I'm 29 and currently make around $78k working in corporate communications.

Got approached about a position paying $130k for a CEO at a midsize company. Went through two interviews and found out the actual job is pretty much managing his entire public personality.

LinkedIn posts, replies to comments, congratulating employees, sharing personal stories, even writing opinions on industry news. All under his name. Apparently he doesn't have time for any of it but wants to appear more involved and approachable.

The recruiter called it executive communications, which I know is an actual career. But during the second interview they made it clear he wouldn't even be reviewing most of what I write.

I'm having trouble deciding whether this is a great opportunity or a really weird direction to take my career.

Would you consider this legitimate experience for future communications roles? Because explaining that I spent 3 years pretending to be somebody's CEO on LinkedIn sounds ridiculous.

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

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

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

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

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

I work in operations at a company with around 60 employees. My director recently offered me a management position with a $25k raise, which would've been an easy yes under normal circumstances.

The catch is they're restructuring our department and eliminating 3 positions. If I accept, I'll be expected to evaluate the team and recommend who stays. HR will handle the actual layoffs, but my input will carry a lot of weight.

I've worked alongside these people for almost 4 years. One of them literally trained me when I started.

My director keeps framing it as a great opportunity to prove myself as a leader, but I'm struggling to see how I could manage the remaining team after being involved in that decision.

Has anyone taken a promotion under similar circumstances? Feels like I'm being offered a better career at the expense of my reputation with everyone I work with.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ve been working in corporate marketing for several years and have steadily progressed into management. On paper, my career is going well. I’ve received promotions, increased my salary, and taken on more responsibility.

The problem is that I’m completely burned out, and it has very little to do with the actual work.

My company has undergone significant restructuring, with layoffs and departures resulting in increasingly large workloads being distributed among fewer employees. Responsibilities that previously belonged to multiple people are now being consolidated into individual roles, and the expectations haven’t really adjusted to reflect that.

On top of everything, the company is pushing a return-to-office mandate that would require me to relocate. It’s becoming difficult to justify uprooting my life for a job that’s already taking a toll on my mental well-being.
Recently, I came across an opportunity managing a small outdoor recreation business. The position involves overseeing daily operations, interacting with customers, managing a small team, and spending a considerable amount of time outdoors.

It’s a completely different environment from what I’m accustomed to, and the idea of doing something tangible, physical, and relatively straightforward sounds incredibly appealing.

The catch is that it would involve taking roughly a 40–50% pay cut. $90k - about $50k

I’m not necessarily looking to abandon my professional career permanently. I have experience and skills I could return to, and I could potentially supplement my income with freelance work. But part of me wonders whether stepping away from the corporate world for a year or two might be exactly what I need.

There’s also the psychological aspect of walking away from a career you’ve spent years building. It feels counterintuitive to voluntarily move backward financially after working so hard to progress.

At the same time, I’m starting to question the value of a higher salary when the trade-off is constant stress, uncertainty, and increasingly little control over my own life. There’s also the option of serving tables a few nights a week in addition to the nature tour manager gig.

Has anyone here taken a substantial pay cut to leave a corporate environment for something simpler or more fulfilling? Did it improve your quality of life, or did the financial trade-off eventually create a different kind of stress?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from people who made the change temporarily and later returned to their original careers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So many of my peers are fixated on escaping the 9-5 and I see so many romanticized things online about doing more with your life and career to make more money and enjoy doing it.

I’m 22 in a very good finance program, I’m getting my mba part time while making 90k a year, in 2.5 years upon off-placement from the program i’ll be making 130k with a great resume at 25. Logically I know I have a great setup.

Then I think of the people I know and see in big cities, or traveling, or trying to start something, and It makes me feel behind and unsure if I’ll ever live the life I want or just be a slightly wealthier rat in the race.

I know comparison is the thief of joy but I’d love some reassurance that this is a good thing. It’s not like I have the balls to do anything else or throw away what i’ve built, I just wish I knew that it’d all be worth it.

For people with more life experience than me: How did the people that went down a hardcore career-focused path turn out compared to those who didn’t? I want to make a lot of money, I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor and have the luxurious things I’ve dreamed of. It’s just really hard to look down the barrel of 30-40 years and say I’ll enjoy my life or that it will feel fulfilling.

Hello! I am 19F, and am currently in my sophomore year studying Biology. Im pretty much at a crossroads for picking a career to go into.

I have looked into a lot of different fields, and have consistently came back to healthcare. As cliche as it sounds, I feel so drawn to helping people in the physical aspect. I’m also so intrigued by the way the human body functions and how it heals itself.

That being said, I have looked into so many difference careers in healthcare. MD, DO, Pa School, radiology, pharmacy, PT, OT, DMD,OD, DPM, Pharma, you NAME IT!!!!!

What doesn’t help is the job market. Some of my values in finding a career are: a predictable schedule (im very family oriented and would love to live for my family), job stability, good salary, good debt to income.

Now I do understand we can’t have the best of every world, and I’m flexible on some of those more than others.

But I just wanted to hear from some people in the field and their careers! To hear a bit about your life, what you love about it, etc.
Thank you guys!!!

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

I've been considering medical coding for a while now and am finally in a position to start taking courses for it. But I do wonder how much of it is being outsourced by AI and whether or not it will continue being a stable career.

I just graduated this spring with an Econ degree, and it seems like my degree essentially means nothing nowadays as I don’t have any internships, because those are hard to get as well.

I have a general interest in Econ, finance, and accounting but I’m not completely sure which one would best suit me.

I’ve thought about getting enough units to sit for the CPA exam as it looks like it makes it much easier to land a job.

I’ve done all the resume and interview workshops and it’s incredibly hard as nothing on my resume particularly stands out, and I’m pretty introverted so the aspect of selling myself in an interview is very tough for me.

Is there any way I can build upon my degree with any kind of certifications? It feels like there’s not much I can do to stand out as I didn’t have a super high GPA or do any internships. Would getting a master’s degree be worth it?

Hi,

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

I’m 26, no degree, some college, working as a receptionist at a doctors office. I’ve had mostly customer service jobs in the past with a few production/warehouse gigs doing embroidery and large format printing. The job is fine, however I’m only working 2-3 days a week because I have school, (I’m 40 mins away from work, which is 40 mins away from school, which is 40 mins away from work, kms), and as the only receptionist there and with no one picking up the slack when I’m not there, those few days I do work are hell, and the “office manager” is a complete bitch to me, like accuses me of doing things I didn’t do, nagging me about little mistakes she also makes, making more crazy demands of me despite all the shit I do for the office. But that’s a different story I suppose.

I’m only in this position bc I thought about pursuing radiology a few months ago, had a few prerequisites complete and anatomy and medical terminology under my belt, and decided to at least get into a medical related job. At the same time, I’m still in school, I am taking physics with an 86 year old professor (i WISH I was exaggerating here), which literally pisses me off to have to pay this place to have this walking skeleton talk about him and his grandads war stories instead of doing any teaching.

On the other hand I’m taking anatomy 2 and doing okay. I like it, it’s interesting, I have enough common sense to know what’s going on most of the time without doing a ton of extra studying.
Im reconsidering radiology because of the physics aspect and realizing I want even less patient facing work than what that would entail.

I’ve toyed with the ideas of pathology tech, histology tech, vascular tech, optician or opth assistant, dental hygienist, things like this that seem like they might only take a few more years of school but pay better than my current situation and maybe more enjoyable… bc like I said I’ve come to realize I can’t stand working with people most of the time, it actually physically pains me to be nice to mean people, get berated for things I can’t control, get zero fucking credit for anything I do, punching bag as the middle man between client and provider, the list goes on. I want to do something cool and maybe somewhat meaningful or artistic with my hands that won’t pay dirt and suck ass. Is it possible. I’m not so sure. Oh yeah I also have to consider if AI would take it over by the time I’ve invested my whole life in it. Fun!

TLDR: I have no idea what career path is right for me when I hate doing pretty much everything and don’t want to endure school for too much longer.

For context, I was recently laid off from my job. I’m not officially laid off until the end of next month but they let me know ahead of time. This was due to outsourcing workers in other countries who are cheaper to pay than workers here in the us. When I started, the company was just acquired but still had the close family startup culture from when they were independent. Over time it’s become all about corporate profits and cutting costs. I don’t feel supported anymore by the people in my team and for my next job, I want to avoid this same situation again.

That context was important because the first job offer I got is at a company that essentially sounds the same. They also recently started outsourcing work from the same country, had high turnover recently that I would assume are also from layoffs like my company did, but I took it since they offered me a promotion from my current job and I just needed a job before I was laid off.

The second offer I got was from a company that seems to be opposite. Still the same work and role, but it’s an extremely small company with a big focus on culture, and a unique bonus structure that consistently hits 25% due to it being from the owners sharing profits directly with employees. I connected a lot with all the people I interviewed with and for the last interview the owner even flew me out to talk to him and his wife to make sure that everything was a good fit.

I have never rescinded a job offer before and I’m worried about how to go about it, since HR from the first company mentioned how much the team liked me, which was evident by them giving me an offer only hours after I finished my final interview. I don’t think I would ever interview there again unless I was in the same situation and desperate for any job, so I’m not too worried about burning bridges. I’m not great with conflict, so I’m worried about upsetting them or creating problems.

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Hi All

Looking For Advice

Seeing the current scenario in IT

Should I choose Government Sector Vs AI Job.

The salary difference is atleast 5x.

My Background : Around 5.5 with Intern Experience and from tier 3 college currently completing M.Tech In AI from Tier one in online mode and working in Product based having atleast 5 offers right now. The offers might be based on short term or long term demand that I don't have idea.

Not sure if this is the right subreddit to ask this, but I have always been so much interested about self-paced courses. And because you can just learn it anytime you want, and you don't have to follow a routine.

Being a ADHD designer, for me routine is hard. But then again I worry, that okay, I really don't have a routine, will I be actually serious about what I do. Will I complete it on time?

I feel a lot of people in this subreddits must have had experience in doing the self-paced courses. So, definitely would like to hear, how you got started with it. What kind of courses you are taking, how it effects yoir collge, credits overall?

Hello, I am a junior in college and hoping to get some guidance on what to do with my career leaving college. I live in southern California and attend San Diego State University as a junior pursuing a BA in English and Comparative Literature. I also went to community college first and got 3 AA's in English and Interdisciplinary studies. I chose English because I like to read and write, and I thought it would be a good degree that can be applied to many different careers. I've thought about going into elementary school teaching because I like kids, would there be more schooling needed for that? I also am passionate about politics and would like the idea of working with candidates as a speech writer or something along those lines. Any advice? I am willing to go in different directions and just want something that will give me enough income to be able to live apart from my parents eventually, even if I don't marry someone and end up splitting living costs. Thank you!

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.

So I REALLY want to get into the industrial field.

To fill you in on myself, i am 27 and I have worked in industrial hvac for a smaller company about 6 years ago demolishing and installing units with the main focus on running ductwork. I was young and very green to the industry and didn’t understand the opportunity for the growth I could’ve made. That being said I only did that for about 14 months before I left to be back home everyday instead of only home on the weekends. I was working in my state but it was far enough away to get per diem Monday-Friday. Since I left that job I’ve worked as a machine operator, lawn and pest technician, and currently as residential foundation repair and waterproofing of crawl spaces and basements for 3.5 years. I became a crew foreman after a year (I was being pressured for that position after only being there a few months because I’m a responsible person that honestly loves learning tricks and tips to better myself in whatever I do, but I wanted to wait it out and not jump in too fast as I haven’t held that title and responsibility before). Though I left that position and stepped down shortly after a year into the position because the pay difference wasn’t much (paid by the job not really by the hours) and I could get jobs done faster since there wasn’t a set end of the day time and could get home sooner maximizing my “hourly” rate by the math. I am very work focused and I work harder than I probably need to.

All of that said I have been wanting to go into working in industrial construction. Mainly electrical (but open to pretty much all other fields) since that is something I haven’t done and am eager to learn while also being a great career path I want to pursue. It also seems a lot less demanding on the body, so I can see myself not burning out from how my brain is kind of hardwired to work vigorously.

I have been researching but really just need the help of someone giving me real steps to take to make this switch. I cannot seem to find jobs on indeed, google, etc. that are available to someone without schooling or experience in the electrical field, though I’ve read a lot of people do find these apprenticeships without going to school. Is this a necessary step I should take? It’s pretty difficult to make as I do have a wife and kid and I’m the one working in my house (by choice, we love this lifestyle). I would really like to avoid this step and learn on the job as I am a very hands on learner. I am absolutely down to go to school for it, but I feel it would be harder for me without being able to apply what I’m learning as I go if that makes sense. I absolutely would further my knowledge with school knowing I will be using it everyday.

I really want to get into per diem jobs which seems to be the more difficult route to go without the experience but it has the pay that I know would keep me and my family from sinking as right now we are just getting by barely. It truthfully would put us in a comfortable position since we aren’t overwhelmed with ridiculous debt by trying to live outside our means. I just cannot save any money or do things with my family since it all goes into just getting us barely by.

I really appreciate any advice from anyone, and especially from someone who lives a similar experience who doesn’t mind to lift and give a hard working guy, who doesn’t get vulnerable and ask for help, some direction to be successful in giving his family a great life!

Seriously, any advice is greatly appreciated and thank you for taking the time to read this long post!

I recently left a job in big tech. The stress and anxiety from multiple reorgs, layoffs, and the constant panic scramble of corporate work finally burnt me out. Even now, it doesn’t feel like I fully have my head on straight.

Since the start of this year, I’ve been simultaneously job hunting and saving up in case I get laid off or needed to take an extended break. I now have a year of expenses saved up.

I decided to leave my job in September and take some time off, but was offered a job in higher ed that was more relaxed, albeit with a heavy pay cut. I figured I’d take it, at minimum for the health insurance and a pay check.

I’m now a week into my new role, and although it is much more relaxed, I just feel no passion or interest for it. Now, I’m beginning to wonder if I made the wrong choice.

What looks worse on a resume? A long break or a job that’s a downgrade from the last one?

I have the opportunity to make a lateral move in my organization that would quite literally change nothing except for the work duties - same pay, same boss and team, but I would move into a Data Specialist role and out of my Communications Specialist role.

The Data specialist duties interest me - my degree was in communications with a scientific focus, conducting surveys and creating data stories. I LOVE the content of that type of work. It would also open up more data-related opportunities for future jobs, and round out my resume well. So far, I’ve only ever held content creation and marketing roles.

HOWEVER, I really enjoy my job right now. I do more grunt work, and the duties can get tiring (mostly graphic design and social media content) but I get to interact with my coworkers and community in really collaborative ways every week. Which is still a step down from my last job, where I got to do that every day.

I’m worried that lack of face time with patrons and staff would figuratively kill me. It helps ground me, remind me why I work in public service, and prevents my social anxiety from rearing its ugly head. If I’m forced to interact with large groups of people every week I can’t lose that muscle, so to speak.

The Data specialist position would be uniquely isolating - I would have monthly meetings with admin, virtually no face time with staff in other departments or patrons, and wouldn’t even share an office with my marketing team. I’d be popped into a basement corner where IT is based (but are never there because they travel between locations).

Would you give up a job you’re okay with that keeps you sane, for a job you would generally like but that isolates you in a major way?

I’ve made like 6 pros and cons list, the roles are quite literally a mirror of each other. What would you do?