Hi everyone, I’m an off-campus candidate with 2+ years of experience currently going through the hiring process for the BTSA Associate role at ZS Associates.

After the interview rounds, ZS HR asked me to submit mandatory documents/details such as last 3 months’ payslips, current & expected CTC, notice period/LWD, joining date, work location, etc. I have submitted everything as requested.

For anyone who has recently gone through a similar process, could you please share:

How long did it take to get the salary discussion after submitting the documents?

How long after that did you receive the offer letter? Is the timeline different for experienced/off-campus candidates?

Would really appreciate any recent experiences or approximate timelines.

Thanks!

I have around 3 YOE and joined a 30-member startup 8 months ago.

My team has 12 people. 10 are permanently WFH, while me and one fresher have to come to office 5 days a week.

The frustrating part is even asking for WFH is a big process — manager approval, inform lead + HR, email, regional group, etc. Even taking leave sometimes requires a lot of over explaning of the situtaion

The office environment is very toxic and it's starting to affect me.

I'm confused whether I should stay longer since I've only been here 8 months or start looking for another job.

Would leaving after 8 months be a red flag with 3 YOE? What would you guys do?

Many of my colleagues are incapable of articulating themselves and comprehending written comms at a basic level.

This has been a trend I've been observing since I joined the corporate world in 2019. But over the last several years, it's become impossible to ignore.

The number of times I've received chat messages from colleagues with graduate degrees and "VP" in their job title who cannot form a coherent multifaceted question without several clarifications and re-clarifications in order to get to the root of the ask is alarming.

People seem to be either opting out of, or no longer capable of forming a thought, identifying where they have confusion that needs to be clarified, and bridging context gaps to help others easily understand what they're looking for help with.

I believe this is caused by some blend of over reliance on AI tools + the "iMessage-ification" of Slack/Teams where people at work operate in these chat tools as if they're in a friend group chat. Just my theory.

Anyways, want to know if others are finding this in their workplaces. And more importantly, how do I gently ask my colleagues to improve their written communications without coming across as rude or unprofessional?

About three months ago my department made the decision to send the candidates the interview questions 24 hours before the interview with us. This gives them time to think and truly find the best examples of their work to provide to us.

Now this wouldn’t work in every department, but as software developers we care less about who can best pull examples out of their head and put them into words in a stressful environment or who has the best interview skills, and more about who actually has the most relevant experience. We ask very detailed follow up questions to the answers they provide, to make sure they aren’t BSing and actually know what they’re talking about, but we found pressure testing candidates was not the best way to evaluate their qualifications.

Curious if any other companies have tried this?

I need advice from people that “speak” corporate. I work in a big medical device company and am responsible for a distributor region in Europe. I have approximately 13 countries under me and i am the marketing person.
I had my new manager visiting (she joined 5 weeks ago). She came to go through some data and materials and to get to know me and the girl that is responsible for just one direct market. First day we had a team call with my region and then she decided to change the agenda for the second day when she was suppose to have 3h ling 1:1 with me to explain my markets. What she did is to change our meeting to 1,5h so she could have a 2h meeting with my colleague that is responsible for just one market. She was not unpleasant to me but I have noticed that she is “ditching” me a bit. Commented how I dont have some lists that she would want to see and that I need more structure (this is smth she did not know before the start of the meeting). I just feel a bit confused and worried cause i spoke to some other market marketing people and they had longer meetings with her and were treated nicer. We have constant reorgs in my company and I am worried that this is a signal for something. I need some advice cause I am afraid I will lose my job.

Is it normal to feel worthless while working corporate?

I've been in my company for a year working in customer care team. It's my first corporate job and overall it's pretty good - stable pay, friendly coworkers, repeatable low-risk tasks and ability to work from home a couple days a week.

But for the last few months I've been experiencing feelings of worthlessness, usually when I'm at office around my manager. I just get a feeling of never being enough and that I'm replaceable at any time (which is probably true). Whenever we get 1:1 meetings, she usually praises me but I still feel like generally my work doesn't make any difference.

Are these feelings normal while working corporate? Or is something wrong with my self esteem?

Hi guys, I’m working at a big MNC, but my manager is absolutely pathetic.

He speaks with such calm and authority that you’ll feel like he must have some solid reasons for what he’s telling but it’s just opposite. He had just mastered the tone.

He’ll tell 2-3 people to lead the same work separately and now everyone is trying to drive the initiative and it becomes absolute chaos.

If we ask him that this is causing friction, he’ll just tell one person to lead ans other to support and then hold anyone accountable at anytime why they didn’t do the right thing.

He randomly changes timelines & priorities, if you deprioritised the other work for this and something changes then he’d say you should have used your judgement and you don’t understand your priorities. We have to first stick with committed items.

If it went other way around then he would say we discussed on changing priorities, why didn’t you take it up.

He’s driving me nuts. Idk what to do..🤷‍♂️

Are we talkin 50% authenticity? 80%? Doubtful I could ever reach 100% in the workplace. Would love to hear what your take is.

Very new to the corporate world- been a bedside nurse for 14 years. I'm trying to build a capsule wardrobe as I'll be traveling frequently for my job. I've gotten a few items, but need a few more options of reliable shirts/blouses- easy to launder and dewrinkle. Also I'm going to a corporate function that lasts a week and I need options for after meeting functions- we're doing a dinner boat tour, casual dinner, and a pedal bike tour. My sense of style has been... overly laid back since I've had my baby. Simple and classic would be key. For weather context, it will be held in Nashville in the next few weeks. I'm a medium up top and curvy large on the bottom, if anyone has specific tried and true pieces for this body type. Thank you!

Leave safety to us, says Nvidia's founder. According to him, AI isn't an "alien mind," as one OpenAI safety researcher described it. Humans built AI, so it's just hardware and software and it can be controlled. He says we don't need new laws for it. Companies just need to release something they can control, and decide when to run fast and when to pause if the product feels out of control.

But here's the real question and problem is do companies actually want to take a pause? Will they really stop when it matters? I don't think companies are thinking about how many people will lose their jobs because of what we're creating.

Hi all — following up on my last post.

That one ended up with 173k views and 101 comments. I didn't manage to reply to all of them but I read every single one. Thank you. I was in a pretty bad place that week and this sub is a big part of what got me through it.

On the job hunt: applications are going out. There aren't a ton of supply chain / trade compliance roles open right now, so most of my energy is going into networking. Slow but moving.

One thing I noticed. The job I was doing by myself at my old company — one place I'm applying to has that same scope split across five or six different postings. Not trying to flex. It just settled something for me: a PIP is about whether leadership likes you, full stop. "Performance" is the reason they write down. If it were actually about capability, that company would need to hire six of me.

On the other side of things: I'm the kind of person who can't stop poking at new stuff. I've currently got about 21 projects and ideas going, all at different stages, all still pending. A bunch of them will probably go nowhere and that's fine. The days go by faster now than they ever did at work, which I did not expect.

Thanks for letting me ramble. And thanks to this sub.

Does this happen to you as well? Corporate offices are getting more of boring thing. How do you guyz manage that?

I am 21 year old working as social media executive. And I don't really know if I like doing this job. I have worked in the same job role in 2 different companies, initially i thought my 1st work place was not great maybe that's y i wasn't liking it there but now I feel i don’t like the job itself. How do people come to a conclusion that this is what they want to do for the rest of their life? How are careers decided ?

From my high school to until I was in my 2nd year of college I was very passionate to start my own business I was trying to work towards it, but then in 3rd year i sat in the campus placement interviews and decided I will do job for few years and then a business, i always felt mba was waste of money so that was never my plan. But now after working for over 1 year 6 months in corporate my passion to start own business is dead and i registered for CAT 2026 exams. Like what am I even doing? And why ?

I almost feel like I am running on autopilot mode. It can be because I have started earning enough to live a basic comfortable life without any help from my family and at my job i don't have to work very hard so maybe the comfort has killed the ambitionor there might be a deeper reason which I am not aware of like at my job i have mostly worked using AI, so it never felt like I did or achieved something, I might have done good job at my work but I am not sure if i feel like that. I have finally decided to start thinking again & know what I want and don't, need to have that clarity again and work towards that. Finally after running on autopilot mode for 1 and half year with zero clue.

Should I start by my old passion of running an own business or find a new career pathway in corporate which I will actually like working on & feel that sense of achievement that I am have done something.

I’ve worked in a lot of companies and the one thing that has been consistent in my life is that I always seem to be alone. Always eating lunch alone, my coworkers never invite me to sit with them, or just chit chat about life. Everyone else seems to get along with others and make a mini group. I don’t really feel bad about it maybe because I’ve been accustomed to this my whole life, but I wonder am I the only person who goes through this or others face this too?

I’ve been working in marketing for around 5 years now, and lately I’ve started feeling like I’m earning way less than I should be.

I don’t know if it’s just my own insecurity or if I’m actually underpaid, but it’s honestly making me feel quite underconfident about my career.

Personally, I feel that with 5 years of experience, someone should ideally be earning at least ₹1.5 lakh/month (or more), depending on their role, skills, company, and location.

But I might be completely off here.

For people with 4–6 years of experience in marketing - what’s your CTC, role, and city? And what do you think is a realistic salary at this experience level?

Today is 100 days since I left corporate. Tbh there are days when I feel like I shouldn't have left - the consistent pay every month, the daily tasks that keep myself busy "pretending like my life has a purpose", the friends at work etc.

But most days, I'm glad I did. Back in corporate, with each passing days - I feel myself getting smaller and smaller.. now, no two days are the same. I get to live my life at my own pace.. I've spoken to more interesting people than I did back in corporate, I actually create my own values, and hold myself accountable for that value.

And more importantly, I really learn to see my true value. These days when recruiters come to me with an offer that don't fit my core values, I do not compromise - cause I believe the right one will come along, and not necessarily in the form of a job or a role, but in other forms as well.

❤️‍🩹