I recently got an offer for a job that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s the kind of opportunity I’ve always hoped I’d get, and I’m genuinely excited about the possibility of finally doing something I really want to do for a living.

The problem is that it comes with a couple of pretty big downsides. The salary is about $10,000 less than what I’m currently making, and the commute would be longer, meaning more time and money spent getting to and from work.

Financially, it feels like I’d be taking a step backward. But at the same time, I can’t help thinking about how much I want this job and whether being happy with what I do every day is worth sacrificing some income.

I know the obvious answer is to look at my budget and figure out whether I can afford the pay cut, but I’m also struggling with the idea of walking away from an opportunity I might not get again.

For those of you who have taken a pay cut to pursue a career you really wanted, how did it turn out? Were you happy with the decision, or did the financial sacrifice end up outweighing the benefits?

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have been in a similar situation. I’m genuinely torn between making the financially responsible decision and taking a chance on something I’ve always wanted to do.

EDIT: I currently make $80000 and the new job offered me $70000 with an additional week off. The benefits are the same because it is a public sector job so everything I have now would carry over. Both jobs max out at $85000 but the new job wants to start me at the bottom even though I have years of experience. I was told maybe after a year they could possibly move me up to what im making now but it is not guaranteed.

EDIT 2: Just wanted to add more context after reading and replying to everyone's comments.

• My current job is a 10 minute commute and the new job is 30 to 40 minutes depending on traffic.
• The new job will provide me a car I can use to get to and from work which would save me money on gas and wear and tear on my car but I honestly dont drive that much so I dont think it would make a huge difference.
• I talked to the director of the job and he went and asked for them to match what I am currently making but they said no and possibly in a year I could be back up to what I am making now but it isnt guaranteed.
• I could afford to make the move but money would be more tight and me and my family would have to defiantly budget.
  
• This truly is a dream of mine to do as some people have stated they don't think dream jobs exist but for me this would defiantly be up there. Not to get into to much detail but I would be working on a task force to help stop crime. I currently work in the same field but I don't directly impact as much as I would with this new position.

I'm curious how others feel about a situation where a company hires fully remote employees while requiring existing employees in the exact same role to come into the office every day.

My company has been hiring remote employees to fill what you could call a specialized position, which I understand from a recruiting standpoint / challenge. The problem is that we already have employees doing essentially identical work who are required to be in the office simply because they live within commuting distance.

We're talking about a jobs that is entirely computer based with very little need for face to face interaction. Even when we're physically in the office, much of the communication happens virtually or with remote employees.

Meanwhile the office employees are spend thousands of dollars a year on commuting expenses and lose hundreds of hours of their life each year sitting behind the wheel. Obviously it goes without saying that this could be time spent with family, sleeping, exercising etc.

Now where it gets especially frustrating:

• My understanding is employees doing the same job remotely and in the office have a pay difference somewhere around $0.50 an hour.
• I've personally seen employees quit, move away, and get rehired into fully remote positions.
• Employees who stay with the company and live near the office aren't offered / have never been offered that same flexibility or a remote offer.
• There doesn't seem to be any path to becoming "remote eligible"... unless you leave the company and relocate.

The company has already proven these jobs can be done remotely because it's literally paying other employees to do them remotely.

So for me it's difficult to understand why two people performing the same work should have drastically different working conditions based on where they live, especially when there's little to no difference in compensation.

It almost feels like employees who leave and come back are rewarded with better working conditions while those who stay are punished for their loyalty and solely due to their proximity to the office.

So...Am I wrong for thinking this is unfair? Would I be wrong to voice a concern on this?

Title.

It’s such a stupid amount of money that I’m prepared to move, but I love product marketing. My general company right now isn’t the best in terms of responsibilities and org structure and practices, so I would have to put in a few years before I could become a product marketing manager somewhere else. All the while I doubt I’d even touch 70-75K.

My old boss offered me this job and I’m down to take it and pivot to comms for a few years but I’m scared. Will I ruin my product marketing streak and not be able to come back or become a PMM? I’m sure it’ll be more difficult to come back compared to if I was just a product marketing specialist, but again, the money is CRAZY.

Please help, I’m literally panicking over what is the right choice!

I’m almost 28 and have had 7 jobs in the past 6 years since graduating college. I got my degree in a social science that I never worked in, and ended up going back for an accounting degree recently.

My most recent jobs have been accounting related (2 yrs with a promotion and current position is 4 months). 2 years has been my longest role, but I felt ready to quit well before then.

At every job I was either promoted or discussed getting promoted soon before leaving, and I always received good feedback, so it’s not a performance issue.

I’m at the point in my current job where I’m looking to leave, and there are definitely issues with the company, but maybe I just need to suck it up.

After this many jobs, there’s no way it’s really been an issue with the environment every time. I think it’s just hard for me to actually settle in somewhere.

I don’t want to keep feeling this way, but I also don’t want to accept having to dread going to work every day for the rest of my life. Is this just what life is, or can find a job/workplace I’ll tolerate? I probably need to shift my mindset but it feels so easy to blame the outside factors that make me frustrated.

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has felt similarly or has any advice.

I got an email today inviting me to a “technical assignment” for something called the “IRIS project” from a company named Signevity. I want to check it before I spend any time on it.

What the email says:

• It says my “technical background” was reviewed and I’m invited to complete an assignment
• The assignment is “Bavaria Water Protection Zones (LfU Bayern)”, with a 48-hour limit
• I have to deliver a reproducible implementation with Docker, a README, automated checks and a summary of limitations
• It says to work against “isolated staging resources” and not to write to “iris_core” or production systems
• The spec is in an attached PDF, and the base code is a GitHub repo

Why it feels off:

• I can’t find any company called Signevity, or any “IRIS project” tied to it, and nothing on the sender
• The GitHub repo is a personal account with one commit and no stars. Its README describes a different project (a data-centre site analytics tool for NRW, using PostGIS, Streamlit and OpenAI), not Bavarian water zones
• The setup asks for a database connection and an OpenAI API key in a .env file, plus a command that downloads and runs a script from the internet
• It’s 48 hours of unpaid work before any interview, and the task looks like real client work
• I’m not sure I ever applied to this company

My questions:

1. Has anyone received this or a similar email?
2. Is this a known pattern for getting free work, or for getting people to run code?
3. If it’s legitimate, how would you verify it before replying?

I haven’t run anything or replied. Thanks for any help.

30-something guy here.

For context, I came from a Humanities background , so I barely had any background in math or stats. For some reason, I ended up in data analytics mostly by accident when I got a job at a sportsbook company. Honestly, I just loved sports and the pay was good, so I figured, why not?

For a while, my basic stats knowledge was enough. Most of my work was trading sports matches, so my deep understanding of the games carried me. I couldn't really do advanced statistical analysis, but through a lot of luck and just knowing sports inside and out, I somehow worked my way up to a Senior Trader and Analyst role within four years.

I ended up staying in that industry for seven years. Knowing my technical skills were lacking, I spent time upskilling through bootcamps just to keep pace, but nothing too advanced. I eventually resigned due to circumstances, so I found myself back in the job market.

Then, by some stroke of luck, I got hired as a Data Analytics Manager at a massive company. Took me 3 months of applying too. The hiring process didn't even have a technical exam—just a technical interview. I guess I was able to bluff my way through the business logic and strategy side well enough to pass. But now that I actually have the job, I can't help but feel like I completely overshot my qualifications, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I have no idea what I'm doing. The work requires Advanced Excel, SQL, and Statistics, all of which I have elementary knowledge on.

My peers are a lot more knowledgeable and do cplex analysis faster than I do. Hell, i struggle with basic functions at this point. I keep having that feeling of wanting to quit to save myself the eventual embarrassment from my coworkers.

I'm looking for advice because I feel lost. Can't help but feel I messed up bigtime along the way. What should I do?

I joined a company about two months ago for a role that was pitched as working with senior leadership on a refinancing and M&A. The refi was cancelled shortly after I started, and most of that scope never materialized. But I was still given little things here and there.

Three weeks in, I was told everything was going great and they were excited to have me. I found it a little weird but one of my bosses would always ask me "what are you working on" and "are you working on anything other than M&A since there's not much going on," which I found odd but didn't really think anything of.

Around six weeks later, I noticed I wasn't as busy as I'd expected and wanted to make sure I was being utilized, so I asked for informal feedback / a manager check in. We scheduled it for this past Monday. In that meeting they let me go, citing a skills mismatch and my level of engagement.

No warning, no prior feedback that anything was off, and the conversation only happened because I asked for it. They said that it just so happens they were planning on letting me go when I asked for feedback and had been evaluating me for weeks.

I don't want to act like im the PERFECT employee, but i did all my work and always got a good job after it. There was never a this is completely wrong or any negative comments made.

Thankfully I have another offer lined up at the same salary, so I'm okay. But it's pretty jarring that a company would do this with zero feedback or warning. If I'd been relying on this job and didn't have any intuition, I'd be in a really bad spot.

Has anyone else been through this? I'm kind of shocked, depressed and confused at the same time

I just got out of high school, early too. It is only two days after the first quarter, and i graduated, I am wanting to get into Computer Science and all of that, but I don't know where to start, I want to be a software developer, it has been a dream job for a long time, but idk where to start, and when I start where do I go from there?
I am lost I have done my best to reacherch what to do, i am trying to learn python in more depth, but idk how to really do anything all to complex, i have been trying to learn, but all i have been able to do is learn how to make a button class using pygame, and i took a course in python turtle to get into programing in middle school, i did very well i was student of the year, but all I really got from that is how loops, and simple things like that, and python syntax, even then only parts.
I am trying to get a job as a software developer, i don't really care doing what, front end or back end, but i don't know where to start or what to do some help and advice would be nice.

A candidate is currently at around $720K, working remotely in an HCOL area. They’re considering an offer of around $1.55M at a frontier lab that requires relocating to SF.

Offer: around $360K + $1.19M in equity.

They already work in the LLM space, but the frontier lab has more interesting work. What’s the potential upside following an Anthropic/OpenAI IPO?

Around 7.5 YOE + PhD.

Yesterday

I was called to head office by HR. I had to sign a written warning, resulting in disqualification for year end bonus.

Tomorrow

I've asked my HOD for a face to face meeting. I will start by saying that we have to have a difficult conversation, I have 2 points and 1 question.

1. David you employed me, there were many applicants, but you chose me. Surepy there is a reason for that.

2. On the few times I've recieved feedback from you. It has always been positive.

I don't want to go into too much detail but since starting at this company I've accomplished..... and ..... Both times you told me how well the projects went.

David are you trying to get rid of me? Why have you gone straight to HR, twice now, to complain about a minor thing a phone call would have resolved.

Edit; First warning - I did not have money for fuel to get to work. I informed and asked my HOD if he could possibly borrow me a couple bucks till pay day (which was a few days later) when I pay him back. Didn't even respond, went straight to HR.

Second warning ‐ I was absent from work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Each of these days I informed both my HOD and HR that I am unable to get to work this morning, I have exhausted every possible way to get money but I simply cannot afford the fuel costs. And that i would will try my best to get something together to make it to work tomorrow. (Thursday evening was pay day)

Why I want to say the 1st point. Because even if I was a bad hire, I want to learn, eager to improve and will literally fill ANY role they need for a fucking decent salary

No careers interest me at all. the one hobby I can think of that I do semi like is art, but I'm not sure how to make that into a decent career. I'm not great at it, and I know it's probably competitive, and now with AI idek if there will be a future with art. I know everyone says architecture but I hate math so that's not an option.

I've been working at a company for half a year and there has not been a single day that made me feel good or even okay? It's not that my colleagues or boss have anything to do with it, they're really cool people. But it's just the job itself. I haven't had a moment of content. I would even say I'm getting more and more depressed. After the first month I have cried almost everyday, now I just feel numb.

Is this normal? Has anyone experienced something like that?

For context, I work in corporate and am the only responsible for marketing even though I have a design background. This is my first corporate job. So I have felt very overwhelmed from the beginning and this has not changed. Also I don't see myself pursuing a career in marketing, but somehow I ended up here.

Any advice? Am I wrong for leaving this place and changing to a complete different field?

Hey, I’m 33F UK, and at a tech agency. I’ve been at the company 4 months and work 2 days in the office and 3 days remote.

However, in the space of a month, my manager asked me to travel to London from Halifax (2.5 hours each way) stay overnight for different reasons, conference, pitch, client meeting then come back. This has been 1 week then a week off sick and then a further two weeks. But then I’m still expected to come into the office an hour away for the mandatory office days and I’m burnt out already.

Do I even bring this up because I’m on probation and if so how can I word it gently?

Not quite sure if it's the right group...But yeah could anymore give me some suggestions on how to find a part time in 🇨🇭to survive? My family cut off the financial support and I have to earn some money by myself right now! I tried walking in to apply for jobs in the restaurants, hotels, gift shops and other retail stores, people are very friendly and helpful, but most of the times I was still told to apply online. Without speaking German and French, also not have many years in the hospitality industry, actually I was quite confused, if the result of walk in is still apply online, I'm wondering how can I stand out among heaps of resumes? I haven't got a yes till the moment. Should I keep walking in? Or it takes several months to get a part time? Is there another way to find a part time? If it's not possible to find a part time in a month or two, I'm thinking maybe I should go back my home country before totally broke...Again, I'm kind of confused right now, could anyone give me some suggestions perhaps? Or do you know any kind of part time opportunities I could try? Thank you in advance for taking the time to read.

Hey everyone!

I’m 18 and recently started my first IT job in Warsaw, Poland. I work in an outsourced Service Desk team supporting Bank Millennium. We handle tickets escalated from the first line, resolve many issues ourselves, and pass more complex cases to specialized L2 teams.

I’m also studying IT engineering, and my plan is to spend around 2 years building experience in my current role while developing my technical skills outside of work.

Long-term, DevOps is one of the paths I’m most interested in. I like the idea of working with Linux, automation, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD and solving challenging technical problems.

However, I have one major concern: AI and the future of DevOps.

I keep hearing that AI will automate more and more infrastructure work, reduce the number of engineers companies need, and potentially make entry-level DevOps roles harder to get. Some people even say DevOps is slowly dying.

I’m not sure how much of this is realistic and how much is just hype. I’m not asking whether DevOps is a good career today — I’m wondering whether it will still be a good career around 2030, when I expect to have more experience and be ready to move into a more advanced role.

I’d really appreciate honest opinions on a few questions:

• Is moving from Service Desk to a junior DevOps role within 2 years realistic if I study consistently and build hands-on projects?
• What skills would you prioritize to make that transition? I’m considering Linux, networking, Python/Bash, Git, Docker, CI/CD and cloud platforms.
• Do you think AI will mostly make DevOps engineers more productive, or could it significantly reduce demand for them by 2030?
• Is DevOps still a sensible long-term career investment for someone starting now, or would you consider system administration, cloud engineering or cybersecurity instead?
• My current team supports a bank that also has infrastructure, DevOps and cybersecurity teams. Would trying to move internally eventually give me a meaningful advantage?

I know that simply spending 2 years in Service Desk won’t automatically qualify me for DevOps. I want to use that time to build the right skills and make a realistic transition.

I’m not looking for reassurance that everything will work out. I’d rather hear from people working in these fields, especially those who have moved from IT support into infrastructure, cloud or DevOps.

Thanks!

The job market is so bad... I wish there were someone who would genuinely help me get an entry into the corporate world without wanting anything in return ..lollll

Applying for retail. Had a phone call yesterday left a voicemail about discussing it. Called back today and went to voicemail and left a message saying I’m interested and about calling me back and nothing

Is that it or should I try again tomorrow?

I just got a 1-month Coursera Plus subscription. I have a background in Computer Science, so I don't need basic coding fundamentals.

I want to focus on a high-demand, project-heavy course I can finish in a month to start freelancing or taking contract work ASAP.

Any specific course recommendations or strategies to maximize this month?

Hello, everyone.

For the sake of context: A couple of years ago, I got an opportunity to work at a great institution. It's one big system, but it's divided in "branches" that cover specific areas of the country, so they essentially work independently, with their corresponding teams and such. I work in advertising.

I started working in the branch that covers the area of my city, and it was good. But I had a particularly unstable boss and, despite her liking me, I felt more and more and if my job could be in jeopardy, and opportunities like these don't come everyday, especially in my line of work. After a particularly tough day, I found out that another branch of the company that covered the next town over (around 30-40min commute) had an open role, and that the person would be working under my boss from a previous company. She's a great leader, so I interviewed and was selected. I was given a 17% raise, and put into a senior position. I also have to cover for a coworker that's on her maternity leave (but its an adjacent skillset I'm fairly comfortable with). I was happy to move to a larger branch, work under someone more "human", safeguard my career and, of course, it would be nice to see my previous boss squirm knowing she was the reason I left.

Anyway, I started last week and I feel... terrible. I feel overwhelmed, scared, anxious. I feel like I made a terrible mistake by leaving that previous job that was fine. I feel that, in an effort to not jeopardize the job that allowed me so much stability, I ended up hesperidina it by moving into an opportunity where I don't feel prepared and am, honestly, overwhelmed by. I feel terrible dread waking up every morning, and I completely lost my consistency in my diet, exercise routine and even my own hobbies.

I dream of getting caught up in something that'll prevent me from going to work, simply because I'm so terribly anxious. I know people say that these things are normal and they'll pass, but I feel so bad that I don't know I'll be able to hang on until they do improve.

Bronx NY, I’ve been working as a billing assistant for this small agency that’s now graduated to a larger center for children. I am now the most experienced employee here as the previous employees quit/were fired. i train all new employees. Boss is unprofessional, asks personal assistant/staffing coordinator tasks of me, and constantly asks employees for gossip about each other. he hired two new girls and often asks me to tell him how theyre doing/my opinion. I’m not going to be responsible for someone losing their job so i give very useless responses. he’s asking them about me now (i think he or his wife checked my linkedin where i’m titling myself as a billing coordinator) i’ve felt uncomfortable w the job for the year i’ve been here, he has us do suspicious things for the company (get fingerprints taken to claim we’re going to be teachers, he wanted me to write lesson plans for the teachers, has me call parents to change their minds about taking an english speaking therapist over a bilingual one for ex-when we aren’t supposed to be speaking to families at all and shud go through service coordinators) he does not care that hes unprofessional and has stolen last checks from therapists who have quit and changed agencies on him. every therapist who quit has left him a long letter blaming him (he promises health insurance/promises them cases/promises open communication and he does not have group insurance and passes off any calls/texts from them to ME to handle) he let his longest lasting employee know that he thinks shes slow dumb and useless at her job and i believe he enjoyed having her around just to put her down. the new employees are college grads and he makes them feel incompetent as well for not being quick or working harder than they have to. i have no contract or copy of my 1st job offer. i had quit earlier this year bc the pressure got to be so much and he gave me a raise and told me to calm down-he didnt take any of my criticism of his professionalism seriously. i stayed bc i didnt have a job in line but i have two job offers now and i know if i quit w notice, he’ll just offer to match any job offers ive gotten. a new employee who was going to be the principal of his new school/center quit abruptly after a week w an email sent out at 11pm. Wondering if I should do the same or give notice. i will never work for him again and can’t wait to block his number. only worry is that he won’t pay me my last check or, if i give notice, that he’ll be resentful and tense at work where he’s right in my face and needs me for everything. it would take a month to train someone to do my job and i’m the only spanish speaker here. certainly i can be replaced tho. any advice ?

For context, I was recently laid off from my job. I’m not officially laid off until the end of next month but they let me know ahead of time. This was due to outsourcing workers in other countries who are cheaper to pay than workers here in the us. When I started, the company was just acquired but still had the close family startup culture from when they were independent. Over time it’s become all about corporate profits and cutting costs. I don’t feel supported anymore by the people in my team and for my next job, I want to avoid this same situation again.

That context was important because the first job offer I got is at a company that essentially sounds the same. They also recently started outsourcing work from the same country, had high turnover recently that I would assume are also from layoffs like my company did, but I took it since they offered me a promotion from my current job and I just needed a job before I was laid off.

The second offer I got was from a company that seems to be opposite. Still the same work and role, but it’s an extremely small company with a big focus on culture, and a unique bonus structure that consistently hits 25% due to it being from the owners sharing profits directly with employees. I connected a lot with all the people I interviewed with and for the last interview the owner even flew me out to talk to him and his wife to make sure that everything was a good fit.

I have never rescinded a job offer before and I’m worried about how to go about it, since HR from the first company mentioned how much the team liked me, which was evident by them giving me an offer only hours after I finished my final interview. I don’t think I would ever interview there again unless I was in the same situation and desperate for any job, so I’m not too worried about burning bridges. I’m not great with conflict, so I’m worried about upsetting them or creating problems.

So I have been working at my workplace, hospital security, for about 6 months now and when I hired in I was told I would only have to mandatory overtime every 3-4 months. The normal schedule is 8 hours 11pm-7am Thursday through Monday. The mandatory overtime is being forced to work 12 hours with little to no notice. On night shift for the past 2-4 months there has been a total of maybe 30 people who come into the hospital at night all of which are not combative or needing security assistance so I basically get paid to sit in my office on my phone the whole shift. Ever since I started working I have had to work at least 2-3 12 hour shifts per month with less than a week notice sometimes I don’t get notified until it is an hour before I get off. In July I had to work 8 12 hour shifts with no compromise while nobody else had to work a 12 hour shift. The thing is we have part time workers who are supposed to work at least 3 shifts per month per their contract but management lets them work maybe 1 every other month or so with some not having a shift since before I started. This is all because the part timers don’t want to work as they have told me and several other coworkers. Now since middle of September the October schedule has been out and nobody noticed that the 2nd shift guy on Halloween is working at both places meaning someone needs to cover one of those shifts. I have made it known that I have plans for Halloween since I had an assumption that they would try to force me to work mandatory overtime that day since they did on the 4th of July and are planning on doing for thanksgiving and Christmas. I brought it up to my manager this morning as I didn’t notice until last night and he said that I have to make sacrifices even though i have been the only one whos been making sacrafices, there have been multiple weeks where i dont get both my scheduled days off because they were forcing me to work one of those days since nobody wanted to work. Everyone else who works there gets to have their days off and only work their scheduled shift but me, i am constantly being told i have to be a team player and that my personal life isn’t as important as the work community so i have to make sacrafices. It is also worth to note that almost every er nurse has some sort of complaint with me, as well as every security officer, because they do not like how I do my security walks nor how I handle situations, but I was told by other security officers and supervisors that my walks are fine and the way I handle situations is fine since I can’t do much due to liability issues of me not being a real cop. I have been declining in my mental health due to all of the stress this job has put me through, I feel like if I were to put my two weeks in not only would the management and coworkers make my life miserable but also other staff members since it is a betrayal since I am leaving them. I already have 2 jobs lined up starting Monday and I don’t plan on using this current workplace as a reference or coming back to work later on in life. I am still in college for my teaching degree. Is it worth it to ‘burn this bridge’ since they are constantly disrespecting me and my time and causing mental anguish and will it affect my future goal of becoming a teacher?

I work in reinsurance and I got an offer for a new job that is 20k more (75k to 95k). I would be going from being one of several accountants to being the only one and being part of a process to consolidate the role from various departments. They currently dont have a reinsurance department so I would be the only one. I also would lose a average 6% bonus and 6% ESOP bonus. The new company has a couple percent more 401k match. Otherwise most is comparable.

I like my current job and the people there, I am good at it and have taken on specialized knowledge that makes me valuable. Im just trying to decide if its worth giving up for 20k more? In my current role I know it would take me quite awhile to get that 20k so im not sure. I do like the possibility of growth at new job and they have bent over backwards to hire me. Just not sure what the best move is.

Emphasis on energy. I have AuDHD and I want to explore career options that let me set aside energy to focus on ceramics, painting, and film. I have a BA in psychology and a certificate in data analytics. However, I have found that my 9-5 office job gives me little energy to focus on my art which is more important to me now. I find focusing on analyzing data and sitting still at work in an office setting for many hours drains me. I would love to explore careers that have worked for neurodivergent people who need to pay their rent, but who can still set aside time and energy for their hobbies.

If it helps, I find that tactile tasks where I can give my mind a break seem to not drain me as much as sitting still at a desk and concentrating intensely. I feel like my AuDHD has gotten worse over the years even with therapy and medication, and I want to find a new path to prevent more burnout so I can have energy for art when my job is done for the day.

I'm going to be really frank. I'm 34 and have been unemployed more than I've been employed at this point. I graduated with a degree in psych, minor in philosophy and neuroscience in 2015 (pointless). Didn't want to pursue being a therapist or researcher and then was suddenly left with no options. I know many people have gotten jobs outside of their field. Unfortunately I have had terrible luck.

I've ended up in exploitative and harsh work environments, dead end jobs for little pay ,or just coming up empty applying to jobs. On top of that, I have had unexplained health issues that have made it difficult to maintain employment. Currently, I have had vertigo for close to two months, extreme difficulty with sleep, and an overactive immune system to where I get sick/allergic reactions to different food/my environment on a daily basis. Last year I had severe back issues, pneumonia, and fevers which I was able to trace some of the causes for. But essentially my health is very compromised. Because doctors aren't able to help or make a clear diagnosis it would be very difficult to get approved for disability. I could definitely maintain a remote, part time (24-30 hr) position but these are impossible to find. Being in my own space allows me to control more environmental factors.

As the years go by, the gaps look worse and worse. I haven't been able to move out of my parents because of this. I did at one point, but due to various factors had to move back.

I'm in the midst of taking courses on Coursera for digital marketing as well as bookkeeping.

I'm not sure what to say in interviews when asked about the gaps in my resume. The last woman straight up said it looked bad. I could divulge about my health issues, but I don't think that makes me an attractive candidate. Or I could lie and say I have been doing childcare for a partner?

What's ironic is I'm a very hard worker and very intelligent and driven. I would be a huge asset to any company. But my resume makes employers wary and I understand why. What would you do in my position? What should I say about the gaps?