u/Ill-Square-1123

Cross posting from recruiting hell...

I did everything right, yet it feels like I am on borrowed time.

I graduated last year from an MBA program in Canada. Prior to that, I graduated with a math undergrad and accounting double degree. I was working jobs making ~55K, 60K, and then eventually 80K. Unfortunately this just wasn't enough for me living in DT Toronto with some of the highest COL IN THE WORLD + I have a family to support. I also hated the roles I was working. Good news, I managed to pay off all my undergrad loans and had no debt at all over these 3 years, so figure I'd bet on myself and go get an MBA at a top school in Canada and get a much higher paying job.

Well I did. I got employed last summer, almost a year ago making ~$160K (after tax ~100K lol Canada). My bet fully paid off. I took out almost $100K in loans to be able to get this MBA, but I knew if I got the kind of job I spent years networking for, in the long run I'd be ok.... or so I thought

I have been there the last year, and I made the foolish mistake of prioritizing paying off my student loans (I am down to almost ~50K owing in just 11 months!), while living in a 1+1 bedroom in DT Toronto. My monthly expenses (including supporting my family as my mom is disabled and my dad passed away) is about $4000. There were some unforeseen circumstances here and there, but I've managed to save about $12,000 in these last 10 months while aggressively paying my loans off.

Anyways, unfortunately I work for a tech company whose stock is getting obliterated. The market seems to think my company, despite profits rising 20% YoY, is not going to survive AI. I already know the execs are going to have a massive round of cuts to appease the shareholders, and they've been investing HEAVILY in AI themselves.

I don't know when I'll be sent packing. I feel like it could be any day. I have a 3 month emergency fund, and after that, I and my mother are royally fucked. This is despite genuinely doing everything right: well educated, fantastic experience, no criminal record, genuinely a good and smart person who works hard. I've completely checked out of this job because I know no amount of "hard work" is going to save me from being let go, and it's all random. n shot I work my ass off to be sent to hell like that.

I genuinely feel once I'm laid off, getting another job will be impossible. I've tried applying, and I did get my FIRST interview today for a great role, but the recruiter told me they are interview 30 candidates and just have 1 vacancy, so it seems like that ones a long shot despite being perfectly qualified.

I don't know what to do. this keeps me up at night. I talked to my landlord and he was super kind and said he'd be ok with me terminating the lease with immediate effect should I be laid off (W landlord), but to have to move back in with my mom at the AGE OF 30 makes me feel genuinely sad. that should allow my emergency fund to stretch longer, + EI could help, but I feel like I'd have a solid year's worth of finances to support myself and my family and then it's curtains on us.

I've started tutoring some kids in university and am shockingly making $500/month and think I can ramp this up to $1,500/month once school starts up again, so that'll help. but the fact I spent over all this money on education that clearly isn't worth the paper its printed on is INSANE.

I don't know who else to talk to about this. I hope some of you can relate in some form to what I am saying

Hi,
I just got an offer to make $175K/yr at a wealth management company. While my credit score is 720, this will be huge for me because I am in debt $35K between a credit card and credit line and I will be able to pay off the debt at this salary in under half a year.

I got this credit card debt during a period of unemployment and sick family member. The good news is, I haven't missed a single payment. I am paying $2k/month (about $500 of that is interest, the rates I have are low). In my 16 years of having a credit history, I have perfect payment history, no bankruptcies, collections, etc.

I'm wondering, is my offer going to be revoked? They are doing a credit check. Does having perfect payment history with high debt mean you can't get a job? The job does NOT involve handling money or even communicating with clients, its more of a planner role.

Anyone with experience or knowledge on this?

I teach many people from kids to adults, and something I realized is, especially among adults, getting them to play with a metronome is very hard, and many of them don't ever practice with one.

I understand when you are first learning a piece and getting the fingering and muscle memory down, playing with a metronome is hard and trying to focus on the rhythm when you don't even have the right notes/fingerings/chords, etc down can be very challenging.

But I have students who, after practicing a piece for a couple days and are able to play it from memory, still don't practice with a metronome. They say its too hard and makes them play worse.

This is very concerning for me. I truly believe practicing with a metronome, especially as a beginner and even intermediate player, is going to improve you abilities dramatically, make you sound more professional (since nothing screams inexperienced more than someone with tempo all over the place when unintended), make practicing easier as you can gradually increase difficulty of practice, etc.

If I hear someone play a piece, I can EASILY tell if they've practiced with or without a metronome.

How can I drill the importance of this to my students and get them to overcome this fear of the metronome? Alternatively, am I just making a big deal out of something that doesn't matter and actually, a metronome isn't as helpful as I think?

I am a teacher, so take this with a grain of salt. this is NOT an advertisement for my services, believe me, I have plenty of students already. I just want to share my observations and experiences with students I have who have learned via Youtube.

The vast majority of the people on Youtube are shilling for their "courses" and are just trying to build up marketing so you can find their courses. Many of them are not good guitarists, no matter how fancy or "fast" their playing is. I have been playing guitar for 20+ years (and studied several instruments outside of that). I don't care if you don't believe me, this is my opinion, but the vast majority of these "great" guitar players on Youtube are just people who've been playing the guitar for a long time. Here's some good news for you beginners: ANYONE who sticks with the guitar for 10-20 years can actually be pretty competent at it. But not EVERYONE who does gets great. That's a topic for another time, but just "practicing" isn't going to turn you into an expert in the guitar, unless you practice the right way... and guess what? You need a teacher you trust for that.

For the love of all that is holy, please don't use Youtube reels or other 20 second videos to "learn" anything, and you should actively train your algorithm to stop this from showing up. I just this morning saw an idiot teaching people how to do sweep picking, said its "easy", and I promise you their "approach" won't work unless you've properly learned sweep picking or just slugged away at it for years and years.

There's also A LOT of toxicity on Youtube. Knuckleheads saying nonsense like, "you should practice this every day!!!!" and then proceed to giving beginners exercises that would take them 3 hours to complete (and complete poorly). Saw an idiot say beginners should be practicing all major/minor keys in two octaves everyday, and all major minor triad arpeggios two octaves. If you've been playing guitar for less than 1 month, go ahead and try to just do one key in one shape and see how challenging it is, lol.

I know some will say, "liar! I learned off YouTube and now I'm an expert!". Either they don't realize they aren't experts, OR they are people who can just intuitively figure the guitar and music out themselves (i.e. are gifted). Remember the kids in school who skipped every class, didn't study, but got straight A's, and then when you tried to do that you weren't as successful? Some people can teach themselves, but it is foolish to think this is you.

Finally, the vast majority of content on Youtube is designed for absolute beginners (no music knowledge, <1 year guitar experience) or intermediate/advanced players (but pretending like its something beginners can do because they know 90% of their viewers are beginners and have to cater it to them).

Just my two cents.

Hi,
I absolutely love the NI/Kontakt libraries and the Arturia libraries (their augmented series, like brass, piano, etc). These are acoustic/synth hybrids, and can have incredibly effects and samples to pick from and mold unique sounds very easily.

The thing is, I have used them a few times and sent the stems out to the mixing engineer and they said, "I won't mix this, take the effects off the tracks". I'm curious, are these unmixable then? Isn't the whole point of these libraries is you get to create cool sounds pretty easily???

Should I run multiple instances of each VST and separate out the layers? Is there a way to route the individual layers of these libraries to separate tracks so I don't waste CPU???

Should I just find another mixing engineer? I get that mixing engineers want to be surgical about their mixing, so I don't think the guy I'm using is out to lunch... but what else am I supposed to do to be able to use these libraries and then mix them properly in the broader track if I can't isolate each component in them?

Hi,
I absolutely love the NI/Kontakt libraries and the Arturia libraries (their augmented series, like brass, piano, etc).

The thing is, I have used them a few times and sent the stems out to the mixing engineer and they said, "I won't mix this, take the effects off the tracks". I'm curious, are these unmixable then? Isn't the whole point of these libraries is you get to create cool sounds pretty easily???

Should I run multiple instances of each VST and separate out the layers? Is there a way to route the individual layers of these libraries to separate tracks so I don't waste CPU???

Should I just find another mixing engineer? I get that mixing engineers want to be surgical about their mixing, so I don't think the guy I'm using is out to lunch... but what else am I supposed to do to be able to use these libraries and then mix them properly in the broader track if I can't isolate each component in them?

SO this is something I haven't really encountered much.

I have a student who came to me for piano lessons and eventually shared with me they wish they could learn to have a better ear, but have effectively given up on training exercises and hope that one day they'll just "wake up and have a better ear after years of piano practice".

Honestly, I have had students that have had that experience - under-developed ear for years and then after 3-4 years, it sorta just clicked.

But what's unique about this student is they can perfectly sing back a melody to me when I improvise a melody for them. They get all the pitches so spot on it actually surprised me.

but then when I ask them to tell me the intervals they just sang, they struggle with this. and where things get interesting is if I ask them to tell me the direction of pitch shifts, they can't really do that, even though they are quite literally singing it.

This made me realize, perhaps there's something not allowing them to connect what they're singing to what it is, if that makes sense.

It's like they can do it with their voice, but they don't know what they're doing.

Has anyone ever worked with a student like this? How can I help them recognize that they know far more than they do? Should I let time take its course? Just ask them to keep singing melodies and hope one day they make the connection with what they're doing and what it is, etc?

It'll be the first time we see Asha as fans, and we get to see all that she's been working on.
I think Xbox has been cooking.

In a debate with some friends about this. Curious what you all think.