At 22, I'm questioning my entire career direction. What would you do?
Hi everyone! I'd really appreciate some honest career advice.
I'm a Product Designer with several years of experience, mostly through freelancing and remote work. Over time, I've realised that I'm more interested in the product side of things than visual design and execution.
I enjoy understanding problems, exploring solutions, collaborating with teams, and thinking about the bigger picture. Lately, I've been considering a transition into Product Management or Project Management.
There's another interesting part of my journey: I recently completed my Bachelor's degree in Medical Laboratory Technology. I initially chose this field because of my parents' preference, but eventually realised it wasn't something I wanted to pursue professionally.
I'm 22, and although I've gained experience in one field and completed a degree in another, I'm still trying to figure out where I want to take my career.
With AI changing the job market, I'm also wondering which skills and career paths will remain valuable in the coming years.
For those who've experienced career transitions or work in product-related roles:
Would you recommend building on my Product Design experience, moving towards Product Management, or exploring something completely different?
I'd genuinely appreciate your experiences and honest perspectives.
Jobadvisor
I'd lean toward product management, but as a deliberate move built on what you already have rather than a fresh start.
Your product design background is probably your strongest asset here. Product design already involves much of what you say you enjoy: understanding a problem, exploring solutions, working with engineers and stakeholders, and thinking about what's worth building. PM roles put more weight on prioritization and strategy, and many good PMs came up through design, engineering, or analysis. Your freelancing also counts for more than you might think, since it taught you scoping, client expectations, and owning outcomes without anyone managing you.
I wouldn't treat the lab degree as wasted. It doesn't need to be your career to be useful. Healthcare and life-sciences products, like lab software, diagnostics, and clinical tools, are hard to build well without someone who understands how a lab actually works, and that kind of domain knowledge is rare among product people. You don't have to pursue it professionally, but it's an edge you already have if you ever want a niche.
Between project and product management, your description points to product. Project management is mostly about delivery: timelines, dependencies, and keeping a team on track. That's valuable work, but it's executing a plan someone else set. You're describing curiosity about the why and the what, which is product work. If you discover you enjoy coordination more than discovery, that would change my answer, but nothing you wrote suggests it.
The practical risk is that PM roles, especially junior ones, are competitive, and many companies want evidence of prior product ownership. So I'd start closing that gap now rather than waiting for a title. In your current work, take on the PM-shaped parts: write problem statements, run user interviews, help set priorities, and make the tradeoff calls you'd normally leave to someone else. Pick a small product or feature and own it end to end, even as a side project. Those become your portfolio and your interview stories. It's also worth talking to a few PMs about their daily work, not just their job titles, before you commit.
On AI, as far as I can tell, the most exposed parts of design work are the production-heavy ones, like generating screens and variations. What seems to hold value is judgment about what to build, understanding users and context, explaining tradeoffs to people with different priorities, and taking responsibility for results. Those skills sit closer to product work than to execution, so moving toward deciding what matters over producing artifacts seems like a sensible direction, though no career is future-proof.
One thing to check honestly: how much of this decision is still shaped by what your parents expected? You've already stepped away from one path that was partly theirs, so it's worth making sure this one is yours.
What did you enjoy most in your freelance work: the early discovery conversations or the actual building?
Is it stupid to build a career in a trade that barely anyone knows exists?
28M, been working in a cabinet shop for about 6 years.
A guy came in recently to order some custom wooden panels and we got talking. Turns out his company restores old pipe organs in churches. Like the massive ones that have thousands of pipes and mechanical parts.
Long story short, two of their technicians are retiring and he offered me a chance to come in and potentially train with them.
Pay would be roughly what I make now, but I'd get to travel around the country and learn something genuinely interesting.
My family thinks I'm nuts. Their argument is that if the company shuts down I'm stuck with skills that maybe 15 other employers in the country need.
Has anyone gone into an extremely niche profession and actually made a decent career out of it? I'm genuinely tempted.
Jobadvisor
No, it's not stupid. Niche trades often offer the most stable work because so few people do them. Piano technicians, harpsichord makers, and tower clock restorers all work in small fields like this, and many build solid careers. Old pipe organs are expensive to maintain and restore, and churches and concert halls depend on people who can do it.
Your background is a real head start. Organ work involves a lot of woodworking, from building cases and wind chests to repairing wooden pipes, plus metalwork, electrical and pneumatic systems, and precise fitting. Six years in a cabinet shop means you already read drawings, work to tight tolerances, and see a job through from start to finish. Apprentices rarely arrive with that.
Your family's worry points to a real risk, but it's the risk of depending on one employer, not the risk of being in a niche. Organ builders do move between shops, and the skills you build carry over to piano and instrument repair, restoration carpentry, and other fine woodworking. Fifteen employers is a small market, but it's not zero, and the more skilled you get, the more valuable you become to whoever hires you.
Before you say yes, find out a few things. Ask whether the training is structured, with defined skills and milestones, or whether you'd just be expected to pick things up from two people who are leaving. Ask how long the company has operated and whether it has trained anyone before. A shop that has passed skills on is in better shape than one that depends on two retiring technicians. Ask what the travel looks like in practice: how many weeks away, who covers costs, and when your pay can rise. Flat pay for a while is a reasonable cost of learning, but the freeze should have an end date.
You also don't have to resign right away. You could propose a trial period, maybe a few months shadowing on real jobs, while you stay at the cabinet shop. That tests the one thing nobody can judge from the outside, which is whether you like the day-to-day work. It's also worth honestly considering how you'd feel after a year on the road, since that's hard on some people, especially if they have a partner or family at home.
What's your gut reaction to the work itself? Did the technical puzzles pull you in, or was it mostly the idea of seeing the country?
Would you walk away from a job interview if they asked you to lie to the person you're replacing?
I'm two interviews into an operations coordinator role at a family owned food distributor. The owner invited me to come in next week and shadow the woman currently doing the job.
Then he casually mentioned I should introduce myself as someone from a software company reviewing their processes because she has no idea they're planning to replace her.
Apparently she's been there 11 years and they don't want her finding out until they've hired someone.
The salary is a pretty big step up from what I'm making now, but something about walking into a workplace and pretending to be somebody else while secretly learning how to take their job feels really wrong.
Am I overthinking this or is this the kind of red flag you absolutely don't ignore?
Jobadvisor
You're not overthinking it. I'd walk away from this version of the job, and your instinct is right.
Keeping a hiring plan quiet until there's a replacement lined up isn't wrong in itself. Many companies do that, and I wouldn't fault an owner for it. What's different here is what you'd be asked to do: walk into her workplace under a made-up identity, watch her work, and learn her job so someone else can take it, while she believes you're there to review processes. That's active deception aimed at a person with no say in the decision and no chance to prepare. After eleven years, she deserves to hear about it from her employer.
The request also tells you something about the owner. He's decided that deceiving a long-term employee is an acceptable way to handle a change, and he's asking you to be the means. If he treats people this way when it's convenient, you can expect the same approach when he needs something hard from you, like delivering bad news to a client or having an honest conversation with a supplier. In a family business, that's harder to walk away from, because the person doing the misleading is also the one you'd report to every day.
There's also a practical problem. Eleven years in a small company means people talk, and she will probably find out. When she does, your name is attached to how she was pushed out, and you'd be starting a new job with a story you have to keep up every day.
If you want to keep the door open, you could say something like: "Before I come in, I want to be clear that I'm not comfortable going in under a different identity. Could I shadow openly as a candidate, or is there a way to let her know a transition is planned?" His answer will tell you a lot. If he's willing to be straight with her, the job might still be worth a second look. If he insists on the cover story, you'll know before you've signed anything, which is a much better position than finding out after you've been there a month.
Should I take a job that's a 3 minute walk from where I live but is $1 less an hour than my current job?
I currently work as a cashier at [DEPARTMENT STORE TYPE COMPANY] and make $18.70 an hour. It's a very big and busy location, and we're due to be absolutely swamped for the holiday season. I get 10 cents whenever I verify people's ID's at this location, which I need to do for about a third of the customers I get. The main manager is also an asshole. Currently I spend about an hour taking the bus there, and then another hour taking the bus home. Each bus ticket costs me ~$3. Sometimes I can't take the bus and have to Uber / Lyft there. I will also say that my position has a very high turn-over rate, and that positions above mine are held by people who have been at the company for 3+ years- I haven't even been here a year yet.
I was just offered a job at a [MAIL DELIVERY KINDA PLACE THAT'S WELL KNOWN] that's right near my house, a 3 minute walk away. It pays about $1 less an hour than my current job, maybe $1.25 less an hour, and I wouldn't get that bonus 10 cents from doing ID scans. It's a smaller location, in a strip mall right next to where I live. I believe I would be working the counter, helping pack and send stuff off, with no warehouse work involved.
Both of these companies are corporate, and some of the largest companies in the spaces they occupy.
I gotta make the decision tomorrow whether or not I put in my two week notice at the current place I'm working at, and take the job here. Is it worth giving up my current job which pays more to work at this new job which pays a little less? Same exact hours I'm currently working basically, minus the time I take the transit normally.
I would be gaining 2 extra hours of free time every day essentially, but I don't know if I'm being dumb by swapping out my current job for a less paying job basically. I'd like some help deciding.
Jobadvisor
It's not dumb, but it isn't free either. The $1 to $1.25 difference is only part of what you'd give up.
You'd also lose the ID bonus. At about 150 hours a month, the wage cut is roughly $150 to $190. The bonus is 10 cents on about a third of your customers. At 30 customers an hour, that's about $1 an hour, or around $150 a month, so at a typical busy pace the bonus is about as big as the wage cut. During the holiday rush it could be more. Check a recent pay stub or count verifications for one shift to get your real number.
On the other side, two bus tickets a day is about $6, or roughly $130 a month over 22 shifts. Every Uber day costs more than that, so if you're taking rides even once a week, your real savings are higher.
Putting it together, at a typical busy pace the new job costs you about $170 to $210 a month in take-home pay, and less on quieter shifts or if you Uber often. In return you get about 44 hours a month back, which works out to roughly $4 to $5 per hour of time you're buying. Whether that's worth it depends on two things: whether losing that amount would strain your budget, and how much the bus ride, the manager, and the constant turnover are wearing on you. You described all of those in detail, which suggests they weigh on you.
The holiday rush could also change the math. Big stores often add hours in November and December, sometimes with overtime pay depending on local rules. If you'd pick up a lot of extra shifts, staying through the holidays could be worth a few hundred dollars.
Before tomorrow, I'd ask the new employer a few things: the exact starting rate, guaranteed weekly hours, whether the job is permanent or seasonal (small stores sometimes cut hours after the holidays), whether there's holiday work, and when the first raise review happens. You could also ask whether they'd wait a week or two for your start date, or whether the offer holds while you think it over. Accepting the offer and giving notice don't have to happen at the same moment, so you could accept, confirm your start date, and give notice once you know the details.
If the new job has steady hours and you can comfortably absorb the drop, I'd lean toward taking it. Two hours back every day, a three-minute walk, no bus fare, and a manager you're not dreading is a lot, especially when you're under a year in with no visible path up at the current place. But if losing around $200 a month would make rent or bills tight, don't decide blind. Ask for a few days to confirm the details, or keep your current job while you look for something closer that pays closer to what you make now.
364 days after layoff, my husband got a job offer today
Today my husband got a job offer. He was laid off 364 days ago, one day short of a full year! This subreddit helped me more than I can say. Thank you! On the nights I couldn't sleep, I would scroll through your posts and read your stories. Seeing so many smart, hardworking people going through the same thing made me feel less alone, and less ashamed. Every time someone posted that they finally landed a job, I read it twice and held on to that hope a little longer. Some of you will never know how much your words helped a stranger get through her darkest days.
I wanted to share this from my side, as the wife who lived through it with him, because I know some of you are where we were.
A little context. We're a family of four. My husband is in his mid 50s with 30 years of product management experience, and for years he earned in the top 10% in the US. We traveled internationally two or three times a year, and we own two homes. Honestly, we probably had enough to get by. But we have kids, and I grew up middle class. I still love a good Costco sale, I use coupons, and I enjoy learning how to save money. Money in the bank never made me feel completely safe.
I have a master's degree and an extensive background in tech, but I stayed home after our first child was born and didn't work for over 10 years. I told myself there was no point in taking a job that would pay so little for my experience. The truth is, I was scared. I was afraid of being ridiculed, I didn't think I could handle rejection, and because my husband earned enough, I never had to try. For years I complained about leaving my career, but I never found the courage to go back.
When he got laid off, I sent out two resumes. I told everyone, including myself, that I was "just helping out." Deep down, I didn't expect anything to come of it. After more than 10 years away, I was sure no one would want me. Then I got an offer, and I couldn't believe it.
Walking back into work after all that time was terrifying. I felt rusty and out of place, and I kept waiting for someone to figure out I didn't belong there. I was starting over in a completely different field, and it was humbling. Some days were exhausting, and the pay was a fraction of what I used to earn. But every day I showed up, I proved a little more to myself that I could still do this.
I've been working for almost a year now while he searched. Part of it was about the money, but honestly, a bigger part was about who I am. I grew up in a family where you work even when you have savings for a rainy day. My parents never sat back and waited for things to get better, and I couldn't either. Watching our savings go out every month while bringing nothing in made me anxious in a way I can't fully explain. Going back to work gave me something to hold on to when everything else felt out of our control.
I won't pretend we handled it well. Many days I said things that made him feel small and worthless. We fought, a lot. Our kids cried during some of those heated fights. There were moments when I felt so low that I wanted to end everything by ending my life.
Through all of it, my husband kept going. Even after our worst arguments, he would say he just had to keep believing in himself and keep trying. He applied to over 1,000 jobs. He made it to the final round many times and was passed over again and again. And he still got up and kept applying.
And then today, it finally happened. He got the offer.
When he told me, I just stood there for a second. I couldn't speak. Then I burst into tears. A whole year of fear, anger, guilt, and exhaustion came pouring out of me all at once.
To everyone here who is still in it: I'm so sorry you're going through this. You shouldn't have to, especially when you're on this sub and trying so hard. Your life may really suck right now. Please just stay alive. There are better days ahead. I am rooting for you!
Jobadvisor
Congratulations to your husband, and to you. He applied to over 1,000 jobs and kept going through the rejections, and you went back to work in a field you'd left for more than a decade. That took real courage. It makes sense that the tears came when the relief finally arrived after a year of holding everything together.
Your honesty about the hard parts matters too. Saying the things that made him feel small, and admitting that your kids heard the fights, isn't easy to write down. A new job can ease the pressure in a house, but it doesn't undo those words, so talking together about that year, maybe with a counselor, could help you both heal.
You also wrote that there were moments you wanted to end your life. Are those thoughts still with you, or has the worst of that stretch passed? If any part of you is thinking about ending your life now, please reach out today. In the US, you can call or text 988. In Romania, or anywhere in the EU, call 112 for emergencies, or look up a local crisis line. If it feels like too much to hold alone, tell your husband or someone you trust how close things have gotten.