c/career-advice

18

webb.val•2d ago

The week I accidentally shadowed the wrong manager at Baird

So I showed up for my first week of my internship at a big firm in Milwaukee, and I somehow got assigned to shadow Dave from HR instead of Dave from actual stock research. Two full days in, Dave's like 'you're a finance major right?' and I wanted to crawl under the desk. It actually turned out to be a good thing because Dave let me sit in on a bunch of hiring interviews for different departments. Has anyone else had a mix-up like that turn into a lucky break?

11

hugo_ellis•2d ago

My old boss told me I was overthinking deadlines during a coffee break in 2019

He saw me stressing over a project due in three weeks and said 'you are panicking about stuff that hasn't even happened yet.' That one line hit me because he was right - I was burning out on imaginary problems. Has anyone else had a manager say something simple that totally changed how you work?

5

margaretf40•2d ago

Wasted $350 on a 'career coaching' course that was just 10 YouTube videos repackaged

Signed up thinking I'd get personalized resume help. Instead got a PDF with links to free stuff I'd already seen. Anybody else get burned by these 'guaranteed job' programs?

21

richard_hall•5d ago

Appreciation post: old school in-person networking versus all this LinkedIn nonsense

I spent 12 years working in sales and marketing in Austin and I swear the best jobs I ever got just came from grabbing a beer with someone after a meetup. Last month I decided to try the whole LinkedIn approach for a career switch into project management. I sent out 40 connection requests with custom notes, followed up with DMs, the whole routine. Got maybe 3 replies and none of them led anywhere real. Meanwhile I ran into an old contact at a coffee shop on South Congress and by the next week he had me talking to his boss about an opening. Online stuff just feels hollow compared to a handshake where someone can actually see you're not a bot. Has anyone else found that real conversations beat digital ones every time?

16

fisher.diana•5d ago

TIL my career change plan was built on a total lie

I spent 3 years thinking I needed a coding bootcamp to switch into tech. I had it all mapped out, even put down a $500 deposit in Seattle for one starting June 2024. Then I talked to a friend's cousin who hires developers at a mid-size company. He straight up said 'we don't care about bootcamps, we care about projects you can show.' That hit me hard. I canceled the deposit and built 2 small apps instead. Got an interview offer 4 months later. Has anyone else ditched a big expensive plan based on one honest conversation?

20

dixon.willow•6d ago

My boss told me my reports were too polite and I needed to sound more confident, so I started cutting all the "I think" and "maybe" phrases out.

After she pointed out I used "I think" nine times in a single email I started a three-week experiment where I re-read every draft before sending and removed every softening word, and my manager actually said my last quarterly presentation felt like a totally different person delivered it has anyone else had to coach themselves out of sounding too hesitant?

22

alice_reed47•7d ago

Overheard a senior dev say something obvious that totally clicked

I was at a coffee shop near my office in Chicago last Tuesday and overheard a senior dev telling a junior that 'bad code is easier to fix than no code.' I'd been stuck on a feature for 3 days because I kept overthinking the perfect approach. Finally just wrote something messy and refactored it after, took like 2 hours total. Anyone else struggle with trying to make everything perfect on the first pass?

16

parker_campbell•9d ago

I spent $500 on a career coaching course that was just common sense

Signed up for this 'executive presence' coaching thing after a recruiter hinted I needed it. Paid $500 for a 4 week program, and it was basically 'make eye contact' and 'don't interrupt people' like my mom taught me in 4th grade. I feel like I got scammed by someone who just read a Forbes article and called themselves a coach. Has anyone else flushed cash on one of these courses?

29

the_vera•10d ago

Realized I'd been putting on thermal paste wrong for 7 years

Honestly, last month I was building a new PC for a friend in Austin and my GPU temps were hitting 90°C under load. I figured it was just the summer heat, but then I saw a video where a tech just dabbed a pea-sized dot in the center. I'd been spreading it like butter on toast with a credit card the whole time. Dropped 15°C after I tried it the right way. Has anyone else had a basic computer skill they messed up for years?

18

jakewhite•13d ago

Had a senior dev laugh at my code last Tuesday during a code review

I was showing a feature I built for tracking user sessions and he pointed out a dumb loop nesting error I'd overlooked. Has anyone else had a moment like that where you felt totally out of your depth in a team setting?

22

hugo_jones2•14d ago

Had a manager tell me to stop asking questions at my first job. Was he right or just impatient?

This was back in 2018 at a small marketing agency in Phoenix. I was fresh out of school and kept asking my boss why we did certain things a specific way. After about 3 weeks he pulled me aside and said "Look, just do what I tell you and stop questioning everything." I thought he was a jerk. But 6 months later I realized I was slowing things down by needing to understand every detail before acting. Now I see both sides. Did you ever have someone shut down your curiosity at work and did it help you or hold you back?

19

riverp37•14d ago

Why does nobody talk about job hopping being the only way to get a raise these days

Honestly, I've been at my current property management gig for almost 3 years now and I've gotten like a 4% raise total in that time. Meanwhile I had a buddy who switched companies twice in the last 18 months and he's making 30% more than when we started together. I saw a posting for a similar role in Denver last week that had a salary range $12k higher than what I'm making now. My boss keeps saying there's no budget for bigger raises but they just hired two new people at market rate. It feels like loyalty is just getting me stuck while everyone else is jumping ship and getting paid. Has anyone else dealt with this where staying put actually hurt your earning potential or am I just being too cautious?

15

cameron_chen63•14d ago

Spent $350 on a professional resume writer and it was a waste

I paid a service to rewrite my resume for a tech job in Seattle, but they just used generic buzzwords that didn't fit my actual experience. Has anyone else had better luck with a specific platform or just doing it yourself?

8

the_vera•14d ago

Got told I'm 'too experienced' for a job I really wanted last week

So I applied for this project coordinator role at a small nonprofit downtown. Felt perfect for me, I have like 8 years of admin experience and ran a team of 5 at my last gig. They called me for an interview and it went great, I was already picturing myself there. Then the hiring manager emails me three days later saying they went with someone else because they thought I'd get bored and leave within a year. I was so frustrated because I told them I wanted to settle into something steady, not climb another ladder. Has anyone else had a company basically turn you down for being overqualified? How do you even talk about that in interviews without sounding desperate?

19

uma_lopez•20d ago

Took me 3 months to figure out why my invoices kept bouncing back

I started sending invoices through a new online system back in April, and kept getting emails from clients saying they never got them... turned out the system was flagging my spreadsheet attachments as spam. Anyone else run into a simple fix that just ate up way too much of your time?

10

wyatt_green•21d ago

That career coach who told me to 'network harder' was just recycling generic advice from a 2015 blog post

I spent $300 on a session with a coach in Austin last month and all she did was tell me to update my LinkedIn and attend more happy hours, but when I asked her for actual strategies for breaking into technical writing with no formal certs, she just repeated 'just keep reaching out' - has anyone else found these coaches are just rehashing the same old stuff without any real substance?

16

price.alice•22d ago

Saw a stat that 70% of remote workers feel left out of promotions

I was scrolling through a report from Buffer's State of Remote Work 2024 and it said 70% of remote workers feel they get overlooked for promotions compared to in-office folks. That hit hard because my buddy Sarah at a tech firm in Austin got passed over twice while her coworker who comes in three days a week got a senior role. It makes me wonder if being visible in the office matters way more than actual output these days. Anyone else see this play out at their job?

30

cameron_chen63•23d ago

My mentor told me to stop being loyal to one company... he was right

I worked for a small painting outfit for 6 years, never asked for a raise, figured loyalty would pay off. My mentor who ran his own crew kept saying 'you gotta move around to move up' but I thought he was just jaded. Last year the company went under overnight, owner took off with the last month's pay. Now I've worked 3 different jobs in 12 months and my pay jumped 40% total. Has anyone else found that jumping jobs actually works better than sticking it out?

2

faith_lopez48•23d ago

Am I the only one who sees people messing up their cover letters with buzzwords?

I've been hiring for my landscaping crew for 3 years now and I see it all the time. People write stuff like 'I synergize team dynamics' when they could just say 'I work well with others.' Last month I got one that said 'I leverage my core competencies' and I couldn't tell what the guy actually did. Just use plain English and talk about a real time you solved a problem or learned something. Has anyone else noticed this trend of people using fancy words to hide having no real experience?

11

the_zara•23d ago

That hellish Tuesday at the call center I still think about

Worked at a customer service hub in Phoenix back in 2018, and one Tuesday I took 47 calls back to back with no break because three people called in sick. A guy yelled at me for 20 minutes over a $12 fee I couldn't remove. What made it stand out was how I just sat in my car after, not even wanting to drive home, wondering if every job would feel that soul crushing. Has anyone else had a single day that made you rethink your whole career path?

15

the_anthony•24d ago

HR lady told me "don't stay at one job more than 3 years" and it got me thinking

I was grabbing coffee at the office last Tuesday and overheard our HR director telling a new hire that staying past 3 years at any company is a bad career move. She said your salary growth caps out and you lose negotiating power. But here's the thing - I've been at my current place for almost 6 years now and I've gotten three promotions, went from 42k to 68k, and I actually like my team. Not every company works the same, right? Has anyone else stayed long term and still come out ahead?

23

noahchen•25d ago

Overheard my manager say our training budget was cut to zero for next quarter

How are we supposed to keep up with new software when they won't spend a dime on us, and has anyone else's company just given up on developing their people like this?

4

susan_wells•25d ago

The old boss I had back in 2015 vs running my own crew now is night and day

Back then my boss would just yell at us if a couch didn't fit through a doorway, but now I spend 20 minutes with the tape measure before even lifting anything (saves so much hassle). Is it normal for management styles to change this drastically over a decade, or did I just have a bad one?

22

willow732•26d ago

Had a chat with my old manager that made me rethink all my job hopping

I ran into my old boss from like 5 years ago at a coffee shop downtown last Saturday. We got to talking and she straight up told me that the people who stay at a company for 3+ years usually end up in better spots than the ones who switch jobs every 18 months for a raise. She said she sees it all the time where people jump for 10k more but lose out on big promotions or stock grants that would have paid way more later. It hit different because Ive been job hopping every 2 years since I left her team and I just realized I never got any of those big bonuses or equity packages. I always thought moving around was the smart play but now Im wondering if I missed out on something bigger. Has anyone else had a similar experience where staying put actually worked out better for them?

12

dylan_green58•27d ago

I finally realized why my Tuesday went so smooth last week

Last Tuesday was just one of those days where everything clicked at work. I had three client calls back to back and usually I come out of those feeling drained and confused. But this time I had actually prepped a simple one-page summary of each project with bullet points on where we left off. It took me maybe 15 minutes the night before. The calls ended 10 minutes early each time and nobody had to ask me to repeat myself. My boss even said hey whatever you did keep doing that. I think I finally figured out that a little prep the night before saves way more time than it costs. Has anyone else had a day where one small habit change made the whole week better?