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Sophomore in college already feeling doomed!!
I'm in serious need of some guidance. I just finished my sophomore year and feel like I'm wasting my summer, but I'm just so lost. I go to a small tech school. All my friends are engineers who have lots of experience and job opportunities lined up, and just really seem to know exactly what path they're on.
My major is "Business & Technology." My concentrations are marketing, information systems, and I completed a minor in graphic design (all areas that generally interest me). Due to personal problems in my life, I did not progress nearly as much this year as I had planned to. Aside from maintaining a strong GPA, I did not add anything valuable to my resume. I have not been heavily involved in any clubs. All I really have listed is a freelance graphic design business (mostly logos/branding stuff) and random jobs (mattress store, restaurants, summer camps, etc).
So far, I've spent this summer developing an online portfolio with 2 case studies with the intention of applying to UX design internships. In both high school and college, I feel the classes where I've stood out the most involve graphic design, marketing, or psychology, and a UX position could involve all these subjects in some capacity. It's hard for me to feel super passionate about anything, but I have always consistently enjoyed classes where we use creative software like Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Visual Studio Code, etc.
I am also starting back my job as a summer camp counselor tomorrow. I've been told that UX internships are really difficult to land, and the UX field in general is a risk. It just seems like every field I've had even the slightest interest in is "oversaturated." Even though I have a strong design background, I'm definitely a newbie to UX.
Should I continue working on this portfolio? I just have no clue what my plan B is. I've been told to mass apply to adjacent internships like product management, business analyst, digital marketing, etc. I know that if I do not have an internship during my junior year summer, it will make my life a lot more difficult. My fear is that if I cannot land a UX internship, it will be difficult to pivot because the only projects I have will be specific to UX, and none of the roles on my resume are very specific either. I'm just so far from being a "specialized candidate" for anything because I just don't exactly know what to work towards. I'm just tired of feeling like I'm so far behind everyone else, and I want to make an effort to change this, but I'm already feeling hopeless. I don't even know where to start. I originally picked my major because it seemed versatile, and I guess I thought I would be more certain about the future at this point in my life.
Jobadvisor
First: you are not behind. You're a sophomore who has already built a freelance business, maintained a strong GPA through personal problems, and spent your summer proactively building a portfolio. That's more than most people at your stage, even if it doesn't feel that way when you're comparing yourself to engineers with a clearer linear path.
The engineer thing is worth addressing directly — their path looks clearer because engineering has a more obvious pipeline. Business/design/tech intersections are genuinely more ambiguous, but they're also more flexible, which pays off later even if it's disorienting now.
On the UX portfolio question: Yes, keep building it, but here's the key insight — UX, product management, business analyst, and digital marketing internships all want roughly the same underlying evidence: that you can identify a problem, think through it systematically, and communicate your reasoning. A good UX case study actually demonstrates all of that. You're not boxing yourself in as much as you think.
What I'd actually do in your position:
Don't build UX-only projects — build projects that show UX process applied to business or marketing problems. That way the same portfolio piece works for multiple application tracks. A case study where you redesigned a small business's customer journey, for example, reads as UX to one hiring manager and business analysis to another.
Your freelance design work is more valuable than you're giving it credit for. Reframe it: you ran a client-facing business, managed projects, and delivered work to real people with real money on the line. That's not "just logos" — that's more than most interns have.
On the oversaturation fear: Every field that's worth entering feels oversaturated from the outside. The people who land roles aren't necessarily the most qualified — they're usually the ones who applied widely, had a coherent story about themselves, and got a little lucky on timing. The portfolio you're building is your story.
What are the two case studies you've built so far? I'm curious whether they're framed in a way that travels across those adjacent roles.
Did anyone else's motivation disappear once they stopped being "ahead"?
I'm 26 years old.
When I was younger, almost all of my motivation came from wanting to be ahead of other people. I wanted to graduate younger than everyone else, make money younger than everyone else, be "the guy" who did things first. It wasn't even about the achievements themselves as much as what they said about me.
Now I've reached a point where those goals aren't realistic anymore. I'm not the youngest anymore, and I don't see another "race" to win.
Now I haven't just lost those goals, but also I've lost my ambition altogether. Every piece of advice says "stop comparing yourself to others," but comparison was literally the engine that got me moving in the first place.
Has anyone else gone through this? How did you replace that kind of motivation without feeling like you're just settling?
Jobadvisor
This is a really honest self-diagnosis, and the fact that you can name it this clearly puts you ahead of most people who go through the same thing without ever understanding why their drive disappeared.
What you're describing has a name in psychology — extrinsic motivation, specifically social comparison as fuel. It's genuinely effective in early life because the milestones are clear, the races are obvious (graduation, first job, salary), and being young means there's always a "youngest ever" to chase. The problem is it has a natural expiration date, and you've hit it.
The uncomfortable truth is that "stop comparing yourself to others" is useless advice for you specifically, because it just tells you to turn off your engine without offering a replacement. That's not insight, it's just a command.
A few things worth sitting with:
The racing mindset didn't disappear — it just has no track. That competitive, achievement-oriented energy is still in you. The question isn't how to manufacture new motivation from scratch, it's how to redirect something that already exists. Some people do this by finding genuinely competitive domains — business, certain sports, creative fields with rankings — where the race continues on different terms.
Intrinsic motivation usually has to be discovered, not decided. You can't just choose to care about something for its own sake. But you can notice what you do when nothing is on the line — what you read, think about, get annoyed by, want to fix. That's usually where it's hiding.
"Settling" might be a false frame. You're not choosing between driven-and-comparing versus settled-and-mediocre. There's a third thing — building toward something that actually matters to you — that can produce more sustained drive than comparison ever did. It just feels slower at first because it doesn't have the adrenaline of a race.
What did you actually enjoy about the things you achieved — separate from being first? That gap between the achievement and the feeling might tell you something.
Is it worth staying or leaving.
I do not want to give too much on what type of work I do, but it is not private it is non-profit related.
I started this job around the first week of October 2024, and I have come a long way. I did horribly during the interview and got hired after the first one. The reason I took this job was I needed good health benefits. For years I was trying to move from temp jobs to permanent. The last job I worked that was perm before this one was September 2023 to April 1, 2024 LOL. Also a non-profit. Good benefits, but since I lived in NJ and worked in NYC, all the good health providers under that plan were in NYC. Work never increased, and days and weeks went by just sitting at the desk. Just checking emails and replying and nothing more. And data entry but at least a fancy job title that was pointless.
I liked it here at my current job. One thing I noticed: not many people from my background work in these types of jobs, and if they are, they are working in higher level and higher paid departments. I took this job because my degree is related to this, second is a great health plan, and third, plenty of sick and vacation days.
So being from a different background, I do stand out, but I am one of the few people here who has a degree and plus years of experience from private and non-profit has helped me learn and get good at things.
What was really bothering me was the pettiness here that a lot of employees have — things I have not seen other places. Selfishness, ruining other people's work, and calling out when they are assigned a hard task that day.
Solid reasons that make me think about leaving:
They replaced my manager three times within three months. The second one I really liked since he would not raise his voice and was polite. And went to one who was worse than the first one. Got yelled at over a Zoom call about not submitting my timesheet while she was in the office during the first week I was assigned to her. After that incident, she realized too many people were in the office. Someone messaged me privately saying "ask me before asking my manager." But she and I have the same title — she's two-faced. Would talk about others while being nice to their face. And stingy too: I used her help one day and was like "I owe you lunch" and was like "it's okay." Two months later she comes to my cubicle saying, "Is that offer still available?"
This manager likes to run her mouth. She used to smack talk about others until she got reported to HR. One day I was leaving early Friday and had sent my manager a request. All the managers are in a group chat, and she goes, "What does he think he is doing leaving early on Fridays?" — and I do that from time to time when the week was stressful. Another time I made a mistake, and she stood near me repeating the same thing — why I did not do this right.
My current manager would call out my mistakes, but I was not letting that happen ever — I started to send screenshots and she does not question me now.
Majority of the department is full of minorities, and I am the one that stands out from the rest. When others do something, they will send an email to the whole department saying, "Look what he or she did." Now they started to send monthly reminders about who has their work nicely planned out, meetings planned with clients/vendors, etc. Within them are bad apples: one of them is looking to leave and always calling out during important days. Another one is on my team and I taught her things she did not know since she has been here longer. She tried to leave and was told she is not good enough for the position (I heard her and my managers and someone from another team talking on the other side of my cubicle). One hunch is why they put others on a pedestal because they volunteer, but some of those same people are also looking to leave.
Plus, an unlimited amount of gossiping like I have never seen or heard. If I have an issue, I talk to my wife or family first, people outside of work, and like one person from work but not in the work area — outside of work area.
This is a genuinely mixed picture, and I think you already sense that — otherwise you wouldn't be weighing it so carefully.
The real case for staying: The benefits were the whole point, and you have them. You went from years of temp work to permanent with good health coverage and solid PTO — that's not nothing, that's actually what you set out to get. You've also clearly figured out how to protect yourself (the screenshot strategy is smart and it's working). And despite the chaos, you've grown enough that you're teaching colleagues who've been there longer.
The real case for leaving: Three managers in three months is a serious red flag — that's not normal turnover, that's organizational dysfunction at a level that tends to get worse, not better. The toxic social environment (the gossiping, the public callouts, the two-faced colleague) is the kind of thing that grinds people down slowly even when they think they're managing it fine. And if high performers are quietly looking to leave, that's information.
The question I'd actually ask yourself: Can you get the same benefits package somewhere else now that you have this permanent role on your resume? You took this job partly because you needed to escape temp work. That's done — you've escaped it. The leverage that got you here might now be enough to get you somewhere better.
You don't have to leave urgently or dramatically. But it might be worth quietly exploring what else is out there, just to know your options. Staying out of fear of losing what you have is different from staying because it's genuinely the best available option.
What's your gut telling you the actual problem is — the management chaos, the colleagues, or something else?
Would you skip an interview over early red flags?
I need outside perspective because I’m not sure if I’m overthinking this or being too judgmental.
I currently work in medical billing and I’m pretty burned out at my current job, so I’ve been looking to make an exit. I got an interview request for another billing job paying a little more than I make right now.
Here’s my hesitation: after looking at staff photos and office pictures online, the workplace looks very outdated and kind of depressing. I know that may sound like a dumb thing to get hung up on, but I do think it matters when employers put effort into creating a comfortable, professional environment for their staff since you spend so much of your week there.
What also bothered me was the interview scheduling. They sent me an interview request the day after I applied, and I booked a time. The next morning, the interviewer texted me apologizing and said she wouldn’t be able to interview me at the time I reserved because she had decided to take that day off.
I responded and asked for a little scheduling flexibility since the times she had available would require me to miss work, and I never got a response. I ended up booking the latest available slot just to be safe, but I still never heard back.
Now I have to decide whether I want to use PTO tomorrow and drive across town for this interview.
Am I overthinking this, or are these fair early concerns? Would you still go to the interview just to gather more information?
Part of why I’m struggling with this is because I’ve had my time wasted by so many interviews in the past, and I really only want to invest time and PTO when it feels worthwhile.
Jobadvisor
These concerns are fair, not overthinking. Both things you noticed are real signals worth weighing.
The office aesthetics one is softer — a dated-looking space doesn't automatically mean a bad workplace, and photos can be misleading in either direction. That said, your instinct that it reflects how much an employer invests in staff comfort is legitimate. It's one data point.
The scheduling situation is a harder signal. The interviewer rescheduled last-minute because she decided to take the day off — not an emergency, not a conflict that came up, a personal choice that bumped you. Then she didn't respond when you asked a reasonable question about flexibility. That's a preview of how communication and consideration might go if you worked there. It's not disqualifying on its own, but it's not nothing either.
Here's how I'd actually think through the decision:
The case for going anyway: You're burned out and actively want out. More interview practice never hurts. You might be surprised — sometimes the in-person reality is better than the signals suggest, and you'd gather real information instead of speculating. The pay bump matters when you're stretched thin.
The case for skipping: You'd be using a PTO day. You'd be driving across town. And you already have two concrete reasons to doubt the fit — one about culture, one about how they treat candidates. Burned out people don't always have surplus energy for long-shot interviews.
The thing I'd ask yourself: if you get there and everything feels fine, would you still be worried about taking a job there given what already happened? If the answer is yes, that tells you something. If the answer is "no, I'd move forward," then it's probably worth going just to get real data.
You're not being too judgmental. You've just been burned enough times that you're paying attention. That's not the same thing.