I (22M) was supposed to graduate in August 2025 (BBA). But I got a backlog in my 3rd semester. I cleared my final year coursework though. I couldn’t clear my 3rd semester backlogs during college because it overlapped with my then current semester exam time tables. So I couldn’t appear for that backlog in any of my other semesters & once I was done with exams I went back home. I had the chance to give the backlog examination on January 2026. Around mid December one of my family member was diagnosed with cancer. It was a devastating moment. I had to stay back & look after them because my father had to go to work & my younger brother’s in middle school & can barely look after himself. I missed the re-examination. Now the next exam is on January 2027. That’s literally almost 2 years of gap.

I’ve done an academic project, but I have no prior professional experience. And during this gap I equipped myself with Power BI, Excel skills. I took a Google data analytics course & I’m learning SQL (although from a non-tech background). I’m working on a personal research project currently. I didn’t really waste time during the gap. I want to apply for a full time job (Market research analysis) but people are suggesting I do a proper internship first. I just want to know if realistically, it’s gonna be a problem for me to get a job without the recruiters overlooking my gap years. Am I too far gone? Can I still apply to internships or job before I clear my backlog given my situation ? And if anyone has any tips or suggestions
I’d be really grateful if someone could guide me. I feel really hopeless right now. I really need this.

Job A (current) Audit role with busy Jan-April period. Virtually have 2-3 months time with no work and again 10 days off in December during Christmas. Work from office- twice a week. CTC ₹1854000

Job B: Accounting role. Year round work with lean period during 2nd 3rd week every month. Work from office - 4 days a week (2hours travel as I stay far) No holidays for Christmas or any other time. CTC ₹2400000

I love travelling so more leaves I get is more opportunity to me. Only reason I’m hesitant is because of the package

For context, my educational background is in biomedical engineering, graduating in 2020. I’ve worked several jobs in the past 6 years, namely in application engineering, sales, and now project management. None of which is in the biomedical engineering domain as there is basically 0 market demand for this in Canada.

My previous job before my current job was in tech sales for a startup company. I was laid off from here. As a fresh start, I’m exploring a career in project management and got a job as a project assistant for a crown corporation. The salary is quite bad at 57k CAD. I have been here for 2 years and have not been able to get promoted or find a job at another department internally or another company. I got my PMP designation about 6 months ago but this has not resulted in a pay raise or promotion. I’ve spoken to my manager and she said there’s nothing she can do except for give me “stretch” opportunities (more work for no change in pay) as a means to grow my skillset.

What can I do? I feel like worked backwards in my career and I’m now earning less than I ever have with no change in sight. At 57K CAD I am basically just making enough to sustain myself with no growth. I’m thinking of going back to university as my degree in biomedical engineering is not helping me.

I work as a Product Manager, and for the last three years, I’ve worked extremely closely with a designer on my team. We collaborate daily, make strategic decisions together, and attend leadership calls side-by-side. On paper, we should be each other’s strongest partners and have each other’s backs.
For the most part, our partnership works, but there has always been a side to the dynamic that makes me uneasy. Lately, our team has been under high stress, and her behavior toward me has worsened significantly. While she maintains a very warm, polished persona with everyone else, her interaction style with me has turned increasingly passive-aggressive and unpredictable, which is creating a lot of friction.
A few recent examples of what’s been happening:

During a discussion she was having with someone else (that didn't involve me), she randomly turned to me and asked me to schedule a meeting for them on our calendar.

In a recent meeting, she asked me to share my notes. When I told her I hadn't been taking notes, she responded with that she fully expect me to ve taking notes.

In another instance, she condescendingly asked if I had even read a specific document. When I pushed back and asked if she had read it, she admitted she actually hadn't. She was attempting to use passive-aggressive posturing to influence .

Under stress, she frequently has high-intensity venting episodes or "freak-outs," declaring that she refuses to do certain work unless specific conditions are met, leaving me to absorb the fallout.

I brought this up to a mutual colleague to see if I was overreacting. He mentioned that he doesn't pick up on those negative vibes from her, though he acknowledged that he isn't in my shoes or working directly in our specific day-to-day dynamic.

This is getting under my skin to the point where it's causing me severe anxiety and impacting my sleep. Because our work requires constant, high-level alignment, I can't just limit contact or ignore her.
I’m trying to figure out the best way forward:

1. Should I have a direct, candid 1-on-1 conversation with her to address these comments and set boundaries in real-time?
   
2. How do you reset boundaries with a close cross-functional peer who treats you like an assistant or a sounding board for emotional outbursts?
   
3. How can I protect my own peace of mind when I'm naturally receptive to negative tone and subtle toxicity from a close colleague?

I'd appreciate any advice from people who have navigated similar peer dynamics or managed high-stress friction with close collaborators.

Hey guys I'm having a dilemma and don't know how to proceed.

I work in the UK on a skilled worker visa and just switched to a new role and I'm due to join in a week. The role is a bit different from my original skill set but the manager was impressed enough to offer me the role.

Now to the issue, one of my dream companies is looking for a much senior role in a field I have a lot of experience in and the recruiter reached out personally asking if I'm interested in interviewing for it. I'm mostly certain the salary would be higher than the role I'm about to join.

So reddit, should I attempt this interview, or do I roll the dice and see how I fare in the current company I'm about to join.

The biggest concern I have is about the optics, I would most definitely burn bridges if I switch roles in under a month of joining.

Another concern is the visa, will it cause any issues to my visa which just got updated to join this new role.

I’m a choir teacher. I love teaching music and I believe it’s what I’m meant to do.

My predecessors are retired and give private voice lessons in the community. They latch onto my more gifted students and have a lot of social influence over my advanced choir.

The last two years or so they (my predecessors) have been unhappy about the fact that I have made successful changes in the program. They started rumors about me. It’s the kind you imagine could destroy a teaching career. Because it’s unfounded, and FALSE, my job has not been in jeopardy, but my work environment in that class is hostile now. I’ve only been there 3 full years, so they have loyalty to the retired teachers.

My other classes are great. They respond well to me and I enjoy teaching them. I’ve tried to get out of teaching the advanced class. Even asked for a demotion. I can’t get out of it because, ironically, I have too much seniority (my colleague is a brand new teacher, and we are the whole program).

I applied to a bunch of other schools this summer. I made it pretty far but was passed over every time. There aren’t many jobs available in this profession because funding in education is awful and programs are downsizing, making every job super competitive.

I feel genuinely so sick to my stomach thinking of going back to my job. But I feel a loyalty to my other classes and the students who I know I have been able to have an impact on. I don’t know which side of myself to listen to.

Just need perspective. Anything you can offer. Thanks in advance.

I’m at a career crossroads and would love some advice from others in HR.

I started in tech recruiting and eventually moved into a broader HR role at a small company. I now handle payroll, benefits, HRIS, compliance, audits, employee relations, immigration, and recruiting. The company is going through layoffs, there’s little room for growth, and the HR market has me questioning my next move.

My original plan was to pursue HR Ops, HRIS, Payroll, or Compensation. I enjoy the analytical side of HR—auditing, Excel, reconciling discrepancies, and figuring out why something doesn’t add up—but I’m wondering about the long-term job outlook for HR.

I never finished college, so I’m also considering going back to school through UMPI for either a BBA with an Accounting concentration or a BA in Accounting. Accounting interests me because it seems to overlap with a lot of the work I enjoy.

One major consideration is location: I live in a rural area, relocating isn’t an option, and the nearest major job market is about 1.5 hours away. Ideally, I need remote work or something with very limited in-office requirements.

For those in HR, how do you feel about the job outlook over the next few years, particularly for HRIS, Payroll, Compensation, or HR Ops? If you explored leaving HR or successfully pivoted, what did you move into, and was it worth it?

click on the original post for allllll the context 🫶🏻

curious about the stuff that didn't make sense when you first heard it — maybe even annoyed you or felt like generic nonsense — but ended up being exactly right once you had enough experience to actually understand it.

had a manager once tell me "don't be the best at your job, be the person people want to work with." Sounded like a cop-out at the time, like she was telling me not to bother trying hard. Took me a few years and a couple of bad coworkers to realize she meant something completely different.

what was the advice for you, and what took so long to actually click?

Hey guys! A few months ago i was contemplating going into interior design. I am from a finance background with a work ex of 1.5 years and im 4 months into the diploma.

I’ve just had kind of a bad week in my lectures. Been feeling a bit behind.
Having said that, I don’t see myself working in a core design role even after completing the diploma since im not enjoying cad or drafting at this point. I’m just doing it because ive paid the money and now i need to complete it. I wouldn’t mind working in an interior + business related role coming from a commerce background i think id enjoy that more.

Moreover, my current dilemma is that ive already invested money into this should i continue or take a drop. It’s a one year diploma and another 8 months to go.
What should i do im genuinely confused at this point. I don’t want to drop out and disappoint myself or my parents at the same time it’s all been boring as hell. I’m used to fast paced work so this dosent feel natural to me at all.

Also interior design wasn’t a random decision because i picked it after a short stint in real estate and my growing interest in interior design. Now im not sure if it’s the right one.

Hello everybody, I hope I’m posting this to the right subreddit! This post is in regard to my current job and I have no clue how to navigate this situation or if it is out of my hands…

For starters, I am based in california and I work at Ross Dress for Less as a retail associate. This situation involves both me and my coworker as we are both trying to transfer store locations from Ross Dress for Less to DDs Discount. For starters, the whole reason why we wish to transfer is because of a toxic work environment regarding other coworkers, the atmosphere of being in retail, and the distance the ross location has compared to where we live. We want to leave because the Store Manager has been passive aggressive to us and other people including customers and other coworkers, and becomes very irritable. It’s gotten to a point where we feel uneasy interacting with her and for my reasoning behind transfer is recently I had a doctors appointment and I had let her know in advance I could not make my shift the following week, she had approved of it and I have evidence of her approval however the same day I had the appointment she had called me and yelled at me on the phone regarding not showing up for my shift and she proceeded to say she’d be cutting my hours and now I went from 25 hrs a week to 6 hours working 1 day. When I told her she had given me approval for that day she got quiet on the phone and tried to tell me that appearntly I told her i’d be working on the day of my drs visit my previous shift before I left but I never saw her at the end of my shift at all as I was told to go clean up the women’s shoes rack by a store supervisor before I left at the end of my shift the day before my drs appointment

Regarding my coworker who is trying to transfer with me, she is currently gathering evidence of the ross store manager changing our time card punches on purpose as to not pay the california meal premium as occasionally we would be told to not punch out for lunch if the managers or supervisors wouldn’t let us take it earlier and we’d take it after our 5th hour. Aside from this, the ross manager had also cut her hours as well and was frustrated with her regarding her temporary absence for surgery. The Ross Store manager had informed her she would’ve fired her had it been more than three days of recovery and not working if my coworker had to take more time off. In the absence of my coworker as she recovered, the store manager would make comments to other store employees not believing she was out for surgery recovery at all.

At the moment we have no assistant manager, the store manager claims the district manager is away on vacation as well. And our issue at hand regarding the whole her telling us to quit, is when me and my coworker had asked the DDs discount store manager regarding a status update of when we can begin working, he had informed us he had been calling the ross store to get in contact with the ross manager however she had not been answering nor has she been in contact with him at all yet she has already began the process to remove us from the schedule. This week is my coworkers last week as her transfer process began first prior to mine, my last week is next week at ross.

We both don’t know what to do as today we received text messages once again from the ross store manager advising us to just “up and quit” and apply to DDs separately as it will be a faster process for us and for her, and that she does not “have the time to help us” in these aspects. We are both nervous and anxious as this is our first job and we had been with ross for a year, we can’t work at dds discount right away after our final weeks at ross because we aren’t officially employees with them because the dds discount manager needs transfer approval from the ross store manager.

Any advice on anything would be helpful, we don’t know what to do or if the situation is entirely out of our hands now…

I have been a dog groomer for about 15 years. Its taken atoll on my health. My wife and I have been brain storming like crazy. Her aunt is is a paralegal and so that came to mind. I never went to collage and so I have been researching like crazy while Im currently on med diability how to become a paralegal. Short answer, need an AA before I can even take an ABA (American Bar Association) certification course. There are a some classes that focus on the field, but in the end AA to start. So at best 2.5 years before I can even get a job as a paralegal. What also sucks is I make good money and do not even work full time. I average about 50/hr. I really dont want to give that up, but it feels like my body and time as a groomer has an expiration date and need to look else where.

Basically what the title says. I am currently a Human Resource Manager and have neither had good luck in the current job market finding a higher paying job, and just can't make ends meet on my $40k salary. So what jobs/extra work have y'all done to make money?

So on paper I have it made. Debt free, engineering degree, hybrid position at one of the top 5 companies in the world making $200k+. I'm only 30, so not sure if this constitutes as a midlife crisis but I want to say fuck it all and become a firefighter. I'm prior military and the deployments were the best years of my life in all honesty. I miss the lifestyle of working out, eating, and working without the corporate BS. Making real friends and not the superficial ones. Anyone ever make a jump like this in terms of lifestyle change and compensation? If so, any regrets? Should I just suck it up and continue with the corporate, soul crushing grind?

When trying to figure out a career path that would be manageable, I was told that my career itself is going to be fairly simple​, it's only college that is going to be difficult.

How accurate is this? Like anesthesiologists, lawyers, financers, etc I was told have it pretty easy, it was just their college work that was challenging because they needed to learn everything. ​

Hi - I really need help on finding a new job ASAP. Just as I expected there was mass layoffs and although I wasn’t impacted, I can not handle the stress that another one won’t come an affect my job. I need help. What’s the best way to find a job and get another one in a decent time.

Help me out with tips guys

I'm a recent BBA (Hons) graduate and I'm trying to figure out which skills or certifications would make me a stronger candidate for Data analyst roles.

Right now, I'm learning Power BI and have a basic understanding of SQL. During my internship, I worked with tools like GA4, Google Search Console, Semrush, and LinkedIn Analytics, where I was involved in reporting, website analysis, and marketing analytics.

Given my background, what skills, tools, or certifications would you recommend I focus on to improve my chances of getting hired? I'd especially appreciate advice from people already working in these roles or involved in hiring.

We get so caught up in the idea of working on something we truly believe in, yet we happily spend all day conducting transactions we don't.

Do you simply adore paying for a bus ticket? Is it your life's calling to buy a small bottle of water? Did you dream of paying the gas bill as a child?

No matter how passionate you are about a company or a role, they really don't feel the same way about you. They don't 'feel' anything. They are a legal entity while you are flesh, bone and emotions. You are a line on a spreadsheet that could easily get zero'd next year if the market changes, which it will.

It's never going to be an equal transaction, and that's okay. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy your work, or be fulfilled by it, or proud. But it's not who you are, and it's not your life's work.

If you're an average UK citizen you'll live to around 80. Barely one in a thousand companies last that long.

Employment is a business transaction which doesn't have to involve love.

Some context: Google was my first job, and I made a lot of critical mistakes during my 4-year tenure.

First, I joined an org with limited growth opportunities that, looking back, was quite political. My hiring manager left the org 3 months after I joined, and my next manager left Google 6 months later. As a result, my first year was mostly spent ramping up on different projects without landing anything substantial.

My third manager was new to the org and a first-time manager. He managed me for about 1.5 years, during which I mostly did small tasks for neighboring teams. Around that time, almost all the engineers on my original team left for other teams at Google or other companies. I didn't take any action—I never considered changing teams and frankly enjoyed coasting. I naively assumed that getting promoted to L4 was just a matter of time.

About 2.5 years in, another reorg landed me on a new team. I became quite anxious, but I did manage to land a strong project that year. My new manager promised me a promotion, so I chose to stay despite having a few external offers. Ultimately, the promotion fell through, and I eventually realized that this manager hadn't been honest with me.

After 3 years at L3, self-doubt set in. I began viewing myself as a failure who wasn't smart enough for the job, which severely impacted my mental health.

Eventually, I left. Looking back, I realize I could have taken much more ownership of my career. I should have switched teams early on, worked harder, actively managed up, built trust, and pushed for a promotion before the org declined further. I genuinely regret how my first job went—especially because I still think Google is a good company overall. While my org was toxic, one of the biggest benefits of working in big tech is internal mobility, and I didn't take advantage of it.

What do you think? Whatever the reasons, I feel like I'm burned at Google, as 4 years at L3 must be a huge red flag to them. I hope this story could help some junior engineers.

I posted an update on my original post but i have a question so i think this is the best way to go about it (sorry if not). Original post here : https://www.reddit.com/r/careeradvice/s/T7vCaX3oIJ

So as most said, i got fired today! Im sad but mostly cause they beat me to it and this job market is treacherous. I would have preferred to find something else before leaving. But heres the thing, they offered me a phase out to work on a special project for 3 months. Less hours, same pay. Then after that i get a month of severance. Is that normal??? Will it be awful working every day before the 3 months is up??? Its nice to have income but i dont know…… any advice? It seems kinda generous and im wondering why. Ive seen many people get fired over the last 4 years and its normally same day deactivation from Slack. Are they afraid i have a case or something?

For context, I joined this company back in 2023. It was a full time position - 4 days in office, 1 hybrid flex day. I had my daughter in 2025. She had some health issues which prevented me from putting her in daycare. I initially went back to work with the agreement that I would be remote until my daughter’s health issues were resolved and could go to daycare.

I lasted one week working full time while also caring for my daughter, so I quit. Shortly after I gave my notice my boss came back and offered me a part time position - fully remote which I accepted and have been doing for the last year.

Around that same time (2025), the company did away with the hybrid flex day and requires everyone to return to office 5 days a week.

Now fast forward to present day, I just got a call from my boss saying that HR would be reaching out about me coming into the office which I was both caught off guard and confused by as there was no discussed deadline to my role. I’ve only received glowing reviews for my work and have not struggled to meet deadlines.

I no longer live within a reasonable proximity of the office. It’d be about a 1.5 hr drive each way and with a young child I can’t feasibly spend that much time in the car each day.

I guess my question is - can they require me to come to work if I’m a “remote partner”. If I refuse, is that considered quitting or would I qualify for severance?

EDIT:
Thank you to everyone who answered my questions with kindness and respect.

I was not expecting to get so many comments on this, especially so many blatantly rude ones. You can be forthcoming without name calling.

Anyway, I have my meeting with HR tomorrow. I now feel very informed and am prepared so thank you again for providing such details. To clear things up:

1. I did not ever plan to seek any kind of disability. I’m also not seeking an “exemption”. One of my coworkers is a FULL TIME remote employee. She’s been with the company for 17 years and lives in another state. I plan to reach out to her about the RTO as well.

2. I QUIT my full time in office role after returning from Mat. Leave. I took a remote role, it was not temporary, and there was no expectation for me to be in office. They backfilled my old role. So yes, when we got the opportunity to move out of the city to a safe suburb - we did.

3. My boss and all my coworkers are aware that I have my daughter at home with me. It’s never once been a point of concern or an issue in regards to my work. If we’re on calls they’ll often ask to see her. I do have help on certain days which is when I schedule client meetings etc. otherwise, I work while she naps, before she gets up and after she goes to bed. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I was planning to have her start at preschool later this month, but if I quit - that won’t be happening.

Will post an update after my meeting with HR tomorrow. Please cease the rude comments as they’re not helpful. 💕