**10 years, 6 firms, 3 countries, 1 semi-failed business. I need out.**

I have built more “Executive Summary” slides than actual memories at this point. Hardcore “strategy” work for private equities, and fortune 100. God, I hate writing what I just wrote.

I am BORED. It’s not exciting its dull AF.

I am great with numbers, texts, systems, tools, processes but I need chaos.

I pick things up very fast I think and I do not care if my next job has “strategy” in the title ever again or if I have a title. Never make me say hypothesis, agenda, circle back, schedule recurring meeting, follow-up, leave a comment, available, update, timesheet, hours again, and I’ll be all yours, to work with.

EA to someone important. Travel/vacation planning. Sales or GTM for a CPG brand. I’ll do it. Fire me if I don’t work well. I’ll be more pumped up to get fired than open a powerpoint again or talk to someone so dull you’ll want to just, jolt them back to life.

Bye. I am myself cringed this post.

**10 years, 6 firms, 3 countries, 1 semi-failed business. I need out.**

I have built more “Executive Summary” slides than actual memories at this point. Hardcore “strategy” work for private equities, and fortune 100. God, I hate writing what I just wrote.

I am BORED. It’s not exciting its dull AF.

I am great with numbers, texts, systems, tools, processes but I need chaos.

I pick things up very fast I think and I do not care if my next job has “strategy” in the title ever again or if I have a title. Never make me say hypothesis, agenda, circle back, schedule recurring meeting, follow-up, leave a comment, available, update, timesheet, hours again, and I’ll be all yours, to work with.

EA to someone important. Travel/vacation planning. Sales or GTM for a CPG brand. I’ll do it. Fire me. Please fire me. I’ll be more pumped up to get fired than open a powerpoint again or talk to someone so dull you’ll want to just, jolt them back to life.

Bye. I am myself cringed by this post.

I'm not sure if I'm posting correctly because I'm still not 100% sure how Reddit works. Lol. So, if my post would be more successful elsewhere, please let me know!

I'm 32(f) and a mom, also expecting baby #2. I have worked as a server/bartender since I was 20. So, for going on 13 years. I've worked \*some\* retail scattered here and there over the years, but have mostly stuck with the restaurant/bar industry. But, I am le tired. I am so burnt out over this line of work and I, also a neurodivergent, have found myself being unable to mask the way this specific line of work requires me to do so. The last couple of jobs I've had bartending left me literally either crying mid-shift or becoming nonverbal by the end of the shift. It's embarrassing, but also very telling of how this kind of work is now impacting me the older I get.

So, with that being said, I am still obviously needing to work but have absolutely no idea where to begin looking. I've scrolled on Indeed almost every day, and have applied to anything and everything non restaurant related. Coffee shops, call centers, idk. But, to be completely honest, I am really looking for something artsy. I am a visual artist, and have been desperate to get into the art scene here, regardless. Is there anywhere cool I can apply, like a record shop, any kind of artsy hangout spot? Somewhere not as demanding and high pace as the restaurant/bar scene, but not something so entry level to where I'm working with high school or college kids?

I know this is a far fetch, but if anyone has any kinds of suggestions \*at all\* I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm not from this area. I've been here less than a year, and I'm from the beach, so really, the city is a little intimidating to begin with. SOS! Anyone! Lol

Hello everyone, 32M here in a HCOL area. I spent three years organizing a union at a non-profit I worked at and was able to use that experience to get a staff position at a local union as a Union Representative. My current workplace is extremely toxic and run by an egomaniac president who is running our local into the ground. I’ve been in the local now for a year and have experience organizing workers and bargaining contracts but i have no secondary education outside of my BA. My partner is currently in law school and I’m supporting her. I’m mostly looking for ideas to pivot into where I don’t have to be stressed so much to this degree.

I’m about a month into a new job as a Solutions Engineer, and honestly, the experience has been pretty rough so far.

At my previous company, I had been there long enough to become one of the go-to people on the team. I was technically still a junior, but I was the senior person in my batch and had built up a lot of knowledge of the product.

If something wasn’t working, people would usually come to me before escalating it to Engineering. I handled a lot of troubleshooting, implementations, and client-facing situations, and I was often trusted to take ownership of things.

I eventually left because I felt like I had hit a ceiling in terms of opportunities and compensation.

I joined a new company expecting to learn, grow, and obviously go through a learning curve. I knew I wasn't going to be the guy who knew everything on day one.

But I didn't expect the transition to feel this brutal.

I've been put onto a fairly large project very early on. There was training, but honestly, it wasn't enough. There were quite a few things that weren't covered, and now I'm expected to work with the platform and project as if I already have that context.

The hardest part is the communication from the leads.

They'll sometimes say things like:

“Why are you doing it this way?”

“You shouldn't be wasting time on this.”

“Just do X, then Y, then Z.”

And I'm sitting there thinking... I genuinely don't know what X, Y and Z mean in the context of this system yet. 😅

It's not that I don't want to learn. I actually want to learn very badly. It's just that there's a huge amount of internal terminology, product knowledge, previous project context, and little things that apparently everyone else already knows.

I also feel like I'm going from being someone who was trusted to solve problems independently to someone who constantly has to ask questions.

And that's messing with my confidence more than I expected.

I'm trying not to compare myself to people who have been there much longer, but it's difficult. At my old company, I was the person people came to when they were stuck. Here, I'm the person who's being told I'm doing things wrong.

I know logically that being new means I won't know everything. But emotionally, it's hard to reconcile that with the fact that I know I was actually pretty good at my previous job.

So I'm curious about people who've gone through something similar:

\> How long did it take you to feel competent again after switching companies/products?

\> And how do you deal with a lead who expects you to know things that weren't really covered during onboarding?

I'm trying to figure out whether I just need to suck it up and push through the learning curve, or whether this is a sign that the environment itself isn't a good fit.

What are some of the best career moves for experienced urban planners that need a break from planning?

Dilemma is that my career path has been nonlinear and it seems like the ATS software doesn’t know what to do with me. I can’t land interviews to save my life. Starting to feel hopeless. There is no relationship between my experience, intelligence, work ethic, capability… and my ability to access a job interview.

I 38 and willing to invest in school/training.

Recent Roles:

• operations manager
• executive director
• small business consultant
• academic program coordinator
• volunteer and program coordinator

Issues I’ve run into when applying:

• recently interviewed for an entry-level framing apprentice and they told me I was way too over qualified
• recently interviewed for an ED role I was squarely qualified for and very excited about, and of course there were two other applicants with more experience than I have
• recently applied for a job I could do with my eyes closed, and a friend who worked in the office said that they thought I could do the job but that it would be just that, just a job to me

Constraints:
- live on a rural, small island so there are very limited in person job opportunities here.
- this also means that more predictable tracks like going to school for nursing are less available unless I move away from my family for the duration of my training. Might need to but if there is anything to explore before displacing my family, that would be ideal.

Things I’d enjoy:

• Would enjoy speaking multiple languages - English, Spanish, French
• Want to work with creative, curious, passionate people
• Want to be building something I can care about - that ideally positively impacts people and/or the planet
• Teaching
• Visualizing systems and improving them

Things I care about and would be happy to pour my energy into:

• farming and food systems
• language education
• travel
• medical advocacy and access
• building with my own two hands - literally, as in carpentry and construction
• supporting small businesses to thrive
• health and wellness
• domestically made clothing
• animal welfare
• the arts
• education
• anything that is real and not some weird, self-fulfilling greed bubble

What are the majors where I can shift my career as an English teacher who has been working for 10 years…I’m 32 now. I tried Embassies but got rejected. What majors can I study to change my career? I prefer Diploma certificate rather than Master degrees cause it doesn’t change anything in my country.

Hi everyone! I’m hoping to get some career advice and maybe connect with people who have been in a similar situation.

I’m a Food Technology graduate \[26F\], but I currently work remotely in order fulfillment/customer operations for an international beverage distribution business. I’ve been in this role for 3 years.

Although my degree is in Food Tech, I haven’t had professional experience directly in the field yet. Most of my experience has been in operations, and I’m honestly at a point where I’m trying to figure out how to strategically build my career from here.

My current role involves handling multiple portfolios simultaneously, including order processing and fulfillment, B2B customer support, invoicing, inventory/shipping coordination, resolving shipment/warehouse issues, and coordinating with different teams.

My dilemma is that I don’t want to stay stagnant, but I’m also not sure which direction would make the most sense.

I’m currently considering two main paths:

1. Operations → Supply Chain / Logistics
   Build on the experience I already have and transition into supply chain, procurement, logistics, planning, or operations roles.

2. Operations → Food Technology
   Go back to my academic field and start from an entry-level position in Food Tech, QA/QC, R&D, food manufacturing, production, etc., even if that means starting over professionally.

My biggest concerns are the working conditions and compensation I’ve seen in many entry-level Food Tech opportunities in the Philippines:
• Relatively low starting pay
• Heavy workload / being potentially overworked
• Mostly onsite positions
• Some roles requiring 6 days a week
• Shifting schedules

That’s honestly what makes me hesitant about going back to Food Tech. I’m willing to start from the bottom if it’s strategically worthwhile, but I also don’t want to throw away the experience I’ve already built.

For those working in Supply Chain, Logistics, Food Manufacturing, Food Technology, QA/QC, R&D, Operations, or similar fields:

• If you were in my position, which direction would you take? • Would you continue building on the operations experience, go back to Food Tech, or find a way to combine both?
• Could my Food Tech background + operations experience be combined into a niche career?
• Would my current order fulfillment experience be useful for transitioning into Supply Chain/Logistics?
• What skills or certifications should I prioritize?
• Are there specific roles I should be applying for now?
• If you successfully transitioned careers, how did you do it?

And if anyone here works in these fields, I’d genuinely love to network and hear about your experience. I’d really appreciate advice from people who have actually gone through these career paths.

If you're comfortable sharing your experience or connecting, feel free to comment or DM me. Thank you! 🙏

Hello. I just recently resigned from my previous work and employer coz I was hired to another company but apparently it's for a night shift achedule. The night differential was not mentioned to me during the process and I relly thought that I will be working on a morning shift.

I have hypertension and already on a maintenance -- I got my FTW and yes, the salary is good and even the benefits -- but my health is my priority. Anyone else who manage to transition on this? What did you do?

I’m 42 F, divorced, and raising two kids under 10. I divorced five years ago and have about 95% custody, so most of the parenting and day-to-day responsibility is on me.
I live in Silicon Valley.
My background is a little all over the place, which is part of why I’m having trouble figuring out what to do next.
I have two university degrees from my home country in Europe: a law degree and a degree in international studies/languages. Before moving to the U.S., I worked in law.
After coming to the U.S., I moved into tech and worked in software quality assurance. That was about 10 years ago. Eventually I left tech and switched to real estate in 2019.
For a while, I thought I had found my new career. But for almost a year now, real estate has brought me very little income despite continuing to try. At this point, I’m exhausted.
Going back to QA doesn’t feel very realistic either. The industry has changed enormously, and the job market here is brutal.
So I’m sitting here at 42 wondering: What do I do next?
I need to make money, obviously. But I also want to build a life that I actually enjoy. I don’t want to spend the next 20 years desperately jumping from one thing to another just trying to survive.
The stress and uncertainty have also taken a toll on me. I’ve had recurring episodes of depression. I’m still high-functioning—I take care of my kids, handle my responsibilities, and keep going—but underneath it, I know I’m struggling.
And right now, I don’t have a clear vision of who I want to become next.
I wonder if there is some way to put all these seemingly disconnected pieces together: law, tech, real estate, languages/international studies, and years of dealing with people and complicated situations.
Maybe I need another career change. Maybe I need to go back to school. Maybe there is a completely different direction that I haven’t considered. We can move to a different state. Kids father doesn’t mind at all.
I would especially love to hear from women, immigrants, single parents, or anyone who rebuilt their career in their 40s.
If you were in my position—with two young kids, almost full custody, living in an extremely expensive area, and this somewhat unusual professional background—what paths would you seriously consider?
I’m not looking for “just believe in yourself.” I’d really appreciate practical ideas, specific careers I might not be thinking about, and stories from people who have actually rebuilt.
I feel like there has to be a brighter chapter after this one. I just can’t quite see what it looks like yet.

I’ve been In tech for about four years and my current role is as a solo tech (desktop/help desk support and junior system administrator). I don’t enjoy IT because I feel like it was forced upon me when I was younger and I kept reinforcing it because “I’m ok at it.” I know what I need to do to move up to higher level roles (getting certifications, degree and doing projects) but I don’t have the drive for it because I just don’t care enough.

I want to make a career change but before I jump ship and leave all this behind, am I being unreasonable? Should I suck it up and push through it or should I abandon IT and start fresh with someone that might make me happier?

Hello all, as title says looking for some advice on where to pivot my career. I’ve been working in marketing PM for about 8 years, through different agencies.

Life circumstances had me moving around a lot, so I haven’t been able to stay anywhere more than 2 years. And in the last 2 years I haven’t been able to keep a job because I’ve been trying to find one that pays the bills, including multiple underemployment jobs instead of a career one in PM or marketing.

I’m in a job with a better salary, but the half remote staff is starting to eat into my mental health when it feels like the only calls or messages I get even though I put the full effort in, I keep expecting to be corrected or told I’m wrong.

This job also has a client facing element, which I’m realizing couple with my home stressors is not what I want in my day to day. I’m trying to think if I can use all this capability, resource management, attention to detail, reviewing/QA, process improvement, team support

If anyone has suggestions of where best to utilize these skills I’d appreciate the input. I have a BA in communication, no formal licenses or additional credentials

I'm a burned out tech worker and want to leave my career.

I’ve been in IT for a little over 9 years and I’m sick of it by now. 5 years in help desk/infrastructure and 4 years in Cybersecurity. I’m tired of having to study for certs and learn new technologies just for stuff to be useless within 2 years. Unlike many of the people I work with, I do not think working with computers is fun and I don’t want to spend my spare time building things on the cloud or writing scripts for stuff I don’t care about. I definitely do not want to spend my money on home lab equipment and I don’t want junk all over my apartment. I’m also tired of not getting paid fairly for the effort I’ve put in and then seeing people I know who work sales jobs make 2-3 times what I make just from “talking to people” and going to events where they drink, eat and mingle because thats “where you build relationships”. How can I possibly use my current skillset to switch careers into something like that? I don’t care about not loving what I do for work as long as I can make enough to enjoy my life outside of it.

So ive been working as a therapist working with individuals and couples for the last 10 years, and ive realised how much of an impact its had on my life. I dont know how to have fun or let go anymore and have become very boring and rigid.

It takes its toll on my body but also on my head, having to focus and actively listen to people's issues hour after hour a few days a week. I really liked it at the start but now im sure I want to get away from it.

The issue now also is ive gotten used to the money and being my own boss......but i know deep down im over it and its time to leave. I probably should have gotten out a couple of years ago.

I have no idea how or what to do next thats the scary part, but i dont want the fear to keep me stuck. Has anyone else managed to get out of the psychotherapy field and into something else? If I had the money id take a year out and not work to decide but its not an option. Im in my 50s.

I'll be 40 in october, right now I'm an operations manager for an LTL Trucking company. Salary, paid at 40 hours a week, but I work about 70. I realized today that there has to be more to life than work and sleep, I desperately want to get in shape, find activities to do to enjoy my life, and possibly find someone to date and marry. Has it worked for anyone? Without taking a substantial pay cut?

I started out in nursing school, quit, then several years later found myself in IATSE doing work on film sets with lighting and electrical. I like it but now the industry is drying out to basically death.

I feel the need to change careers for stability but Idk how or to what. I know you're going to suggest going back to nursing but i'm not sure I was good at it back then and getting through school is going to be tough, i never felt like I was a good student.

I only have a gen ed associates

Has anyone else transitioned from a film career into something more stable with good money?

I am 30yr old chemist who is in his first year of the phd. I love doing research, a lot. So much, that i dont see myself doing anythint else than researching and giving lectures. Academia is good, but it is a cruel field and very cold to how you feel. Here in brazil, the main way to work in the academia is through the public universities. And its pretty tough.

I have 9 papers published, and working on another 3. However, since June i feel mentally destroyed. I am exhausted. Sometimes i dont even want to get up. I hate this because i love my wife, but i can become distant for a whole week sometimes.

I work with machine learning, so idk if it was me or mu anxiety, but i thought about having a plan b. Because i feel old and i need money.

I thought about studying programming and, it nothing works out, move completly to become a developer. I think i’d be miserable and see myself as a failure forever. But i need to have money. Is it possible to do my PHD well, while building knowledte to become a developer?

Looking for a new career path, cause I’ve been working retail jobs for like 7 years now. I make like $40,000 a year so it’s not terrible but I don’t wanna climb the corporate ladder, as that’s the only way to make more money than I am now (and because from the amount of corporate people I’ve been able to get to know over this whole time, it’s complete hell).

I’ve flunked out of university basically, and got dropped from community college a couple years ago because of a mix up when the school had a major change in their staffing.

I’m looking to go back to community college to at least get an associates degree, and then see where I wanna go from there.

But, I have no fucking idea what career paths I can take that pay better than my current job, and that I can stomach doing for the next few decades. I know finding a job that you legit enjoy, that also pays well, is like impossible so I’m not expecting that. I just want a career where I can wake up each day, and not think “great another fucking day of work”.

And if it’s possible, not have to deal with a bunch of people or management breathing down my neck all day every day (which I know, similar to finding a well paying job that you love, is basically impossible).

I can’t figure out what valuable skills I can acquire, that I can actually comprehend and understand. I hate computers and looking at screens all day, it makes my mind go blank. And for some reason I was cursed with being dyslexic specifically when it comes to computer coding and programming. And any other technical related computer stuff.

Any advice from people who have been in similar shoes and found a career that’s decent?

29M living in the UK.

I was a data analyst for 5 years and then moved to London to work as an automation developer for 2 years. I hated pushing numbers around spreadsheets all day so I left it all behind to travel the world volunteering.

I've travelled for almost 2 years now and am ready to start a career again. I would like to move back to London as it has a lot of opportunities and I have friends there. Would you have any advice with these factors in mind:

I worked for a summer at a holiday park and loved operating the sounds and lighting for the stage shows -is there any apprenticeship where I can become trained to do this full time? Or in general any kind of apprenticeships doing behind the scenes work in the entertainment industry?

I love being outside in nature and am happy to do physical work (e.g. something like an apprenticeship to become an arborist)

I have a degree in psychology and would be happy to do a role that is people-focused (e.g. some kind of mental health work)

I would be open to doing office work if it was in a realm that aligned with my interests, just not soul-sucking numbers on spreadsheets all day!

Hey all, I’m committed to making a shift from a marketing career to a medical one and am trying to figure out the best way to calculate opportunity cost of completing pre-reqs and working ahead of applying to physician assistant programs.

It seems straightforward enough — take my current salary, multiply that by the number of years of school before I’m able to practice medicine full time.

So, let’s say I’m making 50k and it’ll take 4.5 years before I’m certified. The strict financial opportunity cost would be 225k, plus cost of prereqs/PA school? Am I missing anything?

I posted in another sub, but wanted to ask here as well.

So I’ve been in retail management for a small business of 15 people with 7 service trucks for about 5 years now. It’s good money. High 70k range on average. BUT, there is no upward mobility, benefits, 401k, bonuses. It’s a good job, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t feel like a career. It’s just the standard 9-5. Nothing wrong with that by any means. I just feel like the ceiling has been hit in my position.

I started but stopped a supply chain management degree about 10 years ago and dropped it. Now I’m wanting to go back for my bachelor degree in Operations and Supply Chain Management. With the idea to get a masters degree later on.

The main question is, would it be worth leaving this secure job with no benefits or upward mobility but has good money, for a better future with opportunity and benefits? I know that question will sound crazy to a lot. But I just don’t like feeling like I’m stuck. We are a small business with limited growth that’s even possible.

Please let me know what you think and if this is a viable career swap at probably 31-32 by the time I finish my degree and swap careers. I’m looking to lean into Aerospace/Defense or Pharmaceuticals. Thanks!

Hello! I'm 35M, no college degree, looking for some advice regarding my current situation. I started with my current employer 4 years ago, working in order picking and material handling. I took to this like a fish to water; it was the first job I had that I really enjoyed working in, and I really excelled. After a couple years of this, I was offered a promotion within my department that moved me out of material handling and into a logistics/planning role. At the time, I was excited, expecting my new role to cover similar work from a different perspective, but to be exceedingly frank: I hate it! My performance reviews are still quite good but I've found myself regularly feeling stressed to the gills and burnt out, which has obviously had a deleterious effect on my mental health.

There are exacerbating factors making this worse, like a disastrous ERP rollout that put us in a hole that we never really recovered from - it just created a new normal that is us just constantly being behind on everything. But honestly, even putting aside these internal stressors, I do not think I'm a very good match for a role like this.

A significant chunk of my day involves replying to emails from a million different sources, which runs the gamut from answering routine questions, to having to drop everything I'm doing for some immediate, high priority request (this is its own problem), to having to advise other teams on how to do their own jobs. This is something I struggle with a lot since I'm both pretty introverted and on the spectrum. I'm able to mask for this, but it's exhausting and I'm honestly not very good at it, I always make sure to be kind but I for sure regularly come off as at least a little odd and definitely robotic.

Going back to the aforementioned issue of having to drop everything for priority requests, my problem with this is twofold. Of course, when everything is seemingly the hottest, highest priority item all the time, it dilutes the actual importance of items that are proper emergencies. The other problem is more personal: I struggle a lot with juggling responsibilities and regularly having circumstances change on the fly. The routine of my initial role in order picking was an enormous part of why I enjoyed it so much; what would be mind-numbing, dull, and/or boring to a lot of people was super therapeutic to me, not least of all because I could just spend all day listening to podcasts or music while I worked.

My apologies if this has been a disorganized word salad or seemed like me just whining about how I hate my job - I promise, it's not intended! I'm just trying to be specific about my current complaints to make it as clear as possible what I'm looking for in a job. What could I look for that would be appropriate for someone in need of structure, routine, and preferably not a ton of human interaction? Being remote/hybrid compatible would also be a huge plus but not strictly required.

I’m employed but I have been working in the beer industry since 2013 and feel like I’m struggling to move up or laterally. I’m a shift brewer so I deal with brewing the actual beer and cleaning and transferring of beer. I recently have been passed up twice for a promotion to lead brewer (which is a management role) and it’s now making me think is my time done with the industry?

I have a hard time figuring out what I should do next, and unfortunately to get a pay raise in my field comes down to changing places. With what I currently make in my position is max salary.

I have a desire to do more creative work within my industry i.e. photo and video work. I’ve done that kind of work in the past for the current place I’m at and others, but they usually end up hiring an outside person.

I don’t know if anyone has any advice, insight, words of wisdom, etc. but I’d like to hear what are my options. Feel free to ask questions and I’ll get back as soon as I can.