I'm going to try and make this short.

I'm a school psychologist working at a firm which gets contracted by a school.
I got hired last year last minute after one their psychologists quit suddenly. I was hired before I got licensed, I was waiting for my papers, I got what was considered to be a student's salary, no benefits whatsoever, no transportation, nothing. I signed my contract without the CEO being present, was denied a copy, still haven't gotten it a year later.
I get paid per day I work, so no vacation at all is paid, no sick days, no overtime, nothing. I have to work at home some afternoons or weekends without pay, they suddenly tell me either to come to work on an off day or to not go. We live in an unstable country so for example last year, i worked 40 days less than expected because school closed for student's security. I can go on but wont.
This year i got my license, Fuel prices are up, and yesterday I asked for a raise to match the going rate for a psychologist in my country. I asked for less even. I was told by CEO they need to think about it until December but I wasn't going to get anything near what I asked for. I said yes initially because I froze. Then when I calmed down, I realized how stupid I had been since I was getting into debt to pay for gas to come to work. I'm 280$ in debt this month alone to cover fuel cost. I'm not doing anything else. Barely even buying water. I live at parents' fortunately and got no other costs than my car, gas, repair, insurance for the car and some taxes. It's my mom's car even. I can't even get one because I don't have a fixed income. I can't save.
Anyway I put in my two weeks later during the day because honestly, I have made my calculations, to cover car, medical insurance that they don't cover in case something happens, and my license yearly fee and the trainings needed to keep the license and I asked for that, barely over the number i got. Still not enough for savings but still nearly double what I get.
They ignored me. I notified the school about my notice. They called the CEO. CEO called me then hung up after one ring. Secretary called me 5 minutes later and told me to be at the office at 4.
I'm honestly scared and a bit stressed but still I cannot go anywhere lower than what I asked. I'm better off without a job at this point.

Edit:
Okay I've seen the comments. I live in Lebanon, there are no rules but the rule of the person who knows the most influential person here. And obviously, I don't know influential people and they do, which is why I am a bit warry of them. We live in a jungle. It is not a matter of maturity or anything.

You cannot know your laws when there are none full stop. Also, I am a bit worried about not having any references for future employment because of this.

I went to the meeting with my sister, I got my contract, we spoke and they said there is no way to raise anything until December at least. I said I would think about it.

Why am I still thinking about it? Because I am, at the end of the day, a new psychologist. I have worked other places but not in the field. So I am trying to balance the benefits with the costs that aren't material.

Half of me wants to use my spine, the other half is whispering things that aren't wrong but also aren't fully right. For example, half of what im paying for gas has nothing to do with them. But still my work should be able to pay for my life.

Get the dilemma?

Things are more complicated than what I posted. Also half of the family is not working, which also is why I'm thinking about it twice. So for example the extra gas im paying for is to get my sister from uni.

Anyway, things are as they were.

I feel like quitting is the best answer, not quitting is a valid one too. I don't know. Is it better be safe than sorry? Or am I letting go of too much safety? Will it be 4 years before I find a job because I virtually have one year of experience?

As it stands, they have a close in the contract that says that I have to give them two months, which might give me two weeks, two days or two months. They haven't signed the contract but, in this country, it doesn't seem to matter. I asked, legally it cannot be enforced. It's null. But, in this country, they can forge the signature or find a lawyer dirty enough to pull some crap you can't even imagine and make me liable for it.

Anyway, I still want your thoughts, even if you don't know the whole thing, you guys gave me some strength and anyone could spark inspiration without knowing.

Thank you for all the advice

Edit 2.
Just had an epiphany
I'm a moron
I'm quitting

Since 2020 (my graduation), I've been working as a writer and editor. I used to write content for major gaming websites, and then slowly shifted into SaaS. Around 2024-2025, the landscape was becoming truly tragic, and I lost most of my clients. Towards the end of last year, I barely had any money to live on my own and asked my parents for support.

Thankfully, I also earned my master's degree in behavioral sciences while working freelance. Tried applying for UX and research roles, but landed nothing. Eventually, did a few certifications, and in a few months I should be able to practice as a mental health counselor. As much as I wish this could be my full-time job, most people in my country cannot afford therapy, and many practitioners have to charge a lot less than what they deserve.

Anyhow, a week ago, an agency reached out to me for a scriptwriting role. And guess what? For a MAJOR gaming channel. My job was to write scripts related to one of my favorite games. I was delighted. So happy that I was celebrating and telling my family/friends. On top of that, I published a book I had been working on for a while.

As a writer, my heart was filled with joy! Having published something + landing a writing role in the same week? woohoo!

The CEO of the company that hired me was very specific: for two weeks, they'll test out how I do. 10-11 hours of work a day, 6 days a week. The pay would be around $420 a month.

In my country, that's a lot of money, and yes, I'm desperate.

So, I did an assignment for them as the first task, and spent the entire day on it. At the end of it, they said, "This is clearly written by AI. I know it when I see it!" and refused to explain any further.

At this point in my life, it's embarrassing to explain myself as a writer who doesn't use AI. It's humiliating.

Anyway, I tried explaining that I didn't actually use AI, but I understand their grievance. I'd make sure my work didn't "feel like AI" for the next assignment.

No response. Nothing.

Now, I'm sitting here - still unemployed - and I have no idea what my future looks like. I'll turn 30 next year, and this is not how I imagined my life would look. I'm sorry for sounding so low and disheartened, but yeah, I am pretty heartbroken.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you have a wonderful day <3

27k in student loan debt, homeless, no job, no savings, two SWE internships on my resume, useless cs bachelor's degree from 2025.

My parents kicked me out when I approached a year post graduation with no job. I wasn't getting any interviews, at all. I was working as a part time barista for $16/hour to bide my time but I abandoned that job when I was kicked out. I'm in a city where rents are 2000+ for closets. No reason to stay at that place.

My loans have obviously been defaulted on by now, I don't even have an active phone number for then to contact me with. No money.

I've been staggering, stumbling around gagging on nothing like a drug addict in the last week or so. I had a bike but someone broke the lock on it while I was sleeping outside one night.

Idk what I can do now. I can't get a tech job or use my degree for much of anything. I've been diving into trash cans for plastic bottles. I feel uncomfortable in my skin, I have no pride in myself, in my existence. I have no confidence anymore.

I'm sitting near a Starbucks curled up on a bench just watching the night go by. My life is over. I have no control but my future any longer. I want to end this.

I (F 23) recently got slammed with my first PIP earlier today. I didn’t realize how serious they were until researching them. I’ve been crying all evening. I’ve been at this job for no joke a month and a half. I’ve barely gotten used to it. It’s a really simple, practically entry-level graphic design + photo editing role. The cited reasons were vague, poor use of time, failure to adhere to brand guidelines, poor alignment with company design standards, poor communication skills. My dumbass signed the PIP agreement before I realized what I was doing, I felt like I was going to throw up during the entire meeting. I’m willing to accept that I’m just a bad fit for this role, but this felt very sudden and unreasonable to me. My imposter syndrome is hitting hard, I won’t lie. I am definitely lazy and I’m not working 100% of the time but I’ve never slacked off on doing assignments, been intentionally sloppy or consistently tardy on submissions. I feel blindsided, confused and a bit hopeless. I’ve been trying to scrape together feedback from my supervisors on my work but everything has been vaguely positive as far as my records go. I’m so confused. Before this job, I had gotten laid off due to bad financial practices from another graphic design job I held for about 10 months. I don’t want to be unemployed again. I don’t know how long I can afford it. Ultimately I feel embarrassed, scared and just really tired. If I’m fired, I don’t know what I’ll tell my family and friends, I could die from embarrassment. I have no idea if I’m missing something, if this has anything at all to do with my performance or if I’m just genuinely unhireable. My brain has been through a meat grinder at this point. Any advice?

While it's about time, there's a pro and con list that should be considered.

While it's just announced this week, there's still a lot to potentially look at when they roll it out. Not a huge fan of "universal online resumes" as sometimes someone doesn't want to disclose certain info (e.g., omit they worked in a certain industry, omit someone only worked at a company for <1 month, or omit compensation data they shared accidentally). Depending on how Workday controls the process, some of the examples may not matter.

Thoughts? Too late to matter or welcomed?

I quit my unhealthy work environment overnight. I dropped off my equipment and key after hours, and texted my boss that I was done.

For context, this was a landscaping business, and I was a plant designer. It wasn’t an easy decision, especially considering I was completely burning a bridge. My boss, who struggles with bipolar/anger issues, would have wildly different moods on a day to day basis. I was constantly left in a state of walking on egg shells, feeling the need to regulate his emotions for him, and say the correct things to avoid a meltdown. The smallest of inconveniences would warrant a screaming fit, usually aimed at the poor office manager, who receives the brunt of this toxicity. I would go home from work feeling uneasy and anxious, never feeling as if I truly clocked out.

On top of that, the company in general was poorly mismanaged. The schedule was constantly changing, we continually failed to meet promises, and customers were left irritated time and again. I was often left scrambling to catch up to deadlines that were suddenly moved to a sooner time or date, apologizing to customers, and rushing to fulfill my job. All for mediocre pay, at best.

If this is you wondering if you should just leave, absolutely do it. Your mental health is not worth one job, and an unprofessional employer is not one you want as a reference anyways. I know how daunting it is, but just save yourself, you’ll be ok.

I've been applying to jobs for almost 2 years but counting only from January 2026 to now I have applied to more than 800 jobs. From January to March 2026 I applied to mostly remote positions. Seeing how remote positions got dried, I stopped applying at the end of March. Then in June 2026 I started applying again but this time to everything including remote, hybrid, in-state, out-of-state, etc.

About 800 applications later, I have received an offer. I'm still interviewing for a few other positions as a precaution.

This is officially the worst job market in the US I've encountered in my lifetime.

Hey guys! So I've recently been job hunting and hopped on Indeed in hopes of landing a role. I have a background in clerical/receptionist work and submitted my resume to a job that looked easy to apply to as an office assistant. A few hours later I received an email I attached below.

In all honesty, something feels funky about it lol. The role description has nothing to do with cash handling/accounting so I'm not really sure why they would need credit score verification and it also just feels off. The concept of having to pay $30 for the check that will be returned in a "bonus" without actually knowing if I'll be called in for an interview or even hired is something I have never seen before and just feels odd. I have never been asked by an employer to do something like this and honestly would expect them to do it on their end rather than ask me to do it on my own. Also it just being signed by a dude named Paul with no last name seems strange (sorry if anyone here is named Paul).

I also went in to the place's official site and they are hiring for the same position, but don't have any mention of a credit check. It might just be a business with a weird way of operating their hiring process, which even then may not be a company I would want to work for to begin with lol. Am I being too suspicious? Pls share your opinions!

I had final-round interviews for 2 different positions, and both of them rejected me. Although the first one surprised me because I had a very good interview with all three people, I didn’t really dwell on it too much because I had another interview lined up at a different company that I preferred over the other. I went through the unnecessarily drawn-out interview process, did the employment check, visited the office, and finally provided my references, only for them to tell me that several people made it to the final round and they decided to move forward with someone else.

I had been regularly speaking with the recruiter who was facilitating and scheduling the interviews, responding quickly each time and answering all my questions, but lo and behold, the rejection email comes from a no-reply email with some generic message saying they “went with someone who better fit their needs” and signed off with the recruiter’s name. During the interview process, I was in communication with someone who was working at the company, and she said that after the references, she was given an offer and was congratulating me basically saying that after this step I would get the job. The recruiter said she got in touch with my references and updated me saying my candidacy was moving forward and that they were checking if public info matched my resume and gives me a “I hope you are still excited” message. Bullshit. I confirmed that it did and told her to reach out if they had any questions, and 48 hours later, I get the “After careful consideration” email.

I am just sick and tired of going through various hoops and hurdles to get a job that a 5th grader can do and pays a measly $20/hr, just for them to reject me with zero to no explanation. Why are we pretending this is okay? Why are we not allowed to get any feedback on our interviews, especially if we made it to the end? I reach out to the recruiter again for answers and nothing. Not to mention they posted the same job on the website under a different title on the same day. BRB, I’m gonna go KMS😭

Landed a contract role recently, the offer letter stated, "You will receive five paid days of vacation available immediately once you are hired directly."

So 3 months in, I need to go on a trip with the Fam and burn all those 5 days in one go. I come back and to my surprise, I get a call from the recruiter, (They also outsource these guys to do HR) saying "Hey so in the fine print of your offer letter it actually says your not entitled to any PTO or any company benefits whatsoever until they decided to bring you on to FT after the 6 month window.... soooooo we cant pay you this week."

Now, I re-read the contract only to find out he was correct. So I went on over to Claude and asked it if I had any sort of Legal right to the money. Claude said "sorry you're cooked." So I was considered giving up right then and there, but fast forward to pay day and I said fuck it, I emailed the company specifically asking for PTO and they agreed, so im going to SS this email to the recruiter and see if I have a case.

Well he just got back to me with good news! They have loved me so far at the role so they have agreed to just pay me.

Always advocate for yourself!

This man has made inconsequential things appear to be life altering events. He takes himself way too seriously. I’m finishing my senior year of nursing school while doing this job, and I think it threatens his masculinity that I can do an extremely hard degree while doing his job. My last day is today. He wrote me some stupid email about the popcorn machine yesterday - further proving how insignificant his responsibilities are at this job that he desperately wants to present is prestigious.

I want to write this email in response: “ Thank you, Sergeant, for bringing this critical matter to our attention. I appreciate your guidance on this pressing operational concern and will ensure the power cord remains unplugged pending the arrival of replacement parts. Such vigilance is essential to maintaining mission readiness as we continue our demanding and consequential duty of securing this facility.
Respectfully,
[My Name]

Thoughts? Will this hurt my future employment endeavors? I know it’s immature but he’s genuinely been a nightmare the last 2 years and I hate that he doesn’t know how much of a joke he is for trying to belittle my character over small mistakes (because he’s insecure that I have actual ambition).

I spoke with a recruiter about a medical spa role that may open soon. She seemed very interested in my experience and said they’d likely want someone to start in early to late December.
She’s speaking with HR and following up next week. She explained their three-step interview process and asked me to let her know if I interview elsewhere.
The range is $45–$50/hour plus bonuses. I said I was comfortable with that depending on benefits.
My questions:
● Should I update her about other interviews even without an offer?
● If offered $45–$46, how can I negotiate closer to $50?
● Could they move the process forward sooner, and is there anything I can do without being pushy?

Currently working at American Express Gurgaon as a Band 28, earning 8 LPA (band range: 5.5–9 LPA).
I have 2 years of total work experience and a postgraduate degree. I initially joined Amex at Band 28 through a referral because I was unemployed after graduation.

Now I’m planning to apply internally for Band 30 roles in Risk, Credit Risk, and Fraud in December. I’ve checked the eligibility requirements, and I meet or exceed the experience, education, and technical skill requirements.

The salary range for these Band 30 positions is 12–22 LPA, which I can see internally.

My questions:

Is asking for 20 LPA realistic, considering I’m currently at 8 LPA? I know it’s a 150% hike, but it’s within the new band’s range.

What’s the maximum I should negotiate for, and what’s the minimum I should realistically settle for?
If HR says “Your current CTC is only 8 LPA, we can’t offer such a huge hike” or “We don’t have the budget,” how do I negotiate without getting lowballed?

Does Amex have any internal salary hike caps when moving from Band 28 to Band 30, even when switching functions?

Would especially appreciate insights from people who’ve made internal band jumps at Amex or worked in HR/compensation.

Okay so I quit my old job towards the end of July for a new job. The job I went to was a little more money and was only 40 mins of driving a day instead of an hour each way which were the main reasons for me to take the job. At the job I quit I got along super well with my coworkers and the job was pretty easy and laid back but the new job contacted me on Friday and wanted me to start Monday ( I was not expecting them to start me that soon and they had told me positions were going to be limited) I emailed my manger that I was rlly close with that I would not be returning and I never got a reply. I ended up quitting the new job after 2 weeks bc it was absolutely terrible and I have struggled trying to find something new. Should I ask for my old job back? If you have done the same how did it go and how did u go about asking for it back? They have my position on job boards so should I just reapply? I know I just need to swallow my pride bc they worst they can do is say no

i quit my job today i didn't have what it takes i was too weak,not upto speed with my other co-workers and most of all i kept making mistakes i felt as if i just coudn't get myself upthere and i went and decided to quit but as i got home to tell my father the news he knew already i had quit plus he was asleep did he not believe in me or something?

Fresher here. There is this startup which is very small and has around less than 50 employees. I applied for a remote research intern role. They have total 3 rounds of interviews. Last month I was interviewed 2 times and then afterwards I didn't here back so I sent a follow up mail to the person who scheduled both of my interviews after 15 days of my 2nd interview. As far as I know there is no HR. This person is on the leading team that handles everything about the recruitment. Again I didn't here back. I sent a follow up again, I got a reply from him that he will check the status of my application and will get back. It's been a week and again I haven't heard back. I am a senior year student and I am actively applying for the work and even getting shortlisting for interviews is like a heaven in this current job market and companies like this where I have already gave 2 interviews and I am left on the cliff hanger is really stressing me. Anyone know what to do? Should I mail him again? or should I wait? I saw a linked in post of someone selected for the same role just 3 hours ago lol.

Hi, I don’t really know where to go about this so I’m trying Reddit.

I am a 20 year old woman and I work in a nursery and I can’t for the life of me separate work life from my personal life. My boss got mad at me today because I didn’t show up to work (I had made a mistake in schedule and I wasn’t even supposed to go in today, but that is not what the calendar said). She obviously called me and scolded me, which makes sense but I just can’t get past it.

I think it’s because it’s the most social I am these days. I have friends, but even when I’m with them I end up talking about my job. I also go to uni, but my main focus is still my work.

I just started working last year and this is the first job I’ve had out of fire that I actually like. I don’t know what to do, all i know is that work should not affect my life this much. Any advice would be great.

Thank you for reading til the end<3

I'm a person who has social anxiety through the roof. I couldn't work retail at my last job due to anxiety and since losing that job I've been looking for months. But finding a job that has nothing to do with customer service is nearly impossible. Is there a job that I can ease into to help my social anxiety?

Hey everyone! I’m a Grade 12 student, and I have an upcoming interview at Cineplex for what would be my first formal job. I’ve been preparing for common interview questions, especially customer service scenarios, but I’m still a little nervous since I don’t have formal work experience yet. For anyone who’s worked at Cineplex or gone through the interview process, what questions should I expect, what qualities are they looking for, and what’s the actual job like? I’d really appreciate any advice or tips that could help me prepare and feel more confident going into the interview. Thank you!

Hi all! I am curious to know why you may have chosen one or the other. I know they are different but my passion lies with both.

My company wants me to record a video showing my face and answering questions for marketing.
I really don’t want to. I hate being posted on social media, to the point where I don’t even upload pictures of myself.
I don’t want to look bad by declining or create any bad blood at work (remote btw). Can I just say no?

I've been applying to a ton of jobs this year hoping to land that coveted Senior Tech position with at least $85K salary.

Most of jobs I applied to are either global firms with thousands of employees (Legal, Consulting, Tech company, Federal contractor, etc....). Almost all time the salary spread can be anywhere between $15K to $50K. As an example:

>>> $75K - $100K = Median of $87.5K <<<

If the company made you an offer, and you knew you are the 1st choice since you asked the recruiter/hiring manager, would you accept less than the Median salary as in this example in a Senior role? I mean if they're willing to pay upto $100K 'per the job post', why would they low ball the 1st pick?

Have you accepted lower than the Median, accepted the Median, or asked for above the Median, but less than the top?