I just got my first performance review, and the feedback was literally "you're doing great, keep doing what you're doing," with a 2% raise. Inflation in my city is sitting at 4%, so my reward is effectively a pay cut for a year of hard work. Is this normal? Is the only thing to do jump companies?

Does anyone else find it difficult to get another job while you are currently employed? Most people say that it's easier to get a job while you have a job, but that has never been the case for me. What normally happens is I go to an interview with the knowledge that I can mess up the interview and perform poorly. Sometimes I ask questions that I know are going to make the interviewer uncomfortable. This is probably both good and bad. Most jobs I have landed happened when I was unemployed.

I had my performance review recently and my manager says I'm doing great, that he will try to get me max. bonus even though budget is tight.... I'm however feeling very deflated and slow in my career. I feel the "comfort" of a big corporation is slowing down my growth and I want more, I want to reach my potential to the max. I see posts of people getting into OpenAi and I feel I lack the variety of experience to even apply to such companies... Should I take a risk and go into the Startup world?

The work culture on my team is pretty bad. There is high burn out, lots of fighting, finger pointing, working 24/7. When I bring this up, the leaders mention that this is just how tech culture is. It is worse at other companies. I haven’t worked at another company so I feel like I can’t counter. What should I say?

I just found out I didn’t get the promotion that I was certain I would get. I’m feeling very emotional about it. For those who have experienced this, what are the next steps? What should I do and what should I not do?