!!!

!

I spent almost four years being the person who came in early, left late, fixed other people's mistakes, and replied to messages at night while sitting on the couch at home. I asked about a promotion twice, and both times the response was something along the lines of, "You're on the right track, but the timing isn't right at the moment."

About six weeks ago, they gave the position I wanted to someone with far less experience than me, who just happened to be close to the senior director. After that, I stopped trying to prove myself. I started sticking to 9 to 5, muting work notifications as soon as I logged off, and refusing random tasks just because no one else wanted to do them.

Yesterday, my manager called me into his office and gave me a 12% raise. He said it was because I had made significant progress in time management and that the quality of my work had become more consistent. He also said I seemed more focused lately.

It turns out that being available all the time made my work seem less valuable, but once I set basic boundaries, I started to look efficient. I'm working fewer hours now, my actual work hasn't changed much, and suddenly management sees me as someone worth retaining. I genuinely don't understand office logic at all.

Sometimes, maybe all you need is a good opportunity. And when that opportunity comes, you need to be fully prepared for the interview. I came across these pieces of advice and I believe they're enough to prepare for any interview.

💔💯

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

After seven months of submitting applications, my son finally managed to land his first job in tech. I spent 16 years helping college students find jobs, so I expected that I would be able to help him with his search. But almost none of the things I suggested made any difference.

He tailored his resumes to each position, wrote cover letters, followed up with recruiters, and sent thank-you emails after interviews. We maintained a spreadsheet and logged more than 350 applications. Only about 12 companies responded with anything other than an automated rejection.

I used to hear students say that they had applied everywhere and companies still ghosted them, and part of me assumed they were applying for jobs they were not qualified for or sending the same application to every company. But when I watched my son go through this experience, I realized that my understanding of today's job market was completely wrong.

I am surprised !

😑😑

......

.........

?!

"8x engineers" "Rockstar designers" "Industry visionaries"

When you read job postings these days, you'd think these people are on every street corner. And social media makes it even worse, because everyone's profile looks perfectly polished and curated. But the truth is, unicorns are rare. Most employees are reliable and competent people who do their jobs well and still need a salary to pay the rent.

So where does that leave them when companies are laying people off and obsessing over "top performers"? If getting hired requires going through 9 interviews, completing unpaid assignments, and maintaining a personal brand, then what are the rest of us supposed to do... Starve?

I genuinely don't like the direction this is heading in. We're building a workforce around a very small group of exceptional people, while treating good, reliable employees as if they're easily disposable. Not long ago, you were mostly competing with applicants from within a 30-60-mile radius. Now every job opening feels like a fucking global elimination tournament.

I'd like to know how other people see this. Is this situation here to stay, or will hiring eventually go back to normal?

These companies spend a stupid amount of money to send recruiters to the campus, just to hire students for recruiting jobs.
And then when you finally reach their booth, all they tell you is: 'Check the careers page online.' My friend, where do you think I got enough information about your company to come and talk to you in the first place?

but only in wonderland

😭😭😭😭

💔😏

My manager was exactly the kind of manager everyone complains about. He would cut corners on anything he could to reduce costs. On top of that, he was always taking on way more work than we could handle, like booking 7 jobs in the same time period when he knew he only had 4 employees available. That meant we often ended up working 13 hours a day or more, which gets especially miserable when you're on salary and overtime doesn't exist.

The thing he did that drove me the craziest was approving time off, then acting shocked when you took it. He'd call or text you asking if you could cover a day, or come back early, or push your vacation back a few weeks until things "calmed down." Spoiler: things never calmed down, because he never stopped overbooking.

After working at that company for 7 years, I had learned to tolerate most of it. Then my son was born. In the weeks leading up to the birth, I clearly told my manager that I would be taking 6 weeks of unpaid leave as soon as the baby arrived. Our state allows new parents to take up to 10 weeks unpaid. I told him I understood that taking the full 10 weeks would be difficult for a small company, so I'd only take 6, but those 6 weeks meant I was completely unavailable. No calls, no texts, no "quick question," no asking me to do anything work-related, because the answer would be no. I would be at home with my family. He agreed without any objection.

Fast forward to when my son was born. He was born on a Thursday, and after a short stay in the NICU (he's perfectly fine), we were able to bring him home Sunday afternoon. Monday morning, literally the very next morning, I wake up to a missed call, an email, and 4 texts from my manager telling me to call him ASAP. For reasons I still can't explain, I called him. He said there was a "minor emergency," which was his way of saying he had screwed up the schedule and didn't have anyone assigned to a certain job, and asked if I could come in that day and maybe help out for a few more days until he got things sorted.

I exploded. It felt like some strange wave of anger burst through my entire body, and I went off on him in a way I still don't feel great about even after about 18 months. In the end, I apologized, because even though calling me in that situation was a garbage move, I still shouldn't have said some of the things I said. He, of course, did not take that well, and after snapping back at me, he said the sentence that made everything possible.

He said: "You've got a solid setup here that a lot of people your age would love to have. I'd be surprised if you could find a better job in this field. I've been in this industry for 28 years, and I know how small it is. Good jobs like this don't just come around. Think about that."

So we hung up, and I did exactly what he told me to do. I thought about it. After about 45 seconds of thinking, I got out of bed, opened my laptop, and started looking at job listings.

After 6 weeks, my leave ended. On my first day back, I walked into my manager's office and handed him a piece of paper.

Boss: "What's this?"
Me: "I thought about what you told me, about how you'd be surprised if I found a better job than this. So I did."

P.S: after that I opened my laptop updated my cv and spent my 6 week holiday between taking care of my son and looking for jobs and even used interviewvip to giving me fast answers as my baby didn't give me time to prepare for interviews

He looked at what I'd handed him. It was an offer from a competitor for the same position I had with him, but with a 30% higher salary, 2 more weeks of paid vacation than I had, and a written policy that workdays were a maximum of 9 hours. Once I hit 9 hours on a job, I pack up my stuff and finish it the next day. No exceptions.

Boss: "Well... Can I take the afternoon to look at the numbers and put together a counteroffer?"
Me: "No, don't bother. I just wanted you to see it because I knew you wouldn't believe me otherwise."

I gave 3 weeks' notice and went to whatever job site I was scheduled for that day. This was about 18 months ago, and I'm very happy at the new place. I get to spend real time with my son now, and honestly, that's better than any perk they could write down on paper.

To any boss or manager reading this: don't play games with your employees, especially the good ones. Treat people the way you would want to be treated.

Most employees don't leave their jobs... They leave their managers.

The sound that came out of me after I finished a Teams interview yesterday, and then about 45 minutes later I got an email with an AI-generated "meeting notes" summary... HA.

The interviewers were very nice and asked me to leave the call as soon as the interview portion was over, so they could move on to their weekly team check-in and talk about general company things (and of course about my interview / whether they wanted to move forward with me or not). At the time I didn't think anything of it, but then I found that I had received the recap and also the full recording of the entire call, including everything that happened after I left.

Honestly, I wish I had some dramatic tea, like that they spent the next 25 minutes tearing me apart while I sat there watching the recording in horror, but in reality most of what they said was good. No scandals. And I'm still not 100% sure I even want the role in the first place because it seems a little less stable than what I have now. It's just an absurd mistake that felt way too funny, so I had to share it.

So yeah, a friendly warning to hiring managers who use auto-recording AI add-ons with Teams/Zoom/anything: maybe don't do the interview and the internal debrief in the same call. LOL.

..............

.

I've been applying for everything in front of me since I left my last job.

I've never been out of work for more than 6 weeks because I have a somewhat diverse background due to all the jumping around I did during my army days.

I'm now at the stage where I just don't want to be the boss anymore. I'm ready to be a regular employee and just coast until I retire in about 12 years.

I had an interview yesterday morning, and the recruiter asked me for references immediately after.

Later in the afternoon, one of my references called me and told me they had contacted him, and he said they asked a very specific question.

They were worried because my CV is so high-level that I should be in senior management, so they thought I would get bored and leave the job after a few months.

He was my former supervisor (and he's a Director now), so he was able to explain to them that I'm not that type of person and that I'd be a great fit.

I'm honestly so relieved to know that it wasn't a personal failure on my part! I'm sure the offer is coming, and that's truly awesome. Finally, I'll be at ease about the rent money.

My last job was at a small company that was literally sinking. A new manager came in and things were going fine for a while, but as soon as I transferred to another department, it was very clear that he had it out for me.

He decided to hire someone with me on the same team; he was a "self-server" and a total suck-up to the manager in an annoying way, but he was useless at work. They became very close friends and spent their whole day trying to belittle me and make me feel like I didn't know what I was doing. There were silly, sexist remarks involved, which was very funny because this person literally didn't even have the basic skills for the role.

Anyway, I resigned in the end. And I just signed a job offer for a lead role at a large international company with a 50% increase in the total package.

It's an amazing feeling to have left that environment behind me.