c/career-advice

Took the lower paying job offer after 3 years of commission stress

I had to pick between a sales gig with uncapped commission and a flat salary position last month, and I chose the boring stable one. Has anyone else traded potential upside for a consistent paycheck and regretted or loved it after their first 30 days?

1 comments

casey_barnes•2d ago

Is a 6-month job search normal or am I doing something wrong?

I spent 5 months in Portland applying to 40+ roles and got 2 interviews, both dead ends. A friend says that's just how it goes now, but my dad insists I should have network calls lined up every day. Which side is actually right for a mid-level marketing spot?

1 comments

olivia_webb•4d ago

Rant: I finally stopped chasing job postings and started using my network last week

I spent 3 years applying to maybe 200 jobs online, got like 4 callbacks, zero offers. Last Tuesday at a coffee shop in Austin, an old coworker from my last gig asked what I was up to. I told him I was stuck in the application loop, and he said, "You're doing it wrong, people hire people." That night I messaged 5 contacts, just asking about their days, not for jobs. By Friday, two of them forwarded my resume to their teams, and one set up a phone screen for this week. I always figured networking was for sales people or extroverts, but seeing it work in real time flipped my view. Has anyone else had a bigger win from a random chat than from a dozen polished applications?

1 comments

david_henderson6•12d ago

Sat through a 2 hour meeting today and realized half of it was totally useless

I went to this weekly team check-in at my office downtown, and the boss spent 20 minutes reading off budget numbers nobody needed. Then Jim from accounting droned on about a report due next month that we all already knew about. It hit me around minute 45 that we could have handled everything in a 15 minute email chain. Has anyone else tried pushing for shorter standups or cutting agenda items that don't matter to everyone?

c/career-advice

Took the lower paying job offer after 3 years of commission stress

Is a 6-month job search normal or am I doing something wrong?

Rant: I finally stopped chasing job postings and started using my network last week

Sat through a 2 hour meeting today and realized half of it was totally useless

Back in 2015 at a small agency in Portland an intern showed me how she organized her emails with labels

Coffee with a recruiter changed my whole view on cover letters

Just learned from an HR friend that 75% of resumes get filtered out by AI before a human ever sees them

A supervisor in 2018 told me to network more and I ignored it

Just realized asking for a raise is not the same as negotiating a salary offer

Vent: My company's culture shift from 2021 to now is jarring

Pro tip: That "follow your passion" advice almost wrecked my finances

Unpopular opinion: Chasing promotions is a waste of time in your 40s

Bombed a phone interview because my dog started barking mid-answer

That career fair in Austin where nobody asked about my actual skills

I wasted $800 on a resume writing service that copied my LinkedIn verbatim

Shoutout to the old coworker who taught me the 5 minute rule

Got told I was 'too nice' in meetings and it actually helped

Overheard my coworker say 'fake it till you make it' and it clicked

My boss said "stop asking" and it clicked for me

Still thinking about what that old mechanic told me in 2019

Hit 100 rejections before my first real job offer came through

Had a talk with a retired engineer at the library about resumes and it hit different

Chose the flexible online course over the rigid bootcamp and it paid off way faster

That 'fake it till you make it' advice nearly cost me a job offer

TIL asking for a raise in person vs email makes a huge difference