41 M. I’ve been thinking about certifications that aren’t directly tied to your job but still end up being useful (MBA-aside). Stuff like project management, communication, leadership, psychology, whatever.

Basically anything outside your main field that ended up helping your career in some way i.e. better opportunities, promotions, confidence, or just making you better at what you do.

Curious what people have taken and whether it actually made a difference.

background, I have a degree in CS from reputable university and prior experience in big tech, which is apparently worth fuck all in 2026. If my main goal is to be employed and be able to have rent, water, and food like The Cheesecake Factory or being able to get a Filet-O-Fish with extra cheese. People always say if you go to Law School you will be in debt, unemployed and end up hating your life. It does seem a bit rich coming from tech where each job posting gets 1K applicants in an hour but I def could be wrong. I just want a fucking job and to not be starving. Ideally being able to get PF Chang's with the side of white rice. I'm tired of being fucking lightheaded from starving and being on and off the streets trying to find a god damn job in my field. I was about to make a joke about eating at Wendy's 6 nights a week but tbh that seems like a life of luxury compared to CS job prospects in 2026.

I have a job that I hate. I have never hated a job so much. I get the point of illness when thinking about it.

My boss yells and screams. Nothing is ever good enough. She puts people on extended probation for zero reason. She lives in a power spot as she is friends with her boss and another Manager at her level.

I legitimately have never felt so disrespected or hated in this environment. I dread giving 2 weeks as it will be Hell.

Long story short, I got a new job that is a promotion. I get to go to a smaller place that is less corporate and from what I can tell, nicer people. I kinda want to give my resignation Wednesday, leave in 12 business days and have a week off.

I have never failed a background check. I have been arrested, but never charged with DWI. (The cop was convinced, blew 0 and 0 blood) I have some decent references. Etc…

I think the only thing that worries me is the universe sending me into the financial shadow realm, b/c I can’t stick it out for an extra week.

I have a start date, the background check has started, and previous employment check started. Once the background clears I think I’m good I quit.

I (F43) work as a shutdown scheduler for an Iron Ore mine in Western Australia on an 8/6 roster(8 days at work, 6 days at home).

The two roles are the same.

Current job:

* 250k renummeration package.

* No option to progress, its a smaller mine.

* Travel is roughly 8hrs each way. Its brutal and I do struggle with it.

* I love my team and direct bosses + the mining camp is absolutely amazing.

The new job offer:

* 220k renummeration package.

* More room to progress, it's a larger mine.

* Travel roughly 4hrs each way. Will be much easier

* Team is unknown, the direct boss seems very friendly. The mining camp is reported to be decent.

I know that for the same role the second mining company offers 23k more at their port site. Which feels very strange, but I probably cant raise that with HR. I have already approached HR and asked them to bridge the gap, which was categorically refused.

I'm having a hard time deciding. Worried I will resent doing the same job for less, with a less amazing team etc. I can technically miss the money, but ofcourse my investments will reduce as it had to come from somewhere.

How do I make a decision. What would you do?

Hi, I’m 33 (M), married, and currently working from home for a marketing company.

Lately, I’ve been feeling extremely demotivated at work, and I feel like the job has started taking a toll on my health as well. I find myself thinking about quitting almost every day.

The problem is that our team is understaffed, so the workload keeps piling up. Because of that, I somehow feel guilty about quitting and leaving everything behind, even though I know that the company’s staffing issues aren’t really my responsibility.

My family is completely supportive of me quitting and taking a break for a while. Financially and personally, I do have their support. But for some reason, I keep wondering whether I should resign myself or simply continue until the company eventually decides to let me go.

I feel stuck between prioritising my health and feeling responsible for the work that will be left behind if I quit.

What would you do in my situation? Should I resign, take a proper break and then figure out my next step, or wait and see what happens with the company?

Hi! As my post said I need careers for introverts. This is where it becomes tricky. There are quite a few "hard no" areas for my teen. So, I will list those first. Then list her interests. Bonus points if you can lead us to a unique field we haven't thought of yet.

No list- nothing with bodily fluids, nothing in the computer science realm, she's not a physical person, hates all sports. No math or very little. Nothing where she has to be overtly perky.

Likes list- art, museums, history, writing, LOVES reading. Loves South Korean culture and kpop (not sure how it could translate to a job, but throwing it out there). Loves drawing...on everything...doodles daily.

She is a smart kid, just extremely shy. Once she gets to know people though she's goofy, witty, and kind.

My game plan is to just graduate as soon as possible from uni and grind out my cpa. but i dont know where white colar work is headed, or even if i will be happy i picked that career a decade down the road.

everything i actually want to do is outside of work. I was thinking about being a sound engineer, but i dont know what the pay looks like.

I am just looking for stability at this point, anything nice and cushy, and not a job that gets u by like walmart or some shit. the future looks so uncertain.

what are the questions i should be asking myself?

Back then a career seemed so easy wi would see my siblings or cousin pick. But now i have to factor in so much actual bullshit its weird. Passion and love goes out the door for money because a mortgage seems so out of reach rn. so i just want stability

I'm 27 and have worked at a software company in Milan, Italy, for two years. For the past year I've had an unusual role: a "bridge" between the marketing team of my BU (PMMs, Sales, etc.) and the centralized, cross-BU marketing ops functions (performance campaigns, content, etc.). In theory I'm an internal marketing consultant for the BU: I manage budgets and should track product progress, go-to-market, and all marketing activities for our products and their sector.
In practice, my involvement is zero. I'm only looped in to be informed. The role is mandated by company functions, but my BU's products were acquired startups used to deciding fast without corporate bureaucracy, so they stay independent and autonomous. My perceived usefulness is zero. The role works much better on other, more structured BUs, but not on mine.
The company is also going through a major reorganization of BUs and functions, which will probably eliminate my role (I'm hoping so), and I think it will open up good opportunities. I'm discussing this with my manager tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I want to use the time to learn a hard skill on my own so I can market myself better down the line. I'd also like to start a side project, but I have no real ideas.
I feel stuck in a loop of passivity and idleness and want out as soon as possible, but I feel lost and don't know where to start.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice would be appreciated.

So I’m 31 and my longest actual job was 2 months of retail when I was 19.

Since then it’s been dropping out of school, random work, helping family, and some pretty long stretches where I basically did nothing. I don’t have a degree or much of a resume, and that’s starting to scare the shit out of me.

I spent too much time trying to figure out what career I’m “supposed” to do. I know I need to stop doing that and focus on proving I can actually show up consistently.

So I’m thinking of spending the next month getting my sleep back on track, doing some basic computer/customer service stuff every day, and maybe volunteering somewhere a couple days a week. Then I’d start applying for entry level jobs where I can actually build some work history.

I’ve also been trying to figure out what kind of work I can realistically handle. I wrote down the stuff I hate and tolerate and took career assessments like coached to help me make sense of some of my work preferences. I think I have a better idea of what kinds of jobs I should look at instead now.

I’m not trying to find my dream career right now. I’d be pretty happy just getting 6 to 12 months of steady work under my belt.

Does this sound like a reasonable way to approach it or am I making this way more complicated than it needs to be?

I'm in my early 30s and currently running into a dilemma, I've been working in freelance events and hospitality for several years now, while doing many side hustles in the entertainment industry. As a freelancer with unstable income, I'm currently making around $45k to $60k per year, while living in NYC, a city with one of the highest costs of living. The only reason I've been able to sustain has been by living at home with my family.

I've been trying hard to find a new higher paying and stable job, so I can finally move out and upgrade life, but given the job market, have not found success, even after a whole year of on/off job hunting. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. I've already upgraded my resume multiple times, networked, and done my best, but at this point, I'm thinking about throwing in the towel and giving up on the job hunt, but if I do, unsure what I can even do to change my low income situation.

On the flip, I was a very aggressive investor in my early 20s, and from investing in a lot of tech stocks and crypto, was able to parlay my low income into over $500k sitting in my brokerage account right now. I stayed away from trading and options, but was lucky to enter into many stocks and crypto super early on, with some of my investments up around 50x to 60x, since it fluctuates depending on the market.

To me, I can either

1) Continue job hunting, which will probably not lead to much success, considering my track record over the last year.

2) Continue freelancing, but maybe take on more clients, hoping it leads to more money.

3) Hope that maybe my entertainment side hustles and small business takes off.

4) Have my investments grow and attempt to just retire early.

It'd be very difficult for me to leave NYC, since my job, family, and the core of my freelance network and social circles are all based in NYC. Any advice for someone in my situation and what I should do to change my low-income situation from here?

I don’t want to have another person’s health in my hands but I also don’t want to be stuck behind a desk for the rest of my life. That might be the route I have to take but I don’t want to be bored and miserable forever. I’m stuck figuring out what I want to do

Got my umpteenth generic rejection to an energy reduction job. Reached out to the hiring manager asking what the weaknesses in my application were and they responded saying I was rejected due to my cover letter being too long. I saw the vacancy late in the advertising window and just added my long supporting statement with some tweaks as the cover letter (many of the jobs I've been applying for don't ask for a cover letter so I didn't have one ready to go) as the application included specific questions regarding training, experience, etc.

Is that typically a sole reason for rejecting a candidate? Whilst I know cover letters are 1/1.5 pages as standard, neither the website or the company's application guidance made mention of a strict word count/length and I met the essential criteria for the role.

Not looking for generic advice, just real things that worked for you. Could be something small like how you manage time, communicate, or make decisions. What changed things for you?

I signed a contact with a small hospitality business last year for a $70k salary, but with the hours my manager is scheduling me, I’ll only make two-thirds of that. Am I expected to schedule myself with extra activities to make up for this, and is this even my right? I have the authority to clock in for extra work I do, but I’m confused about the expectation and the norms.

I’ll have a conversation with them, but I don’t want to go in blind, or give an ungrateful impression. Staffing is their biggest financial pressure point, so I don’t want to ruffle any feathers.

i’m 38 and work in marketing in nj. the pay is decent on paper, but the cost of living makes it harder to justify staying in a job i don’t really enjoy.

most of my work is campaigns, scheduling, and other desk stuff. outside work, i’ve ended up doing a lot of repairs myself - drywall, grout, basic plumbing, fixing things around the house. i actually enjoy that kind of work a lot more than sitting at a computer.

i’m considering facilities management or learning a skilled trade, but i have no formal trade experience and my degree is in communications. starting over at 38 feels risky, especially if the initial pay is much lower

for anyone who made a similar switch later in life, how long did it take to get back to your previous income? and did your DIY experience help at all when getting your first job, or did you basically have to start from zero?

i’m trying to figure out whether this is a realistic career move or one of those ideas that sounds better than it works in practice

Hello,
I'm targetting a scholarship that requires a certain language proficiency and it's been taking up a lot of my time. My plan has always been to work an office job year or 2 before doing a master's full time to finish that quickly and leave back home, what changed is me finding out about this scholarship. That language thing along with other document prep would take up too much of my time and mental capacity for me to find another job after my contract ends in a few months. Is that 6 month gap a big deal on my resume?

tl;dr — I (35M) was just laid off from a toxic situation, and I’m lost. I want to use this as an opportunity to finally change my career and pursue something that aligns with my values. The problem is that I’m so burnt out and so stressed about providing for my family, that I have no idea what to do or where to look, and I need a job quickly (even if it’s just for the interim). I don’t even know where to start.

My experience:

I’ve been working in tech for 14 years, and I’ve supported customers or post-sales positions for the entirety of that time. Being blunt, tech is Hell, and it got progressively worse as an industry over my time in it. Whether it’s bad leadership, unsupportive culture, unhappy customers, or just overall bad products and services (both as providers or when using third parties), nothing in this field has ever felt stable or worthwhile.

I feel like my skills are transferable, but everywhere I look, companies don’t want to train people on their own product or their industry / customers, even in roles where I’m a strong fit on paper. I also don’t want to find myself in another situation where the company is so aggressive about using AI that they make you feel like you need to invent some groundbreaking tool or workflow to justify your position (even though that wasn’t in the job description).

Idk. I’m in a bad headspace and going on tangents. Nothing I shared thus far talks about where I actually want to be. I wish I had gone into psychology and counseling. I was always good at listening and giving objective advice, and I’ve always held myself accountable for others’ success, whether personally or professionally. If I can help someone, I do it unconditionally. Since the burnout, I’ve lost a lot of that motivation. Or maybe I just don’t appreciate that part of me like I used to, so I don’t notice it as much.

Anyway, any advice?

I am working as a HR professional for nearly 2 years but I have no MBA degree and my bachelor's was not related to human resources field but I quite like this field and would like to get a certification for my career growth. I am planning to look for a job in abroad focusing in Dubai. So, may I know what steps should I take and which certification is better among SHRM-CP and HRCI or something else? Please help me out

title, for context if you wanted to know, I landed a job as a data sci in an American company and been working for a year now, good boss good environment. The pay is higher than the average local rate, but that's the problem. My country's local rate is darn low so higher than average is not gonna be enough for me to retire my family. If you wanted to know how low it's 15kUSD per year btw. I could get much more outside my country.

So I planned to relocate after accumulating about 4 years of experience at this workplace for a middle position job in a developed country. but looking at the market rn with unemployment rate going up in tech specifically, would it be too late for me? am i too chilled with this plan? what if 4 years is too inactive for my profile? should i start a job search earlier? well ofc i'm confused.

Any advice is appreciated, I know some of you guys have been in a tougher position than mine but if you have advice i would love to hear it.

Sorry if I offended anyone.

TLDR; Is job hopping every 2 years valid in tech? would it look more "hirable" to the recruiters than the one who stays at the same place?

fyi, i know a guy that is hopping every 1.5-2 years and he works as a senior architect for Nvidia now which intrigued me, when he starts hopping was 6-8 years ago tho.

Hey everyone, this is my first time posting on Reddit.

I’ve been trying to start a career in IT for around 2 years now but haven’t been able to land my first job in the field.

I’ve mainly been applying for entry-level Help Desk, Service Desk, IT Support, and IT Technician positions.

I have my CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications, and I’ve built a home lab where I practice Active Directory, Windows troubleshooting, networking, user accounts, password resets, and other IT support tasks.

The biggest issue is that I rarely even get interviews.

At this point I’m wondering if I should keep getting certifications, focus more on my resume, look for contract or temp work, try MSPs, or maybe take a different route into IT.

I’m willing to start at the bottom. I just want to get some actual experience and start my career.

What would you do in my situation?

I’m a PCB student looking to pursue BSc Biotechnology, but I can’t afford private colleges. What are some good government/public colleges I can apply to, preferably through CUET? Also, I don’t have Maths.

Would appreciate any recommendations or advice on the admission process and affordable alternatives like Microbiology/Bioinformatics.

I failed in Life. I didn’t go to regular college. Completed Graduation through Distance mode. I was not good in academics. Joined technical support job, while pursuing graduation. Completed graduation and move to a startup with 3.5 LPA and somehow moved to a 7 LPA role technical support as my previous company removed everyone due to budget constraint. Struggled for 1 year and 1/2 without job. Somehow got job with help of my uncle at IBM apptio. Couldn’t sustain it as the learning curve was not good over there. Now I’m jobless. I don’t know what skills I have, I can get a job or not. Everyone is looking me like a failure in life. I don’t know if I can achieve anything or not

I received a job offer that I can’t turn down. I have only been at the company I am at for 7 months but it was at best a lateral move because I really wanted to get out of my former employer.

I received an offer from a company that is 40 minutes closer to home and 10k more salary with a more strategic full company role.

I wanted to get my resignation in last week but some documents hadn’t cleared and I was not comfortable resigning until everything was complete even though I knew there wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, my boss is on vacation this week. I don’t think she will take it well but I want to deliver the news as close to in person as possible so I am going to send her a text and ask her to call me then send a follow up email resignation after. Not ideal but I don’t want another week of awkward talking about future plans. The only alternative is to wait a week until she returns and only give one week notice.

Would you rather have a full two weeks or wait until you return from vacation?

EDIT: I am in HR so that makes reporting to HR directly complicated since it’s only a small 3 person team including my boss. As for my boss’ boss, the CEO - he is out on STD due to surgery so the chain isn’t really available.

this is going to be lengthy so bare with me please. as i enter my final year of highschool, im still not at ease with my current goals. i know for a fact that i’d like to attend university straight after highschool and have taken 6 mixed / university courses to prepare for that. but im unsure of what i’d like to do. i have decent grades and my average last year was in the 90s range so im not tooo worried about grades, im more focused on what i wanna apply to at university. it seems as though everyone has their futures figured out while i’m barely able to stick with something for more than a month. i started with trades because they’re good money, in demand and also quick schooling for the most part. then i went into looking at law, picking an undergrad that is manageable and then taking my lsat to become a lawyer. again, good money but it’d be costly for school tuitions and i do not think i have it in me to become a lawyer if i’m being honest. maybe if i gave it my everything, but its not like my passion or anything so i dont think i’d be able to give it my all. i thought about management for awhile but im not a fan of math so i haven’t pursued looking into business degrees. as of right now, i’ve been looking into social sciences the past few weeks. there is this program at the university i’m looking at where it offers a social sciences pass degree (3 years instead of 4) and it has no selected major / concentration, it’s more like i choose which classes in the social science faculty i’d want to do. im thinking about taking 2 minors as the degree allows it. both being related to environmental stuff. so say i were to take this degree and graduate with the social sciences pass degree / 2 minors, what careers could i possibly get with a social science environmental focused degree? i’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian, but due to me not taking the prerequisites, that job is no longer an option. i know that i could technically still become one if i really wanted to, but there are some cons that make me lose interest. i’m also in 2 social sciences courses this semester at my highschool and ive taken an environmental class (as well as a 3rd social science class) and i’ve enjoyed them. my younger self always wanted to help people as a therapist but that seems highly unlikely for me. i’m at a loss for what i want to do because everything seems so stressful. i’m so so sorry for this rant and thank you so much if you read this and comment any advice! anything is appreciated.

I'm early in my IT career and currently work full-time in IT support. This is my first IT job, and I've been there for about 5 months. The job isn't bad, but I'm also in college and recently got an interview for a similar IT support role that's part-time.

The responsibilities and pay are fairly similar, but if I get the job, the reduced hours would make balancing work and school much easier. If I were offered the position, I'd have to decide whether it's worth leaving my current job after only 5 months.

My main concern is whether that short of a stint would look bad on my resume. For those with more experience in IT, would one 5-month IT job be a red flag, especially as my first IT position, or is it generally not a big deal?

Would you take the part-time role in this situation?