c/career-advice

I finally broke down and asked my boss for a raise after 3 years of waiting

Paid $300 for a resume writing service and got back generic junk

I was job hunting last spring and got frustrated with my resume. So I paid this online service $300 thinking they would tweak it for my industry. They sent me back a template with my name swapped in and buzzwords like "synergy" that I never use. I had to rewrite the whole thing myself over a weekend. The worst part is they used a font that didn't even open right on my laptop. Has anyone else tried one of these services and gotten something equally useless?

Heard a VP say something at a coffee shop that changed how I look at emails

I was grabbing coffee near our office in downtown Portland last Tuesday and two suits were talking at the table next to me. One of them said, 'if your email takes more than 30 seconds to read, nobody reads it.' I started thinking about how I write my work emails and realized almost all of them are way too long. Since then I've been cutting every email down to three sentences max and people actually reply faster now. Has anyone else tried shortening their emails on purpose?

Overheard my boss say something about 'soft skills' that made me rethink stuff

I was grabbing coffee in the break room last week and my boss was talking to some manager from another department. He said something like "hard skills get you the job but soft skills keep you from getting fired." At first I thought it was just corporate buzzword nonsense but then I started thinking about my own situation. I've been turning down training opportunities at my shop because I feel like I already know enough to do my job fine. But the truth is I've had a few close calls with customers where my tone came off wrong or I didn't explain why their repair was taking longer. Last month a guy almost left a bad review because I was short with him on the phone. So now I'm wondering if maybe I should actually take that communication workshop the company keeps offering. Has anyone else ever blown off something like that and later wished they hadn't?

Found out today that 70% of hiring managers spend less than 60 seconds on a resume, which honestly explains why my carefully formatted two-pager got zero callbacks.

I stumbled on that stat from a survey on LinkedIn (of all places) and it hit me that I needed to ditch the fancy layout and just put my key wins right at the top, has anyone else had luck with a single page resume over a detailed one?

Always thought networking events were a waste of time until one landed me a job in 2 weeks

I skipped every networking mixer for like 3 years because I figured it was just people handing out business cards and making small talk. Then last month my buddy dragged me to one in Austin, and I ended up talking to a guy who runs a small marketing firm. We just chatted about local BBQ spots for 20 minutes, not even work. He texted me later that week saying he liked my vibe and had an opening. I started the job Monday. Has anyone else had a random conversation like that actually pay off?

Old mentor told me to stop rushing through calls and it changed how I work

I was about 23 working at a small repair shop in Tulsa, fixing old radios and amplifiers for a living. There was this one older guy, maybe 70, who came in every few weeks with a busted receiver or a turntable that wouldn't spin. He never hurried, always sat on the stool by my bench and just watched me work. One day he told me "you're moving too fast for the problem, son. slow down and let the circuit talk to you." That stuck with me because I realized I was always trying to get to the next ticket instead of actually hearing what people needed. He wasn't even a regular customer, just a retired electrician who liked to chat. I still think about that when I'm tempted to rush through a conversation with a client or skip the small talk. Has anyone else had a stranger drop a piece of advice that totally reframed how you approach your job?

My crew burned 3 hours because we trusted a laser level on a sunny day

We were doing crown molding in a house off Maple Street last Tuesday. Pulled out my Bosch GLL, got it leveled, and started marking. By lunchtime nothing was lining up right. Turns out direct sunlight washes out the beam and we were marking off a ghost. Had to redo everything by hand with a bubble level. Has anyone else had this happen with laser levels on bright jobsites?

My first manager told me "stop making excuses and just ship it" - changed how I handle perfectionism

I was always the person who would spend way too long tweaking small details before sending anything to my boss. Reports, emails, even just a quick update. My manager pulled me aside after I missed a deadline on a project that was basically done but I kept "polishing" it. She said the work was good enough a week before I sent it. Now I try to get things out the door at 80% and iterate from feedback instead of hiding away. Has anyone else had to unlearn the whole "perfect is the enemy of done" thing in a real job setting?

Got curious about my own salary history and found out I left $12k on the table at my first job

I was cleaning out old emails last weekend and stumbled on my offer letter from a marketing gig back in 2018. For fun I looked up what the average pay was for that role at the time on Glassdoor. Turns out they started me at $38k but the median was $50k for the same title. I just accepted their first number without negotiating because I was scared to ask for more. Idk, has anyone else gone back and realized they lowballed themselves hard early on?

My manager said "just Google it" was bad career advice

He told me to stop relying on Google for every coding problem and actually read the documentation... turns out reading docs first saves me like 2 hours a day. Has anyone else had a boss give advice that sounded wrong but ended up being totally right?

Corporate recruiters told me 3 years of experience is the "new entry level" in a meeting last week

They literally said on a Zoom call in front of 20 people that they won't even look at resumes with less than 3 years for an assistant role, has anyone else seen this shift happen right in front of them?

Caught my boss using a spreadsheet to 'track morale' and it was just a column of faces

I walked by his desk last Tuesday and saw a Google Sheet with employee names and a column labeled 'Vibe Check' with just smiley or frowny face emojis. He rated me a frowny face because I didn't laugh at his joke about coffee. Has anyone else seen managers try to quantify feelings in weird ways?

Blanked during a presentation at a team meeting in Chicago last month

I was presenting quarterly results to about 15 people including our VP and suddenly my mind went completely empty. I had rehearsed it three times the night before but when I looked at the slide my brain just gave me fog. I stood there for maybe 10 seconds that felt like an hour. I just said 'give me one second' and took a sip of water while staring at my notes until I found my place. Has anyone else had a full mental freeze during a work presentation and what do you do to recover?

Overheard a hiring manager say she skips resumes with too many buzzwords

She claimed terms like 'synergy' and 'deep dive' make her doubt actual experience, but isn't that just how you show you know the industry - do buzzwords help or hurt your chances in 2024?

Heard a coworker say you need a 4-year degree to get ahead in IT...

I've been working in IT for 11 years without a degree and I make more than my manager who has a Master's - who's really getting ahead here?

Was set on leaving my job until one convo with my boss flipped it

I was dead set on quitting my IT help desk role at a company in Austin for like 3 months. Then I had a 20 minute chat with my manager where she straight up asked what I actually wanted to do, and she set up a shadow day with the network team. Realized I was just bored of the grunt work, not the field itself. Anyone else have a boss talk them off the ledge like that?

Overheard a new hire say "I don't do free work" and it made me rethink my whole hustle mindset

Was grabbing coffee near the office last Tuesday and heard this kid maybe 22 years old tell his friend he won't even answer a quick question after hours unless he's clocked in. At first I thought he was lazy. But then I started adding up all the "quick favors" I did early in my career. Free extra reports, staying late to help a coworker, taking calls on my day off. Probably cost me 2 years of proper advancement because I looked desperate instead of valuable. Has anyone else noticed a line between being helpful and getting walked on?

Reached 500 job applications before landing an interview

I kept a spreadsheet of every job I applied to over 18 months. When I hit 500, I realized most of those were shotgun applications with no tailored resume. Has anyone else tracked their numbers and found a pattern in what finally worked?

Pro tip: Stop over-formatting your resume for every single job

I spent three years tweaking my resume fonts and layouts for each application and got nowhere. Last month I just used plain Times New Roman with clear headers and sent the same version to 12 places. I got 4 callbacks. What's the deal with people thinking fancy formatting hides a weak job history anyway?

Had to choose between a stable office job and a freelance gig with no safety net

Last year I got offered a full time position at a company in Austin. $55k salary, benefits, 401k match. Then a freelance project came in that paid $80 an hour but had zero guarantees. I picked the freelance route. First three months were brutal, barely enough work. Then it picked up. Now I'm making more but the inconsistency scares me sometimes. Has anyone else made that jump and regretted it or stuck with it?

Warning: Tried a 90-day plan from a career coach and my team hated it

I followed this online coach's advice to restructure my daily tasks into 90-day sprints. Three weeks in, my junior staff complained they couldn't keep up with the shifting priorities. Has anyone else had a structured plan backfire on them at work?

Walked into a meeting with my resume from 2015 and got called out immediately

Last Tuesday I showed up for an interview at a marketing firm in Austin and handed over my old resume. The hiring manager looks at it and goes "did you really list Macromedia Flash as a skill?" I froze because I hadn't updated that thing in like 8 years. It had my old college GPA and a reference from a boss who retired in 2017 too. I honestly thought nobody would notice but they read every line. Has anyone else had an old resume come back to bite them like this?

Blew a client presentation yesterday by forgetting to check my slides on the actual projector

I was in a conference room at a WeWork in downtown Denver, about to pitch a $15k campaign to a local brewery. Plugged in my laptop and half my slides had text boxes all shifted off screen because the aspect ratio was different than my monitor. Had to talk through the concepts without visuals for 10 minutes while the IT guy fixed it. Client still signed but I looked like an amateur - has anyone found a reliable way to test setups before the actual meeting?

Realized I was wasting 3 hours daily on busy work at my accounting firm

I spent 2 years making spreadsheets look pretty before my manager told me nobody reads them. They just want the numbers, not the color coding. Anyone else get caught up making things perfect when the boss just wants the raw info?