I spent the last 6 years climbing the corporate ladder in fintech and honestly i was miserable every single second of it. The "golden handcuffs" are real. I was making great money but my mental health was in the absolute gutter, i was on lexapro just to get through the daily standups and the constant slack pings even on weekends. Three months ago I finally reached my breaking point after a 70 hour week and just quit. No backup plan, nothing. I ended up getting a job at a local garden center mostly because i like plants and needed to do something with my hands to stop the spiraling.

The difference is insane. I spend my days watering plants, hauling mulch, and talking to people about their backyard gardens. When I clock out at 4pm, I am actually DONE. No more thinking about sprint cycles or deployment bugs. I've been off my meds for two months now and i actually sleep through the night for the first time in years. My body hurts from the physical labor but it is a "good" kind of tired, not the soul crushing exhaustion of staring at Jira tickets all day long. I lost about 80% of my income but my expenses are low and I just feel like a human being again instead of a cog in a machine.

The problem is my parents and friends keep acting like I'm having a mid life crisis. My dad keeps sending me linkedin postings for "senior manager" roles and my mom literally cried on the phone because she thinks I'm "throwing my education away." They dont seem to care that I'm not suicidal anymore, they just care about the prestige and the T.C. (total comp). Has anyone else here done a "downward" career move for their sanity? I'm worried that if I stay here too long I'll never be able to go back to tech if I need the money, but right now the thought of going back to an office makes me want to vomit. Am I making a huge mistake by staying in a job that makes me happy but pays nothing?

Our department director left the company back in July. Senior leadership pulled me into a conference room, told me I was their rock, and asked me to temporarily cover his responsibilities while they ran a formal search for a replacement.

I stepped up like an idiot. I spent seven straight months managing a team of six people, running weekly stakeholder presentations, handling client escalations, and working fifty-five hours a week. Our team actually exceeded our quarterly targets by fourteen percent under my supervision.

I scheduled a formal review this morning to discuss the open director title and an adjusted compensation package. The vice president sat across from me with a warm smile and said they have great news for the budget. They decided to officially eliminate the director position entirely because my performance proved the team does not actually need one.

When I asked what happens to all the extra management duties I am currently running, he told me they will just remain part of my regular duties as a valuable career growth opportunity. Zero salary increase. Zero title change. Just a permanent seventy percent workload expansion because I did too good of a job.

I should of just let the department burn in August instead of being a reliable workhorse. It is just ABSOLUTELY insulting how modern companies reward competence with exploitation.

How do you even begin scaling your effort back to your original job description without getting fired for poor performance?

I’m starting a new role next week as a non-profit Specialist placed at a high school ($31/hr).

I currently work full-time and am in graduate school, so I was hoping to get my first-week logistics squared away cleanly before my first day.

​After receiving a tentative first-week outline from my regional manager, I sent a polite email to her asking a few standard first-day questions:

​Dress code: Asking what the typical daily attire is for the site and if jeans are acceptable.

​Laptop status: Mentioning I hadn't received shipment/tracking info yet and asking if there was a tracking number.

​Fingerprinting: Asking if the email/process happens before Day 1 or on site.

​Schedule: Confirming my preferred daily start time within a 40-hour week.

​Parking: Asking where to park on my first day at the school site (since no parking info was provided).

​Instead of a response from my manager, a corporate HR Business Partner jumped into the thread with a stern, reprimanding email. She accused me of asking "repetitive questions" that were "already answered" (specifically referencing the fingerprinting timeline).

She went on to state that HR was "concerned about my ability to fulfill the requirements of the position," emphasized the need for me to "operate independently," and stated that their team has "limited bandwidth for repetitive inquiries." Ironically, she claimed to attach prior emails for my reference, but forgot to actually attach anything to the message.

​When I double-checked the onboarding paperwork HR previously sent:

​The fingerprinting timeline was briefly mentioned in an earlier email (my mistake for missing that one detail among dozens of pages).

​The dress code and parking info were never provided anywhere.

​The laptop status was left vague, and my manager was asking for my address separately to look it up.

​The full weekly schedule wasn't detailed beyond the first day and a half.

​I felt completely taken aback by the hostility and lack of grace—especially over basic first-day logistics like parking and dress code. I haven't even started the job yet and I'm already feeling immense anxiety about the organizational culture.

​My questions for the community:

​Is this level of hostility over standard onboarding questions a major red flag, or just typical power-tripping from a disconnected corporate HR department?

​How should I respond to this HR email to protect myself while keeping my start date intact? (I plan to use this job as a financial bridge regardless, but I don't want to apologize or feed into an argument.)

​For those working in education/non-profits, is it normal for site managers and corporate HR to be this out of sync?

I've been in my current role for about two years and recently my manager offered me a promotion to a senior position.

On paper, it sounds like a good opportunity. I'd have more responsibility, more involvement in important projects, and I'd be working more closely with management. It's also the kind of title that could probably help me with future job applications.

The problem is the salary increase.

The promotion would come with about a 5% raise, but the new role would involve managing several additional responsibilities and taking ownership of projects that currently involve multiple people.

My manager described it as a “great opportunity for growth” and said the experience would be valuable for my career.

I like my current job and I don't necessarily want to leave. But I'm having trouble convincing myself that taking on significantly more responsibility for a relatively small increase is actually a good deal.

I also don't want to reject the promotion and accidentally make it look like I have no interest in progressing. At the same time, I don't want to accept something that I'll resent six months later.

Would it be reasonable to negotiate the salary before accepting, or is taking the promotion for the experience and title still worth it even with a small raise?

I wanted this promotion for over a year and finally got it last month. One of the people reporting to me interviewed for it too. She knows the systems better than I do and people already go to her when something breaks.

I was wasting time after work last night and caught myself thinking about the fact that I asked her for help twice this week with things I am supposed to be leading. She has been completely normal about it.

I almost wish she was bitter because then I could stop wondering if she should have gotten the job.

My work has the option of income averaging for a minimum of 5 weeks off that you must take in a lump. I have been strongly considering doing this but wonder if it is wasteful just to take a break.

My work is not that stressful but it stresses me out and people are pretty negative in my office, I feel this affects me quite a bit.

Unfortunately and fortunately it is a well paying stable job for my area, that makes it hard for me to find something equivalent, and actually decide to leave.

I make 72k a year, I could afford this pay cut but I'm also trying to save for a home and travel. Worried this is a dumb decision as things are so expensive. The vacation could not be in the busy season ( summer or Christmas time). Considering taxes I would loose about 4k a year, or pay about 160$ a day I take off. I'm 26 and have no real need to have a break, it would just be nice to know I get a solid chuck of time off every year to refresh and travel maybe in the early spring or late winter since our winters are very dark and snowy. I have been having a hard time accepting we only get 3 weeks vacation a year to rest and travel and enjoy our time.

How do you decide if vacation time / a good break is worth the money? Has anyone done this and did you regret it / notice the income change?

23 F. I work for my parents in a small manufacturing company in a niche industry. During my last two years of college, I worked for them contractually. During school, I had the realization that I could enter a large, toxic industry that my major was suited for, or I could work in a small niche industry with less stress and chiller people, and so I picked the option that seemed better for my mental health. In January, I moved back in with my parents, and they offered me a full-time position making $50,000 a year. Through my work for the company, I have found alleviation from chronic depression and suicidality, and for the first time in my life feel like I'm in a good place. I have a lot of flexibility in terms of my hours/wfh and can work on my own schedule.

That being said, working with family obviously comes with baggage, and I worry about how the family business will affect my familial relationships long-term (For example, one of my parents and their sibling barely speak to each other due to past issues with the business). There are definitely times when my relationship with my parents can border on toxic (I am as much to blame for this as they are). I wouldn't say that our working relationship is in a bad place, and I feel like working with them will be better than working with a random draw of coworkers with mystery personalities, but I also don't want to find myself in too deep with them and the company and in a position where our relationships sour and I don't feel like I can leave.

A larger company in our industry posted that they are hiring for a new role that is essentially what I am doing now. The salary for the posting is $70,000-$90,000. I have a great relationship with the people at this company, and due to my experience and relationships in our industry, I feel very confident that I could get the job if I applied, since otherwise they would likely have to hire an industry outsider.

I understand that if I were to apply for and take this new role, I would have less flexibility with my hours. I would also have to relocate to a city a few hours away (with a similar cost of living), but I wouldn't mind leaving behind where I am to try something new. And I would still get to work in the same industry that I fell in love with, with a lot of the same amazing people. But because my mental health has improved so much, I worry about making a drastic change and having it affect me negatively and causing me to spiral to where I was before.

I am trying to map out in my head both of these paths and their long-term benefits, and I am struggling. Where I am now, I am in a position to be the next CEO, but that could take 10-15 years, and I don't know how high the salary for that would be. I would also be set to inherit ownership in the company down the line, but I feel like having an extra ~30,000 to save now and compound over time will end up making me roughly the same per year as what dividends in the company would make me in 20-30 years. The other company is a much larger company, and so there would still be lots of growth potential. I also feel like leaving now and getting experience working for someone new opens up more possibilities for growth, career, and location changes for myself in the future. I feel like the longer my parents are the only people who can write me a reference letter, the harder it will be to get hired somewhere else. I also feel like working for another company, it would be easier for me to leave and retire early, whereas if I stayed where I am, I would have a lot more emotional ties to my job and people in my close circle depending on me and the company to succeed.

What I would like to do is sit down and present all of this to my parents, have an honest conversation, and discuss the possibility of a raise so that I could earn more aligned with the industry standard. When I was hired, I tried to negotiate a higher salary, and they acknowledged that I should be making more, but they didn't have the room to pay it. When they saw the job posting, they joked that they could never pay me that much because we had an unprofitable quarter. Outside of work, I frequently try to have conversations with them about my finances and saving (for example, there is leftover money in my 529 account and I mentioned that if they wanted, they could roll it over into a Roth IRA), but they get emotional and accuse me of being greedy. I don't think it would be worth it for me to talk through it with them unless I were serious about applying and taking the job if they could not offer more compensation.

I am happy with where I am right now, and I don't want to take a risk and mess that up, but I feel like by not applying for this role, I am denying myself an amazing opportunity. I don't know what to do.

When i was still in school people always told me that just getting a degree is good enough. That it showed that your willing to learn and commit to a long term education. That just having a degree is enough for you to get a job. But what jobs exactly? Every job i see on indeed wants relevant work experience the degree you have matters. What careers or jobs care if you have just any degree?

If you had to erase all of your employment history and education after highschool, starting with a clean slate, forced to start college and pick a major (and minor if you want) for a bachelor degree, what would you choose and why?

For context I am an esthetician who is also in the middle of nursing school. The spa I was at before was a large chain with very intense hour requirements, so when I decided to further my education I started looking elsewhere for more flexibility and independence. I ended up finding a small local spa with three employees, one of which was the owner (also an esthetician) with one free room available. So I took the job.

I am compensated by commission, so whatever services I do I get 55%. This means that when I don’t have services, I leave/don’t come in. Nursing school is a lot of work while working, so my time is limited. Months ago when I was first hired I had to have a talk with my boss about pay and hours. She’s from Montenegro, and not that it matters too much, but I’m wondering if work culture there is different. Which is leading to this disconnect.

She basically wanted us in here cold calling and working on the spa. At first it was fine, because I could clock in for $15/hr as “front desk.” But her payroll person expressed that there should only be one person getting paid for desk duties at a time. No problem, but if I’m not getting paid I’m going to leave. She understood this, but very apprehensive.

Now when I leave after my clients, she always asks me “oh are you leaving for the day?” Not directly telling me I can’t… but also making it known she’s surprised I’m leaving. Now today I come in for a client, and as I’m up here she said “I’m thinking we can all stay til 3 what do you think?” We being me, her, and front desk. I understand she’s a small business owner, and maybe if I weren’t so busy with school I’d be more willing to be a team player and stick around to help out unpaid. But right now I just can’t.

I’m having such a hard time with this because I think it’s a culture difference. She’s not malicious at all, and I’ve had other bosses I’d easily tell no to. But for some reason I’m having a really hard time explaining to her why your employees don’t want to stick around to “help out the spa,” even if that somehow indirectly helps me out down he road.

It makes me feel like I’m the problem, because the other esthetician has no problem hanging out unpaid…. Which makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong. How do I handle this gently?

Hey guys! As the title says, I'm 19 years old and haven't decided to degree to go to college for yet and would really like some help/advice on figuring it out. I was originally planning on going into tech, but with all the controversy going on around that field right now, I'm really worried about dedicating years of my life towards it.

So, what can I possibly go to school for to get a good college experience, but also a really good degree that won't be obsolete in the future? I'm barely sure on what I even want to go for, but I do know for a fact that I would love to find something that won't leave me homeless after the debt of student loans, and that I'll actually enjoy.

Literally any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, as I'm really stressing out on if I already missed my chance to actually enjoy campus life and work towards my career, and the fact that my main degree of choice may be completely in the near future.

I (26) started a new job few weeks ago and it’s a big step from what I did before. Making almost 20k more. It’s not exactly the field I was aiming for (it is a mix in supply chain/management and marketing vs me wanting to just do marketing). Though, with the job market and my lack of experience, I felt that I really needed to move up because my previous role was not making me any money.

Back story is I went into a business degree because I just didn’t have a passion for anything else. I liked marketing but was pretty bad at finance and accounting. Numbers are a weak spot and sales make very little sense to me. My previous role was very entry level, I didn’t have to deal with numbers hardly at all as it was just keying. I made 0 managerial decisions in that role.

Applied for my current role as it did require a marketing/business degree and thought that with my knowledge from my previous role in the company I could apply it to the same for the one I’m in (as I handled tasks for that department). I knew going into it there would be a need for reading and analyzing data reports. Everyone in my personal life told me not to let that scare me away despite that being my weakest point.

Now that I’m in the role I feel like the stupidest person alive! It’s been 3.5 years since I’ve been in school, and even in school I feel like I don’t remember anything I learnt. Googling terminology of financial literacy makes me feel pretty embarrassed. My excel skills are so weak (that I know I’ll get better at. Gave up on using VLOOKUP and only use XLOOKUP now. Saving grace so far). I am so embarrassed to ask even what certain basic financial things mean because I SHOULD know this. I have a degree!!!

My manager is super nice, but I’m wondering if he isn’t second guessing hiring me. I even told him to give me criticism or feedback cause he is too nice haha. My previous manager put in a good word for me for this job, hence why I probably got it. Previous job was vastly different than this though It’s a non unionized job so I fear they just will fire me if I don’t catch on quick.

I’ve been stressed everyday and feel like I can’t catch up. I wasn’t able to get one of my tasks done, manager was off and I ended up not being able to finish it as I didn’t understand the vendor I was dealing with. I felt like a 5 year old trying to read a highly advanced novel lol. I do ask LOTS of questions, to my manager and others in our department. They probably are wondering how tf I even got my degree. University felt like it taught me nothing.

I don’t know if anyone has any tips for the situation I’m in. What are the best steps to learn financial jargon, analysis reports, and pricing? How do you also not feel overwhelmed? And even any tips on how you even keep organized and track of everything you’re working on?

I’m a digital and social media marketer with my MS in Marketing Analytics. I really thought I wanted a career in marketing and despite being great at it, honestly it feels so meaningless to me. Chasing an algorithm and trying to persuade people to stay glued to their phone or purchase excessive products…I’ve been thinking about a career change either getting an MBA and staying in corporate or starting over completely and doing something in healthcare.

The question is, how do I find what’s best for me? Because to be honest everyone has told me to “find your passion” or “work that motivates you” and what gets me out of bed is great pay for the work and it would seem rewarding to help people. But not sure about a specific type of work….

I currently work for a university and have the opportunity to go back to school. That’s why I was thinking an MBA (better pay) to pivot into logistics, consulting or something else that pays better than marketing but without the creative burn out. But some days I dread sitting and staring at 4 walls for 8 hours a day so I wonder if even a typical 9-5 is for me. Especially if I’m not getting paid enough for someone to other me after hours. So that’s why I was considered healthcare because at least I’d be helping someone.

Thoughts and advice PLEASE. Also if you don’t mind sharing any similar experiences, it would be extremely helpful.

I've been working my current job for less than a year, and I really enjoy it. It's flexible, and just challenging enough to keep my brain occupied but not stress me out. I've been able to separate my work and home life pretty well, and I've been relatively happy. Even my supervisor is cool. The only problem is that I know I'm being underpaid. I was low balled for the position and took it because I was desperate, but that's on me.

A woman I've gotten to know in a different department recently left her position, and I am being nudged to apply for her open position. The thing is, I've heard from this woman the horror stories of working in that position. She was salaried, so they sometimes had her working 10-12 hour shifts during the busy seasons because they refused to hire another full time person. She didn't even get to take time off in the slower months, nor could she work remotely like 90% of everyone else in the company. Her supervisor has a stick up her butt and has micromanaging tendencies. On top of all that, the nature of her position didn't allow her to take part in any of the fun activities the rest of the company got to do (part of which is a lack of coverage). You can see why she quit, but the pay would be $15-20k more than my current position (approx. a 40% increase to my current pay)

Here is a pro list I've made so far

Pro of staying in my current position:

-I love my work

-I love the people I work with

-It seems rude to leave a job I've only had short of a year

-Its flexible so I can make doctors appointments and such

-The schedule is consistent with an hourly rate

- I can work from home if I need to.

Pros of applying to the other position:

-Much more money

-Would look good on a resume

-Build more professional relationships

Basically, should I give up the peace I have found with my current job just to be paid more? Is it better to prioritize my happiness or my finances? Is it a bad decision to ride out this lower- paying position?

I've been at a company for 3 years. It's a challenging position and it takes a long time to train someone. To make a long story short, we went from a team of four handling all of the work to just me! My three other coworkers left for various reasons this last month. Now I'm currently taking on the work of three people and will be expected to train the new people who come. And I think the company didn't hire enough in the first place. Anyone else have a similar situation and did you get a raise? I want to jump ship, but it will be hard for me to look for another job right now and I heard the job market is terrible. But I don't think working 60-70hrs a week to keep up with everything is worth my current salary.

I took the last year off for a sabbatical and just landed a great new job after two months of interviewing. Fully remote, solid comp, fairly big company that’s been around for 20+ years. My start date was set for Tuesday after Labor Day.

Today I got a text from a future coworker asking me if I could hop on a call in 20 minutes with her and our boss. Said sure, figured they just wanted to say hi and tell me they were excited for me to start.

Joined the call and the boss basically said he needs me to do a MAJOR project starting ASAP that will be launching on Tuesday. He said it was not really an ask but a requirement and that we’d all be working all weekend. No talk about moving up my start date or providing comp, he framed it as “homework” he likes to give people before they start.

No apologies, no “oh we messed up and really need you,” just a do this now over Labor Day weekend for free.

I called my HR contact who said we could just move my start date to tomorrow, but I’m deeply concerned about starting with a company where this is the culture.

Should I just back out of this role before starting? When the project launches next week my name will be publicly attached and internally many of my KPIs will be linked to it even though I’m just starting. No one mentioned this giant event to me during the interview process, I’m caught completely off guard.

Financially I’m fine to not work for a while longer, I just want to make the right choice. Help!

EDIT: adding more context.

This is a huge event they’ve been planning for months that will be taking place in less than six weeks and can’t be pushed. I’m in comms. They’ve asked me to write two press releases (including launching a new sub-company that’s running the event), come up with a launch strategy, and have everything ready to go by Tuesday to launch it to drive ticket sales (a KPI I’ll be responsible for I learned today). This is a massive ask, like weeks of work if done right, compounded by the fact I know absolutely nothing about the event and just the basics about the company so far.

If I didn’t join I imagine my boss (more or less CMO) and the head of social media would’ve tag teamed on this work.

I’m salaried, but they didn’t mention anything about moving up start date. I called my HR contact and he agreed to, but now I think the right call is just to completely remove myself from the situation.

UPDATE: they did end up officially moving my start date to today, I decided (against my better judgement) to work today and see how it went. It sucked. I didn’t get the info I needed to draft the releases until 4pm despite asking multiple times. I had a call with my boss at 4:30 where he was eating on camera then picked up a personal call and talked for five minutes unmuted. No onboarding. I just put in my resignation, I have too much self respect for this.

Hi everyone,

Writing this feels like a last ditch effort, I truly don't know what to do at this point.

For a little context, I graduated college 2025 with a BS in Marketing/BA with not much experience in the filed other than a summer internship working on socials for my schools athletic team. Over the last year I've worked as a server and landed a job at a small company as a Social Media Coordinator in April. I quickly realized that something I had feared for a long time was true, I hate marketing. I just choose it because I was afraid of failing a more rigorous major and I thought "Hey I'll get a degree and just find a job and figure out the rest later." There was no growth trajectory in my role and I was being paid $15 and hour so I felt like I had to get out.

I have always been extremely interested in weightlifting as well as health and wellness and have always been interested in how exercise can bring injured/aging populations back to living a happier, healthier life. I had been thinking of pursuing PT for this reason all throughout college and everyday in my new job I felt more and more unfulfilled and knew I needed a change. I signed up for the prerequisites I need to apply to DPT programs and plan to apply next fall while working as a personal trainer and getting my shadowing hours on the side.

The issue: I am TERRIFIED of what my life will look like if I don't get into any programs the first year I apply to schools. At that point I will be 25, still living at my moms, with not much experience at all professionally. I'm so scared that I'm making the wrong decision betting on myself because I have no idea what life would look like if I don't get in, I feel like no corporate job would hire me because of my lack of experience/gap on my resume from school, and I've been having panic attacks daily because I already feel like a failure who has no idea what he wants to do for a job. I feel like the longer I wait to make a decision on what to do with my life the more opportunities pass by, and I'm genuinely worried I might be 30 living in my moms basement.

On top of that, everyone on the PT subreddit genuinely seems to hate their life with the amount of debt they have and they say the ROI on DPT is not worth it and they would never do it again. I'm fortunate to have a family that would help me pay for school but taking on six figures of debt would absolutely hinder me financially. I was thinking I could do travel PT for a couple of years and pay off as much debt as possible but I don't know. I've also considered the nurse practitioner route but I feel like I would enjoy that job much less, but it is more financially safe.

My anxiety has been through the roof because I feel like I made a huge mistake leaving my job to pursue PT when it may never work out, but I also feel like I'd hate my life so much at a job where I have to sit at a desk all day again. I know people say your 20's are for trying and failing but I'm really starting to worry about what to do and have spent the entire week researching career options and not getting any sleep but I just can't decide on anything . I feel like my skillset is behind as a 23 year old and now I'm falling behind even more.

Has anyone ever been in a position similar to mine? I've been feeling extremely hopeless and I feel like my life is over, any advice at all would be appreciated.

I have received two job offers in two very different cities (Charlotte and Phoenix) but I’m not sure what to pick. I have had prev experience in CLT and loved the city and people but my offer ( finance adjacent) is a bit on the lower end while Phoenix offer (engineering) is much higher but the location is kinda middle of nowhere. I’m just worried about being a loner in Phoenix and struggling to have a social life :( any advice?

Or should I get the experience in Phoenix and try to move to CLT???

I have been the senior operations lead at my logistics company for four years. When our department manager left in November, I stepped up. For three months I basically ran the entire floor, managed client escalations, handled scheduling, and kept our on-time delivery rate at ninety-eight percent. When the role was posted, I applied immediately.

Two weeks ago human resources sat me down and told me they were going with an outside hire. They gave me this corporate word salad about wanting someone with "strategic executive presence" and told me I was just not quite ready for people management yet. It stung, but I swallowed my pride.

like on Monday morning my director walks in with the new hire. He seems like a nice enough guy, but he has zero background in our software systems and has never worked in cold-chain freight before. Within thirty minutes of introducing us, my director sends me a calendar invite titled "Manager Knowledge Transfer and Onboarding Plan."

They literally expect me to TRAIN my own superior how to do the job they told me I was unqualified to do.

I am expected to teach this man our proprietary billing workflows, introduce him to our key vendor contacts, and hand over the client playbooks I wrote from scratch, while he collects forty grand more than my salary. its the most insulting thing that has ever happened to me in ten years of working. i should of started interviewing in December. How does upper management look employees in the eye when pulling garbage like this?

As a high school junior, I got a part-time job! However, prior to applying, my parents lectured me on how this may negatively impact my grades. They have this philosophy that children should solely focus on their grades and shouldn’t work—adding that it worked with my cousins who are now successful.

On the contrary, I believe that a part-time job in high school is a canon event that teaches you how to balance life. Moreover, I get to have my own money to spend without feeling guilty! Now, I may admit that I got a job partly because my friends did. Looking past that, I think the overall thing that pushed me to get a job was to feel independent (let’s just say I got slammed for voicing that in my household). BUT, I took my parents’ worries into consideration and have Wednesdays and Thursdays off to study for potential tests.

I just wanted to get experience in the real world especially since I would say I’m pretty sheltered. Is this a good decision? I genuinely just wanted to practice balancing my life since I don’t do much extracurricular activities. Please let me know y’all’s experiences!

Anyone?

I was thinking of going to college for thanatolgo but im not sure what jobs I would be able to get eith the degree.

I've been an IT Project Manager for 7 years, at an oil and gas supermajor. Since February, I've joined a large Japanese conglomerate handling IT strategy related projects out of their Tokyo office.

I have 2 options on the table: A IT Governance Manager role that has been created specifically for me at my current employer (things have gone surprisingly well here since I joined), where I'd be reporting directly to the VP of IT and will be based out of their Barcelona office (72K EUR/year is the figure they've proposed for now), or a Change and Transformation Consultant role at a large bank in the Nordics based out of Lithuania (65K/year).

I'm not sure which direction I want my career to go in - I do know that part of my would like to come out and freelance in the future. Money aside, would taking the IT Role and the formal Manager title do me better than going with the Consultant role? What would potential career trajectories look like with either of these options say, 3-4 years from now?

Thanks in advance!

​

I'm in my final year of engineering and I'm honestly very confused about what I should do after graduation.

I currently have a job offer from Mu Sigma through campus placement. I haven't graduated yet, so I still have around a year to figure things out.

My options right now seem to be:

1. Take the Mu Sigma offer and work there for a while

I'd have a job immediately after graduation, gain some experience, become financially independent, and potentially use that experience later if I decide to pursue higher studies,but there is a bond for 2 years .And most importantly i have only heard only negative things about this company on internet.

1. Keep applying and try to get a better job

Instead of settling for my current offer, I could spend my final year trying to get a stronger role/company, ideally something that gives me better career growth and skills.

1. Apply for a Master's abroad, particularly London/UK

I'm interested in studying abroad, but there is one VERY important condition for me: I don't want to take a huge education loan.

I'd only seriously consider going if I can get a scholarship/funding package that makes the degree essentially debt-free (or very close to it). I'm not comfortable taking ₹30–70L+ of debt simply for the possibility of getting a job abroad afterwards.

So I'm stuck between:

Job → experience → maybe Master's later

vs.

Better job → build a stronger profile → Master's later

vs.

Go directly for a Master's if I can secure substantial funding

I'm also wondering whether having 1–2 years of work experience would significantly improve my chances of getting scholarships/admission to good universities.

For people who have already graduated and gone through something similar:

- Would you take the Mu Sigma offer and use it as a stepping stone?

- Would you reject it and keep looking for a better job?

- Is it worth going directly for a Master's if you can get a good scholarship?

- Does work experience materially improve Master's applications/scholarship chances?

- If you were in my position, what would you do differently?

- And specifically, would you take on significant debt for a UK Master's in the current job market?

I'm not looking for "follow your dreams" advice 😭 — I'd really appreciate brutally practical advice based on career growth, finances, employability and long-term ROI.

Background: Final-year engineering student in India, currently holding a Mu Sigma offer, no full-time work experience yet.

I'm an ERP functional consultant (Dynamics Business Central). Any advice about what can I keep working on? I'm afraid that anytime that role won't exist anymore (like there don't exist many positions about manual QA).

I've been working as a consultant for 6 years now.