I think I just lost a chance at a better job because I couldn't afford the interview.

I currently make $19/hour doing inventory and shipping for a small distributor. I've been looking for something better for about four months, mostly operations and logistics coordinator positions.

Two weeks ago I finally got an interview for a job paying $26-29/hour.

It's a legitimate company, the responsibilities match my experience, and the location would actually shorten my commute.

I was excited about this one.

The first interview was at 11 AM on a Wednesday. I couldn't get anyone to swap shifts, so I ended up taking the whole day unpaid.

That's $152 in wages I didn't earn, plus gas and parking.

The interview went really well. The hiring manager seemed genuinely interested, asked detailed questions about my experience, and told me I had a strong background for the position.

Last Friday they invited me back for a second interview with two department managers.

Tuesday at 10 AM.

I explained that I work full-time and asked whether we could schedule it later in the afternoon or possibly do a video call.

The recruiter said the managers only conduct interviews during normal business hours and that this stage had to be in person.

I tried switching shifts again. Nobody could cover.

I asked whether they had any other dates available.

They offered Thursday at 1 PM.

Same problem.

I eventually told the recruiter I wouldn't be able to attend during those hours and thanked her for considering me.

She replied that they understood and would be moving forward with other candidates.

I've been thinking about that email all weekend.

I'm not upset that they have schedules. I get that managers have other responsibilities and can't interview people whenever they want.

But there's something incredibly frustrating about needing a better-paying job because money is tight, then being unable to pursue that job because the interview process itself costs money.

I can afford to lose a day's wages occasionally. I can't afford to keep doing it for every company that might or might not hire me.

And it's not like I can tell my current employer that I need three random weekdays off this month to interview somewhere else.

I'm still employed, so I know I'm in a better position than people who are completely out of work. But I hadn't really thought about how expensive searching for a job can be when you're paid hourly and don't have much flexibility.

I'm starting to wonder whether I should ask about the entire interview process before even agreeing to the first meeting.

For people who work fixed shifts or hourly jobs, how are you managing multiple rounds of interviews without losing a ton of income?

And for hiring managers, is it actually unreasonable to ask for a first or second interview outside standard business hours?

I'm not looking for special treatment. I just want a realistic way to look for a better job while keeping the one that's currently paying my rent.

I have a few skills, all artistic, no degree from health issues, but 29 now doing murals and social media but I can't ever make enough to move out or not rely on anyone, even when I add bartending in. It's crazy wth do I do?

Feeling depressed, trying to start a career after a gap. Feeling horrible due to intense competition and the horrible job market.

They have a salary range posted at the very top, but then there’s a “max compensation” amount they will not exceed… so why even have the range listed? I waste a minute reading through to find that the range isn’t really what I expected. This is a government listing but I have also seen it with other private companies as well. What are your thoughts?

This is a very repetitive office job in a bank subsidiary, with a bunch of weird rules. I've spent most of my career in chill creative jobs but for now this is what I've got, so I'm just wondering if it's common in that industry.

Among other rules:

- No phone and no bag at your desk, you need to put them in a locker away from the desks
- No food at your desk
- No drinks unless in a closed container (= in a bottle, not in a mug)
- No headphones at all, no music whatsoever (it's a repetitive job so it's actually very hard to stay focused and awake without music)
- Zero URL allowed outside of the already made shortcuts (outlook, internal docs)
- Talking to coworkers is heavily discouraged, room goes silent when managers are in the room
- You need to announce to your manager when you're going on a break or to the bathroom
- Never more than 2 people on a break at the same time
- Every task is timed, you've got 4 to 9 seconds depending on the task. Management won't show you your stats unless you've been fucking up for weeks. So you might be doing well, you might not, there's no way to know
- People just vanish from the office one day and are replaced the next, no communication about it from management whatsoever
- You should not be looking away from your screen for more than a few seconds. Stretching is discouraged (I got told off for that)
- Temp workers get weekly contracts yet are asked to commit to staying for the next 12-18 months (still on weekly contracts)
- You need to pay for your own coffee lol

I might be forgetting some.

As we've all signed an NDA... none of this feels necessary at all?

It should be illegal to request a Social Security number on a job application. Why would you do a so-called background check on any candidates that you’re not ready to hire anyway? It’s a massive privacy violation and everyone knows it’s a one-way ticket to opening yourself up for identity theft. But some applications still shamelessly have a box labeled Social Security number on the application. There need to be federal laws against that.

Not sure if it’s a good thing. I feel like a beggar looking for a job for months and months. My fuse is getting shorter. Idk what else to boast about myself to employers and recruiters. Any tips?

I was offered a new job today - better pay, better opportunities, better progression in the company, aligns closer with my career plans. It's everything I've been working towards and I am happy about the role.

I just feel so sad about leaving my current job - yes it's grueling and often way too much work. I get lumped with work so often that i never get anything done. But I love working there truthfully and my coworkers are the greatest people to work with, they are so lovely and just thinking about leaving makes me cry. They've given me so many opportunities to grow and they are really down to earth people. The job itself is low paid and has very little progression so it's not like I could have stayed there for years realistically. I think I will really miss this role and the people though - I feel like I made a real impact on people's lives and having such a meaningful job is wonderful.

I've already accepted the offer and it's not logical to turn it down, but why do I feel so upset about leaving when this offer is what I've been working towards?

so i work in a customer facing role at a tech company. few weeks back i had this internal session where i explain our processes to my manager and a senior guy, and they decide if im ready to handle accounts on my own. i didnt clear it

i had everything memorised. but when they started asking stuff in a different order i just went blank. i knew the steps but couldnt say why we do them. i ended up guessing and when they said i was wrong i just went quiet and barely spoke after that

manager told me i memorise but dont understand the logic. fair honestly. redo is coming and if i fail that its formal feedback

i practised for hours before and it didnt help so now i dont trust my own way of studying. did a mock with a colleague and he said 8/10 but when my manager did a mock with me and asked sideways i froze again

the worst part is i shut down every time im wrong. i go silent and start thinking im dumb. ive started avoiding my manager and feeling weird around him and i keep comparing myself to people who cleared it faster. havent slept properly, anxiety kicks in at night. kinda numb right now

how do you actually go from memorising to understanding? and how do you stop shutting down when youre wrong? anyone been through a second attempt?

any advice would help, its really getting to me

I’m 26 and graduated summa cum laude in May 2024 with a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice. Almost 2.5 years later, I still haven’t landed my first full-time professional job, despite doing everything I thought I was supposed to do.

During college, I completed a summer internship in D.C. working directly under a policy director at a well-known political nonprofit. I graduated with strong references and thought I’d be able to find full-time work.

Since then, I’ve worked on a successful political campaign, completed another competitive professional development program working under a policy director (including writing and delivering legislative testimony), and transitioned into nonprofit fundraising/development at the recommendation of a career coach.

I’ve performed well in every position, but nothing has translated into permanent employment. One organization wanted to hire me but lacked the budget. My current employer discussed promoting me to full-time, had me interview internally, then said they couldn’t move forward due to the position not being officially created yet. Meanwhile, I made it through four interviews for a \~$60K development position RECENTLY, including meeting with the CEO, only to be ghosted for over a month before receiving a generic rejection.

I’ve applied to countless jobs, tailored hundreds of resumes and cover letters, practiced interviewing, networked extensively, and worked with a career coach. It’s not like I haven’t gotten interviews because I HAVE, lots, and the majority of them go really well! I’m still working a part-time hospitality job alongside my part-time professional role just to support myself. I have no employer-sponsored health insurance or real financial stability.

I’m starting to wonder whether the political/nonprofit sector is simply too small and competitive to build a sustainable career in. I’ve recently started exploring federal government positions, but I’m also questioning whether I need to change fields entirely or even go back to school.

It’s especially discouraging watching friends graduate from career-specific programs and immediately land stable, well-paying jobs. I feel like I’ve done everything right and have nothing to show for it.

**Has anyone else experienced this? Would you recommend pivoting into government work, sticking with nonprofit development, or pursuing a different career altogether? I’m genuinely looking for practical advice because I feel completely stuck.**

Hello,

I am looking for some feedback/advice on this situation that is starting to take shape with a new employer. To put into context:

-I recently started in this role (less than 90 days) as a technician in the aviation industry.

-I have about 19 years of experience.

-My current pay is far below the market standard considering COL combined with the nature of the job.

-Employer is bottom of the barrel with respect to other players within the aviation cargo industry.

My dilemma is the following. Over the course of the last month, a few things have happened that seem odd to me. My duties that I am being assigned are very primitive considering my level of expertise and experience. Most of the time, they have me sitting idle. Most of the people working are brand new to the industry yet get more complex tasks. On one occasion, I think I was "setup" to fail at a certain task. This led me to receiving a PIP. This was not my fault, yet I had to file a report basically stating that I made an error. As a new hire, I was unaware of the company policies/procedures. My lead failed to look at my training records to confirm whether or not I was qualified to accomplish this task. Also, I am very isolated from my peers/coworkers. I do not really care to socialize. I am introverted. However, when it comes to work, I am very professional with my interactions. I am always respectful and courteous, yet I am getting the cold shoulder seems like from everyone. I feel like all these added together, it can be a "quiet" quit type of scenario. Tell me your thoughts and how to proceed. Again, the pay is mediocre on a good day and putting up with all this is genuinely stressful.

Thanks.

I just accepted a job offer but realized I presented one of my jobs as being from May - July 2024 instead of May - Aug 2024 will this hurt my offer if it comes up in a background check?

I’m currently unemployed for the past 8 months I had a job landscaping for a 1 year and a half but got fired as all of the blokes turned against me as well as the boss. And was just getting bullied non stop and it just put a dent in my confidence even more

I don’t know what to do with my life I feel like I’m being called to be a chaplain but I don’t really like church dogma but love Jesus and have had a few mystical type experiences in prayer

but there is a lot of study with that and I’m a bit of a lazy person when it comes to study.

I don’t want to do landscaping anymore cause everyone who does it just smokes all day and it’s just not a good environment to be around. I honestly don’t know what to do with my life.

I struggle a lot with social Anxiety and I feel like that gets it the way with my conversations with people and I don’t know how to get past it it just feels like a burden that I have been carrying with me for years and I don’t know how to get rid of it.

What would you say to me in my predicament I’m 23 years old and everyone that I know is having kids and is starting businesses

There's no such thing as "hardwork pays off" at least not anymore. Not a single one of these corporations give a damn about you.

Putting in 110% every time is just gonna cause you to burn out and drain your soul out of you. They don't care about you, I don't know who needs to hear this right now but they really don't give a damn about you, you're replaceable.

In my country we have 21 vacation days a year per our labor laws, and in my company they transfer over to next year if you don't use all of them, so back in 2025 I didn't use much because I wanted to be present and show them I'm capable but they showed me their true colours (long story) so when it hit 2026 I had 35 days piled up, so I used as many as I wanted whenever I felt like it.

I currently have 16 days remaining, I applied for 5 for the last week of October (my birthday is on the 24th so imma relax for a whole week with family and friends), 5 more for last week of November and the final 6 for the final week of December.

Live your life, prioritize your health and loved ones. Corporations are not your family.

I have ADHD and autism and work a 9-5. I won't assume that everyone else with these things is the same way, but I have a tendency to shoot off obvious questions before thinking about it. It's plagued me at a number of jobs. Recently I came to the realization that almost everything I would need to ask can be found out without asking by Googling it (not sensitive info obvi) or just forcing myself to take extra time to look, so I've been doing that and it's been great.

Today it was 6:20 PM, I was desperate to stop work and go shower before dinner (I work remote) and I suddenly remembered someone higher up emailed me after hours yesterday and I'd forgotten to respond. It turned out I had used a calculator given to me by a member of our management to calculate something - this is something we always do, the member of management makes updates to the calculators regularly so labor rates and product specs and such are current, and he distributes them to us - and the calculator had an error in its formulas, so the cost was wrong. The higher-up provided screenshots of an updated version of the calculator we hadn't received that was generating the correct numbers.

Not too big a deal, my company is relatively forgiving of mistakes (literally all of us make mistakes, management tells us they expect it) and I just needed to change the numbers. We talk to higher-ups all the time, and it's par the course for either management or people in different departments to email employees about these sorts of things, so this wasn't a major event or a massive issue or anything. But you still really want to look good and competent in your correspondence, for obvious reasons lol.

I confirmed the error with the old calculator, updated the numbers in the system, and included the person in our management in my response to ask him to send the updated calculator. The higher-up who originally emailed me then immediately emailed me the calculator 😣 obviously she'd had it since she sent screenshots.

Has anyone had this issue persistently and found a way to prevent it?? I'm so tired of being embarrassed.

I'm in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry specifically for marketing. The industry itself doesn't waste too much time hiring marketers because job functions are pretty niche and they are few and far between. Typically, the hiring process is 1-2.5 months so I imagine it will be a bit longer nowadays.

It's common to not have HR screenings (which is crazy) and 3 interviews total. Now, I have had the same experience. One recent company I interviewed with didn't conduct an HR screening and had 1 interview so far. Two days after the interview, I was asked to provide 3 professional references. Being asked for references has never happened to me in this industry so I have no clue what the next steps are.

Is this timeline a bit sketchy or a sign that they are eagerly hiring? Is asking for references common? Do companies conduct interviews after asking for references?

I am looking for advice from people who've been in a similar spot. I am facing two potential scenarios on working.

For my background, I am an international student and currently on OPT (spent 3 months, and eligible for STEM)

Scenario 1: I get an offer for the referred role internally in my current company, AND my current internship converts to full-time.
- I'd probably choose my current team (better fit for what I studied, and I like this work). How do I decline an internal referral gracefully without burning my mentor's goodwill, especially since we're at the same company? And given this possibility, is it even okay to move forward with the conversation?

Scenario 2: I get an offer for the referred role, but my internship only gets *extended* (not converted).
- Extended interns aren't eligible for H-1B sponsorship, so staying could mean missing this year's lottery. The referred role (assuming it sponsors) is less aligned with what I want to do. So it's basically: visa sponsorship vs. the work I actually want to do.

Questions:
1. Is it fair to talk about the referred role while my current team's decision is still pending? Should I tell my mentor/hiring manager about that upfront?
2. If you were in Scenario 2, which would you choose? Does having STEM OPT (multiple lottery attempts) change the math?
3. Has anyone used an internal offer to push their current manager toward conversion/sponsorship? How did you bring it up?
4. If I take the sponsored role, how realistic is transferring back to a team like my current one after a year or two?

No position decisions have been made yet, but I just want to think further. Because this is within the company and my time is limited while working in the States, I have a desire to make a good decision.
All advice is welcome, thanks in advance!

I am currently job searching from my first main corporate job out of college. I've been with them for 5 years and I started as an associate and now basically doing manager work with an associate pay...

I get headaches almost everyday, I feel myself getting slower and slower, and I just don't care anymore because I am so stressed right now but I cant really say anything since EVERYONE else also just as stressed or more so. I can't really take time off because our team is basically like 4 people doing everything the company wants.

I'm so done and I am currently job searching but I'm scared to get into a new job and it feeling the same. If that makes sense? How can I know that a job won't be this stressful? Or is this normal? Is it selfish to want a job and not have headaches or be so stressed my teeth keep grinding???

Thanks

Hello! I work an academia-adjacent job with a lot of connections I'd like to preserve. (Letters for grad school, possibility of rehire way down the line, etc.) They've been good to me and I've tried to do right by them, and overall I've had a very positive experience working there.

They require 30 days notice, and I gave five weeks.

As my initial last day was in the middle of a heavy busy season, I was asked to stay two more weeks. After thinking about it, I said I could do one more.

Personal logistics are making it increasingly difficult, as I have to move immediately after. I asked for some flexibility and was basically told there wasn't any (was offered a half-day). At the time I folded.

I'm considering being firmer and apologizing, but taking back two of the extra five days, saying it's the most I can do. How likely is this to burn a bridge/come off as unprofessional? It's now about 3 weeks out. It is truly a pretty busy time I am leaving during, but I do know the reason they were antsy about keeping me was to potentially train a replacement. (That is not going to happen in the time remaining.)

I asked a trusted friend who told me not to do it, that it would make me seem like a head case.

edit: (I did ask to stay on as a PT contractor for a small portion of my role which complicates things....)

I joined a new team a few months ago at my company. I’m a senior engineer at [very well known tech place] working with engineers who are of similar level or more senior.

My previous team was pretty chill - quiet but productive. This new team though…holy hell. I feel like I’m developing an anxiety disorder from these two engineers where EVERY task, every message, every request is an absolute emergency.

“Hey can you run this?” “Please collect that data now” “Can you support this thing happening in 30 min?”

One time, I left my work phone on my desk to go take a crap. In the 15 min I was gone, these same two girls had blown up my phone asking why I wasn’t replying and how urgent this is. What was such an emergency, you ask? Some data collection they wanted so they could report it to a meeting later that afternoon.

This week particularly has bothered me: I’m finally hitting a stride on my own project. Our manager wants me to help with theirs as well for the foreseeable future while I get up to speed on this group’s work, which is fine.

But this week I have a HARD deadline to ship out a bunch of sample product to vendors around the world, and tomorrow I’m gonna be running my ass off ensuring it happens. It’s been a few weeks of buildup to it.

Then today at 4:50pm of course these girls ping me that I MUST help them in the morning with something at the same time I’m going to be finalizing, organizing, and meeting vendors in person to give this critical product to.

What I’m trying to ask is: how the hell do I get around this while appearing 100% professionally? I talked to my (our) manager about it last week but I didn’t really get a good resolution. It was sort of “You just balance what’s urgent”. But with these girls, EVERYTHING is urgent.

I replied I cannot support them tomorrow because I’m swamped and they were visibly aggravated by it. How do you guys handle these people…?

I started my current job at a hobby shop about 4 years ago. For multiple reasons I had left my corporate job as an insurance adjuster and was taking care of my father.

I have enjoyed my time here but my father is not only better but has more care and systems in place to give me room to go back into a more professional role but..is that a smart move? I have no degree only skills i have learned and I feel that makes this it so much harder for me. I am interested but the fear of the unknown definitely has its grip on me.

What are some things to consider before I do this?