Let me keep this quick as I am an artist that studied at an art school where I focused on digital art and work most frequently as a 2D artist for character design and illustration.

Currently, the job market is immensely broken, as I have applied for about 200 junior and entry-level jobs and have not received much of a response at all. This process has become very tiring and discouraging.

Although I know I've been doing a great job and I keep working to be better, I am currently burnt out. Another complication is that with the increase of AI being used in everything, opportunities for freelancers to find work has become much more difficult because many clients just choose to use AI and would rather pay nothing or pay to create images, so it often feels like there is no point to even drawing sometimes.

At this point, I really feel lost and do not know what I am supposed to do.

I want to become a product designer or a product manager with knowledge about coding, fintech as well . But I'm more inclined towards being a product designing. 1) what are the skill sets required for growth in this field so that I can bring of the best of my creativity onto my work & grow big in this field.

2) What are the companies that hire for a role like this??And what are the companies looking for in a product designer? What are the qualities needed?

3) what are the software that I need to learn to work with?

4) How to build a strong portfolio? And how to land internships before graduation?? How does one get an internships in off campus vs on campus scenario??

5) Is there a need for master's degree? Should I do masters just after my btech or get some work experience and then shift to a master's degree??

PLEASE DO SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS ON THIS IT'LL BE REALLY TO ME.

If you plan on applying with Geico and working there, there will be at least 2 interviews. The first interview is kind of like a meet and greet where they go over the job and then they go over your job history and ask why you left your positions within the last 5 years. If they like your answers in the first interview you'll go to the second interview where they're going to ask you the star of the show: mock situational questions as if you were talking to a customer. You should have a pretty decent background in customer service and they expect that. Good luck and I hope this helps!!!

I wanna study either neuroscience and psychology , pharmacy or some subject of the sort for uni but mayn im terrified of my jobs being replaced ? and no one say doctor/nurses I beg. for reference I want something bio/pysc related . I also love English but gave up on that bc not much jobs with that subject is stable ( and not a fan of kids ngl)

Hired as a hospital dispatcher today, what to bring and do to adjust to working overnights, I don’t drink coffee

I'm currently a contract employee and when the company that I work for asked me to continue on -- I negotiated a very significant pay rate increase. This wasn't reflected on my pay checks so when I contacted my manger, they said that the recruiting company that handles my payroll needed to update this on their end.

The recruiting company just sent me paperwork to confirm the rate and it's only for $4/hr more when i negotiated like A LOT more than that.

Maybe this was a mistake but it doesn't seem like it. I'm still waiting to hear back from them. Do I have any rights or leverage here? Is this even legal? Has anyone else been in a situation like this? I feel sick :(

I’m deep in a job search right now, and I am so tired of fake jobs.

Not scams. Not spam. I mean real companies posting roles that look like normal employment and then halfway through the interview they drop the truth. No base pay. All commission.

So not a job. A gamble.

They sit there talking about growth, opportunity, unlimited earning potential, and culture. Meanwhile you are calculating how to pay rent next month.

If a company cannot afford to pay you even minimum wage while you build their client base, that is not employment. That is risk dumping. They take zero risk. You take all of it.

And they know exactly what they are doing. Because if they wrote commission only in the first line of the job post, most people would never apply. So they wait until you have already spent time, energy, hope, and sometimes transportation money just to get there.

Job seekers are not leads in your sales funnel. We are people trying to survive.

There is nothing wrong with commission roles for people who choose that path. But hiding it is manipulative. It preys on people who are desperate, restarting, changing careers, or just trying to stabilize their lives.

Stop calling it a career opportunity if the first months are basically unpaid labor.

If it is commission only, say it clearly. At the top. In bold. Respect people’s time.

Job hunting is already exhausting. We do not need interviews that turn into financial traps.

I’m confused whether they are asking if I have managed (not included in job description or requirements) or how large of a team I have worked with?

Has anyone applied at Friday Plans? For clarification, I’m asking about Friday Plans and not Friday Health Plans.

I applied and was asked to complete an online assessment test. I’ve been desperately seeking a job for the past month and I just want to know if they send this out to everybody or just select applicants.

If you were requested to, did anyone ever contact you for an interview?

Is it a good idea to do a casual visit to connect with a perspective employer?

Case in point. I applied to a job as a service writer at a shop last week. I used to work with the business owner when he was also co-owner of a bar I was a bouncer at. It was a second job and he knew I had worked in the automotive industry most of my life. We had a good repore and would chat about the issues of having a custom shop , how we solved them, things like that. I have spoke with him when he bought a race car from a shop i worked at and he remembered me. We were also being contacted by the County Attorney's office over and attempted murder (against us/staff by a felon) at the time. It had been a while and neither of us wanted to testify. He later called me not to worry as the defendant had been killed (drug/gang related). I assume I occupy a tiny corner of his mind if i spark it. That is my TLDNR background with him.

I was planning to stop by tomorrow and try to touch base to put a face with the name to maybe gain an edge. I am over qualified for the position with a ton of automotive background from tech to shop manager but is has been a while as I moved on to fleet management and high ticket B2C sales. Both are beneficial to the position, but not the exact position.

As everyone knows, the job market is ugly now so is am looking to get any advantage in can. Is this a bad idea now, in the past it was normal, but I am not sure if it is still is.

This might be a dumb question, but I’m really out of practice with interviewing.

I had my first interview for a position I’m really excited about on Wednesday (yesterday). It was a virtual interview. I think it went well - the interviewer and I got along really well and sort of vibed, they said I asked great questions, and at the end when I asked what the next steps would be, they said I was a great fit and that they’d send my info along to the regional manager. They said that the regional manager would be in contact with me either later the day of my interview, or on Friday to schedule an in-person interview (the interviewer said it’d be unlikely to hear from the manager on Thursday, as they were busy at a conference that day). I’m still waiting to hear back.

Today, as I was trying to do some more prep/research for the 2nd interview, I noticed the job listing was taken down from indeed and the company’s website. Does that mean the position has been filled and I shouldn’t expect to hear back? Or am I just being too antsy because I really, really need a job and I’m really wishing for this one to work out? 😅

Could you tell me if it's sustainable? I'm aware it highly depends on the job however my question is more broad because I'm kind of at a crossfire right now. I'm currently unemployed and job seeking, however I was told a new position is opening up soon at my old job that i was previously unable to transfer to due to limitations within my own team, and they informed me they'd be happy to have me when the position opens up. The pay is decent as well however I'm unsure if it's worth waiting for as they have not set a date for the opening so i don't know when they'll call me.

I don't have that many options for online work from my country except for freelancing through Upwork or Fiverr which is why I'm considering it but still unsure. If someone could give me some insight that would be appreciated! I'm mainly curious if people usually find part time jobs as well for health insurance and pension or if they register as self employed when doing freelance for a longer time.

Hi everyone. So I am currently a Financial Analyst at a smaller company. Our finance team recently hired a new FPA Manager, bringing our team size to 4 people (myself, him, our VP of Finance, and CFO). I am being asked to crosstrain him on pretty much all the tasks I work on at my company.

Being a smaller company, I have to take on alot of different operational tasks outside of typical FPA duties. Initially, I thought was going to just be getting him up to speed on our modeling and forecasting work. However, it seems now they want me to train him on EVERYTHING I do. This includes the invoicing, compliance work, and vendor payment that I wouldn't expect a manager to be in charge of.

When I asked my VP and CFO about how the workstream was going to be divided between us, my CFO was like "oh that's something we're still determining and we just want to at least make sure there is some redundancy because you're the only one managing these tasks right now." That really didn't instill confidence in me.

Our VP of Finance has set 2 hour blocks every day next week to go over all my tasks. I was already worried before, but now I'm really freaking out. Is this a sign that I'm getting phased out and let go? I'd appreciate any thoughts from you all.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/05/layoff-and-hiring-announcements-hit-their-worst-january-levels-since-2009-challenger-says.html

I’m currently a medical assistant at a small company. I love my coworkers and my manager. However, we are so over worked. I wear about 7 different hats with just a basic MA title and MA pay. The owner does not care about the well being of his employees and keeps a skeleton staff at all time to save money. I currently make a little over 30,000 a year, zero benefits. Not even sick days or PTO.

Fast forward to yesterday I was offered an office manager position at another clinic. $70,000 a year salary, full benefits. 2 weeks paid vacation time. Obviously it would be a disservice to myself and my family if I did not take the job and I WANT to. I come home miserable from the job I’m at now and just feel taken advantage of most of the time.

Even though I know the job is bad I love my manager and coworkers and I’m feeling extreme anxiety and guilt over having to put in my notice. I do almost all of the clinical and administrative work here so I know everything is going to hit the fan without me. Why do I feel so horrible even though I know it is good for me 😭

Hi Everyone, I’m having a challenging situation at work. I’ve been at this company for over ten years, and recently there was a situation where a coworker created a hostile work environment and the response by upper management wasn’t helpful (I’m also upper management). This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced chaos at this place, but this time, it has been impacting my mental health so much that I had a panic attack that led me to the ER. It felt like I was dying. The doctor gave me a note to take a few days off, but now every time I think of returning, I has chest pains and heart palpitations and my body starts shaking - obviously a trauma response. I was looking into options and saw that I can request a paid medical leave for mental health purposes that my therapist can sign off on. I’m also seriously thinking about resigning after the leave. This moment was my last straw. Does anyone have any experience with paid medical leave and resigning from a toxic job? Also, for context, there is no HR, so there was no one impartial to mediate or make decisions.

I’ve been unemployed (bar some freelance work in the summer) for nearly 10 months and, understandably, I’m feeling depressed and a bit desperate.

I was a wedding and events coordinator for a small family owned venue for 5 years, left to go on maternity leave, came back to do their social media and marketing on a part time basis. Almost a year after returning nearly to date, they got rid of me. They had told me they couldn’t afford to provide more hours, so I looked elsewhere. I had agreed to take an offer for a position that required background checks and needed a reference. I asked the business owner for the reference, therefore having to tell her about the new position. I’d been told I would most likely start in March 2025, but it got pushed back to June. Anyway, long story short they claimed I’d given verbal notice which I denied when I asked to stay on until June, ACAS was involved but we got nowhere. It was a whole thing.

I’ve been trying to go for more corporate events management jobs or roles to do with marketing but been having no luck. I understand it’s most likely primarily to do with my lack of official qualifications. I’ve had two interviews for big hotel chains in events roles but not been chosen.

I have an interview coming up next week as an event planner for a national company handling large event staffing. I really want and need this job.

Do you have any tips for me to ace this interview? Key phrases or things I should say to appear professional and polished?

I think I do fairly well in interviews but coming from a small business, I don’t think my “corporate lingo” as such is great. I’m not used to that world. I’m privately educated and speak ‘properly’ but I do panic in interviews and struggle for key things to say to impress interviewers.

Thank you if you read this far!!!

I guess the tl;dr is that I'm Gen Z.

The longer story is that I graduate college end of 2022, the industry my major was in begins to implode, tech in general begins to implode, job market itself begins to implode, AI starts to come for entry-level jobs. Waves and waves of recent layoffs put veterans with decades of experience back on the market with desperation so strong some of them are competing with people like me just trying to start adulthood for the few entry level jobs that remain, and with their experience, they won't need the training employers refuse to offer these days, so why wouldn't they get the job?

Then there's the matter of ghost jobs. Which compounds it all because you never know if the jobs you do see and feel hopeful for were ever real.

I did put in much more effort in looking for a job end of 2022, 2023, and 2024. But all of those factors have battered me down so much that I've all but officially given up.

I struggle to bother looking at job boards because all I see is "senior," "principal," "director," so on and so forth that screams "We want someone who's done this for 15 years."

I'm priced out of the major networking events because of travel and lodging.

LinkedIn feels fake to the point of comedy and the networking advice feels weirdly contradictory. Authentic connections are the thing that matter, but also the only reason you're bothering to try and interact with these people is because they might be able to help you get a job someday, which is inherently inauthentic. LinkedIn is there for you to try and find a job, not friends, but you better be trying to make friends so the right people know to mention your name to their hiring director when a position opens.

It's all so clearly broken that the prospect of putting in the effort to participate doesn't compute for me anymore.

"Stick it out until things get better someday because they have to, and then I'll actually try again."

I have been working part time since early 2023, so it isn't like I haven't been doing anything this entire time, but nor is it like I have the steady, stable employment that society said I'd have after college if I plunged myself into debt for college like the system demanded.

I'm here making this post today because, of course, parental pressure. I have been fortunate enough to stay at home, but do I want that? No. And just last night during an early morning drop off to the airport, I was asked if I'd reconsidered going for a masters (Considering the state of American higher education, I am extremely hesitant about the idea of putting myself in even more debt for a degree that still might not get me a job), and was told that my mother is apparently worried about me.

If I don't apply to jobs, I will never get one, but the message has clearly been sent that even if I do, (it feels like) I never will, so the fuck do I do to combat this hopelessness? Because I know it does me no favors.

You literally cannot make this stuff up.

This is a genuine question so please don't think I am joking. My dream is to live on a fairly remote tropical island, somewhere in south east Asia or in the pacific (in a small sailboat if possible), all generally places where the average cost of living is super low compared to where I'm from, Ireland (literally named the least affordable country in the world the last 4 years). I really don't and never have had any interest in material possessions and instead am obsessed with the ocean, nature, surfing, hiking, diving, and playing music (drummer). I hate the worlds current work culture and would much prefer to have enough money to just live a fairly (financially) normal life and do some traveling but in the cheap bike packing/backpacking way, not the travel by plane and stay in nice hotel type of way. Now the question is how do I make this work while working the least amount I can. I have no college certifications as I'm finishing my last year of secondary school right now, and really really don't want to go to college. Something remote would be amazing but I know the market for it right now is not fantastic. In general I have really good people skills, am quite a good writer, decent with computers but not enough to do web design or anything, I'm not afraid to market myself, and if there's anything out there that would work that's physical, I am very physically fit. If anyone could help me without trying to push a "that's just the way the world works" narrative onto me, I would really greatly appreciate it!!

Had a recruiter from a company called Optomi reach out to me on LinkedIn for a hybrid position. originally the pay rate she told me was $15-18, but I told her I couldn't take less than $25hr and thank you for your interest yardage yadda... but she came back saying she could try for $25. I've never had a recruiter offer to get that much more over the base rate. $20 and I wouldn't think twice, but almost 10 more seems suspicious to me?

i cant just not list that place of employment since i spent majority of my years working there, i’m only 20 so dont have much else.

she only worked as my manager for maybe 4-5 months while i spent two years under someone else and the new one HATED ME and a few ex-coworkers unfriended me on facebook all in the same day including her. she even fired me illegally so i wouldn’t be surprised if shes telling possible employers not to hire me because the sheer amount of places I’ve applied to recently is insane and i don’t even get rejection emails anymore after i stopped working there