r/careeradvice

I’ve spent two decades automating systems. I’m the guy who builds the tools that displace people. But lately, I’m looking at my own colleagues, people with incredible judgment, deep institutional knowledge, and real human empathy, and I see them being told to 'just learn AI' as if their entire career was just a collection of tasks.

It feels like we're being told our wisdom doesn't matter if we can't write a prompt.

Am I the only one seeing this? How are you actually handling the feeling that the ground is shifting under 20 years of work?

I'm a UX/UI designer based in Italy. I started studying design at 22, after some failed attempts at finding the right academic path. I ended up graduating with honors twice — first in Industrial Design, then in Product Design Innovation from Politecnico di Milano — finishing at 28. Six years of working hard and genuinely loving what I do.

Toward the end of my studies I grew interested in UX/UI, worked as an assistant in a UX innovation class and co-wrote a paper on human-robot interaction that I presented at a conference in France. I also completed two internships totalling 9 months at a major appliances manufacturer, designing digital interfaces for physical products using Figma and Protopie. When that ended — the company wasn't planning to hire new designers — I needed work and couldn't find a design role, so I joined a trend forecasting consultancy. I grew deeply unhappy there and quit after 5 months because dreaded going into work. That's when the opportunity came to join my current company as an intern UX/UI consultant.

That was November 2025. At the interview stage I was explicitly told that if the financial situation allowed it, the internship would lead to a full-time junior designer role. During the internship I surpassed all expectations and received strong praise from peers, managers, and clients alike. In March 2025 the company is healthy and doing great, and just hired a junior designer and two more interns.

A week ago, my manager told me the company wanted to hire me — but first I had to pass an HR interview where I was expected to defend being 30 with a non-linear career path. I was surprised and ended up failing. HR didn't lament poor attitude or lack of motivation, but the fact that my resume didn't meet the holding's standards: they typically hire younger candidates without gap years or career changes on record.

I feel betrayed and hopeless. Is this a normal way for companies to operate? Has anyone been through something similar? I'm beyond upset and reconsidering my life as a whole. I thought I could finally make it.

I’ve been thinking about learning digital marketing, but I’m a bit confused.

With AI tools becoming so powerful, I’m not sure if this field will stay relevant in the future. It feels like a lot of tasks can already be automated.

For those working in this field or with experience:
Do you think digital marketing is still a safe and growing career option?

Would really appreciate honest advice before I decide 👍

I got a Bachelor in Econ. I've worked my ass off for 4 years to obtain it, with severe depression and a desire to quit. I live in Western Europe as a non-EU resident and the only people getting jobs are the natives (due to labor market tightening). My main issue is that I cant even go back to my home country which is at war. Life is a complete joke.

For months, I was doing what everyone says you should do. I used words like synergized, spearheaded, and optimized cross-functional workflows. My resume sounded like a corporate robot wrote it. And for months, I heard absolutely nothing back.

I was getting so frustrated that one night, I decided to run an experiment. I took my resume and stripped out all the jargon. Instead of writing (facilitated client onboarding processes to maximize retention), I just wrote (helped 50 new clients set up their accounts so they wouldn't cancel).

Instead of (spearheaded revenue generating initiatives), I wrote (found a way to save the company $10,000 a month on software we weren't using).

I didn't change my experience or my skills. I just explained them the way I would explain them to a friend over coffee.

I sent this new, dumbed down version to five jobs the next morning. Within 48 hours, I got two callbacks. One recruiter actually told me on the phone, It was so refreshing to read a resume where I actually understood what you did on a daily basis."

We get so caught up trying to beat the ATS filters with buzzwords that we forget a real human being has to read the thing eventually. If they have to read a sentence three times to figure out what your actual job was, they are just going to move on to the next person.

If you are stuck in the resume black hole right now, try reading your bullet points out loud. If you sound like a corporate press release, rewrite it like a normal person. It might feel weird at first, but it works.

I’ve accepted a position and passed all background and reference checks except for the education verification. I have a ridiculous “career diploma” from Everest College 25 years ago. Obviously Everest has closed and I have nothing to support it except copies of my loans being discharged due to closing. This wasn’t listed on my resume but I did complete it on the background check form. It’s not a degree, rather a career training diploma.

The records have been requested from the state but I’ve heard that a lot of times the state doesn’t have them because it isn’t a degree and the controversy surrounding Everest as a whole. I’ve been in constant communication with the recruiter and they amended my offer to be contingent on “education verification must be satisfactorily resolved.”

Obviously this diploma means nothing, it isn’t related to the job and is not a requirement of them job. (All verified by the recruiter) I’m not lying about it, I’m just not sure if it can be verified at this point.

Do I have anything to worry about?

Complex situation. For context, I used to work for a company a couple of years ago that was poorly ran in an industry I was new to. I was excited for this job and stayed even after finding out how shady and awful they were to their employees, I dedicated myself to showing up and learning. This was where my distrust of coworkers and employers began.

Training was initially virtual as 1/2 of the owners and the two training managers were across the country; it was a “small but rapidly” growing company and I loved being apart of it. After training virtually, one of the hiring managers was supposed to come down to their newly acquired location(s) and teach me operation duties and day to day functions, but at no fault to the trainer, it was cut to 1 1/2 days. Then, on my day off, one of the owners invited me to a Zoom meeting for the entire company to announce that they had fired the two training managers and brought on a third party consulting team in their place. I was told my training would be finished. The consulting team said they would send 1/3 to my location or train me virtually. They didn’t, instead, I was told to drive an hour and a half away to train on my one weekday off with another trainer (which frustrated the other managers as they had enough on their plate and couldn’t get what they needed done AND teach me).

One of the owners was already critical of me and was passive aggressive towards me. The one time he flew down to see his newly acquired facility, we were in the office and while I was working my tushy off, he was on the phone with the other owner saying they need to vet who they hire and stop hiring young people, while looking right at me. I was 23, qualified and doing the best with what little I was given.

The consulting team were cruel - they cleaned house, terminating long time employees without cause and making cause if they had to (I’m in an at-will state) and blatantly lied. It wasn’t long until I was next. I kept meticulous track of all financial transactions and when they sent one of the consultants to “train me” (aka, take note of EVERY misstep). This was when they demoted me and hired another manager to “train me and provide me the tools needed to reprise your role”; this was a lie. The girl they hired bullied me and delegated all her tasks to me. I was also now told I had to drive half of the week to another location without my choice. I lived ten minutes away from my original location, the new girl they hired lived 30 minutes away.

The next week, the consultant asked where I kept the money deposits. I provided the key and documents and left for the day while she stayed behind. Then, the pouch with all of the money and paper trails went missing. She told me to find it, knowing I wouldn’t. Then accused me of mishandling the money. A baseless accusation since the location of the pouch was under surveillance and I made frequent trips to the bank. This was her gearing up for my termination, my “reason” rather than just saying I wasn’t performing well, which btw, I was. The customers loved me and stayed with the company’s services because of my attitude and service when they could & WANTED to go to cheaper companies in the city.

I started to discreetly record my termination conversation the first time the consultant implied I committed theft - it’s a one-party state so I can record the audio and protect myself from a possible bad situation. The new manager noticed and GRABBED my phone, saying “oh no, we’re not doing that”. I didn’t let go and she wrestled my phone out of my hand. I still have that on video, never deleted it. Because of her touching me, you can see her on the video, when I originally had it angled at the floor.

I was fired. I cried. It wasn’t fair. They tried to lie about me and it hurt. I worked hard for them. Life isn’t fair. Found a new job. Unsurprisingly, the new hire was let go shortly after me (not providing all instances of mistreatment due to already lengthy post) but had a hard time finding jobs that worked out, until recently.

I just started at a new company and I love it. I’m doing well. My desire to learn is appreciated, my drive is noticed. I get along with my boss and coworkers. But today I found out they hired another manager to work alongside me (the location is set to have 3 total, she’s the last of the 3) and years later, in a different city, it’s the same girl that bullied me and played a part in me losing my job.

I’ve been anxious and upset since. I don’t know when she’s set to start but our boss has already stated he likes her and was impressed with her interview. He likes me but does he like me enough to not let her sabotage me again/see through her fakeness? I don’t know.

what do I do? I need this job, it’s not easy to find good jobs or even a bad job in this job market. I’m sure she remembers me, I literally cried getting fired and she treated me like her b****. Advice appreciated, thank you.

TL;DR a nightmare coworker got me fired and treated me horribly and now, years later in a different location, I have to work with her again and I’m worried she will sabotage me again.

I tried my best smiling and keeping eye contact but all of the people i met always talk to the person next to me(because we joined same date and she's more social) even if they're delivering the information to BOTH OF US they keep making eye contact with her. Even their body language shows they prefer talking to her. I feel so invisible im starting to feel the problem is with me. is it because im weird? is there something wrong with me? why do they avoid me?

First day and i want to quit already.

Have a look if you're struggling with change, direction or progression in your career: www.carmencareers.com

I have done my bachelors in india from Delhi university and it was a 3 year masters

And almost have one year of experience

I was thinking of doing masters from abroad but my only condition is I want the job in there only, I want to earn in the currency pls can anyone suggest me I am tired of talking people and them saying that it does not have any scope

 Ive been at my current job for about 18 months and the environment is really wearing me down. My boss criticizes everything I do in front of other people. I get messages late at night and feel pressured to respond. Even on weekends I cant stop thinking about mistakes or what might go wrong on Monday. I know the solution is probably to leave but the job market is rough right now and I need the income. For people who have been in similar situations, how did you mentally detach and protect your peace while still showing up and doing the work every day. I dont want this job to keep ruining my evenings and my relationships with people I care about.

recently ive been seeing hundreds of posts of tech layoffs all over the world
There is that factor of AI and oversaturation in the field (which doesn't look like it's going to stop, as even this year, 90% of the people I know are going for a CS degree)
I was genuinely interested in Computer Science and have done a few courses and made a few projects, but I think I need a fallback career in case SWE positions don't even exist by the time I graduate.

So, a question for any final year CS students or those who just graduated:
"What does the local market look like right now, and how do u think it will change in the next 4 years?"
"Which degree should I choose (other than CS)?"

Hi everyone!

I(22F) am currently working in a Big 4 as an assurance associate. I've been working here for around 7 months now and have successfully survived my first busy season. It was tough but I know I did well and am expecting my feedback to be positive.

I know I am doing well here, and I know I have a great career trajectory if I stay in audit. However, after the busy season I realized that I don't want to work in audit anymore. I plan on being a qualified ACCA and being in this job makes it extremely hard to find a balance with studying and work. During the busy season, I barely had enough time to even take bath. I do find audit interesting in theory but 70% goes into formatting the workpapers I prepare. Everyone keeps telling me it will get easier if I become a senior, but I don't want to be stuck here for that long.

My manager thought I was performing so well that he personally plotted me onto another major client and although this sounds like a great opportunity, all that's running through my mind is how I am meant to survive another busy season with a bigger client.

My pay is also extremely mediocre in comparison to the hours I work. I know this is because of the awful employee turnover and understand the company's perspective, but I also know that I am being exploited. At one point, I remember working close to 17 hours every day for an entire week with no overtime pay.

Money isn't everything and I know I am extremely privileged to have family that support me. But I see my parents growing older and I don't want my father to have to keep providing for us.

I've seen the way my manager works and all I can think of is how I do not care enough about this job. At least not in the way he does. There was a point where I got yelled at for not explaining a merged cell was merged in a note and all I could think of was that I didn't give shit about any of this.

The only thing that runs through my mind is how unhappy I am right now and that if I am unhappy now, I most likely won't be happy in the future. It has always been my dream to move abroad but given how competitive it is, I'm scared that all my efforts will be for nothing and I will end up spending so much money only to move back home to India.

I don't even know what advice I am seeking on here. I just feel so helpless right now. I'm terrified that my parents will slowly start bringing up marriage and although, I know they'd never force me, they can be quite persistent.

I don't know how to move forward from here to make my goals come true.

I know at 19 your not supposed to have everything together but man i feel everywhere and no where at the same time, i currently have two jobs ones customer service the other is a government job with benefits and retirement, currently with both jobs and 80-90 hours a week ill make anywhere from 85-88k this year and next year ill break 90s but im not very passionate about what i do, i want to become a police officer but not old enough yet but i dont want the next year and a half to be a waste, i have good savings, some fun toys, and my own apartment but the thing i dread most is just my limited time, im wondering should i drop some hours ? or is there a different path to make more and work less ?

I am a systems engineer for a large defense contractor in the US. Have been with the same company since I graduated college 7 years ago. 2 years ago I was placed with a new manager that I do not get along with at all. I don't need to "get along" to get my job done and get paid, however I believe our contrasting personalities have resulted in me getting smaller raises than I believe I deserve (these are the kindest words I've used to describe the relationship we have).

So I started interviewing, basically out of frustration with my recent raise and manager. On a whim, I applied to an NVIDIA listing that surprisingly matched my skill set and what do you know I got an offer!

tl;dr: of my internal debate about it is this: new job pads resume, gives significant pay bump, but is certainly temporary (1 year contract). Current job is boring, does little in progressing my resume at this point, and raises are poor, but job is very stable.

The long version is this pros and cons list:

Current Job Pros:

1. Very stable
2. Great work/life balance
3. Evil I know (laid back work environment)
4. Four weeks vacation + major holidays
5. OT -> PTO conversion w/ 400hr PTO cap (this one is huge)

Current Job Cons:

1. Mandatory in office due to nature of work
2. 2-4% yearly raises don't keep up with inflation
3. Loathe current manager
4. bored with sameish work load

NVIDIA Job Pros:

1. 20% pay bump
2. Fully remote
3. Resume builder
4. New and refreshing work
5. getting out of defense (personal desire)

NVIDIA Job Cons:

1. Will very likely need to be looking for a new job in a year
2. Hiring manager noted their "favorite part" of the job is "how busy it always is" when I asked what their favorite thing about the job is
3. Less vacation

I’m looking for some guidance on how to move forward in my career, or more specifically, advice for someone close to me.

He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, with an incredible memory. On top of that, he has a great personality: he’s genuinely likeable, very funny, and gets along well with pretty much everyone. He speaks two languages (English and Spanish) at a native level, and another two at a conversational level. Additionally, he’s very well connected. He originally studied Business Administration and Law, and a few years ago he went back (remotely and while working) to university to study Mathematics and Statistics purely out of personal interest.

For most of his career, he hasn’t been particularly driven by ambition in the traditional sense. His priority was having a good work-life balance while earning what he considered a fair salary. That said, he’s always earned well, especially for Southern European standards, where he lives.

Recently, though, his mindset has shifted quite a bit. He’s now considering making a major change, almost a 180° turn, and becoming much more ambitious professionally. He doesn’t currently need a high income (he’s single, lives alone, no dependents), but he wants to secure a strong future and be prepared in case his life circumstances change down the line.

In terms of experience, he has around 15-20 years of work experience, with about +10 of those spent at the same company. He joined when it was a small startup of around 5 people, and now it has grown to about +150 employees. He’s currently in a high-responsibility role, working very closely with the CEO/founder - essentially acting as a kind of right-hand person. His role is related to software, and given the company’s growth, he’s been involved in many different areas over the years.

The challenge is that it’s not entirely clear what he actually wants next (or atleast he’s not very transparent about it):

•	Does he want to change industries?

•	Move into a different kind of role?

•	Maximize income?

•	Or just explore more ambitious opportunities in general?

So my question is: what kind of advice would you give someone in this situation?

I also think it might be helpful to identify the right questions he should be asking himself to figure out his next step.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long messag

23 y/o Software Engineer with 2 internships + 1 year of experience afraid of being laid off. Within this period I commuted to work from home and paid off all debt. I’m in a strong position now. As of recently I haven’t felt much security with my job. My team is basically disbanding and they’re trying to move me around internally. Not guaranteed I’ll actually get a team so I’m stuck with this limbo feeling now. Looking at the market right now I’m actually very worried. Fingers crossed everything will be fine.

I don’t know what to do. I guess I’m trying to form a plan as a precaution. As of right now my idea is I’d go back to school for my masters degree(not sure what yet) while I continue to apply for jobs and network. That’s about 2 years. That should be more than enough time to get a job. Then I’ll just use the job to pay for my tuition.

Is this a good idea? Anyone else been in a similar situation? Trying to stay positive.

Hey guys, I am currently a forester in a mid cost of living area. I'm 28 and have pretty much maxed out my career making 60k. I don't really have any promotion opportunities for another 10 to 15 years which will only net me another 1 dollar an hour raise. While I love what I do, and the benefits are amazing, I am unable to live the life that I want. I will never be able to afford a house or provide a family. (Plus since I live in a small town, I have no dating prospects).

Pretty much, I need a change. I would like to live in an outdoorsy city like Denver, Seattle or salt lake city, but I don't know what jobs are in cities. And those are just ideas. I enjoy my smaller town as well as I have all my hobbies here like skiing, hunting and camping.

I cant afford to go back to college and besides, I failed out of computer science and engineering when I was in college.

What jobs or career path could I pivot into over the next year or so that could allow me to make 75k in 10 to 15 years and allow me to afford and live a modest middle class life?

Some things I like and dislike about my job.

Things I love

-I love being in charge of 50k acres of forest. I help plan and solve our management problems. Balancing the need for producing timber with needs of the environment, playing to all the regulation that we have. Its all a big puzzle with many solutions each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

-I love being able to take a lunch break on a rocky outcropping overlooking IMO one of the best views that you can find.

-I get to ride snowmobiles in the winter. Enough said lol.

-I like solving smaller problems like how are we going to get the timber out of a specific area, how do we designs the roads to allow for that.

-Road design. All of it, from paper planning to calculating cut and fill ratios. All for a 80 year old guy in a bulldozer to do it his way anyways.

Things I dont like-

- Writing contracts and environmental impact statements.

-Repetitive field work (theres a lot of it), like I hand handle a week or two, but after a month of doing the same thing every day, I get sick of it.

-Unpredictable summers with wildfire firefighting that makes summer trips hard to plan.

I have decided to quit my full time job as a senior business systems analyst and retire myself early to become a full time stay at home mom.

I submitted my two weeks notice with my last day being April 10th. I took two weeks of PTO prior to coming back and submitting my notice and I have one week left. The two weeks PTO I let them know were a family emergency as I wanted to take them before I submitted my notice. In my resignation email I did say I want to take a professional break, and everyone knows I didn’t do this for another job or because I hated them or something.

My friend told me I should just submit PTO for my last week as well (this coming week) and I am not sure if that is the right thing to do?

When I asked her that question she did say” why do you care? You never want to work again, and you can’t cash your PTO so who gives a sh—-, and do you think they would care about you if they wanted to let you go”?

Only reason I’m considering is because I had completely forgotten that next week is spring break and I will have two kids home from daycare (one age 4 and one age 2, and their daycare follows a regular school calendar).

However at the same time, I have built really great friendships as well as connections at this job and not sure if it’s truly the right thing to do? I’m not concerned with burning the bridge per se, but more about the overall concept of it.

Idk that was a long long post and I basically went on a rant but please give me advice and truly what you think I should do?

I have worked in HR for about 5 years, and I graduated with my bachelors degree last year. I have worked as a HR generalist for about 8 months and just got offered a position as a HR Manager/Office Manager at a job about 20 minutes from where I live.

I applied for the job because a friend referred me and I decided to give it a shot. I’m extremely grateful for the offer, but there is a lot to consider. The job is a $15k pay bump from what I make now, and there are quarterly bonuses. But the time off/401k and benefits are worse than what I am currently getting.

Really though, what makes me worried is the work life balance. It’s a strict 8-5 pm Mon-Fri ONSITE job, and it sounds like I may be working more than 40 hrs a week due to some tight deadlines that come up time to time (which would be unpaid because I’m salary). I also worry about it being difficult to get time off, as I will be the only HR person leading and taking care of the office of about 60 people. There is also a bit of travel involved, which I am completely fine with. I am curious, at this point in my career, is it worth it for me to take this job, sacrifice my work life balance and get the experience? Is this the price it costs to get into leadership?

Thank you for any advice.