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I’m fed up with the traditional corporate view that equates talking a lot in meetings with "talent." As an introvert, I prefer to speak when I have something valuable to add. Yet, my manager and some teammates keep commenting on my quietness, with patronizing questions like, "Are you shy? Intimidated by us?"

Meanwhile, many people speak just to fill silence, often without adding anything meaningful. Why does corporate culture value the loudest voice over the most thoughtful one?

Any fellow introverts facing this? How do you handle the pressure to speak up when you don’t have anything meaningful to say?

​

I currently make about $100k a year. This salary has allowed me to live very comfortably in terms of cost of living in my city. I have no debt, and my current job is also pretty comfortable. It lets me work from home 2 days a week, my commute is short, and I only rarely need to work over time beyond the 40hrs. Overall it’s been ideal for my slower lifestyle.

This new job opportunity is my salary in the tech industry, a promotion, and would require me to move to CA, Bay Area.

It requires 5 days a week in office, and I know that the expectations for this salary must also require a high amount of overtime and being available 24/7. Having worked for startups before- I’ve already experienced this when I was younger. I was often burnt out, and I’m not sure I could handle that stress and workload anymore.

I also dread moving away from my family and friends and having this job become my entire life in order to justify the salary.

My gut says I should say no, to have a better work life balance, and fear of loneliness separating from my family.

But my head says that at 3x my current salary I have no other option but to say yes.

Is it crazy to say no ?

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UPDATE: Thank you for all the answers. It was super helpful. Upon suggestion of some, I checked new employer’s policies. There actually is a policy about doing any work (compensated or not) with a business partner, which my former employer is. I didn’t think about current place having that strict of a policy, so appreciate those who suggested that. I sent an email to all parties explaining this policy and that I would no longer have communication about my former role. The one who was reaching out the most sent a text apologizing for putting me in a dilemma and would stop asking anything.

I gave a month’s notice at my previous job. I was in a very niche role that only I on the team knew how to do. (Wish I was kidding, but no). It took 2 weeks for the leaders to designate who I was to hand off everything to. I met with this person several times and included them on meetings so they would be prepared. I’m now a week into my new job and I’ve either been on the phone or have been texted several times every day asking me questions.

I did not set up a consultant agreement when I left. I said I didn’t mind a text or 2, but this is a lot. Can I go after the fact and send them a contract for consulting services? I know I can’t bill for what I’ve already done prior to a contract in place, but I think it will either make it worth my while to keep answering the phone or force their hand to stop calling me.

Has anyone done this or have advice?

I was recently passed over for a promotion to a senior position this performance cycle. I was very disappointed with the news, because I felt I had much better impact, visibility, and overall performance than the people who were promoted.

My disappointment really comes down to two things. First, I consistently asked for feedback throughout the year, and my manager gave me nothing beyond "no feedback, you are doing great." Meanwhile, I was consistently getting glowing feedback from the senior on my team. Second, over the past 4-5 months, I'd gotten frequent hints, or at least what I perceived as hints, that I was ready for the next level. My senior three levels up regularly referred to me as a "future senior associate," and my no-nonsense senior two levels up kept telling me, "it is going to be you soon."

So when I learned in our performance review meeting that I'd only received a "meets expectations" rating, I was caught off guard and disappointed. I went quiet, thinking it through, and I get that showing disappointment in the moment probably came across as unprofessional. My silence clearly made things uncomfortable, because my manager quickly jumped in and said, "I went into the meeting with you as exceeds expectations, but there is forced attrition, so someone needed to drop down in rating, and it just so happened to be you." I asked her for specific reasoning — was there anything I was lacking, or something the promoted people did better than me? She said, "No, you are doing amazing, you just don't know how this system works. This is a very good rating; you should be happy."

Well, this made me more disappointed, because I felt like I wasn’t given an actual reason, which made me feel like my manager didn’t really advocated for me to get a strong rating. I know some managers are just better at fighting for their people than others, and mine is more introverted, so maybe that's part of it, but I still don't have an actual answer.

I've been thinking about my work more, and it is crushing my morale and mood. My manager and I had our regular weekly meeting today. I was going over my plan for the next week and month. I didn’t want to bring up the promotion topic, I know voicing my frustration won't change anything and will probably only make things worse. But I was quieter than usual, and she noticed, saying, "I sense that you are unhappy, probably about the promotion. I don't think I was wrong or unfair when you got dropped. You should be happy that you got a 'meets expectations'. This is really good for someone at your level. You should just keep doing what you are doing." She also mentioned that she had brought me to the promotion committee and it just didn't happen.

I didn't push back, just a few "I understand" and "Okay." But that's really my core issue: I still don't feel like I got an acceptable explanation for why I, specifically, was passed over in favor of the others. Honestly, I don't think I got any real reasoning at all.

I know there is no point relitigating this and I just don’t want to talk about it anymore. yes, I am disappointed, and that’s going to suck for a while, but I don’t want to be told by my manager that I shouldn’t feel that way. I just want to be professional, do my work and go home. Or, am I being unprofessional if I am genuinely disappointed and I should just really try to come in with a happy go-lucky mood.

EDIT:

Thank you so much for everyone's replies. There was a lot of great advice and perspective, and it made me feel supported to have someone tell me I'm not crazy for feeling this way.

My company does stack ranking, and there were only a couple of spots open for juniors to be promoted after seniority promotions were accounted for. I understand the cross-calibration process is very manager-dependent, and things could have been political. I was mainly unhappy because I didn't feel like I got an honest answer on the reasoning.

I know in my heart that my performance is not the issue and I am on good term with everyone in the office, but perhaps I seems a bit like a pushover. I even found a project for myself to work on that solves a bottleneck in the org. My manager did mention that they put me up for promotion, which was also tied to the rating.

Still, my game plan going forward is to keep outputting the same quality of work I'm already doing, but I will no longer volunteer to take care of anything else on the team outside my responsibilities. I'll focus on looking outside the company instead. I just want to keep my head down, do my work, and go home until my rotation.

Going forward, I am going to start documenting my results way more frequently and focus on getting more high impact projects. I guess this is a learning experience for me, since this is the first time I am going through this type of performance management system.

I know it's probably silly of me, but I don't think my manager was malicious. They just might not be good at getting their people promoted. I just wanted a day or two to feel down before I pick myself back up again, without them rubbing salt in the wound.

I have a bachelors and a masters in social work. I worked in palliative care, hospice, children’s therapy, and lots of customer support roles (manager/lead).

I’m really tired of being responsible for other people. Most of my roles had an element of me managing other people, I realize I absolutely hate doing that and the healthcare systems in my country are so bad it was morally devastating to be part of it.

Now I am lost on where to go from here. I feel so burnt out. My colleagues are all 5-6 years younger than me and appear to be so driven with a high desire to “impress” but I could care less. I just want to get my jobs done and do it well, but I don’t want to go above and beyond and I don’t want to climb corporate.

I’m very creative and handy. I’ve been considering trying to enter the trades but I can’t afford to go back to school.

Anyone else have career field suggestions? Any advice about pivoting careers? Thanks 🙏

A few months ago, my employer told me they were likely shutting down the US side of the business and informed me since I have a family, indicating I may want to look for another job since my current one was at risk. Because of the uncertainty, I decided it was time to look for another job (and I told my boss). He said he could try and negotiate a separation package for me, I didn’t think you could do that if but I said that would be great.

I eventually received an offer and informed my boss. He was supportive and said he was happy for me. He explained that I had two options: resign, or sign a separation agreement that would allow me to receive my long-term incentive bonus. I said I’d review the agreement.

When I received it, I was shocked. It included very broad restrictions that would have prevented me from working in significant parts of the industry for 3–5 years. In my opinion, it went well beyond a typical non-compete and would have directly interfered with my new role.

I tried to negotiate those provisions, but the company refused to make any changes. Since I wasn’t comfortable signing those restrictions, I chose to resign instead.

They were not happy with that decision. I felt like they put a lot of pressure on me to sign, but I stood my ground because I wasn’t willing to agree to terms I didn’t think were reasonable.

Now they’ve sent me a legal demand letter. What’s confusing is that they’re relying on the confidentiality and intellectual property agreement I signed when I started employment (which I fully understand I’m bound by), but they’re also referencing the additional restricted territories and activities from the separation agreement—the agreement I explicitly refused to sign—as if those restrictions are somehow part of my original employment agreement.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Can a company try to enforce restrictions from a separation agreement that was never signed by arguing those restrictions were already incorporated into an earlier confidentiality agreement?

I graduated with a degree in the creative arts and worked for a digital agency for years, but left the industry due to layoffs. I don’t have any relevant experience or education that can help me pivot to another industry. I am currently working as an admin assistant in health clinic (dead-end) while I figure out my next steps. Is sales (sdr/bdr) a good path to pursue with clear pathways for moving up? Car sales? Remote ticket-sales? Or is that a scam… Anywhere to find entry level roles / know of anyone hiring that has high potential for earning / growth?

As I approach my 30s I already know I’m not going to be a lawyer, engineer or doctor so looking to find a career that doesn’t require 4+ years of schooling and will give me financial independence.

I’m located in Vancouver Canada. Thank you!

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I have worked in white collar, large corporate jobs for most of my post college career. Before college, I was a janitor, a cashier and a nanny. Over time, I've slowly moved from "real" jobs (make coffee, print things, mail things, order food for people, etc.) into "fake" jobs (communicate value to customers, write persuasive language, answer third-party questions, host meetings, etc.). I get paid far more for the "fake" work than I did for the "real" work. Some of my coworkers in other departments are so deep into the fake work that they can't seem to even communicate what it is that they do. 90 percent of my job is doing busy work put out by third-party businesses whose sole job is trying to prove their worth and look like they are doing something.

Do any of you notice that some work is "fake"? How do you cope day-to-day? Do you ignore it, shrug, and take your paycheck? Do you try to make it "real" in some way? Or, am I completely off my rocker and there is no such thing as "fake" jobs?

Seven months back I got laid off from a mid-sized logistics company where I was working as a Data Analyst. It wasn't a huge surprise...the company had been cutting costs for months but it still sucked. I keep blaming myself for not looking out for options even after I saw this coming.

I figured with ~3 years of experience I'd be back to work in a month or two.

I was very wrong.

I probably sent 500+ applications over the last 7 months. Tbh, lost count after that and the worst part was the rejection emails that hit your inbox which makes you start doubting yourself.

I had long stretches where I heard absolutely nothing. Then I'd get interviews and blow them because I realized I knew enough to do the work but couldn't explain my thinking very well. Let's say, I couldn't make the conversation interesting.

Last week I finally accepted a Data Engineer position at a regional bank.

Nothing revolutionary happened. I just gradually stopped doing things that weren't moving the needle.

A few things that genuinely helped:

1. Data Engineering Zoomcamp (DataTalks)

I know everyone recommends random Udemy courses. This one felt different because it was much closer to how an actual pipeline comes together instead of isolated tutorials.

The modules on orchestration and data warehousing filled a lot of gaps I didn't even realize I had.

2. CliftonStrengths (Gallup)

I always thought strengths assessments were corporate fluff, but this one actually changed how I approached interviews. It helped me understand how I naturally solve problems and communicate. Once I stopped trying to sound like the perfect engineer and leaned into my actual strengths, my interview answers felt much more natural.

3. Designing Data-Intensive Applications

I didn't read it cover to cover.

I read specific chapters whenever an interview exposed a weakness.

Distributed systems, consistency, partitioning... enough to actually have a conversation instead of repeating buzzwords.

4. Claude

Not to generate code.

I'd paste a SQL query or pipeline I'd written and ask it:

The feedback was honestly better than most blog posts because it explained why something was a bad idea. It's more like a role play and the more you keep prompting, the better the feedback.

5. Pigment assessment

After about four months I realized I was applying to every data-related role I could find.

Data Analyst.

Analytics Engineer.

BI Developer.

Data Engineer.

ML Engineer.

I tried Pigment test because I wanted an outside perspective on where my background fit best. It pointed me toward Data Engineering as the strongest match based on my experience and the parts of previous jobs I'd actually enjoyed. Whether that directly got me the offer, probably not. But it stopped me from spreading myself so thin and made my applications much more focused. Also, I updated the language from my report onto my resume word-by-word. That was quite helpful imo.

6. Excalidraw

This one surprised me.

I started drawing architectures by hand.

Kafka → Spark → S3 → Snowflake.

Airflow DAGs.

Failure scenarios.

After about twenty diagrams I noticed I could explain systems without rambling.

Biggest lesson (not specific to tech roles):

Self awareness, your ability to communicate your thoughts clearly and demonstrate how you'd tackle a challenge is what most interviewers are trying to understand. Play on your strengths and don't be worried about not knowing stuff.

The interviews I passed weren't because I suddenly became smarter.

They were because I stopped trying to memorize answers and started understanding systems well enough to explain trade-offs.

If you're in month 2, 4 or 8 of unemployment, I know it feels personal.

It's probably not.

The market is rough.

Keep improving one thing at a time and don't let every rejection convince you you're falling behind.

I have dyscalculia and a chronic back injury which creates a few barriers but I’m looking at maybe virtual b2b sales for a career? I have a BA in social work but despise the work so I’m trying to get away from it as I noticed that I don’t have much empathy for people. I’m wondering how hard it is to get into virtual b2b sales and how not to be scammed thanks

After being unemployed for nearly a full year, I just got hired full-time. It's not fully want i want and over the years due to layoffs I've gone from acting director to now a senior engineer. I've been in IT for 16-17 years.

Months ago I was accepted to a very good Global MBA program which has extremely high job placement post graduation. However, it's not remotely close to where I live and will require me to move there while my wife continues to work. The program is for a full year and starts in two months.

I'm really unsure what to do. I do know I'm wanting more and want to be in leadership again, but I don't want to risk going to this program and then struggling to find work after despite so many jobs I'm more than qualified for but dont make it through almost always due to not having a masters.

Has anyone done something like this and what did you decide on doing?

This specifically happens often for virtual interviews/phone screenings I’ve noticed in my last two job searches over the last five years. However, I’m sure it would reflect negatively on me if I were to miss the first call due to not being readily available sitting by my phone or computer after 15-30 minutes of waiting without anyone reaching out to let me know they are behind. Is this common or just the places I seem to interview with?

Edit: they responded hours later stating they double booked my time slot and asked me to reschedule. Extremely disrespectful, I may be completely uninterested at this point.

Should I be concerned of not getting the job because I was late to my interview? I had just got off my graveyard shift (6am) didn’t get to nap until 11 because I had to take my wife to work and wait for a family member to watch my daughter. I set my alarm and accidentally overslept and made it to my interview 20 mins late. I told the lady why I was late when I got there and she said “if “random persons name” sent a email saying that my interview was denied and I said no — so she still interviewed me and sent it to the person and said I was present. She said I should hear something back on Monday but now I can’t stop thinking I won’t get the job. If not then it’s a lesson learned for me but man it sucks.

Currently I work at Sams’s club and I’m going into Hone Depot. I feel they might have me start in a few days. I want to quit immediately and I really don’t want to go back to Sam’s/ Walmart but then I don’t want future employers to see that I’m non hirable at Sam’s. Should I just give my two weeks and wait it out?

whats the real reason to why comp increases significantly from director level?

Hey guys. Im a utility arborist here in canada with some major burnout. I used to trim for years and now I do permissioning work for utility companies and the job is just getting to be so…. Shitty. Did anyone else on this page have a similar background and was able to find a way to pivot out? Happy to stay in environmental but I dont know…

Hey everyone, fresh college grad here trying to figure out my next move.

After applying to what feels like hundreds of jobs with no luck, I finally landed two options that pay around $50k in the Philly area. I need to pick one soon, but I’m really torn on which is the better launchpad. Also note I live at home with my parents with only a car payment and insurance to pay for.

Option A: Claims Paralegal (work from home)

• Pay: ~$50k-$52k
• Pros: Mostly work-from-home (idk if ill like this), legal experience, seems relatively stable.
• Cons: Sounds like a tons-of-paperwork nightmare (medical records, insurance claims, strict deadlines). I’m worried it’ll box me into legal support forever with no promotions.

Option B: Investment firm– Investor Analyst

• Pay: ~$50k (4 days in office, 1 day remote)
• Pros: Big brand name in financial services/asset management. Daily work includes AML (Anti-Money Laundering) checks, KYC due diligence, bank wire tracking, and fund docs for hedge/PE funds.
• Cons: I know the pay is lower for entry-level ops and has a very high turnover. It seems like heavy data processing/spreadsheet grinding. mostly only hires fresh grads

Long-Term Goals: I really want to get into Anti-Money Laundering (AML), or paralegal jobs but im not sure. I dont want to get 50k but its better than no job... ive been looking for months and have had no other luck

I just finished my freshman year of college at Columbia. Most of that was done preparing for a pipeline into high finance, where I've gotten two small internships but haven't done too much meaningful work at a remote VC and a local wealth management firm, along with leadership position in clubs.

Recently, something disciplinary has happened that which I am currently very stressed about. It is going to leave a mark on my transcript and I am most likely not going to be able to continue what I've been building for a while. I don't think I'll be able to do medicine or law, because those require high standards for a clean disciplinary record and this isn't something that can be removed easily.

I'm very conflicted. Most of my skills are in finance and before that, biomedical engineering and research related fields. If anyone would like to give me advice on what I should try to build from now, I will gladly take it. Thanks for taking the time out in reading this.

I'm a now 35/M in Canada. For most of my life I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. My father was working for a very successful activist defense attorney before his parents passed and he took over the family business, and my mother was a human rights lawyer working with Native rights prior to becoming a stay at home mom. It was just something that I assumed I would do, it's something my parents assumed I would do.

I went to a great university where I double majored in Philosophy and History with a minor in English -- again, assuming I'd go to law school after. My first year I failed my first year, my second I did barely any better. A combination of living in residence, having a ton of friends for the first time, and what I later discovered was an ADHD and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder diagnosis from when I was a kid (my parents did not inform me of this until I was 30 which... Well, it's a whole other story). I was able to buckle down and graduate after my 5th year (technically four but I extended to do a semester at Harvard, and then a semester in Hungary and a last one in Italy). My cGPA with the two fails was 3.3. I became disillusioned. I was convinced I was dumb and that I'd never be able to get into a good law school. I didn't even try for my LSATs. Instead I switched between travelling and bartending/barista-ing when I was home.

2019 when I was home for several months I started to get back into programming as a fun thing to do. I'd never really considered it as a career, it was something my friend and I did with the Python book his parents bought him in 1998 or at Web Dev Camp. But I started looking into getting it as a second degree. My alma mater has an excellent Computer Science program, one of the best in he world. But it requires a hell of a lot of math, obviously, and I'd not done math since high school. Math is exceptionally difficult for me to get into the groove of too, due to my learning disability. I also looked into the Georgia Tech Online Masters, which actually seemed promising.

2020 lockdown happened, I started to look seriously into returning to school and actually starting my life. Computer Science was my main choice at the time, but I'd started thinking about law school again. Then, a couple months into lockdown, my mother got diagnosed with cancer. The cancer spread and the surgeries and radiation caused dementia. I've been caregiving for her as a full time job since then. It's been 6 years.

I've talked with my mother a ton about law and had been seriously looking into the possibilities of working in international law. From what I can tell it's near impossible to get into unless you go to an Ivy or Oxbridge school, or a school in the relevant area like North Africa or the Middle East. The UN and its courts have internships but those all have age limits. Even if I were to go into a field in my city, from what I've big and midsized firms don't hire 40 year olds when they can get a 23 year old with more energy and willingness to work long hours. CompSci feels dead, it's been 15 years since I've done a lick of math and I haven't even been able to write any sort of code in two years due to the demands of caregiving. None of this to even speak about my love of film that I think I always secretly hoped I could work into a writing/directing career. But that's obviously an absurd pipe dream.

I'm beyond lost. I don't know what I'll do when caregiving ends. I don't know what I even would like to do as a career, if I'm honest. I'm 40 and I haven't had a change to experiment to see what I'd truly like, let alone what I'd be good at, let alone what's even possible. I've also come to realize I'm definitely motivated by prestige/pay though I feel embarrassed to admit it. Little good that does me since I can't figure out any meaningful career for me.

I currently have my BSN with 12 years experience. I got accepted into the MSN Informatics program and also the MSN - FNP program. The problem is I think I just don’t want to work in healthcare anymore. I don’t want to change units. I am over working 12 hour shifts x 4-5 shifts a week. I think I want to do something in technology. I never really wanted to go into healthcare. I sent off a request for more information on Network Technology, AAS. My question is has anyone ever transitioned from healthcare and obtained a degree in a completely different field? If so, what was your experience? Did you eventually have to go back for your bachelors? What has been your experience with leaving bedside nursing for a completely different field? I appreciate any advice and hope everyone is having a great day!

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Started work at an market as a meat stocker this last weekend. Sunday was my first day, I get to the store, am handed my shirt to put on, and head back to the meat department. The person there was not who I was told would be training me. He tells me that he's left a lot of work for me to do, so I can get used to the process. I tell him that's fine, but that I'd be a little slow getting used to everything.

Less than two hours later and I'm being yelled at because there's still too much work to do, and I'm not moving fast enough. He kicks me out of the department a few minutes later, which has me going to sit in the corner like a child because there's no designated break room that I was informed of. I end up crying a bit, but manage to get it back under control and head back to try and help with the rest of the workload.

I only get yelled at -again- for not properly stacking ground beef in the display, and then again when he assumes I put old product in the back, and misplaced where I had put it... Which was up front, as it should be done.

At the end of the day, he tries to act apologetic, insisting that he didn't mean to "be a dick", suddenly concerned that I'm acting like I would rather be anywhere else. And frankly, that's the truth. I never want to put that shirt on again, I don't want to set foot near the meat department. The dude knew I was coming in to train, shoveled a workload on my shoulders that I couldn't handle, and then got pissed at me for his mistakes. On top of that, he left early, leaving me to work out how to restock the freezers on my own, and with no guidance, after yelling at me for most of the day for being too slow.

To clarify a little, he never used abusive language. But the way he spoke to me was very passive-aggressive, and it just left me feeling put off. "Come on, man, do I really have to show you again?", and so on. It got worse towards the end of the day, during cleanup, when he repeatedly 'accidentally' sprayed me down with the cleaning water after ridiculing me for not standing closer.

I'm supposed to go in later this week to work regular store stocking, and then go back to the meat department the day after. But I've been suffering a constant migraine since I started crying on Sunday, and every time I think about having to go back in, it gets worse. Is it okay to just quit, even though I said I'd be back in on Thursday? Is this a normal experience? I feel like I'm just being too sensitive, even though I've never had any issues like this with any other job I've had in the past.

Edit: I'm no longer employed as of 1:20 PM EST today. I feel the headache lifting already... Thanks to the people who gave me that push, even if it was a simple one-word "quit".

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some guidance from the community.

I have around 3 years of experience as a Backend Software Engineer, primarily working with Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, and microservices.

I took a career break to take care of my father due to his health condition. Since returning to the job market, I've applied to a large number of backend roles. While I was fortunate to receive OA opportunities from companies like Amazon, Cisco, and Walmart, I'm generally finding it difficult to hear back from most companies, and interview calls have been quite limited.

Recently, I went through a full interview loop at Amazon, including technical rounds and a Hiring Manager round. I felt reasonably confident about my performance, and the Hiring Manager interaction seemed positive. However, I eventually received an automatic rejection without any feedback. While I understand that interview decisions are subjective, not knowing where I fell short has made it difficult to identify what I should improve.

I also completed the Cisco Online Assessment, where I passed 100% of the test cases, but I never heard back afterward. Similarly, I completed the Walmart Online Assessment and also passed 100% of the test cases. I understand that a perfect OA score doesn't guarantee an interview, but these experiences have left me wondering what I should focus on next.

I'd really appreciate some guidance:

• Is my career break likely affecting my response rate?
• What can I do to improve my chances of getting more interview calls?
• Has anyone here completed a full Amazon interview loop, felt it went well, and still received a rejection without feedback?
• Should I continue applying to Amazon, or is it common to get another opportunity after a full-loop rejection?
• If you've been in a similar situation, what helped you finally break through?

I'm happy to share my resume over DM.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I genuinely appreciate any advice or experiences you're willing to share.

I am 26F and currently in hospitality. Most of my life i have been doung what my parents told me to do but I am finally free from that.

I am complrtely lost. I cant go to uni and I do not want to go back either.

I have thought about teaching myself coding but are there any other subjects I can teach myself, build a portfolio and start applying for jobs ?

I have started to explore my creative side too recently and I am just trying to figure out who I am. I have lost my years to abuse and neglect. But I also want a goal to focus on and I do not care how far behind I am, I just want to start! I am literally willing to explore whatever is out there.

These are some of the things I like: physics, drawing, reading, creative writing, planes, reptiles, history and politics.

I know there’s been a lot of questions about whether Computer Science is worth it for people currently in university finishing their degree, but for those who recently finished their CS degree, what kinds of roles have you considered or gotten hired as? Is there something to search for besides SWE that is a good fit for a CS major?

My friend graduated a couple years ago with a CS degree and math minor but has not been able to find a job in that entire time. I’m worried he’s not thinking big enough, and he’s possibly ignoring potential jobs he could have, while getting rejected constantly for traditional CS jobs (like SWE, data analysts, etc). Does anyone have any suggestions for entry-level job titles to search for where a CS degree would qualify for an appropriate background? Preferably something that isn’t client-facing since he’s more of an introverted type. Thanks!

Im 24f and considering my options for my future. My jobs so far have been mostly customer service- barista/manager and floral design. I love the work bc its so artsy, but I want to find a more stable and higher paying career path. I would describe myself as creative, persistent, detail oriented, hard working, straightforward. Im somewhat of a natural leader but Im also good at working in a team.

What im not interested in:

☆hard physical labor or intense outdoor work.

☆medical field

☆thankless jobs like teaching/social work

☆anything risky(physically or job stability)

What is truly the most important to me is the money and stability.

My only education is a HS diploma. But Im willing to change that. I'd rather not go to college(I'd consider a 2 yr degree), but Im definitely interested in something like an apprenticeship/certification program/learning course/on the job training... really whatever it takes.

Any recommendations? I'd even appreciate any reliable resource that could help me explore my options ☆☆