My company gave me a senior title to use with clients, but HR says I’m still officially junior and my pay isn’t changing?
I work for a small consulting company and we just landed a pretty large client.
My boss told me the client expects someone senior to handle part of the account, so from now on I’m supposed to introduce myself as a Senior Consultant on calls, use it in my email signature and have it listed that way on anything the client sees.
I thought this meant I was being promoted.
Asked HR about it and they told me my actual title, level and salary are staying exactly the same. The senior title is only for this client because it "better reflects the role I’ll be performing."
So I’m senior enough for the client to think they’re paying for a senior person, but still junior when it comes to my career progression.
I’m more confused about what this means professionally. Do I push them to make the title official, refuse to use it, or just take the experience and start looking elsewhere?
Jobadvisor
This is a pretty common bait-and-switch in consulting, and your instinct that something's off is right. Let me lay out what's actually going on and your options.
What's happening
Your company is billing the client at senior rates (or at least senior-level trust) using your labor, while keeping your cost to them at junior rates. That gap is pure margin for the firm. The "better reflects the role" line is true in a narrow sense — you are about to do senior-level work — but it conveniently ignores that reflecting a role usually comes with reflecting the pay and title internally too. If it didn't matter internally, they wouldn't need you to say it out loud on every call.
Why this matters beyond annoyance
- You're now the person accountable if this large account has problems, without the title, comp, or internal standing to back you up if you need support or pushback power.
- If you leave, "Senior Consultant" on your resume for this period is genuinely defensible — you can say you performed in that capacity for a named client — but your employer could contest it as a reference, since internally you weren't.
- You're building goodwill and trust with a client that your company owns, not you. If they don't formalize this, you did the relationship-building for free.
Your real options
- Ask now, not later. You have unusual leverage at this exact moment — before you've done the work, while they need you specifically to say yes. Go back to your boss (not just HR) and ask directly what the path is: does successfully running this account for X months come with a title and pay review, and can you get that in writing or email. If they can't answer that concretely, that's your answer.
- Use it, but track it. Keep records of client emails, deliverables, and communications that show you operating as "Senior Consultant." This is your evidence for a future negotiation or a resume/interview conversation elsewhere.
- Don't refuse outright. Refusing to use the title probably reads as unhelpful rather than principled, and doesn't get you anything. It's more effective to comply while explicitly linking your compliance to a future ask.
- Start looking, quietly, in parallel. Not because you should quit immediately, but because "we'll consider it" from a company that's already shown it'll extract senior work at junior pay is a weak bet. Having options gives you leverage in the internal conversation too.
The honest read: this is a signal about how the company operates, not a one-off. How they respond when you ask directly for a timeline tells you whether it's worth staying for.
My company wants me to attend a competitor’s private sales demo pretending to be a potential customer. Is refusing this going to hurt my career here?
I work in B2B sales and my director pulled me into a meeting today with a pretty bizarre request.
One of our biggest competitors launched a new enterprise product and apparently nobody here can get detailed pricing or see the full demo without going through their sales process.
My director wants me to use my personal email, pretend I work for a made up company and book a demo with them. He specifically told me not to mention where I actually work. Afterward I'm supposed to give our product team screenshots, pricing and whatever else they show me.
I laughed at first because I thought he was joking. He wasn't.
I asked if anyone from legal had approved this and he got noticeably irritated and said companies research competitors all the time. Then he reminded me that I'm being considered for a bigger accounts role later this year and said being “resourceful” is part of moving up.
I've got savings so I'm not scared of losing the job tomorrow, but I like the company and was actually hoping to move up here.
Would you refuse outright or is this kind of competitor research actually normal in sales?
Jobadvisor
The distinction that matters here: legitimate competitive research uses public information — G2/Capterra reviews, analyst reports, published pricing pages, conference talks, former customers, industry contacts. What your director is describing is pretexting: creating a fake identity and company to deceive another business into giving you information they'd never share if they knew who you were. That's a different category, and it's the part worth being clear-eyed about before you decide anything.
Why this isn't "normal sales research"
- It's built on deliberate misrepresentation to a third party for competitive gain. Depending on what you sign, what you say, and your jurisdiction, this can brush up against fraud, breach of the competitor's terms of service, and in some cases trade secret or unfair competition law — the company doesn't need to catch you for it to be a problem later.
- If it ever surfaces (competitor cross-references the email, LinkedIn, IP address, whatever), it's your name on the account, not your director's. He didn't loop in legal on purpose — that's not an oversight, that's avoidance.
- "Nobody here can get this without going through their sales process" is itself the answer: the process exists specifically to gate this information to real prospects. Working around it deliberately is the thing being asked.
On the career threat
Tying this to your consideration for the bigger accounts role is worth naming for what it is: pressure, not mentorship. "Resourceful" doing legitimate legwork (finding a former customer to talk to, digging up a webinar recording) is a real skill. Being asked to lie about your identity and employer to a competitor is not resourcefulness — it's asking you to personally absorb risk that benefits the company and your director specifically.
What I'd actually do
- Decline the specific ask, not the general idea of competitive research. Something like: "I don't want to misrepresent myself or the company to get this — happy to pull together what we can find through public sources, reviews, and industry contacts instead." That reframes you as still useful, not just obstructive.
- Don't put your refusal only in a hallway conversation. A short email or Slack message confirming what was discussed ("just confirming — you'd like me to pose as a prospective customer under a false company name to get [Competitor]'s demo and pricing") does two things: it may make him reconsider once it's in writing, and it protects you if this comes up again.
- If he pushes back hard or explicitly ties your refusal to the promotion, that's genuinely useful information about what this company will ask of you as you move up — worth factoring into whether "moving up here" is actually where you want your effort going.
Refusing this shouldn't hurt you with anyone acting in good faith. If it does, that tells you something real about the role you were hoping for.
75% travel for work. Is it hard?
Hey guys,
This is my first post. Hopefully you guys can give some advice!
I am currently in the interview process for a job that has “75% travel required” in the job posting.
In yalls experience what does 75% actually look like? The posting also mentions that the job is remote. So I am assuming the time I am not traveling I would be working from home.
The territory covered is the western US (Colorado->Cali, Utah->Arizona)
The salary range is great for my age (110k+)
Do yall think the travel will be extremely taxing? I’ve traveled a bit for work >5% and I love traveling and seeing new things. But I do have a GF and a cat so I would be concerned with long periods away.
Maybe it’s listed as “up to 75%” so sometimes I’ll be at home for weeks on end??
Let me know your thoughts! I appreciate the help
Jobadvisor
What 75% Travel Actually Looks Like
typical 75% Travel Week (Monday – Thursday/Friday)
┌──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ MONDAY │ TUESDAY │ WEDNESDAY │ THURSDAY/FRIDAY │
├──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
│ 5:00 AM Flight │ Client Meetings │ Client Meetings │ Travel Home │
│ Rental Car / Hotel │ Dinner with Clients │ Hotel Desk Work │ Expense Reports │
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘
- The Routine: You will likely fly out early Monday morning and return Thursday evening or Friday afternoon.
- The Territory: Covering the Western US (Colorado to California, Utah to Arizona) means constant 1- to 3-hour flights, rental cars, and frequent time-zone hops.
- Work Travel vs. Sightseeing: Business travel rarely leaves time for exploration. Your day usually consists of: Airport $\rightarrow$ Rental Car Counter $\rightarrow$ Client Site/Office $\rightarrow$ Hotel Desk / Work $\rightarrow$ Quick Dinner $\rightarrow$ Sleep $\rightarrow$ Repeat.
Key Pros and Cons to Consider
| Pros | Cons |
| Massive Loyalty Perks: You will quickly hit elite status on airlines and hotel chains, accumulating hundreds of thousands of points for free personal vacations. | Relationship Strain: Spending 3 out of 4 weeks away forces your partner to solo-manage the household, chores, and pet care continuously. |
| Minimal Living Expenses: The company pays for your meals (per diem), gas, flights, and hotels, dramatically lowering your week-to-week grocery and utility bills. | Physical Exhaustion: Constant travel wrecks sleep cycles, makes healthy eating at airports/restaurants difficult, and leads to burnout faster than expected. |
| Autonomy: When you are not on client sites, you work remotely from home with minimal direct supervision. | The "Second Shift": Flying and commuting eat into your normal day, meaning you often end up doing administrative work late at night in hotel rooms. |
The Girlfriend & Cat Situation
- The Cat: A pet makes 75% travel challenging. Your girlfriend will effectively become the sole caregiver 75% of the time, which can create hidden resentment if she didn't actively sign up for it.
- The Relationship: Long-distance dynamics inside a cohabiting relationship require high intentionality. When you come home on weekends, you will often be exhausted and need to recharge, while your partner may want quality time or help with missed chores.
Questions to Ask in Your Next Interview
- How is "75%" defined? Is it 3 days a week, 3 weeks a month, or based on overnight stays?
- What is the policy on travel booking? Do you get to keep your own hotel/airline points? Do they provide a corporate card or reimbursement?
- Is travel seasonal? Are there peak months where it is 90%+ and slow months (like December) where you are home full-time?
- What counts as billable/work hours? Do travel hours (sitting in airports/on planes) count toward your 40-hour week?
Bottom Line: If you take it, treat it as a 1- to 2-year stepping stone to build your resume, max out travel perks, and step into a higher-paying, lower-travel role later.
Should I quit my job with nothing lined up?
I’m 28m and I have been working at a bank for 4 years, where I did a credit rotational program. This bank has so much turnover and the culture is basically sink or swim. I basically started my career here and it’s the only experience I have. I am not learning and I’m paid way below market $29/hr, which is barely livable in SOCAL. I have dealt with so much bullshit from being told I’m not fast enough, to you need to take on more. I even was told I was going to be on PIP and then the following performance review I was told that I wasn’t going to be because I performed better, which I don’t think my performance got any better, what really did help was that we hired like 5 people.
I really just hate this job, company and my manager. So I am close to just quitting. I live at home with my parents and I have zero debt so I have no real overhead. The job market is bad like when I graduated in 2020 so I am scared I’ll just be in a similar situation. I’m thinking of just quitting and traveling for 2-3 weeks.
I have only one potential job lined up at another bank in a nearby city. I have gone through 2 rounds of interviews with the last being the hiring manager. So far the process has taken 3 months but the hiring manager said I would move to the next round which is to meet the team and get a feel for the culture. Although I interviewed with hiring manager about 3 weeks ago. All I hope is the culture is a lot better than where I am currently at because I’m about to loose it. Also I had a former coworker get hired to this team (different office) and he said it was still a good amount of work but he liked it a lot more than where we were both working at.
Jobadvisor
A few things stand out here that are worth separating from each other, because they pull in different directions.
The good news first: your safety net is real. Living at home with zero debt means "quitting with nothing lined up" doesn't carry the same risk for you as it does for most people asking this question. You're not going to miss rent or default on anything. That changes the math a lot.
But you do have something lined up — it's just not signed yet. Three months in, at the "meet the team" stage, with a former coworker already vouching for the culture, is a meaningfully advanced process. This isn't a cold application. I'd treat this less as "nothing lined up" and more as "one strong lead I haven't closed yet."
So here's the actual tension: quitting now, before that offer materializes, converts a probable good outcome into a guaranteed unemployment gap in a job market you already know is rough, for a maybe. That's the part I'd slow down on — not because your reasons for leaving aren't valid (they clearly are: $29/hr in SoCal is not a livable independent wage, the PIP-threat-then-walkback is a manipulation tactic, "you're not fast enough" while also "take on more" is a contradiction they're using to keep you off balance), but because the timing is what determines whether this is a smart exit or an unnecessary risk.
A few concrete paths, roughly in order of what I'd consider:
- Use PTO for the trip instead of quitting. If you have any banked, or even unpaid leave you can request, take the 2-3 weeks that way. You get the reset without torching the offer-in-progress or creating a resume gap you'll have to explain.
- Give the other process 2-3 more weeks to resolve. You're at "meet the team," which is usually one of the last stages. A polite check-in email to the hiring manager ("wanted to see where things stand, still very interested") is normal and won't hurt you.
- If you do quit before an offer, have a real plan for the gap — not just "I'll figure it out." Banking recruiters will ask about employment gaps. "I left a toxic environment and traveled for three weeks before restarting my search" is a fine answer once, but you want to be job-searching hard the moment you're back, not drifting.
- Don't let the manipulation tactics rush your decision. The PIP-then-reprieve thing sounds designed to keep you anxious and compliant. That's useful to recognize now so it doesn't quietly push you into either staying too long or quitting impulsively out of frustration rather than strategy.
If it were me: I'd ride out the current process a little longer, use vacation days for the trip if at all possible, and treat quitting outright as the fallback if the other offer falls through — not the first move.
It’s true that when you’re the top candidate, you’ll know
After 9 months of searching, I finally just accepted a verbal offer and am told to expect the written document today! 🎉
I thought the recruiter was just trying to appease me and full of it. Each time we spoke he said “you’re their favorite” or something along those lines. And they were moving fast through each interview. This was new to me. I tuned out the “favoritism” because after making it to so many final rounds for roles I’m overqualified for, then being rejected, I stopped trusting recruiters.
Then after the final round, he called each day to say they’re hashing out an offer and let me know the progress play by play. Three days later, HE DIDN’T LIE! They did it! I’m so pumped.
So I guess my contribution here is yeah, when you’re actually the top candidate, you’ll be told.
Jobadvisor
Congratulations — nine months is a genuine grind, and getting to the other side of it deserves the celebration. 🎉
The pattern you noticed is a good one to bank for next time you're job hunting (or advising someone else): fast-moving process, daily updates, specific language like "favorite," a recruiter actively narrating the offer negotiation to you in real time — that's not a recruiter being nice, that's a recruiter managing a candidate they don't want to lose. Genuine top-choice candidates get treated like a deal in progress. Vague "we'll circle back" energy, long silences, and non-committal language after finals is usually the opposite signal.
Worth flagging one caveat for anyone reading this later: verbal offers can still fall through (budget freezes, a background check issue, internal approval snags), so the real relief moment is when the signed written offer lands — which sounds like it's about to happen for you today. Once it's in hand, that's the actual finish line.
Enjoy this. After nine months of rejections eroding your trust in the process, you earned the right to feel good about this one without hedging it.
Laid off after 7 years in marketing. Starting at an Amazon warehouse next week
I was laid off from my marketing job this April after 7 years. I've been working a total of 12 years ever since I graduated from college in 2014. I really went above and beyond for that company, and one day they just decided they didn't need me. And just like that I was made redundant. It hurt like hell, and it still does.
I do content marketing for reference. I've had a few interviews, even some final rounds, but nothing has stuck. And my unemployment is about to run out.
So yesterday I applied for an Amazon grocery warehouse associate position and was hired almost immediately. Had the drug test and pre-hire orientation this morning. And my first shift starts next week. The nice thing is it's FT seasonal hours from 10 PM to 8 AM, so my afternoons are free for interviews. Though I am finding it harder and harder to motivate myself to attend them. I'm kind of over it and I think it probably shows to the recruiters.
I want to start by saying that I'm grateful that I'll have some income coming in. But I'm also sad that what I've worked so hard to build feels like it's slipping away. It feels like everyday I see a new post/company that claims to do in minutes what would take us marketers hours or days. It's crossed my mind to potentially pivot into something else. But I'm not sure yet.
And I've heard that once an unemployment gap becomes 6+ months or more, recruiters start to question it a lot more. This could just be social media BS. But I've seen info on this enough to where it at least semi scares me.
Here's to hoping things get better for all of us soon.
Jobadvisor
That's a lot to be carrying at once — the layoff itself, the grief of watching something you built get dismissed, financial pressure closing in, and now a body clock flip to overnight shifts right as you need to be sharp for afternoon interviews. Any one of those is heavy. All four together explains a lot about why you're running low on motivation, and it doesn't mean anything is wrong with you or how you're handling this.
A few things worth separating out:
Taking the warehouse job was the right move, not a failure. Income now, with unemployment running out, isn't a step backward — it's what responsible looks like when the market isn't cooperating. Structuring it as overnight-with-free-afternoons so you can keep interviewing shows you're still playing offense, even while exhausted. That's worth acknowledging to yourself.
The motivation problem is probably physiological as much as emotional. Flipping to a 10PM–8AM schedule is genuinely disruptive to cognition and mood — sleep-deprived, circadian-shifted people show up flatter and less sharp in interviews, not because they've stopped caring but because their brain is running on the wrong clock. If interviews start clustering right after you wake up rather than right before your shift, and you protect sleep like it's part of the job search (blackout curtains, consistent sleep window even on days off), you may notice the flatness recruiters are picking up on isn't really about motivation at all.
On the gap-length fear — it's not pure social media noise, but it's also not the dealmaker/dealbreaker it's made out to be. Recruiters generally care much more about a coherent story than the exact month count: "laid off in April after 7 years, took warehouse work to stay afloat while interviewing, kept applying the whole time" is a completely normal, sympathetic narrative, not a red flag. What tends to actually hurt candidates is a gap with no explanation and no activity — which isn't your situation.
On the pivot thought — that's worth taking seriously later, but probably not while you're this depleted. Big career-direction decisions made from exhaustion and grief tend to get revisited once someone's actually rested and re-stabilized. Worth writing the thought down so you don't lose it, but I'd hold off on deciding anything until you're not running on overnight-shift sleep debt.
You don't have to feel grateful and sad at the same time cleanly — both are legitimate, and you're allowed to grieve the marketing career you built while also taking care of what needs taking care of right now. Things moving again — for you, and for everyone else in this thread hoping the same — is a good thing to hope for.