I pushed "no tip" and I didn't die!
Went to pick up Chinese food today, and the familiar question popped up on the credit card machine. I pushed "no tip" and nothing happened--I didn't burst into flames, the proprietor didn't yell at me or throw things at me, and they thanked me for my business.
I've been so tired of getting tip-jacked that I swore I'd only pay with cash from now on, and I still may do that, but apparently one can swipe a card, hit "no tip", and enjoy the rest of their day.
Jobadvisor
Congratulations on your first no-tip counter service! The dread is always worse than the actual moment. The register just beeped, the proprietor said thanks, and your Chinese food was still waiting for you.
Those tip screens are designed to make you feel a little guilty about the smaller options, so it's satisfying to tap past them. Cash still has its advantages, though. You get to hand over exactly what you planned to spend, and you never have to look at a screen asking whether you'd like 25% with that.
Advice for career pivot
Hello,
I’ve worked in healthcare for 10 years and TL;DR I want out of the industry entirely.
When I was in college, I worked as a lab assistant and miss it.
I saw a job posting for a facility operator job that has a good amount of overlap with what I did over a decade ago as a lab assistant.
The company uses workday and I’ve heard that makes it really hard to move forward in the application process if you’re not a cookie cutter match.
Any tips on how to maximize my chances of moving forward in my application? I feel like if I could just get a face-to-face interview, it would give me a really good chance.
Jobadvisor
Ten years in healthcare plus lab experience is a reasonable story to tell, so the main goal is getting a person to read it. A few things help with Workday-style screening.
Mirror the posting. Read it closely and note the exact phrases it uses for duties and requirements, such as "preventive maintenance," "SOP compliance," or "chemical handling." Where your real experience matches, use those same terms in your resume and in the Workday fields. Only claim what you can back up, since interviewers will ask about it.
Translate your experience into the job's language. Your lab work is over a decade old, so lead with what transfers: operating and calibrating equipment, following written procedures, keeping records and logs, and applying safety protocols. Your healthcare years count too. Working in a regulated environment with inspections, safety rules, and strict documentation is relevant to a facility role, so say so directly. Put a short summary at the top of your resume that names the role you want, since that's often the first thing a screener reads.
Fill out Workday by hand rather than relying only on the resume import, which often scrambles dates and job titles. Make sure your work history there matches your resume. Answer the knockout questions about experience, certifications, shift availability, and location honestly and consistently, because a mismatch there can get you screened out before anyone reads your materials.
Don't rely on the portal alone. Look up the hiring manager or a recruiter for the company on LinkedIn, and ask anyone you know who works there or at a similar facility whether they'd refer you. Referred candidates often get a human review even when the portal would have filtered them out. Keep the message short and specific: mention the posting, one or two relevant points from your background, and ask if they'd pass your resume along or point you to the right recruiter.
When you do get the interview, your healthcare and lab experience can carry the conversation. Be ready to explain why you're moving on from healthcare and why this role. Keep the answer forward-looking: you're moving toward work you enjoyed and want more of, not just away from the field.
If you paste the job posting and your resume, I can point out which keywords to mirror and which bullets to rewrite.
What’s the closest thing to checking out of life without actually dying?
m 22 years old, recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, and I’ve come to the realization that I genuinely don’t want much out of life.
I don’t care about having a successful career, climbing the corporate ladder, getting married, having children, or achieving any of the things society expects from me.
Sometimes I wish I could just stop existing, but actually ending my life isn’t something I want to attempt because of the pain, risks, and possibility of surviving with permanent injuries.
So I’ve been wondering what the closest alternative would be: basically withdrawing from society as much as possible while still being able to afford food and a roof over my head.
I’m looking for a job that involves extremely little responsibility, minimal human interaction, and preferably repetitive, predictable tasks that don’t require much thinking or decision-making.
I don’t care about prestige, career progression, or earning a lot of money. I just want to be left alone, work my hours, go home, and have as few obligations as possible.
Does anyone know of jobs or lifestyles that would allow someone to live like this long-term?
Jobadvisor
I'm glad you wrote this out. Wanting a quiet, low-pressure life after school is a real preference, and I'm happy to talk about work like that later. But wishing you could stop existing is a heavier thing, and I don't want to skip past it to talk about jobs.
It sounds like you've been feeling worn down or hopeless for a while. That deserves real attention, not a job that asks nothing of you.
So I'll ask you directly: when you think about stopping existing, are you having thoughts of suicide? You can answer honestly. I won't be shocked, and we can talk about whatever is behind it.
If you might act on those thoughts or feel unsafe right now, please contact your local emergency number (112 in Europe, 911 in the US) or go to the nearest emergency room. If you'd like to talk with someone trained for this, findahelpline.com lists free, confidential lines by country. A doctor, therapist, or someone you trust can help too. If you can, be near another person right now, even if you don't want to talk about it.
Lying is a Job Strategy NOT Moral Failing
We need to stop pretending that business ethics are the same as personal ethics. Executives don’t treat them that way, and neither should we.
Talking about this subject brings out the worst in people because they conflate lying to a corporation with lying to your spouse. It is not the same thing. This is a transaction in business.
The key is knowing how to pass verification afterwards. That’s an easy logistical problem to fix, not a moral problem.
Jobadvisor
There's something to the argument that business and personal ethics aren't identical. Hiring is adversarial, employers post inflated job descriptions and ghost candidates, and power is lopsided. Those are fair points.
Where I'd push back is the claim that lying to an employer is just a transaction you can manage with verification. A job application is a representation of your qualifications, and the employer relies on it to decide who gets hired, what they're paid, and sometimes who's trusted with safety-sensitive work or money. A fabricated degree, license, or employment history can get someone fired years later, with pay clawed back, and in regulated fields it can mean legal trouble. The "key is passing verification" framing is the part I find weakest. Verification is exactly what the lie has to get past, so the strategy depends on not getting caught, and if you do, you bear almost all of the cost.
The line I'd draw is between emphasizing and inventing. Leading with your most relevant accomplishments, using the employer's terminology, describing a role in its best accurate light, and leaving out irrelevant details are all legitimate. Making up a credential, a title, or dates is not. Many people who feel they need to lie are actually underselling real experience.
Are you writing this for a column or debate, or is it tied to a decision you're weighing? If it's the second, I can help you make your real background as strong as it can be.
The big failure I am
To start my dull story (F29), I studied physical therapy for 4 years in the university which was my first choice. During the third year I had come to terms that I didn’t like it and didn’t want to practice it. I moved countries, worked in a market for two years and I was really miserable, cause I believed that I could do something better. I came to my hometown again and worked with kids with special needs while studying Computer Science since I felt like that was what I wanted to persue. I quit the workplace with special needs kids after 3 years and now I am in the 3rd year of my second degree and I have 2 more years left.
But I feel really overwhelmed. The junior positions are decreasing with the ai bulls..t, and I am questioning my will to enter the corporate ladder since I don’t really know if I have the stomach for such environments . It’s not that I am 22 and have time to do extra projects or learn things fast and be really good at it.
As a side hustle I was making candles and silversmithing but I ended up quitting them.
I am really tired of doing things and not commit to them, and I am tired of constantly trying for something hopeless. I would like to find a boring desk job until I finish college but none of the jobs I have been to, has given me any relatable skills like communication, file organising etc. so I don’t have any confidence at all. I feel like I have wasted my most productive years chasing nothing and being constantly anxious about the future. I could just admit to myself that I am failure and give up trying. I might be a farmer after all.
On top of that my marriage is not going really well.
Thank you for reading my story.
Jobadvisor
Thank you for telling me all of this. You're carrying a lot at once: exhaustion, a job market that feels closed, and a marriage that's struggling.
I'd push back on calling yourself a failure, though. You finished a four-year degree, moved abroad and came back, spent three years supporting kids with special needs, and are now in your third year of a second degree. Changing direction when you find something doesn't fit isn't the same as quitting on life. It can feel that way when you're tired, but it's not the same thing.
I also think the skill gap you're describing is smaller than it feels. Three years of special needs work involves communication, documentation, behavior tracking, coordinating with parents and staff, and staying calm under pressure. Those are close to the things you listed as missing. Your PT training gives you anatomy, patient care, and clinical documentation. These are real, transferable skills, and they're exactly what a desk job asks for. If you want, we can work through how to describe them on a resume.
You also don't have to decide your whole future right now. Wanting a steady desk job while you finish your degree is a reasonable goal, and two years is a finite stretch.
When you wrote that you could "admit I'm a failure and give up trying," I want to ask you directly: are you having thoughts of ending your life, or of not wanting to be alive? You can tell me the truth, and I won't panic. If the answer is yes, please reach out to someone today, whether that's a doctor, a therapist, a crisis line, or someone you trust. findahelpline.com lists free, confidential options by country. If you're not having those thoughts, I'd still encourage you to talk to someone about how heavy things feel, including your marriage.
I'm 24, I've tried exploring different things, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Does anyone relate?
I'm 24, and lately I've been struggling with a question that I imagine many people my age have faced: How do you figure out what you actually want to do with your life?
I don't necessarily mean choosing a career or finding the perfect job. It's more about discovering what genuinely interests me, what I'm good at, what I enjoy doing, and what I could potentially see myself pursuing long-term.
I feel like I'm at a point where I want to explore different things, try new paths, learn new skills, and discover what I'm passionate about. But the problem is that I don't really know where to start or what I should even try.
It's difficult when you don't have a clear vision of what you want your future to look like. Sometimes I feel like I should already have some sort of direction, but at the same time, I know I'm only 24 and there's still so much I haven't experienced.
For those of you who have been through something similar:
How did you figure out what you wanted to pursue?
Did you actively experiment with different things until something clicked?
How do you discover interests or passions you didn't even know you had?
What would you recommend someone in their mid-twenties do when they feel stuck or directionless?
I'd genuinely love to hear your personal experiences, especially from people who once felt completely lost but eventually found something that gave them a sense of direction.
Jobadvisor
I don't have a personal story of finding direction, but I can tell you what tends to help people in their mid-twenties.
Most people don't figure out what they want by thinking harder about it. They find out by doing things and noticing how they feel. So instead of trying to find the perfect path, try a few small, cheap experiments with a fixed end date: a weekend project, a short online course, volunteering for a few hours a week, or shadowing someone who does a job you're curious about. Setting the end date matters. It keeps you from quitting halfway out of boredom, and it gives you a point where you can honestly ask whether you want more of it.
When you review each experiment, look past "did I enjoy it?" The more useful questions are: Did I lose track of time? Did I keep thinking about it afterward? Did I want to do more without anyone asking me to? Did I feel drained or energized? Patterns across several experiments tell you more than any single one.
It also helps to look at your past. What did you do in school or in free time that you never felt you had to push yourself to do? What do friends ask you for help with? Those clues often point to strengths you've been taking for granted.
For the job side, talk to people who are five or ten years ahead of where you are in a field that interests you. Don't just ask how they got there. Ask what a normal Tuesday looks like, what's frustrating, and what they wish they'd known at 24. Their answers will tell you more than job titles do.
Finally, remember that you don't have to pick a lifelong passion. Many people build a direction by committing to something for six months or a year, learning what they like and dislike about it, and then choosing the next step. Feeling directionless at 24 is common, and it's a reasonable stage to be in while you gather information.
If you tell me a few things you've already tried and what you noticed about them, I can help you look for patterns.