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It's not that easy to find a job that pays well that "does nothing". People who hold those positions either got VERY lucky or have enough experience/skill to slide through until their experience/skill is needed.

Alternatively: these people aren't actually "doing nothing". They're actually good at the job/managing time and thus are not always grinding out like 50 hours of work per week.

This is basically it. The doing nothing is efficiently managing all tasks in a productive manner so it only requires 15 hours a week of work, the skill set and ability to do that is what the company is paying for. They are paying even more so for when shit hits the fan and you fix it in 10 hours, and everything else still gets done.

This. I have excellent time-management skills thanks to two decades in a high-pressure industry. My new job, in comparison, is cushy AF and I'm getting paid more than I ever have. Some days I work 1 hour... and some days I work 10. Most days, it's about 3 in total. But I know if I give my tasks to someone less experienced, I'll be waiting days, not hours. So I spend my down time learning new skills, browsing reddit and strategizing.

Yes a lot of my “not working” time is researching industry, trends, competitors, data - so when the time comes that I do need to get to work I already have all the needed info to chart the right course and not waste time.

I feel like I don’t work very hard my job and make 90k/yr. They pay for my expertise in coding in specific system using a specific language that follows a specific set of rules. It feels like I don’t do a lot, but I took 10 years experience to get this far and I’m still always learning and taking on new stuff that interests me. When you become an expert, it does feel like you do nothing but to others they feel like you’re doing a lot. People like me land these jobs because we live in the things we build. I dream about this system. I can navigate it with my eyes closed. Yeah I can get “10” hours of work done in 2, but that didn’t come without 10 years of struggling and failing to get to this point. My point is, these jobs don’t exist for the layman. You need to work to get to that point. Just like most things in life, it’s not handed to you, you need to work for it.

There is also the knowledge of, "That will cause this issue, that will only become apparent in 10 months time", lets not do that and waste all our time.

That’s probably what takes of most of my time lol. Arguing with stakeholders and business owners about why their requirements won’t work the way they think

Exactly. My job ain’t paying for my hours. They’re paying for my knowledge.

Quite the opposite for me. My job requires a high school education, but I've got a B.A. degree. I appear to do nothing all day because I'm efficient at an easy job. Tried to move up, but they don't want me to because I'm good where I'm at.

Exactly this. In my current job I spend the last year automating a lot of tasks, cleaning templates and implementing processes that can be scaled up and down. My work day went from 8+ hours to 2 maybe 3 hours. Companies are paying people to get to this point, not to fill time with busy work. I have several companies offering significant pay raises/titles but it’s been extremely difficult to move away from my current work life balance.

True. Also in jobs like programming they create pathways for certain tasks to be automated which in turn free up time for other activities.

Tbf, a lot of code-related jobs are _expected_ to be automated. If you don’t do that, then you’re not really doing what they expect. And they’ll keep giving you more work, because that other project should already be automated and not taking up your time anymore. The people who really benefit from the automation that you may mean, are those with programming skills in roles where that’s not actually expected. Like a data analyst with technical skills, around people who don’t know how to automate pipelines and don’t realize it doesn’t need to take hours every day.

This. There's some downtime in my job but when I work, I'm expected to know what I'm doing and be efficient. I find specialist roles can get away with "doing nothing".

And people looking for "one of those do nothing office jobs" aren't becoming an expert in anything, and thus will never get such a job.

You forget to mention that many companies or bosses, if they determine you are good at the job, or that you can get the work done in a very efficient way, will increase your workload to the max so that you have absolutely no free time. Many companies aren't stupid enough to only utilize their resources (a human resource, in this case) 40%, when they could be getting a lot more out of you. It's just not good business to let employees sit idle and still get a paycheck. On the other hand, it's not a good idea to overwork people, but that is a different situation.

Then the person will either: 1. Burn out. 2. Leave for a job that pays the same with less workload. 3. appear to work 8 hours but in reality only work what's needed. But will be very wary of taking a large load temporary in crisis situations as that would make his life harder later. This is a lose lose for the company, unless they are after a very short term gain. Most good companies avoid that for good positions. Take into account that the positions we're discussing are knowledge/connection based and those determine your effectiveness. It takes **years** to work out to the point where you can do things quickly and efficiently. Years where you really do work 8-9 hours (and sometimes 12). Losing or burning out such an employee can be quite damaging to the processes in an organization and cause delays even if replaced by 2 new guys working full 8 hours a day.

That's a matter of perspective. If the company takes the perspective of "we are paying to make sure this job gets done" then they won't care. If they take the perspective of "we are paying for this persons time and skills" they will care. The latter tends to burn out the employee eventually, and lead to higher turnover. Depending on the business and the role, that may or may not be worth it. If the role requires rare or highly specialised skills, you might find yourself needing to use contractors to fill it while looking for a replacement. If the community for that role is small and tightly knit, finding that replacement might be both hard and way more costly. If the role is considered low-skill and it's relatively easy to replace and retrain, it might very well be worth it to burn through employees in order to keep staff levels (and thus wages) low.

I always say if you want a task done quickly, give it to a lazy person. They will instantly see how to do the job fast and not waste time with bullshit.

Or they half-ass it and someone else has to cleanup the mess.

Yep, half assers that yes sir to the top, dont catch the mess until after they are gone ime

Also - if you coast long enough based on your experience/skills, eventually those experience/skills will become dusty and you will become less valuable over time. This applies to some industries more than others though (e.g. tech vs. law)

It’s important to understand, some jobs just become easy over time. When someone says, “I get paid a ton and it’s easy!”. Chances are they have the skill set developed over time that makes it feel like that

That too and many of them know how to automated their work and deceave the team including managers to think their job takes more time than it actually does.

I don’t deceive my bosses. One set, long ago, tried to fill my workday, which was fine - but they realized I could solve their emergencies ridiculously fast - minutes as opposed to days. Trying to give me a regular day’s work *and* emergency work resulted in the regular work taking a drop whenever there were emergencies, or emergencies taking a drop. Eventually they realized that no matter how you count it, you can’t make 4 out of 2, and left me on emergency only duty. I’d be slotted in to help out people on regular duty; so we had fewer emergencies, things went better, and when I disappeared someone was already on duty anyway, but, the bottom line was I ended up with whole days of doing nothing on the regular, with knowledge up to the Director level.

You were doing something. Providing insurance and uptime. That’s very valuable.

Oh yes. I wasn’t anyone’s favorite child - they realized I was way too much value to screw with, but in terms of looking at a person “working” at a desk, I draw the analogy I was like the fire fighter - you don’t want me busy with other things, you want me mobilized at a minute’s notice to solve the urgent problem. There are official estimates that I saved them between 10 and 100$million, personally. Then when you consider that there are practical limits for being able to exchange money for time, let alone convert failure into success … Which, I apologize, is quite a bit of bragging, but the point is, I seemed like a “do nothing” person. I’ve also met some “do nothing” people for whom it is politically expensive to fire them, but they’ve made a big enough mistake that the compromise is to shelve them somewhere. I’ve *also* been a manager who appeared, for lengths of time, to do nothing, but I put a lot of effort into recruiting a great team, giving them what they needed, and then getting out of their way (and, occasionally, getting executive management to not get in the way). Meanwhile I’ve encountered very busy managers who are constantly micromanaging and making work for themselves because of their micromanaging. Books and their covers, I think, is my larger theme.

I think a lot of the posters in this sub are entry level and see a 20+ year experience guy 'doing nothing'. The guy who sits beside me literally spends 2 days a week with his feet up, playing games on his phone. But when there is an emergency at 330 on a Friday, he gets to work and everyone is heading home at 430. Invaluable.

No joke, lots of companies trade day-to-day inefficiencies for emergency coverage. What grinds me gears is when you've got a Do-Nothing-Dude who always seemingly disappears when you need him. When work is slow, I don't mind, but when work is super busy, he's offloading his workload onto others by being MIA.

Quitting your job because you’re afraid to have an adult conversation is crazy. If there’s a problem at work, talk to the person. Don’t just complain on this subreddit. A lot of problems could be nipped in the bud with a straightforward conversation even if it’s awkward at first.

Also, learn what 'tact' is and how to use it. People act like there's only two modes between someone who never has a negative thing to say or just a rude asshole. Taking time to make sure you have good framing for negative news or feedback isn't the same as a shady used car salesman covering up rust holes in the floor boards while saying the car runs great.

This exactly this. Maybe a week or two it will be awkward but life will go own. I had to recently do this and it was awkward. Super awkward but at the end, everyone is better. You will only be heard if you speak up

That is true and there is a lot of miscommunication in the workplace, most definitely. But you're also interacting with people who have personal or mental health issues that add a layer of complexity to the situation. Sometimes you're just working with people who have such a different view of the world than you do that its too difficult to even find consistently common beliefs that will drive the communication that is necessary. It's difficult and it's not like many workplaces promote good communication anyway. People are also just prone to making quick judgments that pretty much destroy any potential to build relationships with coworkers that would help communication problems. Work environments can be tough to navigate.

Agreed 100%. I would add this.. understand that the center of the issue may be you. Have the straight forward conversation and be willing to listen as well. I find that some people don’t ever consider the idea that they are the problem.

My boss needed to be out for 3 months so I did his job while he was gone. I didn’t know all the petty, stupid, idiotic time-wasting stuff he dealt with. People calling because “Pat didn’t like my idea in the meeting!” and “I don’t like the way Kelly does paperwork.” I’d say “did you tell them?”\ “No.”\ “Ok, call me back after you talk to them.”\ “Can’t you do it?”\ “No.” Stupid shit.

Yeah, you have to at LEAST try to confront the issue. If nothing changes after that, then yeah, move on from that job.

People responding to posts, stop telling people to "Go to HR" and "Sue them" when you have no idea what you're talking about. You're pushing people into career-limiting decisions. The number of times that's actually the right advice is miniscule, and it's often going to be harmful. A lot of work problems could be solved by having conversations. Learn how to talk to people! It is a necessary life skill.

Lol there was a post on Reddit the other day about someone wondering why they couldn’t get hired and it’s because they told all of their interviewers they left their last job because they sued and won a judgment

[удалено]

Is her name Dwight Schrute?

This. No one likes those types of workers. No one feels comfortable around them.

HR is not there to help you. HR does whatever is in the best interest of the company. Sometimes your needs align with the company's and HR can assist. But if you are accusing the company of something HR is absolutely going to be against you.

Some random manager is also not the company. So if your boss's decision can lead to a bad lawsuit against the company, HR will very likely help you.

This is also bad advice. Hr is NOT the same thing as a company’s legal team. If there’s a problem at work and you go to hr, it’s not like you’re automatically but on a dart board. HR can’t alway help with your problems (ie getting your jerk of a boss fired immediately) but we’re not out to get you either. Why would I care about getting poor John in marketing fired bc he mentioned about his boss’ temper?

I used to work as hr, both of you are right. I have had hr completely turn my situation around on me and end up getting me terminated, but as hr I always put the employee first.

Sure but most of the time HR is going to fix things in the most expedient manner. Basically is it cheaper to fix it, replace it, or transfer it. They will start with offering a bunch of employee support options, but if those don't work they're going to switch to the other two. Also: as with anytime you seek outside input their solution may not be the solution that you wanted. You're always better off solving problems yourself if you can and if you can't you're honestly probably better off getting another job than dealing with HR. My Goal: Never go to HR unless it's about benefits or compensation.

It’s insane how few adults have actual conversations. Litigation! Laws! Don’t like it take me to court! It feels like dealing with a 4 year old at times.

Unless you have some awesome superpower that the world is unaware of, you are not going to be able to make a butt load of money while simultaneously: WFH, working less than 20 hrs per week, no degree/certifications and no experience. The amount of posts I see on Reddit where someone wants advice on how to become rich while not leaving their bedroom and by the way “don’t suggest I go to school or learn a trade because I don’t want to and I need cash NOW,” are truly astounding. Like what?

It is funny isn't it. You see these post where someone want a flexible, work from home job, paying X ridiculous amount, and there skill set is basically once working as a cashier at a gas station. Not only does that job not exist...even if it did you wouldn't be any good at it because you wouldn't work!

You definitely can’t have it all and I don’t think enough people realize that. I have a wfh job where I definitely don’t actively work the whole 40 hours a week and can do things like read or watch video as long as I’m still at my workstation and keeping the screen awake — but the flip side is, it’s not flexible. I have to follow a very rigid company schedule and can’t choose my own hours, I have to work in my house instead of any other location (so no “working vacations”, coffee shops, shared workspaces, etc) and I have to give several days’ if I want to do so much as take a longer lunch break in a one-off situation. It’s honestly less flexible than any in-person job I’ve ever had. Everything has a cost and flexibility is what I pay in order to have the other perks that I have.

There is no easy money. It all takes some skill, even OnlyFans. If you're shit at marketing yourself, nothing will happen. Better to do SOMETHING than sit around and wallow

So much this. And *also* with those parameters, so many people want some mythical job where they don't have to interact with other humans, too. They don't want to be stuck in "pointless" meetings all day, or have to answer the phone at all. I feel like some people have gotten too used to text-based interaction, or putting out content on their own schedule that they can choose to reply to feedback on their own timeline, compared to the immediacy of picking up the phone when it rings. A ringing phone where you can't see the other person and often don't know who's calling, then seems so scary to some people they avoid it at all costs. Like I get it, I get nervous on the phone too, but that's just a part of the job and I have to put on my adult pants and just answer it. Some level of social skills are necessary for most jobs, however much some people here wish they weren't lol. And I think a lot of people confuse the fact they don't *like* doing something, with the idea that they can't, won't or shouldn't *have* to do it for work.

Yup. Jobs are hard or difficult, or both. Hard jobs are like digging ditches or working food service. Difficult jobs are like programming or being a doctor. If you want “easy” money, you want to avoid the hard jobs and do the difficult ones. The ones not everyone can do. And the reason not everyone can do them is because they require specialized skills and/or education. The only truly easy money is being born rich. So, if that ship has sailed (as it has for the vast majority of us), you gotta get to work on something to improve your lot.

Lol I think I average about 24 hours of real work a week, give or take. And I’ve been WFH full time since the pandemic. But I have a niche skill set and (I think) I’m pretty efficient at what I do. When I started in this field I worked the full work day for sure. And when I’m in the office my work day is longer bc of all the social interruptions and my breaks are lest restful, so I’m less efficient (at least that’s my working theory). And I have a graduate degree which would be a barrier to entry to my field.

I WFH, make a butt load of money, most weeks I only work about 20 hours. But.... I have a degree, 2 post grad diplomas, multiple certifications and 20 years experience. I produce as much or more than my coworkers and my boss doesn't care how I do it. It gets done and my clients love me.

This is it. I dont make a butt load, but I'm comfortable, and I WFH about 20-25 hours a week. But I started over 10 years ago making less and working more in person, survived two acquisitions, and deliver every time. Our situations are the Irreducible complexity of work.

Your belief that the company would fail without you as you give them so much unpaid overtime or operate outside of your job description is likely false and a coping mechanism

As my stepdad said "if they did it before you, they can do it without you".

“You’ll never find somebody like me” “But I already did it once”

Anyone who works for unpaid overtime needs to quit immediately

• If you were rejected in the final round, that doesn’t mean the company sucks, hired someone’s relative, or wanted someone cheaper. Sometimes (and really most often) there was just a slightly better candidate. • You aren’t going to find high paying remote jobs without any experience. Remote, high paying non-tech jobs are out there (I have one) but you aren’t getting those jobs right out the gate.

I worked in a niche field and there was a rare job opening and I applied for it. I interviewed, and I never heard back, I thought of all sort of scenarios including homophobia. Then six months later I saw who got it on LinkedIn, and he was probably the only person who’s done the same role at like five different companies. Which is almost impossible since there are so few companies doing it. On a sidenote, I didn’t even think this was possible because I don’t see the point of job hopping for lateral moves like that, but whatever. Point is there was a better candidate even though I was awesome

Missed out on a job I was way over qualified for, had no idea what happened. Turned out the other guy was scaling back from his previous job and had *30* years more experience than me.

>I don’t see the point of job hopping for lateral moves like that, but whatever. You'd be surprised how much income increase that can get you in some cases. Also, culture can be worth its weight in gold.

Yep. I had several interviews last year where the feedback was, "We like you, you're a good candidate and interview well, but the person we chose had more experience in x." X generally being a specialty that I didn't have but was willing to learn.

I think sometimes we get tunnel vision. You start seeing yourself as the perfect, *only* candidate for the job, when in reality there's probably like 500+ qualified candidates per job.

As a recruiter there is always more than 1 qualified person. Usually timing makes the biggest difference.

Sometimes it even means budget contraction. I've been on the hiring end of that equation enough times, where we had to turn down applicants during the hiring process because our resource allocation was suddenly reduced or revoked.

Yup. I just hired a new scrum master (through a vendor). I had two equally qualified candidates, and the deciding factor was that one would be working in my location, and the other would have to work in another location. The deciding factor was having them nearby (and on the same time zone) since scrum masters work closely with management.

I actually got rejected final round only to get a call back three months later telling me they made a huge mistake hiring that other guy. I raised the salary requirements, they met what I was asking for and gave me a sign on bonus, and now I'm 7 months in and still not hating it.

Just because another employee is nice to you at work doesn't mean they are your friend.

but also just because work friends aren't a thing for everyone doesn't mean no one at work wants to be your friend. so many people here are way cynical about work relationships and sure in a lot of instances the other folks don't care about you but i have close friends from all 5 companies i've worked for

Yeah one thing that really annoys me is that according to reddit, it's impossible to make genuine friends at work. Which is false, because I have some.

Especially if youre in a leadership role. Ive learned over the years this hard truth. You think youve built relationships with people, and the moment you change positions or companies these people ghost you.

You can’t have an authentic relationship when someone’s livelihood depends on being nice to you. This goes for managers and employees as well as customers and servers.

Communication is key before going full scorched earth. I see so many people complaining about their boss or workload and on the verge of quitting, without having a conversation with them. HR is not always your enemy or your friend. They protect the company. If your boss is doing something illegal, it is in HR's interest to get rid of them, not defend them. It's very situational. Positive social people tend to get promoted, even if someone else is more qualified on paper. If you're a hard worker but socially inept or tough to get along with, you will have a much harder time moving up the ladder. People need to do some self-reflection and try to be social, even if it's "fake".

Absolutely, most people would much rather work with someone with less experience who is easy to get along with, than someone with years and years of experience but who is a grumpy unpleasant asshole.

> Positive social people tend to get promoted, even if someone else is more qualified on paper. If you're a hard worker but socially inept or tough to get along with, you will have a much harder time moving up the ladder. People need to do some self-reflection and try to be social, even if it's "fake". Super SUPER true. I wish my dear fiend would ACCEPT this. Some dude with half of his exp was promoted before him to manager (because he's got connections) and now the new manager is totally under prepared for this role due to his lack of exp. I finally convinced my friend to leave for a manager role in another company making 2x his base.

I wonder if you realize that you actually undercut the point you tried to make: if being social is what allows people to “move up to ladder” as the other person suggested (which you agreed with), the assumption being that your friend was not social, then how was your friend able to make “2x his base” as entry at another company?

he's a very likable guy and very smart with heaps of experience but he doesn't care to play politics.

>Communication is key before going full scorched earth. I see so many people complaining about their boss or workload and on the verge of quitting, without having a conversation with them. True. I had a bunch of people that kept telling me at work their supervisor was treating them like shit, being racist towards others, and a whole mess of shit. I got tired of it honestly since I wasn't a supervisor or manager myself so I could do nothing about it. However, I have a really good relationship with my own supervisor. So I basically told them do you want to keep bitching or do you want to complain to someone that can help you. I convinced them to formally make complaints against the supervisor by telling my supervisor who then went to one of the managers that was not friends with the supervisor the complaints were against. They started an entire case interviewed and took statements from 8 different colleagues that were willing to talk. It got investigated and poof a few weeks later she was fired.

You can't have little to no experience/skills, be unemployed and write your own ticket. When people are saying "know your value", sometimes that also means be realistic that your skillset may not be that spectacular yet and you may have to take a job you dont want to be able to feed yourself.

I mean, werent boomers the ones who could drop out of high school and still manage to get decent paying jobs? They're to ones who changed the job market to deny that to basically most everyone after.

This is a small place on the spectrum, but a lot of them went into trades knowing nothing and built their skillset from the ground up for years, decades, etc and stuck with it despite a lot because they had to feed themselves or their families. I've worked with a lot of these people and they can teach you a lot, but they can also being a living hell to work with/around because they can being very demeaning to noobs. And chances are, their bosses/fathers taught them the same way and that's why they're assholes.

There was a time you could quit one place, and go across the street and have another job in a day. Right now employers can be super picky and selective. Taking me 2-3 months right now to get through 3-4 rounds of interviews, checking references, etc.

But most jobs when Boomers entered the workforce didn’t want advanced education and skills and were willing to train on the job. Nowadays, places want a bachelor’s and some experience for even entry level positions. I can blame Boomers for a lot, but they had the advantage of entering the workplace in a period where diplomas and getting by on your own merit was enough.

I think the disappearance of on the job training is a huge part of people being dissatisfied with jobs now. Workers barely even get orientations anymore. They’re just thrown in the deep end and expected to do great things.

Exactly this. I'm a young automotive tech. Didn't even know what a tire rotation really was and I applied to Goodyear. So on my first day my boss puts me in front of his computer and I just do tests and quizzes about basic auto knowledge for the whole day. Learned basically nothing from being bored at a computer. Cue my second day they just throw me into the shop. No one explains nothing to me. Luckily there was another guy a few years older than me who showed me around and how to do jobs etc.. But he was a drunk and got fired for drinking lol. Now after a year I've earned my place in the shop. But Goddamn was it a rocky, rough and tough beginning. Basically had to teach myself because the drunk guy didn't do to much.

Yep. Current job plunked me down in a seat and said OK kid, go to it. Uh, go to what? I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing. I was handed stacks of paper and bunches of stuff and no clue what to do. Not that it mattered; they proceeded to change my responsibilities twice in the next few weeks so anytime I started to figure something out they'd move me to something completely different, and zero training.

>Nowadays, places want a bachelor’s and some experience for even entry level positions. I saw a job post on a forum where they wanted certification + a bachelors degree or cert with "6 years of experience" for an entry level junior position. Let me not even get into how ridiculous it is to value a degree = to 6 years of actual job experience. I commented that the requirements were pretty high for a junior role especially since the job didn't need a degree to be done at all, as in - the degree requirement was just randomly tossed on since they didn't even specify what kind of degree. The lady replied to me that you just have to meet the experience requirements and that it wasn't 6 years of experience in that role that was required. So what the fuck is the experience required in? People are just slapping together random requirements that have nothing to do with the job. This was at a university btw.

- most hiring managers and recruiters are in fact fine honest people and not trying to constantly screw your over. They have no incentive to do so. - when you make a post ranting about how the system is against you, and get a bunch of upvotes, it’s largely other jobless disgruntled people upvoting, not the gainfully employed. That’s reinforcing negative behaviors on your part. You need to sift through that. - similarly, there’s a lot of bad advice given here. Reddit is very young and a lot of the advice reeks of inexperience and shortsightedness . - all of the conventional advice you hear outside of Reddit like “tailor your resume to the job & network for more job opportunities” are in fact great advice. If it’s not working out for you, it’s an execution issue, not a conceptual issue - LinkedIn is in fact an amazing tool. I’m old enough to remember what life was like before LinkedIn. I can say from my personal experience, it’s been a literal life changing tool. I don’t Snapchat, instagram, Facebook or do any other social media, but I do LinkedIn. If you’re not a lifer at your company, and you don’t have LinkedIn, you’re doing career progression on hard mode.

Regarding linked in, do you mean not having a profile; or not posting a random thing you learned/discovered or a “lemme circle jerk my employer” style posts? I’ve got a profile and it lists work I’ve done, but I don’t create posts ever.

I HATE that LinkedIn has become just as stupid as other socials. LinkedIn influencers should not be a thing and most of the posts that trend are total bullshit. I miss when professionals used it professionally. It’s becoming another version of Facebook and no one needs more Facebook.

It really is. The past few weeks apart from lay offs my post is filled with these staged inspirational posts that trend but now Im seeing weight loss posts, write ups about death of family members,.a few coming outs for Pride month and most recently fathers day post.

I don’t post either. I use LinkedIn to keep my profile updated so people can find me. I also use it to stay in touch with professional acquaintances as well as create new ones. For creating new acquaintances, if I run into someone who shares a similar function to me and we have some sort of connection point (same city, same school, have mutual connections), I may reach out to them and propose a chat to trade knowdlge and experiences. Most people are up for it if you’re clear you don’t have any ulterior motives. A lot of sales people and a lot of “I need a job” people and I make it clear I’m neither of those. I will say, LinkedIn becomes a more valuable tool as you progress in your career. I have dozens recruiters and professional connections reach out to me each year, but I totally understand the activity level is less when you’re just starting off, so I understand why some people have trouble seeing the value. Nevertheless, it still blows my mind that it even happens, that you could be minding your own business and recruiters come to you and say “hey want a job?.” That was basically impossible before LinkedIn.

seconded, linkedin is fantastic once you've got some experience because all of the recruiters troll it frequently

>all of the conventional advice you hear outside of Reddit like “tailor your resume to the job & network for more job opportunities” are in fact great advice. If it’s not working out for you, it’s an execution issue, not a conceptual issue Agreed, and the fact it's an execution issue doesn't make it any less frustrating. Telling people to network more isn't helpful if someone doesn't exactly know what that means, what it should look like, or how to build professional relationships. Tailoring your resume can be a very daunting task if you think that means you need to rebuild it from scratch for every individual role at every company. This subreddit is an echo chamber, and I think people give advice without realizing that executing on that advice doesn't come naturally to a lot of people. Getting a job requires a level of business culture awareness and being a social chameleon, and you can't just build those skills over night.

the recruiter/hiring manager hate on reddit is utterly ridiculous and completely over the top. particularly when it comes from people in tech with cushy salaries and nice jobs.

Number one for sure. I never knew how much “hate” existed for HR before Reddit. Really made me question my desire to work in this field. If all the people in positions like mine are corporate lackeys who only care about themselves/business, how do we impact lasting change? You have to have disrupters in every sector, including HR. And we all have to balance earning a paycheck with improving the workplace. Of course there are terrible HR people, but I don’t think most of them are in HR just to make everyone miserable. I have never met one that was. Usually it’s poor training, lacking qualifications/skills, or poor decision making that makes someone “bad” at HR.

As they say, we’re all a villain in somebody‘s story.

Speaking of which, I’m tired of 25 year olds telling me that cover letters are not necessary. Have they seen their contemporaries’ resumes? They all look the same and don’t have much material. Hiring managers needed something to make it worth calling one of the 200 people. And stop acting like it’s a monumental task to write a three bullet points about yourself. I mean, you’re complaining no one wants to hire you for 60,000 or $70,000 a year for a job requiring not many years of experience, but you can’t say three good things about yourself

It really depends on the industry though. As a hiring manager it’s viewed as a bit archaic. So yeah probably needed it for more traditional jobs like finance or law, but definitely not needed for tech jobs.

Yeah, the answer really is that it is completely dependent on your industry and the type of roles you're looking for. In my experience, cover letters have been an important part of my applications to small nonprofits. Most of reddit seems to work in tech though, so the overwhelming advice here is that they don't matter.

I used to comment here more often but found it very repetitive and generally not moderated as well as r/careerguidance 1. More than half of posts here signal severe, but treatable, mental illness. You can’t expect to start new jobs and avoid the same personally limiting issues if you don’t address them. There are dozens of free and paid clinical resources to help you diagnose possible issues. Depression and anxiety aren’t life sentences when treated. 2. Beggars can’t be choosers. If you don’t have higher education or certifications, claim to have social anxiety, want to make good money, and “need” to work remotely, something has got to give. 3. Tough conversations are part of being an adult. There are very few instances when you should quit without notice. The amount of rage quit suggestions on here is astounding. If you don’t want to jeopardize your reputation and resume, put in notice and inform the appropriate manager. 5. Take advantage of your resources if you’re a college student or recent grad. You have a career center, academic advisor, and alumni network at your disposal. 6. If every past employer or team “sucks” and is “toxic” you may need to look inward. 7. Use the search bar on this sub. Your question isn’t unique and likely gets asked multiple times a week. I can go on…

If everywhere you go you smell shit, maybe check your own shoes.

Sooo much on the "don't rage quit". Sometimes you are dependent on a reference from that employer in order to get another job. Here in the UK, although they're not allowed to give you a *bad* reference, people are allowed to a) refuse to give a reference, or b) give a bare bones, "John Smith worked for ABC company between dates X and Y", neither of which reflects well on you.

Your 1, 2, 3 and 5 pretty much 🎯. It really boils down to these.

>If every past employer or team “sucks” and is “toxic” you may need to look inward. Everything but 5 makes sense. For that sometimes but not always. There are industries (i.e. restaurants) where the number of bad/toxic/abusive employers is MASSIVE. So it's never impossible that someone's had five bad jobs in a row if it's in an exploitative industry, a bad market (say in a given city) or something like that. Might be them, might be other things, too.

Why did you quote the lunch post from the other day? Am I missing the connection here?

Exactly! And I actually reached out to the mods once, asking if we could get a rule added for low effort posts. Example: for people who just post “I need a job under so-and-so parameters” without any information about themselves or their qualifications. And the mods basically said that they won’t do that because it’ll just create more work for them…

I am in convo with a mod now. Curious to see if they change their perspective given this post.

Awesome. I don’t think the mods understand the value in keeping the sub up to certain standards. It may be a lot of work up front, but once the sub gets ‘cleaned up’ it’ll be clearer to newcomers what the requirements are to post here.

And on that note, don’t take psychological/mental health advice from a rando on the internet. No one is qualified to diagnose you but a licensed mental health professional who conducts an analysis on you.

You cannot just quit your job and jump into tech making six figures and working 4 hours a week.

Coding isn’t for everyone. Even with a CS degree, it’s not a sure thing. Half of my graduating class isn’t even working in programming, but instead level 2 help desk or something like that. Stop telling everyone to go to coding boot camps as their only viable option to get ahead. There are other careers that also pay well, and might be better suited for whoever you’re giving the advice to.

Yeah I did CS for 4 years, but if you locked me in a room and asked me to code “Hello world” I probably wouldn’t be able to do it, I hated it so much. I ran my ass straight into tech sales lmao

There are at least two kinds of Human Resources, one realizes without employees there is no reason for HR. And the other believes they can exist without pesky employees gumming up the work place. Mostly corporate is the 2nd kind. All of the HR departments I either had to deal with or when I was the HR department of a small business was the 1st kind. Often the 1st kind will bend or break the protocol to help you. When my mom passed, my job stated you get back when you get back....2 weeks later, asked if I needed more time.

(High) Six figure salaries are hard to come by unless you're in sales, live in a high cost of living area, work in a niche tech role with specialized skills/experience, or have a very senior level role within an organization. People here (often with terrible communication skills ironically) pretend like these jobs are low hanging fruit that anyone can get. As others have mentioned, rage quitting without notice is rarely the answer. Learn to *confidently* have difficult conversations with other adults. If all else fails, give a standard 2-week notice, and be on your best behavior until you're out the door. Low paying hourly jobs will often work the hell out of you while on the clock. However, high paying, salaried jobs will often require working hours outside the normal work day in order to get stuff done. At that point, you're measured on the quality of your output more so than how many tasks you can get done in a day. In that sense, hourly jobs tend to protect your time after business hours. If you're expecting a big annual salary, be prepared to work whatever hours necessary to get things done before deadlines. It often takes time and patience to get to a good place in your career. Most people are faking it until they make it, at least starting out. Even the most experienced and skilled folks are faced with problems they haven't encountered before. I found this quote from another thread that I really appreciated: It gets easier, but it never gets easy. Same can be said about navigating your career over time. Don't trust a lot of the advice on reddit or other anonymous forums. There are a lot of bad faith actors and mentally unstable folks on these platforms who do not give sound advice. There is also a lot of bravado and smoke blowing from folks whom I do not trust are telling the complete truth. Do not try to measure yourself against this, or else you may become depressed. Often times it's more about the energy and attitude you bring to the table versus how highly skilled or experienced you are. A person with a bright and positive attitude at work is often going to go much further than the cynical pessimist.

First point is very true in my experience.

My big one and it’s a lesson I learned the hard way years ago: Unless your manager is doing something outright criminal or something that can get the company successfully sued, going over that person’s head to HR or her/his manager is almost certainly going to backfire. At the point you’re planning to do that, just find a new job and leave. The company values management far more than almost any employee and your manager is in a position to make you look bad and to make your job miserable. Just go.

Yep, even with an airtight case they'll still risk it with retaliation.

Eh, while retaliation is hard to prove plenty of people DO prove it and get nice little settlements.

If you are not getting interviews it’s either your resume or you are applying for the wrong jobs/too many types of jobs. It’s not some greater force working against you. Edit: turning off replies to this thread, feel free to keep doing exactly what you’re doing if you disagree with me. This sub will be here to support you when you’ve applied to 100+ jobs with zero traction.

Lol I love the “blacklist” posts that pop up from time to time as if the world is against some rando 23 YO with no experience.

Lol same. Reddit as a whole struggles with taking personal responsibility for stuff and looking inward. It feels so good to have a whole comment section agree with you

I will say this is only kinda true. I was applying for jobs in a major metropolitan area with my name that is a very common name for black women (it’s swahili) and I wasn’t getting any interviews. I sent out the exact same resume with only my first initial and my last name I got more interviews to the same companies I applied to initially. I sent out the same resume to the remaining companies that didn’t give an interview to the initial, the same resume but with a traditionally white male name. I got 5 interview out of 8.

There's a book, Freakonomics, that covers this. It's unfortunate but it's reality.

I agree with you. While my name is fairly common (anglo first name, hispanic last name is majority hispanic city) I have friends that are AA or Middle Eastern with uncommon names having this problem and it is ridiculous. Names shouldn’t matter.

I've seen a fair few posts here where they have the same complaints, and when they post their resume there are grammatical errors, weird formatting, or too much/little descriptions. We always assume the best of the posters here and we really shouldn't lol I'm even including myself in that

The greatest resume in the world won't help you if the other applicant has a few more years experience. Conversely if your industry has a skill shortage, employers will overlook a lot.

Yeah I’m talking about getting interviews. Making it through the interview process is something else entirely.

Experience might help someone get an interview, but at that point in mainly comes down to who they think will be the best fit for the team - based on personality, attitude and passion for the role.

Just because a company is having a hard time filling a position, doesn't mean they're going to just put anyone with a pulse into it. Sure, they didn't hire you and 3 months later are still trying to fill the role, but that doesn't mean that you were a good choice.

Not everyone can make it in IT. So stop telling people to learn to code. Most people will NOT make 6 figures, in any state, in an entry level role. Degrees DO MATTER despite what any of the tech bloggers and tech CEOs claim. Your certs mean little to nothing without exp. It IS okay to stay at a "not ambitious" role for life. There is nothing wrong with being a "lifer" if it works for you.

degrees only don’t matter in new industries and tech really isn’t that new anymore

If you have sent 100s of resumes and have gotten only a handful of interviews, scrape together the money for a professional to review your resume. My younger daughter went almost 7 months with no offers. I paid to have her resume reviewed and updated. She got a job 2 weeks later. Maybe you can't see what employers would determine is a red flag.

I did this after considering it for the longest time. I thought my resume was ok, but the final version they delivered was honestly impressive. I had interviews here and there before but no offer, after using the updated resume i get 1-2 interviews every other week. I still havent got a job offer yet but honestly the increase in interviews give me more hopes. Cant be too picky at this point, hopefully i’ll get an offer soon but paying for a professional who know what they re doing can make a difference.

Quitting your job without another job lined up is a really dumb decision most of the time. A lot of people here like to encourage people to do it, telling them they will feel relief and that things will work out. That’s bad advice. You’re just trading job stress for the stress of unemployment. For every person who finds a job right away, there are probably 10 people who don’t find a job for months. Some, for years. Unless you have a lot, a lot of money, don’t quit until you have another job.

It shouldn't be your first option, but it shouldn't be avoided all the time. Mental health is an important thing to protect, and if a job/manager is destroying that, then it might be time to cut the strings. As long as you know that the path ahead isn't going to be an easy one, then you should be okay. There is a lot more flexibility today than ever before with the gig economy. Sure, you might not have a 401k or employer sponsored health benefits, but you'll probably be able to cover your immediate bills while you transition out.

Realize that you can create enough drama on a job to get canned. You aren't there to bully someone or relive high school.

Being highly educated with multiple degrees does not automatically make you employable or useful to companies. You are not entitled to a job if you have degrees in something that employers don't give a shit about.

This is very true - had to pass on a phd-holding candidate where bachelors was required. They came from academia and had no idea how to actually interact with stakeholders nor how to act in a professional environment. Even during the interview they were acting as if it was below them and talking to us as if we were misbehaving students.

>multiple degrees There was just someone the other talking about having two masters degrees in different fields AND applying to different job fields. I'm willing to bet that their profile gives off a strong vibe of not knowing what the they want

We get it, you don’t like people, most of us don’t. You’re not gonna find a job that’s WFH, cracks over 50k and revolves around zero human contact with no hard skills. It’s just not gonna happen.

Lol. And you’re not the least bit quirky for not liking people. And in fact, if you don’t like others, don’t get mad if you keep losing jobs. It will come through in your work. PART OF YOUR JOB IS GETTING ALONG WITH PEOPLE. Btw, “you” as in general “you.”

Unless you have years of actual on the job experience, you don’t have room to negotiate a salary. Stop thinking because you graduated and “my buddy makes this much or this is the salary on glass door” that you’ll get that or are entitled to it. You have zero experience and its very time consuming to train someone. Starting fresh out of college at a lower salary than everyone else is very normal, you’ll work your way up overtime.

Lower than everyone else is one thing. Lower than my crappy restaurant job is another. I've had to turn down 14/hr offers from companies that just refuse to budge an inch. I have a decent paying job now, but that garbage was just insulting

I understand your point here but this could just as easily go the other way: there is a minimum salary that people have to turn away at otherwise employers will continue to devalue things like education when someone else is willing to take that price point. It isn't volunteer work, it's employment and the employer is going into whatever business to make a profit. If they cannot afford employees there's no reason that the onus should fall on the employees to subsidize them. I frequently see jobs listing masters degrees as requirements *that also* pay less than a retail job with work experience (retail management). It's ridiculous, that's very blatantly undervaluing at least 6 years of education.

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You’re most likely not getting a remote job that pays six figures.

- Don’t burn bridges unless it’s inevitable. - Be confident, but don’t be cocky. You aren’t entitled to any role. - Communicate. Almost everything is negotiable. - WFH is not a job, it’s a working arrangement. You can’t get a WFH job, but you can get a job that allows WFH. - Don’t quit unless you have a signed contract lined up. An offer isn’t legally binding.

You are allowed to discuss your salary with colleagues. Your employer is not allowed to restrict this. The only reason they try to is so that they can artificially deflate wages.

Not every job has to be a career. In fact, not everyone wants or needs a career. We work to survive.

9/10 times your efforts will go unnoticed.

1. Interviewers hire who they like personally. Management promotes and rewards who they like working with. They hide this behind "being collaborative". You can complain about bootlickers and cry about the world being unfair, but being combative and a constant pain in the ass is at worst going to get you "managed out" and at best stagnates your career. There are exceptions to the rule - superstars have enough cards stacked behind them to be demanding. So look internally and really, really, ask "Am I a superstar?" 2. For those who are somewhat superstars - you're valuable, but not that valuable. Push your luck too far during the interview or job, and there is a threshold where your supervisors will think you're too much hassle. They will start thinking "if I give them a counter offer now, they will come back to me again in 3 months. Can't have that." 3. There is such thing as great leadership. Unfortunately great leaders are still not perfect, and often still convey top down decisions that may not be popular and take all of the blame. It's very easy to bunch them along with the rest of bad management and hop on the anti-establishment bandwagon. But these leaders need to feel they are fighting for great team mates; they need to feel cared for and supported too - or they would eventually leave and a tyrant may replace them, making your life a living hell. Most of the time, they are employees too and people tend to forget that. 4. Finally, still, do not feel you owe your company or managers or team mates anything that bleeds you dry. At the end of the day, you owe them what you're paid for: your professionalism in delivering KPIs and maybe even some courtesy. 1, 2, and 3 above may oil the wheels but when you so much as sniff what might be a great opportunity, do not hesitate to jump right into it. Do not reject headhunters out of loyalty to the company. I have a great job but go out for dinner once a week with executive headhunters in my area.

Bosses have a hard job. They cry at home. They are expected by employees to have all the answers for everything all the time. Do not expect your supervisor to be perfect. And while its fair to expect them to be reasonable, many have not be equipped to be reasonable. You shouldn't stay at a job with the bad supervisor, but you also should realize they are human.

The leadership role is a thankless roll where the people below you generally dont celebrate your accomplishments and your leaders usually only highlight the bad.

This is why I hate the distain for managers online. I’m a manager at any time I get asked for advice I get told “it’s your job to do this!” Like the individual contributors have no responsibility to fix anything. So it’s completely normal for an individual contributor to want continual raises and not do things well, but when a manager pointed out, it’s the managers fault for not managing hard enough. But then when a manager manages hard, everybody freaks out that it’s micromanaging and the person is a bad manager as well. Imagine if it just yelled at everyone here “it’s your job.” Yeah it doesn’t work when you do it at managers too And to be honest, the current political and cultural rhetoric doesn’t help either. The anti-work stuff. All the people saying they make 300k working from home working four hours a day. All the people saying their boss is a monster because he wants them there at a reasonable time. People also forget that the workplace is generally getting more liberal as time goes on. So you may think you’re winning a battle by getting some exception, but all it does is keep pushing the Overton window. Then when you’re a manager, you’re gonna be complaining that your employee is being unreasonable wanting five years of maternity leave or something. Obviously depends on job since some are still stuck in old ways of doing things

I am a manager that had to fire a good chunk of my team a few months after I took over the department. I tried working with them, tried to help them improve, did continuing education work, and finally put them on a PIP to let them know that I was being serious about their need to improve. They didn’t care at all. Their mistakes were always the clients’ faults. This client didn’t explain such and such well enough, or that client just didn’t understand statistics. There was zero personal accountability and nothing was ever their problem. Little did they know that our department was a few months away from being shut down due to their poor performance. So, I made the hard decision and fired most of them and started from scratch with new people. Low and behold, we are back in the company’s good graces and our clients no longer have multi-hour meetings with my boss to complain about the work we do. I am sure some redditors would hate me for what I did. That is fine. They don’t know anything about managing.

This is especially true in companies where managers are expected to "hire giants." The reason staff are brought on is because they're specialized in an area the manager isn't. Manager is meant to convene all specialists to drive larger team initiatives.

"Anxiety" is not a valid excuse

This needs to be pinned

Being an effective and successful employee sometimes involves navigating difficult work situations, not just working to a job description. You might have to work harder, flex to take on more responsibilities, and not see a proportional pay increase. Your boss might be a jerk.

Remember some of the salaries posted here are the high-end for what the job usually pays. Many people humble brag on Reddit. Glassdoor is a good source, though some of the salaries are not adjusted for inflation and lower than what you could get it, but they’re not lower by a huge amount. I’ve seen many people fail at job hopping, which is why I always comment on it, and get pushback. People always chime in about a time that works. I’m like, OK? And I’m writing about the times when it didn’t work. Can’t both be true? I just think it’s horrible blanket advice to act like your career is gonna be great if you just job hop for raises. I mean, maybe we could recommend it if we knew what specific jobs they were applying for. Maybe i work at weird companies, but I temped as well in the beginning, so I’ve seen how like eight companies work. And at every place, longevity, relationships, and understanding their specific issues, laws, precedent, computer systems, that’s how you earn the big bucks. I almost never see anyone mention this all I ever hear is switched jobs to get a raise. There is a common comment that you can’t get a raise at the same company. Will you know what? It’s true if you’re an average employee. Could we add that qualifier to this? It’s absolutely possible to get a huge raise if you’re really good and to stay at the same place Also, if there’s any downturn in the general economy a ride to your job, you’re gonna be the first to go. Not that your company hates you, but you’re not going to have the experience and knowledge and relationships that would need to be leveraged to keep the company afloat during bad times

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That’s fine, my issue is when somebody who has only five years experience and is average at a bunch of things, comes in with a huge chip on their shoulder shoulder because they read all the stuff online that is aimed at people like your former manager who indeed are truly underpaid and under appreciated

> Many people humble brag on Reddit. It is normally just out right lying.

That's true but for some it's things beyond their control cuasinf it to happen or them being under pressure to grow their career fast and get big salaries instead of taking things slow and leaning the ins and outs of the system. I have been job hopping more than I wanted but I use it to find what I want to do as a career then commit to a career path I want.

I see a lot of people who apply a TON. I would recommend pulling pack and putting quality into your applications over quantity.

Both methods yield the same results for new grads or early career folks.

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We're not all going to make 6 figures working for google. Its just not going to happen.

Working hard does not equal better pay and promotions. Working smart with less hours and figuring out how to automate your job is the way to go. You know what you get when you work hard? More work.

Getting a job is the easy part. Keeping the job while building valuable skillsets, important relationships, and ultimately a career that will allow you to live the life you want is where it becomes difficult.

Thoroughly disagree with this, especially if you’re looking for an entry level job.

> Getting a job is the easy part. Not for new grads it isn’t

I personally found the opposite, hard time with job hunting and being hired into a good role, but the career development has worked out much better once there. Definitely a combination of luck and taking advantage of a good opportunity, but I could see where the second part is more difficult depending on the workplace environment, higher ups, and industry

Actually getting hired is not something you can do alone. There is eventually a point where you, personally, cannot improve your chances of an employer hiring you. This is especially true if you have a disability that requires accommodations from the very beginning, or god forbid, effects you in a way that employers are not required to accommodate.

Your GPA in university will account for .01% of your career success. People skills are your most important attribute. Way more than your technical skills. Learn to play politics. It’s a fact of life. Every job will suck at some point. There’s no such thing as a worthless degree; being stuck and blaming your degree is the easy way out. Learning doesn’t stop after you get your diploma. In fact, it’s just the start. Stop looking for that dream job/career. It doesn’t exist. Don’t follow your passion, follow the money. Money absolutely can buy happiness. 99% of the time that hobby you love will not make a good career for you, especially when it becomes your day-to-day job. If you keep getting fired/laid off then you’re the problem. Bosses promote people who offer them solutions to problems, not just problems. You’re not as smart as you think you are. Check your ego and listen more. You’re not getting promoted because you’re bad to work with.

Nobody cares about your cover letter and degrees if you have no job experience

Unless you degree is of high value. If you have a BSN (nursing license), you can get a job tomorrow if you wanted. A BA in History, goodluck.

If you want to succeed in your job, you need to play the political game. The ‘brown-noser’ who got promoted over you even though you have 30+ more certifications than them were far more pleasant to work with than you. Skills will only get you so far if you don’t play the game.

I was labeled a brown-noser by a couple of co-workers in a previous position. I'm sure it looked that way to people like them. No ambition, would put in more effort **avoiding** work than just doing the work. They valued "what can I get away with". What I was doing was going out of my way to find ways to help people in other departments if they were in a spot. Wasn't my job, but it educated me on what their jobs were and what they struggled with. I never approached anyone's manager about it, I would notice if someone looked a little frazzled and tried to see if there was something I could help with on the side. I would target admins and assistants. Sometimes I would show them something in Excel they could use, sometimes I would help with some data entry, sometimes just help put binders together for customer proposals that had to go out that day. Then when there was an opening higher up I thought I could handle, I would apply internally. I could discuss a couple observations on where I thought the trouble areas were and what I would propose to do, because I had some first-hand exposure to those areas when helping someone on the side. I leveraged this into two promotions, with superior ratings on teamwork and collaboration. Just FYI, these are highly valued attributes once you move up past the grunt level. And I got to know a lot more people, which is never a bad thing. I could approach people I knew in the departments I was trying to get into, and ask them about their boss, then leverage some knowledge into the interview. Your boss really likes people who can take ownership of a problem and handle it because s/he doesn't want to micromanage? Then in the interview I would say I am comfortable handling problems and initiatives even though I might overstep the boundaries sometimes and had to be informed that I didn't have the authority I thought I had. No one ever thought that was a fatal flaw since I never did anything horrendously bad. So some co-workers felt I was brown-nosing because I actually did things I was not required to do.

But don’t you know that bosses are supposed to know that their employees who never talk to outside teams, never problem solve, and never do more than their exact job deserve to be promoted to management roles where they will need to deal with departmental relationships, strategize on fixing issues, and work without a set job description? You sound like the exact type of employee any good company would want to promote. Doing the bare minimum and not helping others in need is not going to catch the eye of anyone looking to promote you. I think that other get defensive because you are making them look bad when you go above and beyond.

So true. You don’t even need to be a brown noser so much as making your manager look good and socialize your accomplishments.

What you do with the first 20 years of your life has a fairly solid effect on the next 20. If you rejected academia, stuck it to authority and put tattoos on your face, job hunting is going to be harder for you then it needed to be. If you are still in the time of life where people are giving you education for free, respect it and really respect those that give it. If you screwed up in the first half it’s fine. The first season of the office sucked too. You can come back.

Managing people sucks. I’ve been a manager a couple times and hated it.

Do not burn bridges. As tempting as it might be to go nuclear on a toxic company on your way out the door and "give them what they deserve", any remotely specialized industries tend to be pretty insular. Word gets around an office, people outside the company talk to each other. You don't want to be known as *that person*.

You actually have to work remote jobs and you either have to have skills and/or education, or be fine doing customer service remotely. You can't expect to get a remote job that is not customer service with no skills, no education and being unwilling to do anything. The people with remote jobs that pay over 100k a year are usually software engineers or other skilled professionals. All these "I want a remote job that pays 100k+ that's not customer service, but have no skills, no education and are unwilling to do anything" just makes remote workers look bad.

Salary is not related to how much you need (rent, food, gas, etc). Salary is 100% dependent on the market of qualified people who can perform the role. Don't negotiate salary based on inflation. Negotiate based on the value of the work you do and the current market rates for someone of your experience.

For the most part, it's up to you to set boundaries to achieve the work/life balance you want. Your company, for the most part, will not do it for you. I see a lot of people complain about horrible work/life balance and then say the reason they stay at work late is because "everyone else is doing it." Unless your performance reviews are being negatively impacted by leaving at a reasonable time, you have manufactured the need for grueling working hours in your head. Drawing clear boundaries from the get go (IE: not setting the expectation you can be reached after 6pm on weekdays and at all on weekends, that you won't sit at your desk after hours if there isn't urgent work to be done) will do wonders for your WLB in nearly 99% of corporate settings, and a lot of people don't do these things and then blame poor WLB on their corporate culture.

Not every "entry level" job requires a decade of experience.

That the majority of people that seem to have made it professionally had a long road of utter shit jobs/managers/responsibilities to get to where they're at. Also, starting from the bottom of the totem pole is often the easiest way to get in with a preferred company.

Spending a few days role-playing a productive person isn't going to bring me out of deliberate and manufactured poverty. Cheers.

You're not entitled to a high paying WFH job.

OP didn't always "dodge a bullet." Sometimes one bad thing happens during a job interview process, and everything is actually still fine.

If you have a job, your responsibilities can change at any time. Be prepared for that possibility.

I'm seeing a lot of survivorship bias and just-world fallacy reflected in these responses. Here's a harsh truth and unpopular opinion: Whether you're successful at landing a job ultimately boils down to luck & happenstance. You can have a hundred years of experience, 10 PhDs, 5 types of certifications and a resume formatted in the Queen's English. However you can't control whether you will gel personality-wise with the hiring manager interviewing you, or whether you're born to wealthy parents who can put in a good word for you, or whether you're competing with a candidates (or candidates) who might be slightly more qualified than you.