job would you do if you could? Answer: no clue

Second point: even if i knew the answer above, lets say i go home, what job will i get there? I didn’t have much success in the first place, what would change?

I was thinking about getting into construction since i have enjoyed certain aspects of real estate but i don’t come from that background. No problem with that but as we know, job market is tight.

My biggest fear is getting desperate, taking anything, taking a big backward step with my career, pigeon holding/getting stuck, finding myself in not such a good position

TL;DR: 25M, two months into a commission-only realty partnership with a friend. Projected $135K, made $0 so far. One listing got pulled for a rental, another deal's payout was cut from $2,500 to $1,000, and ~$1,600 total is in the pipeline against monthly training costs and $480 in MLS dues. Down to ~$2K cash by month-end (~$70K invested). Stay or cut losses?

So, im a co-op student and I received a verbal offer about 2 days ago with NO information. Its just a verbal offer saying they'd like to offer me a position.

Would it be weird to negotiate the pay when they didnt mention it at all?

Should I accept the verbal offer first, then negotiate when the written offer comes in?

My deadline to reply is by the end of this week. Please tell me how I should proceed. Thanks

34 in Ontario-what career would you recommend for a fresh start with good income?
I’m 34, and feeling really lost about my career. I want a profession I can throw myself into, become skilled at and build a future around. Good income is my biggest priority, and I’m willing to retrain.

My background is in hospitality, events, customer service and rental administration. I prefer practical, people-facing work over spending the entire day at a computer.

My Strong Interest Inventory results were highest in Artistic and Social, with Investigative and Enterprising almost tied. My stronger interests included teaching, public speaking, law, entrepreneurship and helping people. Adult education and self-enrichment teaching were my closest occupational matches. I also identify with aspects of ENFP/ENFJ, although I know those labels don’t determine a career.

After five paid career-counselling sessions, I have more possibilities but still no clear direction. The expanding list is making me overwhelmed, and I need help narrowing things down.

What one or two careers would you seriously recommend investigating and why? I’d especially appreciate hearing from people doing those jobs about actual pay, training requirements and the less appealing parts.

I moved back to PA from FL in August after having to leave a DV situation with my ex. I could not transfer my job unfortunately and I only had a week to get everything done. I have 12 years of sales experience with every company I was at being between 2-5 years until this last job I was only at for 7 months due to the situation. I have worked in retail cell phone sales for 7 years and remote call center sales for 5 years with my most recent experience being the 7 months working at a dealership. I realized being there that I did not enjoy selling cars but I’ve always enjoyed sales. I’m really open to any opportunity at this point and have applied from anything from sales to construction and even working at a grocery store.

The only offers I’ve received are for commission only door to door sales and working in a dealership doing BDC. I’m open to completely changing my career because I know what the burnout from sales feels like and I do love the idea of learning more of a blue collar skill. I’ve applied to over 250 jobs since I’ve been back and I really don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Ive had close to 10 interviews and have even followed up afterwards with nothing being successful. Even when the interview has gone amazing, I haven’t heard anything back.

I have been mainly applying on indeed and LinkedIn. Occasionally I apply directly through a company site if I know enough about the company. I’m realizing I can no longer afford to be picky though. My only qualification at this point is that it can’t be commission only and I would prefer to stay away from anything car sales related. Does anyone have any other recommendations on where to continue to job hunt or how I can best stand out for a job offer? I’m just trying to get my life back on track and it’s so defeating to continue to deal with this.

I am really worried. I want job as quickly as I can suggest me what should I prepare for jee or neet I am in 11th

When I first started working here my boss, who is also the owner, treated me really well. He even gave me baby stuff and gift cards when my daughter born and I was just starting.

Fast forward to now, and most days it feels like he's just looking for a reason to yell at me. For example, one day he sent me an email at 5:30 AM which only contained an excel file, no text or anything. Next day he gets angry at me because he wanted me to work on said file. Another day we emailed a customer asking for a PO number so we could invoice them, we got the PO number the next day, however, my boss did not see the email and he again emailed our customer asking for a PO number. When I mentioned to him that we had already received it, he yelled at me saying that I should've communicated with him, even though he was also copied on the email, which means that he got angry at me because he didn't read the email.

It is a small company and from what I've been told, my boss wants to semi-retire and another coworker wants to retire in the next couple of years, so I would be taking over him.