I have an MBA and am a minimum wage barista. How do I get a full-time job?

 

Is it insane to leave a stable six figure job to start a niche woodworking business?

Hey everyone. I'm 35 and have been in IT for 12 years. I make $130k as a systems architect for a pretty big tech company. The job is fully remote the pay is great the benefits are solid. It's a very comfortable life. My wife and I just bought our first home and we have a 3-year-old and a baby on the way. Stability has been my guiding star for a long time.

But for the last three years I've been really into woodworking. I started with simple stuff like cutting boards and picture frames. Now I'm making custom furniture and detailed carvings. It's become more than a hobby. I've even sold a few pieces online and at local craft fairs. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. People are asking for commissions and my waiting list is growing.

I've been dreaming about turning this into a full-time thing. I've crunched the numbers. I think I could realistically make $70k-$80k in the first couple of years if I really lean into it. That's a significant pay cut. My wife is supportive but also pragmatic. She understands my passion but is worried about the financial hit especially with two young kids and a mortgage.

I feel like I'm at a crossroads. Do I keep the secure IT job that provides everything we need and continue woodworking as a side hustle? Or do I take the leap pursue my passion and potentially build something truly mine? I'm scared of regretting not trying. I'm also terrified of failing and putting my family in a tough spot.

Has anyone here made a similar jump from a corporate job to a creative or trade-based business? How did it go? What are the things I should be thinking about that I might be missing? Is it crazy to even consider this right now?

Jobadvisor

It is not crazy to want to turn a real passion into a business, but taking a total leap right now would be a massive financial miscalculation.

You aren't comparing a $130,000 salary to a $70,000 salary. You are comparing a $130k W-2 package with benefits to $70k–$80k in gross custom woodworking revenue. In bespoke woodworking, materials, finishes, tool wear, waste, and marketing routinely consume 30% to 50% of revenue. That $70k gross likely leaves around $35k–$45k in taxable business profit. Once you factor in self-employment taxes and purchasing private health insurance for a family of four with a newborn and a toddler, your actual take-home income could easily drop to a fraction of what you make today.

The Blind Spots to Watch

• The Health Insurance & Benefits Reality: Replacing employer-subsidized family health coverage during the high-medical-use years of a newborn is one of the single largest hidden costs of self-employment.
  
  
• CapEx and Capacity Ceilings: Custom furniture and carving do not scale linearly without significant capital investment in machinery or space. Your output is currently bottlenecked by your own physical hours.
  
  
• The Hobby-to-Job Pipeline: When woodworking becomes the source of mortgage payments, you spend less time crafting and far more time doing sales, client management, sourcing materials, bookkeeping, and shipping.
  
  

The Strategic Play: Scale the Side-Hustle First

Your current position as a fully remote Systems Architect is actually the best incubator possible for a trade business. You have guaranteed cash flow, flexible control over your day, and financial stability while your kids are in their most dependent years.

Instead of quitting, test the commercial viability of your shop by treating it as a high-margin micro-business on the side:

1. Double your prices immediately. A growing waitlist is a sign that you are underpricing your labor. Raising prices tests whether clients are buying because you are talented or simply because you are cheap.
   
   
2. Build a true 12-month runway. Do not consider leaving until you have 12 months of living expenses saved outside of your business capital, plus proof that woodworking can generate consistent monthly profit covering your baseline household budget.
   
   
3. Optimize your shop efficiency. Use your IT systems background to build efficient shop workflows, batch processes, and templates during off-hours.
   
   

Does your wife have access to employer-sponsored health insurance through her job, or would your business need to cover the entire family's policy out-of-pocket?

Leaving a job I love for a promotion and large raise. Can't stop crying. Did I make a mistake?

Hi everyone! I've worked at an insurance agency in a hybrid service/management role for 2 1/2 years, and I truly love it! I get along great with my coworkers, make about $107k a year, and like my accounts. I get to work fully remote. I went on maternity leave last year and was welcomed back warmly. I just won a company wide service award and was going to be going on a reward trip later this month. My team is expanding, and 2 weeks ago I just brought a new member of the team onboard.

A month or so ago I got contacted by a headhunter who's very famous in my industry. She had a director role available for $150k+ 5-10% raise, fully remote, and no book of business to manage. The team seemed nice and the organization seemed cool.

Honestly, I was ready to turn it down. My father in law just died and my baby is still young. The stability of my current role and how happy I am on a day to day seemed enough.

But then , I started thinking about how life changing that $150k salary would be. I could pay for my daughter's college with only a few years of saving. I could add more to my retirement account. We could go on nice vacations. The idea of not having a book of business to manage seemed great; at my current job it's hard to manage when I have a $2m in revenue book of business. My current job has also recently went through a bunch of turnover in the c suite, we didn't make budget, and they keep talking about having us use AI, which also was in the back of my mind as something that should make me feel nervous.

After speaking with my husband, family, and friends for advice, I decided to take the new role. When I gave notice on Friday, my boss burst into tears, which made me feel EXTREMELY BAD. I feel horrible about the timing with the new hire. I feel horrible about having to cancel the rewards trip they selected me for. I'm literally not sleeping at night because I keep thinking "did I make a huge mistake? I had a six figure job I loved that I gave up for a company that may be a mess?".

I'm someone that does really well on a routine, so this change has been emotionally jarring for me. My husband doesn't understand why I'm not feeling excited, but I just don't. I feel like maybe I made a huge mistake. Besides going to therapy for anxiety with I clearly need to do, has anyone else been in a situation like this? Leaving a job you love at a really bad time for a good opportunity? Were you happy with your decision? I think I'm looking for validation.

Thanks!

Jobadvisor

You did not make a mistake. What you are experiencing right now is not a warning sign from your intuition—it is a textbook, highly predictable neurological response to grief, change, and extreme empathy.

You are stepping away from a high-trust environment where you felt safe, valued, and competent during a period of your life already marked by loss (your father-in-law) and massive life transitions (a young baby). Your brain craves stability right now, so it is treating this voluntary disruption as a threat.

Why You Are Crying (And Why It's Normal)

• Grief for the "Known": You aren't just leaving a job; you are mourning the loss of a safe harbor. Loving your workplace is rare, and leaving a good situation creates genuine grief.
  
  
• Empathy Overload: Your manager's tearful reaction validated how much you were valued, but it also dumped a heavy load of guilt on you. Remember: her tears are about her loss of a stellar team member, not your failure.
  
  
• Post-Decision Anxiety: When we make a choice purely driven by long-term logic (financial security, no account load) over short-term emotional comfort, the short-term emotional brain rebels immediately after the contract is signed.
  
  

The Cold, Hard Rationality Behind Your Choice

When you strip away the immediate guilt, the logic that led you here remains completely sound:

• A 40%+ Guaranteed Compensation Jump: Going from $107k to $150k+ (plus bonuses) completely alters your family's financial baseline, especially with a young child.
  
  
• Removing the Burnout Trigger: Managing a $2M revenue book on top of service/management responsibilities is a fast track to long-term exhaustion. Stepping into a Director role with no book to manage gives you room to breathe structurally, even if the transition is stressful initially.
  
  
• Protecting Yourself Against Instability: C-suite turnover, missed budgets, and aggressive top-down pushes (like rushed AI mandates) are classic early warnings of structural friction at your old agency. You traded up before those issues turned into culture problems or layoffs.
  
  

How to Handle the Transition

1. Separate Guilt from Regret: Guilt is feeling bad for causing inconvenience to people you like (your boss, the new hire). Regret is realizing a decision was wrong for you. You feel guilty, but you haven't even started the new job yet—you cannot feel true regret for a reality you haven't experienced.
   
   
2. Close the Chapter Cleanly: Write a warm, heartfelt personal note to your boss. Keep in touch on LinkedIn. The insurance world is remarkably small—leaving on great terms means the door at your old agency (or with former colleagues elsewhere) will likely stay open for years to come.
   
   
3. Give Yourself 90 Days of "Discomfort Allowance": Accept right now that the first 3 to 6 weeks at the new company will feel uncomfortable, awkward, and tiring while you build new routines. Expecting it to feel bad upfront removes the panic when it actually does.
   
   

You made a brave, protective choice for your daughter's future and your own career trajectory during a difficult emotional season.

Did your old employer offer to counter when you gave notice, or was the gap too wide for them to bridge?

Should I stay at my fully‑remote 95k job or take a 135k in‑office role?

Hey everyone, looking for some outside perspective because I’m torn.

I’m currently a Software Engineer making around 95k/year. I’ve been with my company for 5 years, started as an associate, only got one promotion, and I’m pretty sure I’m at the bottom of the pay range for my role.

The upside:

• Fully remote for 5 years

• Amazing work‑life balance

• Some days I only work 2–4 hours as long as sprint work gets done

• I can take a random day off without it hitting my PTO

• Freedom to wake up right before meetings, travel easily, etc.

The downside:

• I feel underpaid

• The project isn’t enjoyable

• Growth feels slow

The new opportunity:

A very well‑known, prestigious company is offering me ~135k/year (about a 40% raise, ~$2,000 more per month after taxes). It would be a double promotion (SE → SE III).

But:

• It’s 5 days a week in the office

• Commute is 35–45 minutes each way (towards the city, so assume traffic)

• I’m unsure about layoff culture since it’s a big name company

• There is a closer office 8 minutes away, but I’d have to negotiate a transfer with the team and I don’t know how realistic that is

Life factors:

My fiancée is a firefighter and gets 5 days off every 3 weeks. Remote work makes it easy for us to travel during her breaks. With the higher‑paying job, we’d have more money to travel to nicer places, but less flexibility to actually go.

We’re also planning to buy a home next year and want to increase savings. I also want to grow more professionally and expand my knowledge.

So I’m stuck between:

Option A: Stay at the lower‑paying remote job with insane freedom, even though I feel underpaid and the work isn’t exciting.

Option B: Take the higher‑paying, more prestigious role, lose the remote flexibility, deal with commuting, but get a big raise and a double promotion.

What would you do in my situation?

Jobadvisor

Going from working 2 to 4 hours a day at home to a 5-day mandatory in-office routine with an 80-minute round-trip commute will feel like a massive lifestyle shock. However, staying stagnant at $95,000 while trying to buy a home and advance your career is also a trap.

The real decision isn't just $95k vs. $135k—it's how the math breaks down once you convert your time into dollars.

The Real Math: Dollars vs. Hours

Metric	Current Job (Remote)	New Offer (In-Office)
Base Salary	$95,000	$135,000
Estimated Net Monthly Pay	~$5,800	~$7,800 (+$2,000)
Weekly Time Commitment	~15–20 hours (actual work)	~47.5 hours (40 hrs work + 7.5 hrs commute)
Commute Cost & Wear	$0	~$3,000–$5,000 / year (gas, maintenance, parking)
Effective Hourly Rate	~$90–$120 / hr (based on actual labor)	~$55 / hr (based on total time spent)

While you get $2,000 more in net cash each month, you are effectively more than doubling your total time commitment to get a 42% gross raise.

Key Factors to Weigh

• Mortgage Qualification: When buying a home next year, lender Debt-to-Income (DTI) calculations use your gross W-2 income ($135k vs $95k), not how many hours you work. The new title (SE III) and higher salary significantly increase your buying power and loan approval odds.
  
  
• The Fiancée Factor: Your fiancée’s firefighter schedule (5 days off every 3 weeks) is a rare lifestyle benefit. Moving to a 5-day mandatory office job effectively eliminates your ability to travel with her on those breaks, outside of standard PTO.
  
  
• Career Trajectory: Moving from SE to SE III at a prestigious firm resets your market value permanently. Even if you leave in 12–18 months, your baseline for all future job offers becomes $135k+ at a senior title.
  
  

Strategic Next Steps Before Deciding

1. Test the 8-Minute Office Transfer Now: Do not leave this to chance after accepting. Tell the recruiter: "I am thrilled about the SE III offer, but the daily commute to the primary location will significantly impact my longevity in the role. Can we write transfer or hybrid access to the nearby office into the offer terms?"
   
   
2. Negotiate Hybrid Flexibility: Ask if there is any flexibility for a 3/2 hybrid split after onboarding.
   
   
3. Treat It as a 12-to-18-Month Bridge: If you take it, you don't have to stay forever. You take it to buy the house, lock in the SE III title on your resume, build your savings, and then shop for a fully remote role at $140k+ from a position of strength.
   
   
4. Or, Keep Job Hunting: The fact that you landed an SE III $135k offer proves you are underpaid and marketable. If the 5-day commute is a total dealbreaker, stay in your low-stress current job and aggressively apply for remote or local hybrid roles that match that $130k+ mark.

Is my coworker being weird?

My coworker just scheduled a 1 on 1 check in with me reoccurring every 2 weeks. He said there's no agenda. It's just a time for me to bring any questions or if I don't have any questions, we can just catch up.

What the fuck? He is not my manager. And we always message each other on Teams if either of us has questions.

Why is he scheduling a reoccurring check in meeting with me? I complete all of my work on time, I take on new work to help teammates, I've never had any disciplinary action, and I'm social with others. I feel uncomfortable like I'm being monitored because I did something wrong. Is this normal or is this weird?

Jobadvisor

It is completely normal that this feels off to you—and yes, in most workplace cultures, it is weird.

When someone who isn't your manager schedules a recurring, agenda-less "check-in," it blurs professional boundaries. It forces you into a dynamic where they act like an overseer, while you are placed in the position of reporting to them.

Here is why this happens, why it feels so uncomfortable, and how to reset the boundary cleanly.

Why He Might Be Doing This

Unless he has explicitly been assigned as your team lead, mentor, or peer reviewer, his intent usually falls into one of three buckets:

• He is trying to act like a manager: Some employees try to showcase "leadership potential" or assert informal authority by setting up recurring check-ins with peers.
  
  
• He wants guaranteed face time: If he considers you a work friend or enjoys talking to you, he might see a recurring calendar slot as an easy way to socialize without realizing how it comes across hierarchically.
  
  
• Poor meeting hygiene: He may have seen a manager use "no-agenda check-ins" and blindly copied the format, not realizing that peers usually don't do this without a clear operational reason.
  
  

Either way, your instinct is valid: you are not being paranoid. Without an explicit mandate from your actual manager, no peer has the authority to monitor your work or demand a biweekly audience.

How to Handle It

You do not have to accept the invite, nor do you have to sit through awkward biweekly meetings. The goal is to establish that ad-hoc Teams messages are already working fine without sounding defensive.

Option 1: Decline or Cancel via Message (Best Approach)

Decline the calendar invite (or send a quick note on Teams) to set the boundary before the first meeting happens:

"Hey [Name], I saw the calendar invite! Since we already stay closely in touch on Teams whenever anything pops up, I don't think we need a recurring biweekly slot on the calendar. If there's ever a specific project or topic we need to dive into, let's just drop a quick call on the calendar as needed!"

Option 2: Clarify the Purpose (If you want more context first)

If you want to know if your manager secretly asked him to mentor or align with you on something, ask directly:

"Hey [Name], got the invite! Is there a specific project or initiative this is tied to, or did [Manager's Name] ask us to sync up on something specific?"

What to Keep in Mind

• You don't owe an explanation for declining: A peer cannot hold you accountable for "missing" a meeting they arbitrarily created.
  
  
• Protect your calendar: Unnecessary 30-minute recurring meetings eat up focus time. "We catch up asynchronously on Teams" is a perfectly professional reason to decline.
  
  
• Involve your manager only if he pushes back: If he insists on keeping the meeting after you politely decline, bring it up casually in your next 1-on-1 with your actual manager: "Hey, [Coworker] set up a recurring 1-on-1 with me—was there a specific project you wanted us collaborating on?"

I have an MBA and am a minimum wage barista. How do I get a full-time job?

I (23f) have an MBA, bachelor’s in math, plus a few minors and a certificate. I went to a well-known, highly-ranked university. Location: southeast USA.

I am working as a minimum wage barista ($7.25/hr, about $5,000 per year because it’s not full time). I have consulting experience, data science experience, and tutoring experience (3-4 years of experience total). I cannot get a single interview. The only place willing to interview me was the coffee shop I work at.

For context:

I’ve done career workshops, had my resume professionally edited, gone to networking events and speaker events, greased palms, made small talk, cold-messaged and cold-emailed, gotten referrals from friends… and I haven’t even gotten a single introductory interview. I’ve applied to internships, entry-level jobs, and mid-level jobs. I have applied to jobs in business, strategy, marketing, analytics, data science, and even fields like product management and other things unrelated to my degrees. And nothing. I have multiple resumes depending on the field of the job I am applying to.

It’s been almost 4 months. I feel so hopeless. I’m living with my parents because I make less than $5k a year currently. I know that if a company would just give me a chance, I could do the job.

Any advice?

Jobadvisor

Your situation is painful, but it is a classic "degree speedrun" structural issue, not a personal failure. Finishing a Bachelor's in math and an MBA by age 23 means you went straight through school without significant, full-time post-undergrad corporate work experience.

In corporate hiring, an MBA with no full-time post-grad experience creates an "Overqualified for Entry-Level, Underqualified for Mid-Level" dead zone:

• Mid-Level Roles: Recruiters filter out applicants who lack 3–5 years of full-time, post-grad corporate experience, regardless of the MBA.
  
  
• Entry-Level Roles: Recruiters worry an MBA holder will get bored, demand more money, or leave as soon as something better comes along, so they pass on you for a fresh 21-year-old Bachelor's graduate.
  
  

Four months feels like an eternity, but in a corporate job search, it is actually quite early—especially when your positioning needs a quick structural pivot. Here is how you bridge the gap.

1. Remove the MBA from Certain Resumes (The Stealth Strategy)

Create a specific resume version for Entry-Level Data / Business Analyst roles:

• Hide the MBA entirely. List only your Bachelor’s in Math, your minors, and your relevant technical skills (Python, SQL, Tableau, R, Excel, etc.).
  
  
• Frame your experience as continuous: Highlight your consulting projects, tutoring, and data science work as primary roles rather than student activities.
  
  
• Why this works: It immediately eliminates the "overqualified" red flag for entry-level analyst positions where your Math degree is actually a massive competitive advantage.
  
  

2. Tailor your "MBA Resume" for Specialist Leadership Rotations

Save your MBA for specific hiring funnels designed for early-career masters graduates:

• University Recruiting / Early Career Rotational Programs: Look specifically for "LDPs" (Leadership Development Programs) or "Rotational Analyst Programs" at Fortune 500 companies in the Southeast (e.g., banks, healthcare systems, retail corporate HQ). These programs specifically target recent grads with advanced degrees and little full-time experience.
  
  
• Campus Career Center Services: Since you recently graduated from a top university, reach out directly to your alumni career center. Alumni networks and school-specific job boards are far more responsive than public LinkedIn postings.
  
  

3. Re-Anchor Your Target Roles

Stop applying to broad, saturated fields like Product Management, Strategy, or General Marketing—these heavily favor experienced lateral hires right now. Instead, target high-demand, quantitative niches where your Math degree carries instant credibility:

Target Title	Why You Fit	Key Keywords to Include
Data Analyst / BI Analyst	Pure application of your Math background	SQL, Python, PowerBI/Tableau, ETL, A/B Testing
Quantitative / Risk Analyst	Financial institutions love Math majors	Financial Modeling, Risk Assessment, Forecasting, Excel
Operations / Supply Chain Analyst	Heavy focus on optimization and logic	Process Mapping, Logistics Data, Capacity Planning, Cost Optimization
Junior Pricing Analyst	Blends math with business logic	Competitor Analysis, Revenue Management, Elasticity Modeling

4. Pivot Your Networking Pitch

Cold-messaging and emailing often fail if the ask is too broad ("looking for opportunities"). Shift your outreach focus:

• Target Alumni with Math Degrees: Search LinkedIn specifically for alumni from your university who graduated with a Math degree 3–7 years ago and now work in Analytics or Data Science.
  
  
• The Script: "Hi [Name], I saw you also studied Math at [School] and transitioned into Data Analytics at [Company]. As a recent math grad navigating the current market, I’d love to hear 15 minutes of your perspective on how you made that leap." (People love talking about their own career path; asking for advice converts into referrals far better than asking for a job).
  
  

You have incredible hard skills and an elite foundation. Hiding the MBA on entry-level analyst applications and targeting math-heavy quantitative roles will get you out of the barista loop much faster.