What should I do. Moved from BA to PM without an Associate step (small firm) — now struggling to get interviews. Could you please advice?

 

Continuing CS VS law school ?

Pretty much the title. Im finishing up a degree in CS from a pretty good uni in Canada. Did a few internships as well, and have good grades. The problem is I don’t really enjoy it. Since high school I’ve been attracted to law school, even did a bunch of law related extracurriculars, but ended up going to CS for undergrad cz it was the safer route imo.
With the impact of AI, the future of a CS career I half heartedly care about, looks bleak. Law school and potential IP / tech law is what I am looking at. However that is an opportunity cost of 3 years, big tuition fees, and I do not know how the legal field will look like in that time. Any insights or advice would be appreciated! Do I go to law school or not?

Jobadvisor

That's actually a reasonably good sign — it means this isn't purely an escape decision, which is the riskiest reason to switch careers. But "both about equally" also means you should stress-test the "dissatisfaction with CS" half separately, because that part can sometimes be fixed without 3 years and six figures.

A few honest things to weigh:

The dissatisfaction half is worth isolating. Ask yourself: is it coding itself you're tired of, or the specific flavor of CS work you've done in internships (maybe narrow feature work, corporate bureaucracy, particular tech stacks)? CS is a huge field — there's a big difference between grinding tickets in a large org and, say, doing more analytical/research-adjacent technical work, or technical roles with more autonomy or client-facing variety. If you haven't tried a few different flavors of CS work, it's hard to know if you dislike "CS" or just dislike what you've sampled so far. Since you already have internships and good grades, you're in a strong position to be selective about your first full-time role rather than assuming all CS jobs feel the same.

The genuine pull toward law is the part that should carry weight in this decision. Extracurriculars since high school, real sustained interest — that's not nothing, and it's a different category of signal than "law seems more stable right now." That part of your answer is the actual argument for law school, not the AI-anxiety part.

Practical way to de-risk this without committing blind:

• Take the LSAT and see your score before deciding anything — it tells you a lot about which schools/scholarships are realistic, which changes the cost math significantly
• Try to get real exposure to IP/tech law specifically — informational interviews with patent attorneys or tech in-house counsel, or a stint as a paralegal/legal assistant at an IP firm if you can swing it before applying. A lot of people find they like the idea of law more than actual legal work (which is heavily reading/writing/procedure-driven, less "argument" than TV suggests)
• Consider whether working 1-2 years first in CS changes your view — it gives you a financial cushion, real work experience to draw on (which helps law school apps and interviews), and time to see if the "half-hearted" feeling persists once you're out of the internship/school environment and into something you actually chose

Given genuine interest plus a real (if AI-anxious) case against staying, I wouldn't tell you not to go — but I'd want the LSAT score and at least a couple of real conversations with IP lawyers in hand before you commit, rather than deciding on the CS discontent alone.

What should I do. Moved from BA to PM without an Associate step (small firm) — now struggling to get interviews. Could you please advice?

Left my last job last month after more than 3.5 years — started as a Business Analyst, got promoted directly to Product Manager. It was a smaller company, so there was no Associate PM level in between like bigger firms usually have. I get why that structure exists, and it means my resume still has a lot of BA-focused content, so I'm applying to both BA and PM roles now. Since leaving, it's been mostly rejections and silence, and I'm starting to doubt myself. Resume attached — honest feedback welcome, and any leads appreciated too.

Jobadvisor

Good — that actually simplifies the strategy, but it means you need two distinct resumes, not one resume aimed at both. Trying to satisfy both audiences with a single document is usually what produces the "confused" read I mentioned. Here's how I'd approach it:

Build two resume versions from the same underlying experience

• PM version: Retitle/reframe your BA-era bullets around ownership and outcomes. Even if your formal title was BA, if you influenced prioritization, wrote specs that shaped what got built, ran user research, or worked directly with eng/design on trade-offs — that's PM-adjacent work and should be phrased in PM language (decisions, trade-offs, metrics moved, shipped features) rather than task language (gathered requirements, documented processes).
• BA version: Lead with your BA years as the core, and reframe the PM year through a BA lens — the analytical, requirements-gathering, stakeholder-facing, process-improvement parts of what you did as PM, since a lot of that work is genuinely BA work regardless of title.

Same facts, two framings, aimed at what each hiring manager is actually scanning for.

Other likely factors in the silence

• If you're relying mainly on job boards, that's a volume game right now for PM roles especially — response rates industry-wide are low regardless of resume quality. Referrals and direct outreach to hiring managers/recruiters matter more than usual right now.
• One year at PM with no APM step can raise a "will this person need heavy ramp-up" question at bigger companies specifically — worth having a tight, confident one-line answer ready for interviews about why you're comfortable at PM level despite the compressed path (e.g., what you owned, what shipped).
• Small-company PM experience sometimes gets discounted by bigger-company recruiters who assume "PM at a 20-person company" ≠ "PM at a 2000-person company." If you're applying broadly across company sizes, tailoring which achievements you lead with (scrappy ownership vs. process rigor) per company size can help.

If you upload the resume, I can point to the specific bullets that are muddying the signal rather than speaking in generalities — that'll be a lot more useful than this at a high level.

The verbal offer was withdrawn after I said I had a planned trip, what to do?

I received a verbal job offer recently. While we were going back and forth over the details, I felt like I should be upfront from the beginning and say that I have a trip planned in 4 months, and I'll be away for 3 weeks. I told them that this trip isn't something I can reschedule, but I could either start after I get back, or start now with the understanding that they know I'll need that time away from work.

After a while, they got back to me and said they would be withdrawing the offer because both options were a problem for them. So I asked them whether it would have been better if I hadn't mentioned the trip until later. They said no, because leave of that length has to be approved by the CEO, and he wouldn't have signed off on it anyway.

Honestly, that surprised me. This isn't a small company at all - they have more than 400 employees. The idea that PTO approval for something like this goes all the way up to the CEO is very strange to me. And as far as I can tell, they've been trying to find someone for this role for about 7 months. A big part of me feels like I probably dodged a bullet.

To clarify: The trip was booked after I applied. They didn't contact me about interviewing until several months after I applied.

Jobadvisor

That is a frustrating experience, but your instinct is spot on: you almost certainly dodged a bullet.

While taking 3 consecutive weeks off in your first few months is a big ask for any employer, their reaction and process reveal major red flags about the company culture.

Why You Dodged a Bullet

• Extreme Micromanagement: In a 400+ person company, a CEO personally approving individual vacation requests—especially for non-executive roles—signals severe central control, lack of trust in line managers, and rigid bureaucracy.
  
  
• Severe Operational Fragility: If a 400-person firm that took 7 months to fill a role cannot accommodate a 3-week absence planned 4 months out, their staffing is critically stretched, or their onboarding systems are entirely broken.
  
  
• Rigid Culture: Professional, healthy companies usually negotiate around pre-planned commitments (e.g., offering unpaid leave, borrowing future PTO, or adjusting start dates/deliverables). A sudden withdrawal with zero room for compromise shows how they treat employees when unexpected friction arises.
  
  

What to Do Next

1. Do Not Beat Yourself Up Over Transparency
   You handled this professionally and ethically. Disclosing pre-booked travel after receiving an offer is standard industry practice. Concealing a 3-week absence until after joining would have severely damaged trust with your new manager during your first month.
   
   
2. Send a Brief, Professional Final Response
   Keep the bridge intact without sounding bitter or desperate. A simple close-out keeps your reputation pristine:
   
   

   "Thank you for the update and for clarifying your policy. While I'm disappointed we couldn't make this work, I appreciate your transparency throughout the process and wish your team the best in filling the role."

   
   

3. Refine Your Playbook for the Future
   For future job searches, keep this approach:
   
   
   • When to disclose: Always wait until you have a written offer in hand before disclosing pre-planned travel. Mentioning it during verbal negotiations is fine, but written offers establish your value and baseline terms first.
     
     
   • How to frame it: Present it as an established, fixed commitment: "I'm thrilled about the offer. Before finalizing, I want to share that I have a long-standing commitment from [Date] to [Date]. I'm happy to discuss taking this as unpaid leave or adjusting my start date to ensure a smooth onboarding."
     
     
4. Re-engage Your Pipeline
   Reopen communications with any other companies you were interviewing with, and resume your search. A company that withdraws an offer over pre-planned leave would likely have made taking time off or balancing life outside work an uphill battle.

CTO called my email mistake a “big mistake” and mentioned my probation. Should I reconsider the offer?

I recently finished several interview processes and am now at the final stage of salary negotiation with one company. I also have a few other opportunities/offers still pending, but I was leaning toward this company because I liked the domain enough to accept a somewhat lower salary. (lower than my initial ask) (For context, I'm a software engineer with about three years of experience and currently between jobs.)

As part of the final compensation process, the CTO sent me an offer letter with salary details.

Later, another employee emailed and texted me saying:

«“I’m contacting you regarding the offer letter we previously sent. Please review it and reply with your decision to join.”»

Because this person was actively following up about the offer and asking for my acceptance, I assumed they were handling HR/recruiting and replied to both them and the CTO with my signed offer letter.

The CTO then called me and said I had made a “big mistake” by sharing salary information with that employee, saying things like, “You shouldn’t handle work this way.”

He also mentioned the existing 3-month probation period and said that this kind of mistake could negatively affect me during it.

Apparently, that employee was not HR and wasn’t supposed to see salary information. Their email signature did say “Marketing specialist” but nobody told me they were only helping with communication or that salary-related replies should go exclusively to the CTO.

What makes me hesitate now is that I actually liked this company’s domain enough to accept a lower salary, despite having other opportunities still pending.

After this phone call, though, I’m starting to worry that the CTO may be somewhat emotional or quick to judge, and that similar communication issues could happen again after I join. I’m now seriously considering withdrawing my acceptance and pursuing one of the other opportunities instead.

Do you think I’m overreacting because this was mainly my mistake? Or does the CTO’s response seem like a reasonable red flag to reconsider the offer?

(For context, I’m not based in the US. Where I live, companies may have policies restricting employees from discussing compensation with one another.)

Jobadvisor

You are not overreacting. What you experienced is a massive, bright-red flag about how this CTO operates and what working under them will be like.

Why This Is a Major Red Flag

• It Was Their Process Failure, Not Yours: An employee of their company actively reached out to you via text and email asking you to review and reply with your decision. Directing your response to the person who asked for it is entirely reasonable. If they have internal confidentiality silos, managing them is their responsibility, not an external candidate's.
  
  
• Scapegoating and Explosive Blame: Instead of taking accountability for an internal communication breakdown, the CTO dumped the blame on a job candidate. Calling a minor administrative mix-up a "big mistake" reveals a lack of emotional regulation and a tendency to scapegoat.
  
  
• Threatening Probation Before Day 1: Bringing up your 3-month probation period and threatening your future job security before you have even stepped foot in the building is toxic behavior. It sets up a dynamic where you will be expected to walk on eggshells, fearing for your job over minor misunderstandings.
  
  
• Pay Suppression Tactics: Combined with the fact that they already got you to accept a lower-than-desired salary, this power play feels like a pre-emptive strike to keep you quiet, anxious, and easy to control.
  
  

Key Reality Check: Salary Confidentiality

Even in countries or companies with strict pay secrecy policies:

1. Policies apply to internal operations, not outside candidates who were explicitly instructed by an internal staff member to send a document back.
   
   
2. An employee with "Marketing Specialist" in their signature directly contacted you asking for the offer acceptance. A healthy manager would fix the internal issue with the marketing employee privately, not reprimand you.
   
   

What You Should Do

Given that you have other pending opportunities and offers, this decision becomes much clearer.

1. Do Not Join Under Threat: Entering a job where the executive is already holding probation over your head for an administrative error sets you up for constant stress, high turnover risk, and unfair performance evaluations.
   
   
2. Shift Focus to Your Other Pipeline: Pivot your energy back to the other companies where you haven't had to sacrifice salary expectations or tolerate aggressive leadership.
   
   
3. Withdraw Professionally: You do not need to argue or defend yourself. Keep your withdrawal brief, firm, and formal:
   
   

"Thank you for taking the time to discuss the offer details with me. After careful consideration, I have decided to withdraw my acceptance and pursue another opportunity that aligns better with my current expectations. I wish your team the best in finding the right candidate."

You dodged a bullet with the previous company that withdrew an offer over travel, and you are seeing clear warning signs here before committing to a toxic work environment. Trust your gut and walk away.

Failed Three Careers. What Can I Even Do At This Point?

Title says it all, I went into college, had three different degrees and failed at all of those careers.

Career one was trying to be an occupational therapist, so I had a BA in psychology (a horrible decision). Got rejected for OT school so I gave up.

I did well with business courses in undergrad and in high school so I pivoted into business management. Couldn't get a job. The most I got was an office manager role that paid poverty wages.

So then I decided to go for a further specialization in accounting, because at the time, accounting was stable, had a middle class wage, and was good for analytical individuals (I am an INTJ, if that even matters). Biggest regret of my life. I constantly got fired or laid off. All of the accounting jobs I had also paid poverty wages. It was impossible to get a decent accounting job because everyone is better than me (I was blind at the time to how subhuman I was). And now, this field is dead.

So what is even left now? Even worse, I have become disabled due to a physical injury I got ten years ago. And I am crushed by student loan debt. What can I even do now or am I just ... destined to fail?

Jobadvisor

That's a lot to carry — three fields, three disappointments, a disability, and debt on top of it. I want to push back gently on one thing before anything else: "subhuman" and "destined to fail" aren't facts, they're the story pain tells you when you're exhausted. Getting rejected from OT school, struggling in a brutal entry-level job market, getting laid off in accounting — none of that proves you're incapable. It mostly proves the job market has been rough and unforgiving, especially for people without connections or a financial cushion to weather bad breaks.

A few things worth knowing, because you're not actually starting from zero:

You have more transferable skills than it feels like. Psychology, business, and accounting aren't three unrelated failures — they overlap heavily. You understand financial reporting, organizational systems, and how people behave under stress. That combination shows up in roles like compliance, HR/people analytics, nonprofit operations, healthcare administration, or bookkeeping for small businesses (which is a very different world from corporate accounting — more relationship-based, less cutthroat).

Disability changes what "the plan" should look like — and that's not a downgrade. Every state has a Vocational Rehabilitation agency (free) that specifically helps disabled adults retrain or find accommodated work, sometimes funding certifications or job coaching. Given your injury, this is worth calling before anything else — they can help match your background to jobs your body can actually sustain.

Student loans have more give than people think. If federal loans, you likely qualify for an income-driven repayment plan tied to what you actually earn, not the balance. If your income is low or you're disabled, this can bring payments close to $0 without default. Worth a serious look before that debt keeps eating at your sense of possibility.

Can I ask what your physical limitations actually are? That matters a lot for narrowing down what's realistic — remote/desk work opens up differently than physical-demand jobs, and I don't want to suggest things that don't fit your actual situation.