r/Career

I’m trying to better understand the distinction between Founder’s Office, Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), and Chief of Staff roles, because the definitions seem to vary significantly from company to company.

A few things I’m specifically trying to understand:

• Relative seniority: which of these is typically the more senior vs junior role?
• Experience level: how many years of experience do companies usually look for in each?
• Compensation bands: what salary ranges are common for each role (especially in India / consumer startups)?
• Company stage / revenue range: what kind of companies typically hire for these roles (early-stage, Series A/B, scaled, profitable, etc.)?

I come from a generalist business background with ~10 years of total experience, including 6–7 years in the consumer space, and I’m considering applying for Chief of Staff roles.

What’s confusing me is that CoS especially seems to change dramatically depending on the founder, company stage, and function—sometimes strategic, sometimes execution-heavy, sometimes almost PMO-like.

Would really appreciate perspectives from:

• people currently in these roles
• founders who’ve hired for them
• recruiters who understand how the market maps these titles

Trying to understand what role level I should realistically target and how these titles ladder into each other.

I'm in a difficult situation and would appreciate perspective from people who've been through something similar, either side of the table.

Background: About five weeks ago I verbally accepted a job offer — the role was a good fit, the team seemed great, and someone senior personally supported my candidacy throughout the process. No contract signed yet, but the hiring side has been processing paperwork, admin steps have been completed, and my start date is roughly three weeks away.

The complication: A separate process I had been in for months — which had been on hold and then unexpectedly resumed — progressed faster than anticipated. I've now been offered a position elsewhere. Objectively it's a better opportunity: higher seniority level, better salary, and a stronger fit for the direction I want my career to go.

I haven't signed anything. Legally I can walk away. But:

• Someone senior went out of their way to support me
• The hiring side has invested time and administrative effort
• The start date is close
• I feel genuinely bad about it
• They need someone ASAP, and I will derail that significantly by walking away

Questions for anyone who's been here:

1. Has anyone backed out of a verbal acceptance this close to a start date? How did you handle the conversation?
2. Has anyone been the hiring manager on the receiving end? How did you actually feel about it afterwards, and did it permanently affect how you viewed that person?
3. Is there anything beyond being direct, honest and apologetic that genuinely helps in this conversation?
4. Does this kind of thing damage professional relationships long term in close-knit professional circles, or do people generally move on?

The small world aspect is what weighs on me most. I'll almost certainly cross paths with these people again professionally.

I know it's the right decision. I just don't love the person I have to be to get there.

I’m a 21-year-old car salesman and could use some advice from people who’ve been in a similar spot.

I started in the business right after turning 20. I come from a car family, so I had some exposure, but I’m still pretty new overall. I’d say I’m doing decent so far, and I know this is a career where the longer you stay in, the better you can get.

I ended up dropping out of college to pursue this, and at the time it felt like the right move. The money can definitely be there—I cleared about $9k last month. I know that’s not guaranteed every month, but for my age, it’s hard to ignore. 9k a month isn’t that bad for some dipshit that was always dead broke in college.

The issue is, the more I’ve made, the more burnt out I’ve felt. I actually enjoyed the job more when I was making less. Now I’m starting to understand why so many people burn out in this business—60+ hour weeks, constantly being at the dealership, the emotional ups and downs, and dealing with customer games. Sometimes I swear there’s always something wrong with a vehicle I sell. It takes a lot of work from every department to sell a vehicle sometimes.

I’m at a bit of a crossroads. I’m not sure if this is something I can do long-term while still being happy and having a good family life. At the same time, I’m considering going back to school, but that would mean basically resetting my life—moving back to campus, less income, and starting over in a way.

I also know myself, I’ve struggled with online school before and didn’t do well with it. I don’t love school, but I do see the long-term benefits, especially paired with sales experience. Going back to campus would probably be the best option, but then I go back not knowing what my career would turn out to be.

I like selling, but I don’t like the lifestyle that comes with this version of it. I leave for work at 7 and don’t get home until 7. I’m often pretty tired for other chores and self improvement tasks, maybe that’s on me, but not sure if that’s sustainable for me in future years.

I guess I’m just trying to figure out if this is something I should push through, or if it’s a sign to pivot while I’m still young.

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar position.

Sorry its a lengthy one.

I wanna quit my job in this company because even though I'm growing as a manager but in reality it's not really an automotive company or related to designing using my engineering software.

It's technically " automotive" related as we work on creating animation for cars, and I'm the project manager and subject matter expert.

It's a good company to learn about cars as I get to do research and quality check to make sure that the animation is accurate or not but the management part i don't like much but i know my career direction as an engineer should be a project manager.

Plus I'm also very comfortable here as it's close by and not much work pressure but it's increasing slowly and to be honest i wanna try going abroad even though I'm here.

A friend told me that when you're trying to develop your career comfort is a curse.

Now here they are giving me more responsibilities and they are planning to create a team with me and develop the company further, and they say the company will be new and so on but no salary increment until they see me perform.

I'm not a huge salary guy but i know I'm already working more than I'm getting and i was promoted to manager last July but the increment want that good this year Jan so idk if i can trust then with giving me any good salary for now.

But now I'm feeling guilty that I might betray them since they are giving me responsibility and planning around me and my notice period is 90 days.

I don't have a different job lined up for me that I can go after this and since I'm comfortable, I'm not being very serious about applying for a job and even if i get a call i don't get to interview part because they ask for immediate joiner.

And that's where the thought of I'll just quit and that way I'll be more serious and can also be an immediate joiner, plus I don't have any major commitments like loans or anyone depending on me but the drawback is i have no backup, like keeping my CTC as base and demand higher salary and pretty sure if i don't get job still for long time i might start getting desperate again and join any company.

But then again right now I'm contemplating quitting because I feel guilty and no backup in one side and on the other hand I don't wanna get more responsibilities with no increment or at least I don't wanna get more comfortable and get trapped in this company

As I'm already here for the last 4.5 years and have been searching for a job in a not so serious way for the last 2 to 3 years years.

Right now I'm just feeling lost

I specialize in operations consulting for enterprise SaaS companies. I have saved my clients millions of dollars and streamlined massive departments, but I can't talk about any of it. My NDAs are ironclad. When I try to write thought leadership posts on LinkedIn, they end up sounding incredibly vague and generic because I'm terrified of accidentally leaking proprietary client details. I want to share my frameworks and prove my expertise to attract new high-ticket leads, but I feel totally paralyzed. How do senior consultants post compelling content without crossing the NDA line?

i come from a lower middle class family, used to be a good student but got in some bad habits around class 10, so much so I scored 87% in my class 10 boards. eventually found my footing back in school but covid hit, under mental distress and teachers who had bones to pick with my class 10-11 self, (we didn’t give boards), i managed to get a tier 3 college in delhi university, completed my graduation and started working at an NGO for some 30k in hand, and at that point it felt like a lot.

after graduating i didn’t have much of an interest in pursuing studies further so took admission in ignou masters (still going on btw)

now even though my NGO job was paying great, I hated the people and the culture there, also their office was basically a home with only 1 washroom for both males and females so it was hell like that.

the only saving grace was that the work was kinda good. during that job i learnt a lot, and since it was an education focused NGO, I got employee access to a few costly courses, for a fraction of the price which definitely add some certifications under my name.

I also started upskilling side by side using youtube and networking on linkedin.

i was so fed up there i wanted to desperately leave,

i applied to 100 companies a week, only to not even receive rejection emails

cut to 9 months later, I got 2 offers from top companies, including one from one of the world’s best companies (ends with a oogle) and am working there for more than 1.2lpa in hand, i finally have clean washrooms 😭

for me, coming from a tier 3 college with virtually 0 skills and background, cracking the 3 offers and eventually being in a position to choose where i want to work, i’ve come far. i now live in a separate house and make sure my parents visit me every month!

i love having them overc.

I am an 18-year-old Italian boy who will go to study at the Milan Polytechnic in September. I would like to study computer engineering at least at the three-year degree and then specialise during the master's degree in computer engineering applied to the economy and the market to be able to work in the field of Data Science or as a quantitative analyst. With the advent of artificial intelligence, however, I am increasingly afraid about my possible future occupation. Do you have any advice on what to do, whether to continue more or less this path or whether to take another type of path because my work could be replaced in the future. Consider that my goal would also be to go to work outside Italy, preferably in the countries of northern Europe.