r/Career_Advice

Hey there! I’m currently an upcoming sophomore struggling to figure out what to do with my life in undergrad. I was in a pre-occupational therapy program but left because I didn’t enjoy the sciences or anatomy things I found overwhelming. What I do know is that I want to help kids emotionally, mentally, and physically and I have a special passion for working with children who have special needs. With my background, I’d love some advice on career paths or jobs I can pursue after graduation. Just a heads-up: I’m from New York and need a solid salary , at least. Any guidance would mean a lot!

Hi, one of my younger family member is really interested to go in research field and have given exams for IISC, IISER etc. She also appeared in JEE Mains, where she could get 91 percentile.

We are looking for fallback options if she doesn't get into the research colleges. One field she is really interested in is Quantum Physics. I see some colleges provide Engineering Physics as a course, but we have no idea about how that is, what is the scope etc.
Also, being a general category girl, what all options does she have with 91 percentile?

TLDR: do I change my job for the next 7 or so months before I start my career in aviation?

I (M25) have been at my current job for about 2.5 years. I got it right before I graduated college and it was a perfect first job for me. It's a remote customer service job adjacent to a hobby I love. Lately it has been really pissing me off: put of touch leadership, tons of tasks getting added on when I'm already overwhelmed, etc. Additionally with my rising costs of living, I have been feeling the extra squeeze financially and I feel as if I am worth more. I get paid just under $50,000 a year.

In the past year I have decided to chase my dream to become an airline pilot. I am ready for my PPL check ride and I have been pushing through it quick as I just started in late February. On this track, I think I should get my CFII around February-April (where I can start earning money from flight instructing). I think as I have begun to focus on this new career, this has caused me to resent my job even more as I feel like it is just filler and pointless and like I'm not getting anywhere.

I am reaching out to see if it would be beneficial to look into a new job to earn some more money or at least find a more fulfilling job. The hardest part is that I would like to find a job where I don't work between about 1PM-6PM (or whatever sunset is) 4 days a week so I will have time to fly during November-February when the sun sets so early. I'm going to have to quit/ask if I can go part time in November or so anyways so I can still have time to fly.

I have a degree in communications btw. I feel like I could write so much more, but I think I would go down a lot of rabbit holes. I'm happy to answer any questions!

I'm really hoping a recruiter, someone from HR, or a hiring manager can help me here.

My last corporate job was Sept. 2024. I was in an IT role that became obsolete. My boss tried throwing whatever type of work he could at me just so I had a job, but after 4 months, I finally quit. I qualified for and took unemployment.

Since then, I've been looking for the same role but to no avail. However, bc I need money and I don't like sitting around, I took two seasonal positions that equaled 11 months worth of work. Do I put those silly little, embarrassing jobs on my resume, or just leave the gaps? Here's what it would look like:

Sept 2024 - Apr 2025 - out of work (this is real, couldn't find work)
Apr 2025-June 2025 - Piddly Seasonal job
July 2025 - Apr 2026 - Piddly Seasonal job

My bigger concern is looking like I decided to just goof off for a while, rather than just show a big gap.

First let me give some background. I have a bachelors degree in marketing which honestly is useless. The jobs I’ve had heavily focused on management. I have about 9 years of experience managing in a retail setting for some pretty well known companies that were considered high volume stores.

In 2017 at a young age I got the opportunity to become a sales lead and then from there my roles for different companies where assistant store manager, merchandise manager, ops manager, and sales manager. I’m obviously very skilled at this point with coaching, KPIS, visual merchandising, operations, events, planos, ect…

The reason I’m saying all of this is because I have no idea what I want to do next. What I do know is I’m sick of working in retail management. What career do you believe my skills will transfer best to?

Hi! I have an initial job interview for a job I really want and that aligns with my career goals. I currently have a job offer with another company, but obviously, it would be more ideal to get this position. If they ask me if I have another job offer, should I say yes? Also, should I mention that I am interviewing elsewhere? They are the main job I am looking at currently, but I don't want to seem desperate, and I just want to do anything that increases the likelihood of me attaining this position. I would love any input. Also, I am currently in NYC and the position I want is in NYC; the position I don't want it hybrid in another location, not sure if that is super relevant, but I thought I should add that context.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

Currently make $130K salary in CA with a 4% 401k match. Got a job offer in FL for a $102K salary with a 10% 401k match. Been wanting to move to FL. Looked up the cost of living and it’s cheaper in FL and less taxes too. I’ve been looking to purchasing a house. With the CA salary, it will barely get me a small apt/condo for myself. In FL, I could get a decent sized home with the salary.

Need advice on what to do please.

I am fresher, do php as good start to entry into tech industry or not?.

We’re looking for a Customer Success Manager / Community Manager for the School of Barbering.

This is NOT a “just answer messages” type of role.

We’re looking for someone who genuinely cares about people, understands accountability, follows systems, communicates well, and wants to grow with a fast-moving education/community brand.

This role is for someone who wants to become part of the team long term — not just another employee.

What you’d be doing:

• Managing and checking in with students inside Discord & Skool
• Tracking student progress, activity, and consistency
• Following up with inactive members
• Helping keep students accountable to posting content consistently
• Organizing logs, notes, posting schedules, and student updates
• Auditing active/inactive memberships weekly
• Identifying students getting results and scheduling testimonial calls
• Reporting student progress/issues back to the leadership team
• Helping maintain culture, energy, and structure inside the community

Important:

This is NOT a coaching role.
You are not responsible for giving advice or selling.
Your role is accountability, organization, communication, follow-through, and helping students stay engaged.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong communication skills
• Organized and proactive
• Actually cares about helping people succeed
• Understands Discord, Skool, Zoom, spreadsheets, etc.
• Reliable and consistent
• Comfortable following systems/SOPs
• Wants to grow with the company long term
• Bonus if you understand barbering, content creation, personal branding, or online communities

Schedule:

Morning check-ins + evening check-ins daily (around 4 hours total split throughout the day)
This is more of a partnership mentality role. We care a lot about culture and finding the right person.

Salary range:

We care more about finding the right long-term person than checking boxes. Starting compensation is roughly $400–$600/month, depending on experience and fit.

If interested, comment or DM:

• Your experience
• Why you think you’d be a good fit
• Any communities/programs you’ve managed before
• Your timezone

Hello everyone, I recently graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry and had been job searching/co-op searching/intership searching my entire senior year with no real luck. I live in Houston with tons of industrial and medical jobs available but I cannot get a call back. I have been a research assistant, have excellent recommendations, and actual valuable hands-on experience and skill with GC-ICP-MS, UHPLC, FT-IR, NMR, you name it I have used it and actually know how to use these instruments and techniques with confidence and accuracy. I have been accepted into grad school with my classes being at night 7-10pm. I thought grad school would boost interest in companies wanting to hire me, but instead it has been a major turn off for the jobs I have interviewed for since it limits my availability to travel and/or do shift work. I have started even applying for lab tech jobs that only require a HS diploma because I am running out of options. I’m not sure if this is the correct sub to ask this, but I am looking for possible advice or merely words of encouragement/if you have been in this position before. I get paid $3000 a semester for my research assistant position but I am so desperately wanting to get into industry.

I usually never post personal things online, but I genuinely need help from people who have more experience than me.

I completed my BCA in 2022. My family was struggling financially, and during that time I trusted the wrong people. A friend convinced me to join an aviation institute that promised airport jobs with high salaries. I took a ₹90k loan for the course, only to later realize it was almost a scam. The only job they offered everyone was a ₹7k/month cargo worker role.

After that I tried to rebuild myself. I joined Masai School, learned full stack development, practiced DSA, gave 35+ interviews, and still couldn’t get selected anywhere. Then I worked in a senior’s startup for around 1.5 years without salary believing projects would come, but later I found out the company wasn’t even properly set up again i frauded.

I refused to give up, so recently I switched to Data Engineering and learned Azure Data Factory, Databricks, PySpark, SQL, Delta Lake, etc. I’m applying every day but all I see are rejections.

Now I’m married recently in feb 2022 because my family forced me too, now my wife depends on me, and honestly I feel mentally exhausted and lost. I’m not looking for sympathy. I just want honest guidance from people who understand the industry better than me.

What should someone in my situation realistically do to finally get their first proper tech job?

Some context before the ask:

I'm a Planning Analyst at a large FinTech in India (~2 years post-MBA). My MBA was in Finance — my original goal was IB or core finance. Campus placements had other plans.

My day-to-day is workforce planning: manpower forecasting models, headcount budgeting, joiner-delay savings calculations. It's structured and I've gotten good at it. But the ceiling is real. The team isn't encouraged to evolve the model, there's almost no appetite for innovation, and I'm effectively self-mentoring at this point.

I'm at what feels like a critical window — early enough to pivot, experienced enough to tell a story. But I keep second-guessing whether I'm wasting that window in the wrong seat.

The pivot I'm targeting: Investment banking — ideally M&A or capital markets. I know that's a big ask from a planning background. But I'm actively building toward it: CFA in progress, working on a self-initiated equity research project (DCF + sector analysis), and I've got a Credit Suisse CFO-function internship on my CV from during the UBS acquisition — which feels like the closest thing I have to a "real finance" signal.

Honest questions I'd love input on:

1. Is a direct pivot to IB from planning/forecasting realistic, or do I need a stepping stone (ER, corporate banking, Big 4 deals)?
2. Should boutique IB firms be the first target rather than bulge brackets?
3. Does CFA Level 1/2 actually move the needle here, or is it mostly noise to IB recruiters?
4. Is networking the only real path in, given my non-traditional background?

And I had also attempted CFA L1 in Aug but missed the passing cut-off barely because of two courses. Did not reattempt it afterwards. Had a thought that I should take a break and focus on work and travel for a while.

Not looking for reassurance. If the honest answer is "this is a 3-year project, not a 6-month one," I'd rather hear that now.

Would really appreciate perspective from anyone who's made a similar move — or from anyone in IB/ER who screens candidates like me. 🙏

For context, I am just about to graduate high school. I have decided that at this time college is not the right move for me. I’m not opposed to it in a year or two, but for right now that is off the table.

I started in this company of grocery stores as a sophomore in high school. Since then I have worked as hard as possible and been moved up to a manager as soon as legally possible. I love this company. The flexibility, love, and support this company has given me is something I would have never thought was possible to a person in my age range. They have trained me in almost every department, I know the store inside out, and have gained deep relationships with the people that work here. I have recently been offered the assistant store director position at one of our locations. The pay would be a little under $60k/yr with benefits, the amazing flexibility someone my age could use, and basically the option to make my schedule. I would ideally work 7AM-3PM or 1PM-9PM 5 days a week.

On the other hand, I have been offered a job at Coca-Cola as a merchandiser which has amazing benefits, starting pay of 25.95/hr with tons of overtime opportunities. The drawback of this offer that is completely ruining it for me is a start time of 2 or 4AM depending on the route 4 days a week. With the overtime available, and from what I have heard this could be between $75k-$90k my first year. I am having serious doubts about the schedule and not really being able to have a life outside of work, however I feel this could be an amazing head start on life making that kind of money. Worth mentioning Coca-Cola has amazing room for growth and advancement in the company.

If you were in my shoes and valued time with loved ones, but were also presented an opportunity to get a jumpstart on your early life, what path would you pick?

I have difficulty speaking so I've never really had a job I haven't created myself. My spoken fluency is very low, a lot of stuttering/cluttering, trailing off, even shutting down. Every public speaking engagement I've ever had has brought me close to a heart-attack (hyperbole). I just can't keep cool and manage the stress of speaking. It's not all the time, but it's most of the time. It manifests the most in presentations, phone calls, webcam chat. In person it is much better.

I've been doing online marketing and sales from a very young age (pre-teen), I've been at it for over 20 years. Copywriting ads, customer service/support, product photography, organizing meetups or shipping, packing, dealing with couriers. I'm not employed by anyone, it's just something I've done as a side-job. I have around 6,000 feedback across a dozen or so forums and P2P classifieds sites.

I started a home business selling products. The product doesn't really matter, 95% of the work was advertising, logistics, and customer service. The business wasn't incredibly lucrative depending on how you look at it: I probably made on average 30-40k/yr but I only ever worked 2-4 hours a week landing it around $200-250/hr. I had an exit when the business was acquired and I left that position having accrued 5,000 or so clients.

Concurrent to my business, I took two degrees: a BA in writing and a BSc in compsci. I wanted to improve my written ability (and I would say it's very high despite my spoken ability being rock bottom) and I built the business tools from scratch so the BSc gave me a formal education in best methods and practices to that end.

When I sold my business, I took a few years to focus on starting a family and personal pursuits. I picked up a technical writing hobby, I write CS-related educational material online for free. It's time I start working again but I'm lost. I don't know how to reconcile these factors together:

Cons

• zero employment history unless you count the business
• very low verbal ability
• getting on in age

Pros

• very high ability in advertising copywriting
• very high ability in customer service (online)
• high technical ability
• proven business spirit from inception to acquisition
• 20+yrs experience digital marketing and sales
• two degrees

I'm working with an employment coach and they keep pushing starting jobs like retail, fast-food, call centers, or other customer-facing positions when this is my absolute weakest point. I've swallowed some pride and have applied to many of these jobs but it never even gets that far since I bomb every interview.

They have also advised against putting "founder of a business" on my resume because it signals a flight risk and my P2P classifieds experience because there's no paper trail for references and it would be easy to fake because of its impermanence.

Any guidance or direction you guys can give me? At this point I'd rather work for an entity rather than doing something myself again. My business was a lightning-strikes-once scenario I don't think I could repeat, nor do I really want to start a new business unless it were service-based rather than product sales.

My wife is experiencing burnout from having way too many responsibilities in her job with not enough pay.

However, the environment with her colleagues is really good and she's enjoying it. (The boss is the only toxic one and is a problem)

I genuinely believe she deserves higher pay for the amount of work and value she's doing for them.

How would you negotiate a higher salary?

Hi, just retired after 35 years in the industry. My son told me Reddit is where people actually talk about this stuff, so here I am. I have been going through the posts here a bit and realised I could provide some guidance.

For ref: Spent a great time in recruiting, mainly across US, Australia, Asia.
Mainly Tech, then shifted to Series A and up startups. Happy to answer some questions if it helps.
P.S - Still getting used to this platform so might be a bit slow in replying.

Placed in Virtusa (Oct 2025), completed training + assessments, but no offer/joining date yet. Anyone in the same situation?

Post:

Hi everyone,

I got placed in Virtusa through campus placement in October 2025 for the Regular Coder role.

After selection, we had around 3 months of online training, which got completed on May 1, 2026. We also had another assessment process from Virtusa, and it included 4 rounds, which I completed successfully.

As of now, I have received the selection confirmation earlier, but I still haven’t received the offer letter / onboarding date / joining update.

It has been around 18 days since the training ended, so I wanted to ask:

•	Is this normal for Virtusa onboarding?

•	How long did it take for you to receive joining details after training?

•	Anyone from previous batches had similar delays?

•	Should I just wait or start following up actively with HR?

In 10 th boards i scored maths-98, sci-92 sst-94. My parents wanted me to take pcm but i felt i was jnterested in commerce with core maths so i chose that. I didnt study in the first month and in periodics i scored Acc-17.5/20 in eco 11/20 in maths20/20 and bst 20/20. Whenever my father ask me if i wanna change to pcm i have a wierd feeling i can't explain. I have lots of free time and i just spend it procastinating and i was happy intially that i got free time but all my friends took pcm so i have noone to play with.

I can't really tell if i find commerce subjects interetsing or not cuz we did just 10th class stats in eco and bst we did first histroy chapter. Also in boards science i just got marks by memorizing and didn't actaully paid well attention to it cuz i never went coaching in 9th and teachers were bad af. I heard many people on reddit saying that pcm is managable and its not that hard like people scare you. I can study like 4 hrs a day and i am not interested in doing jee and nda.

The thing that is making me rethink my decision is that i don't like sst like heavy theory where we have to learn longer paras and write answers. I heard class 12th eco and bst is full theory. Also now i feel like i hv interest in pcm idk why. Although maths is my fav i have no problem with it but i dont like science subjects as much i like maths . But i also hate theory. I chose commerce vecause i prefer my mental peace and health but a friend of mine did 11th and scored 97%in pcm without much pressurw.IDK IF ITS GENUINE INTEREST CHANGE OR FOMO. Also it feel different cuz they dont teach with ncert and chem and phy are taught using ncert

Please everyone give ur suggestions and help me out

Anyone who has gone through this, what have u done?

Hi everyone,

I’m in my mid 20s and have already worked at 6 companies. I’m honestly getting tired of the standard 9-5 lifestyle.

I recently moved into what I thought would be a calmer industry hoping for less stress, but it feels like every company is trying to operate with fewer staff while expecting the same or more output from everyone.

A couple years ago I was homeless, so I’m genuinely grateful to have stable employment and be in a better position now. I grew up with very little security or stability, so losing income is something that scares me a lot. I don’t want to quit impulsively and end up back in that situation.

But at the same time, I can feel the constant stress catching up to me physically and mentally. My body feels weaker, I’m mentally exhausted, and I haven’t even had access to vacation time yet at my current job.

I’m hardworking and motivated, but I want more flexibility in life. I want to be able to go to the gym at 3 PM sometimes instead of commuting home after 5 PM exhausted. I want time to actually live.

I tried entrepreneurship in an area I was passionate about, but it’s a heavily regulated field and it felt almost impossible for a small startup to realistically break in or win contracts. The financial risk feels too high for me right now given my background.

The hard part is that I’m kind of a generalist. I have experience across writing, tech, compliance, operations, management, strategy, etc., but not one hyper-specialized skill that clearly points to a flexible career path.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? What careers or paths actually offer flexibility, decent income, and some level of stability without completely burning you out?

So a few months ago I sent a client the wrong attachment, scheduled a meeting in the wrong time zone, and forgot a deadline that was literally written in front of me. All in the same week.

My job is mostly emails, scheduling, follow-ups, little admin stuff. Sounds easy until your brain is juggling 20 tiny tasks at once and every mistake feels stupid and avoidable.

My manager started pointing out accuracy issues and I got into this awful headspace where every typo felt like proof I just wasn’t built for office work. I’d reread emails three times and still miss something obvious. Then I’d go home and replay it in my head all night.

The biggest change was realizing I couldn’t rely on “trying harder.” I needed systems because my brain clearly sucks at constant context switching.

I stopped pretending I could multitask. If I’m answering emails now, that’s the only thing I’m doing. No Slack, no half-listening to a meeting, no bouncing between tabs every 20 seconds. The second I start doing everything at once again, the dumb mistakes come back immediately.

I also started making embarrassingly simple checklists for repeat tasks. Stuff like “correct date, correct timezone, attachment included.” Feels ridiculous but it saves me constantly.

For important emails, I force myself to leave them in drafts for a few minutes before sending. Coming back with fresh eyes catches way more mistakes than rereading something five times in panic mode.

One thing I didn’t expect: once I calmed down a bit, I started wondering if this was partly a fit issue too. I journaled after work for a while, talked to a couple friends, even did the Coached career test after another rough week because I was trying to figure out why some types of work drain me so hard.

The pattern was pretty obvious. I’m fine with deep work and messy problem-solving. I fall apart when my whole day is tiny interruptions and micro-tasks.

I’m still in the same job for now, but at least I stopped treating every mistake like a moral failure.

Anyway, just random unsolicited advice. Hope this helps those that are going through something similar.