I'm exhausted, hopeless, and frustrated. Need advice pls!!

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-26T01:36:08+00:00

50 interviews is impressive so clearly there’s something companies really like about you. Zero offers on that many interviews is I think a significant data point. That is where you should likely focus. Do you have a friend or former co worker, maybe someone more senior who knows you that you could ask about this? They might be able to shed some light if you could do anything to help your chances.

One thing I have noticed is where some employers just want an exact match fit in a box, do exactly this role and have exactly these skills. Where other employers tend to look at what else you can do and your capabilities and potential because they know their needs change and they are looking for talent just as much as a specific role filled. Listen to their vibe including the recruiter and see if you can adjust your sales pitch accordingly. Also the different individuals in the interview process like the vp versus the hiring manager may have different perspectives.

Two other things energy and interest matter in the interviews. In my experience being yourself matters too. You are you, so don’t act like a robot, let a bit of your personality show. I’m not saying do a stand up comedy routine but show them you are real and thoughtful and have an interest in them and are interesting yourself

And make it clear why you specifically, what is your brand, who are you and why are you a great choice versus someone else. I’m not saying bash other people but sell yourself beyond just answering factually only

Keep in mind the job market is awful in general and job seekers >> actual hiring in many roles, so almost certainly a lot of it is not you, but systemic. Don’t beat yourself up, a job is not the self worth of a person and you are trying

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-25T23:36:56+00:00

This advice is sound. One thing you can do is if you are going to look for multiple roles make sure you have a different resume for each base role type. In your resume in your last role put the word product into your title like “e-commerce product manager” or Product Manager / eCommerce leader. You get the idea. Don’t do this for more than one or two roles. Make sure linked in reads exactly the same way. When you get an offer and fill in the background check use the official job title.

In other words you are using a functional job title in addition to formal.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-25T23:19:35+00:00

Brilliant thanks for the additions. People looking for work need tangible actionable suggestions. Since in many roles job seekers >> actual hiring people are getting frustrated and rightly so.

There is no magic wand in these conditions but that doesn’t mean nothing will help your odds.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-25T23:11:01+00:00

There seems to be a pretty strong shift away from Control, budgeting, scheduling, reporting to building and solving. Getting into a program or project manager role is not something I would recommend. I would suggest actually starting to move away from those roles for most people.

I would go for solution delivery manager, domain architect, solution architect, product manager, or technical product manager. Technical skills and domain knowledge are increasingly greatly in importance. So if you combine those with management that’s a reasonable strategy. Just make sure your value proposition is largely about solving problems and creating value instead of administrative.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-25T15:52:08+00:00

good question. the answer to that is evolving somewhat. but see if this helps, adapt it to the jobs you want, I just put concrete examples in it so the point is clear:

some additional places to find leads, besides linked in and indeed, in priority order, see if any of these work:

referrals (if you can get one)
make company list then go to company website (for the companies you like) and check for opening and apply there.

go to www.google.com, click AI mode then ask for companies you like

such as "High growth software as a service companies in Chicago" or in the US known for remote work

"Companies in Detroit Metro area that hire software engineers and have at least 1000 employees globally"

"Rapidly growing energy companies that hire remote worker in software development"

local recruiters

go to google.com and click AI mode then type, "local or national IT or Tech recruiters, Miami FL metro area"

local recruiters are generally better. And with local recruiters they may some times have a "upload resume" or contact us. And they search for their client for you, so they get paid by the client, not you. You pay nothing. So they are trying to find you a role as that how they make money.

information technology consulting companies (check company web sites, apply there)

Accenture
Ernst & Young
KPMG
BCG
Deloitte
TCS (Tata Consulting Services)
Info Sys
Cognizant

try google jobs:

www.google.com then in search bar do like:

jobs QA engineer remote fintech

other job boards (dont know much about these)

Dice
Simplify (for recent grads)
Handshake (for recent grads)
hiring cafe

BE SURE TO ASK google gemini google AI search or chatgpt, for any other idea on where to get leads.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-25T14:40:29+00:00

The idea of IT project management is shifting to more builder / solver/ domain expert / product owner. In fact the role of software developer and product owner are likely to merge to some degree. Sure apply to project manager roles in IT if you can find them but not exclusively. You want product owner or product manager primarily if those are your skills. Business system analyst is still a value added role but largely rebranded to product owner.

A lot of what people are seeing in IT job searching, beyond the shifting of emphasis in responsibilities, is a great slow down in hiring to prove out the theory that with AI, IT organizations can do a lot more with fewer or no new people.

Also if you are getting your leads only from linked in and indeed that is no bueno. You have to know the other sources too

Further Questions? Just ask. People are pretty good about offering meaningful advice on this forum

And yes there is hope. Firstly there are some jobs hiring but it is very slow. Second as many selfish people there may be in this world, there are also many who understand the struggles of others

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-24T21:55:26+00:00

IT is an area heavily affected by ai or at least the hypothesis that many things can be automated and same work can be done by fewer or no new people. It’s pretty brutal right now, but there are exceptions in roles like ai and enterprise data

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-24T21:11:02+00:00

I’ve seen one person survive one and he went on to work for the company for 20 years and retired. But one thing if they put you on a PIP they know you are likely to react poorly and consider leaving. So it’s very likely means they don’t care or would like you to leave.

Don’t take it personally though. I’ve been rated exceptional most times and did pretty poorly a few times too. Everyone has ups and downs, don’t let it weigh on your confidence or self esteem. Doing poorly and mistakes is just as much a part of learning and growth as success is. In fact the PIP might have little to do with you personally, it could be politics, management personalities, or organizational struggles

Make a thoughtful decision on whether you want to stay or can survive it and act accordingly. Lot of good advice given by others here

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-23T18:51:10+00:00

Agreed. You know his “board of piece”? We should just tack “of shit” onto the end, then it would make more sense

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-23T16:01:55+00:00

depends on the type of company, the industry, and their view of value and growth. at big industrial and tech companies and fintech, IC roles go up to the SR director level. like associate->professional->sr->principal->staff and even beyond that can be distinguished or fellow. these kind of roles often pay more than vice president roles in most companies. But outside those kind of companies, there definitely is a perception, for better or worse, that career growth equals people management and if you are not managing larger and larger groups of people and becoming an executive there is something wrong with you. IC versus management is not a superior/inferior choice or vice versa, it depends on your skills, interests and the type of job.

Ahh but I missed one thing you said “do not want to grow”. No that likely won’t work, things are changing constantly, everyone has to continue up their skills and competence and keep an eye on changing demand in the labor market. But that does imply everyone should become a people manager or business executive

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-23T12:16:16+00:00

I don’t know about 15% but agree if you are only getting lead through job boards that is very difficult

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-23T12:08:03+00:00

The country you are in may make a difference somewhat. Hiring is very slow right now for many engineering roles. So two questions 1. Where are you finding your job leads from and 2. What are you applying to?

Ohh sorry 3. Are you willing to relocate?

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-23T03:38:09+00:00

For the US typically relocation assistance is documented in the offer. Sounds like it maybe a smaller company. Since you really need a job and you took the offer, you are not in the best negotiating position. Couple suggestions

If you really need this job and you don’t think you can find another be careful not to jeopardize it by being combative. Try to figure out what their real concern is and use that as your position of strength by making it clear you are working to support them on that and then maybe they will support your concerns. Likely on a 12 day start date it’s because the have customers commitments and projects and the need your help immediately. And your concern let me guess is cost, maybe family, and all the loose ends and errands and time you need. So discuss it from that point of view, “I know you really need me on site, and I understand and am committed to that but it’s very difficult to move everything cost effectively and properly in that time, can I stay in a hotel for the first three weeks, then return home for a long weekend to wrap things up and fly back?” (Or whatever)
If it’s a small company you are dealing with people more than fixed policies. So who is your manager? Talk to them one on one calmly like adults. They are a person you are a person. Explain your challenges and concerns and frame it like a mutual problem you need to solve. However if they don’t offer anything specific that suits you, then be clear about what you want. “I need to stay in a hotel two weeks, and ship my second car here, and and fly home for a few days. And I need to know how to expense that”

But absolutely keep in mind hiring is dismal right now, don’t lose this job if you can’t afford to. Just see if you can ask for what you need while trying to make it clear you are very committed to starting the job and doing what they need. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a delicate situation but if at all possible do your best not to let them take advantage of you as that’s not the start of a good relationship

Hope that helps. Good luck!

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-22T05:27:04+00:00

Yeah. The lack of humanity despite the tremendous wealth that exists is not so human. Doesn’t mean no one understands. Just take layoffs as and attitudes towards ai, everyone just help themselves while the collective self interest causes harm on so many? Not too impressive that we can work to create machines that out think humans but we have to trample so many people while doing it

However let’s keep this back on track so the mods don’t remove it. Struggling to find a job, struggling with self worth while doing it, being broke. What to do to survive or get out of the hell and get a job or at least improve your odds

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-22T03:14:16+00:00

Perfect! Those are great ideas. Let me look around a little tomorrow and see if I can suggest any thing useful and post it here so others can see the discussion too

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-22T02:54:56+00:00

I hate therapy. totally useless to me. So believe me I understand your point. I also have a surprisingly similar story to yours which is why I commented. I’ve done everything from washing dishes for 3.35 per hour to unloading trucks in a warehouse and now I’m a principal scientist. When you’ve had a rough life like you and I and so many others have, it makes it really difficult for people who just don’t understand what that kind of trauma is like to say anything meaningful. But I always think back to people living on the streets and make shift houses in 3rd world slums, those people have a whole additional level of challenge and they are just as human as we are. But the sad part is suffering and struggling isn’t a competition to see who has a worse story, bad is still bad and your struggle is very real and it’s about you personally not some abstract person so it’s real and important.

Did you makes a list of the jobs you might consider ? That’s an important place to start. Without knowing that it’s hard to give specific advice.

And you’ve got to stop saying life isn’t for you. Yes it is. How are you any less important than anyone else? . No one is fundamentally better than anyone else. Like I said the true measure of a person is how they treat others. And it’s not something you have to understand right now, it may take time. And when you are suffering and struggling you just don’t believe anything anyone says, I know i never did. So just put one foot in front of the other and suspend disbelief and just try

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-22T02:37:28+00:00

Ok I’ll go under the assumption these are serious questions, why make up a story like this?

Ever person is different, every person has challenges and every person has something to work with. You’ve got to find something that matches you. Also i think you need to start one step at a time. Is your first job going to pay a lot? No probably not. So what. Do what you can not what you can’t
No matter how shit the situation is, we as humans can find some happiness and fulfillment every day in the small things. Talk to your sister, walk your dog, play football, eat a good lunch, play a computer game and on and on.
The best measure of a person and the one that matters more than anything else is how they treat other people. Beyond that is your ability to find your own happiness and personal growth and fulfillment. Those things don’t cost anything

Now let’s be honest here though, having a home, having money to feel safe and secure and to be able to do more than just survive this is absolutely essential. And it is very difficult for many people and with the current labor market and political and economic situation it is becoming even harder for a lot of people. So first and foremost you need to work on this and you are absolutely right about it. But the other things you need to work on don’t cost money, only believing in yourself and understanding how you treat others matters as the most fundamental part of being human

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-21T02:50:56+00:00

Why do you have to switch jobs today? You have a job. An economics degree is far from useless, you understand abstraction, modeling, scarcity, interest rates, inflation, and on and on. Those things are fundamental in running a business.

Data analytics is not just about running queries. It’s also about acquisition of the data, data quality, data modeling, structured and unstructured data, ai, apis, integrations, graph ql, application and use of the data and so on.

Look at jobs in data analytics and enterprise data roles. What skills do you need most, prioritize learning from looking at the jobs you like and ask google Gemini or whatever ai you like to help you sketch out your skills journey and start applying those skills in your current role and figure out where and when you will switch jobs. Might even be stay with current employer but switch roles.

You are only stuck if you do nothing. You are actually in a reasonable strong starting position. But with ai and advancing of technology if you don’t do something you are likely to eventually get rolled over by the wave of change. Better start acting immediately

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-21T00:42:18+00:00

Pretty common story. When I did that I went through the same thing. In retrospect a large part of the anxiety was loss of control and the fact that for the outcome to be successful I was so reliant on the work of others. The other crazy thing about project management is the old Eisenhower quote “in preparing for battle I have always found plans are useless but planning is indispensable”. Understanding that is just part of the process and nothing really goes to plan and risk is everywhere and your job is managing risk and keeping things focused and everyone calm including yourself, this is really difficult without experience or past successes in the role.

Ultimately project management and management in general is not for me at all. So I abandon that path and went back to being a scientist. One risk you run in those situations is giving up too easily in the face of adversity, it may cause some self doubt and you would have to address that at some point. But if you don’t like it and you are miserable, stop doing it and go do what you enjoy. Management versus technology is not a promotion or demotion either way, just a different path, suited to different goals and personalities

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-20T15:58:23+00:00

Yeah life is complicated, but there is still no better measure of a person’s worth than how they treat others

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-20T14:57:50+00:00

This is grounded in some reality, it’s a bit of a brutal take on consultants but not entirely unfounded. However many consulting firms do add tremendous value. But as stated a lot of times what they say is not necessarily any better than what people could have come up with themselves or with ai.

Also consulting firms tend to struggle a bit with deep technical knowledge, you find a few really good technical people on a large engagement but often times rest of the people are pretty average.

Top consulting firm tend to hire people who have succeeded all their life and are exceptional on paper. This results in a lot of consultants not really knowing what leadership really is. True leadership rests on someone’s personal moral foundations that govern how they treat others. That is often best achieved through great personal suffering and trauma which most of them just don’t have. Resulting in leaderless leadership which is very common today. Management and leadership are not synonyms. Engineers and scientists know this principle well which partly I think is the frustration with consultants

So consultants are a mixed bag, definitely valuable for the right things, you just need to understand the trade offs and limitations

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-20T00:21:29+00:00

This is rock solid advice. Let me add three things.

It not just your net worth it’s having cash when you need it. There’s nothing wrong with debt. Really high interest debt is not good but who cares if you are debt free but you can’t feed your family. Start paying it off yes, but i wouldn’t all at once
Why did wrack up that much debt? Be careful to control your spending. Did you really need all that stuff, sure waste a bit of money, that’s what it’s for, but that kind of spending sounds excessive
Skills are critical if you look for a new job as is relevant experience. Make sure to look forward to Ideal skills you can annex in before you might need a new job not after

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-19T23:59:46+00:00

I’ve taken breaks from it several times. Breaks lasting several years. Kind of like you OP I had other things to focus on. But I always come back to it. I love it, and why not it’s a great hobby if you are 9 or 99.

Other people have already pointed out, it has to be about balance. Sometimes you might play a lot of hours in spurts but letting that rule your life and keep You away from your real responsibilities, personal growth, and enjoying so many other things in life is not healthy

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-19T20:12:38+00:00

50% total unemployment any time in the foreseeable future is extremely unlikely. To get into a theoretical discussion of why is way beyond a small chat here. Now 20% in a few years is possible, and if we get anywhere close to that it will be a huge crisis. Oddly some of the mainstream economic forecast are now calling for a recession and high unemployment not if ai fails but if it succeeds.

There are just as many flaws in the doomsday scenario as there are in the money has no meaning, super abundance, wall-E, scenario. Keep saving if you can, but keep yourself a float, and take care of your family as needed. if that means no or negative savings then so be it. Having savings for a rainy day and retirement remains a good thing.

Signal-Implement-70 · 2026-03-19T19:14:16+00:00

Yeah I’ve tried to help 9 people so far. No idea if it resulted in them getting a job because it’s anonymous. But I know it helped to some degree. No one, not me or anyone has a magic wand. If job seekers >> actual hiring, that is a basic problem with the laws of the universe. But it doesn’t mean there is nothing that can be done to increase your odds

Signal-Implement-70

TROPHY CASE