You can never be happy

I hate working 9 to 5. I simply hate it. I loathe it. I worked so hard all my effing life to get here and I hate it. I learnt DP and what not. It’s been 1.5 years since I started working full time as a software engineer and it just keeps getting worse. I make upwards of 15 lpa. It’s not that I have a bad work environment, it’s great. It’s just that I feel absolutely rotten working a 9 to 5 as a software engineer. Ideally, I would like to own a small business of my own. Despite watching hours of content on how to do that, I haven’t been able to come up with anything that seems like it’s gonna work, you know… Thinking of doing an MBA but that’s BS too, right? It feels like very soon I’m just gonna quit and be broke. 🤷🏼‍♀️ It feels like my life is over at 23. Kill me now. My question to you is first, am I alone?, second, can I help you in your business in any possible way?, third, should I do an MBA?

I think I'm losing my mind. I'm a 32-year-old guy in tech, graduated from IIIT Delhi, earning 78L annually, but I feel like I'm fooling everyone, including myself. It's as if I'm constantly waiting for someone to burst into the office and shout, "Hey, fraud! We've finally figured out you're actually useless!" I know it sounds like I'm humble-bragging, but trust me, I'm not. This feeling is eating me alive. Seven years ago, I started as a regular software engineer. Somehow, I kept getting promoted. Now I'm leading a team of 15 people, handling critical projects, and sitting in meetings with the higher-ups. But every time I'm in those meetings, I feel like a kid wearing his dad's oversized suit, pretending to be an adult. I work my ass off - late nights, weekends, you name it. But I always feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. When my team comes to me with problems, I'm secretly panicking, thinking, "Why are you asking me? I'm as clueless as you!" The worst part? Everyone around me seems to think I'm some kind of wunderkind. My boss is always praising me in front of others. My team looks up to me. Even my parents are bragging about me to all our relatives. But inside, I'm constantly terrified that I'll make one tiny mistake and everyone will realize I'm a fraud. I see my college batchmates on LinkedIn, and they all seem so confident and successful. Meanwhile, I'm here, earning more than I ever thought I would, but feeling like I don't deserve any of it. I can't even enjoy my success. I bought a nice house last year, but instead of feeling proud, I keep thinking, "What if they fire me tomorrow? How will I pay for this?" It's like I'm waiting for everything to come crashing down. I know it's ridiculous to complain about a high-paying job when so many people are struggling. But this constant fear of being "found out" is driving me insane. I can't even talk to my friends about it because they'll probably think I'm just showing off. Has anyone else felt like this? How do you deal with feeling like a fraud when everyone thinks you're successful? Is this just part of adult life that no one talks about? This is what eats me alive during weekends, realised it's Friday and panic typed this here

Being anonymous gives me a safe space. But life is getting tougher than ever each day. I wish I had a better paying job. I wish I had time to have slow mornings. I wish I could provide for my family and give them the things they much deserve. I wish I had a chance to rewire rewind and restart. I wish I could do more than I wish to do. It's all wishes guys . It's all hopes. . Nothing seems fulfilling. Nothing seems to make me happy. I have forgotten what carefree days were like. Adulting is kinda hitting hard. I am not able to cope up. Can someone relate?

Bit of background: 23, graduated from tier 1.5 CS degree. I’ve never worked hard in my life, can’t recall a day from past 6-7 years where I’d spent over 6hrs in a day doing something productive. I’ve been blessed with good problem solving and street smartness, cracked really good tier 1 companies without even prepping, got really interesting international achievements, got good communication skills. Most of exams etc I gave in my life, I scored high without prep. This is a lot of brag, yes, but now working at a corporate things are going downhill for me. I’ve realised that hardwork beats talent every time, people around me are getting ahead by working and doing productive things, whereas I’m spending most of time scrolling reels and watching yt vids. My manager and other seniors have mentioned multiple times that I’m not performing well and need to work much harder. I have set up really high standards for myself but I’m doing nothing to achieve them, I try to setup new goals and doing things but I know, that has never worked for me in my life. I envy people who are able to work multiple hours in a sitting and do those things again, everyday. I’ve seen my dad working really hard as well, waking up at 4:30 for business, then working late till 12 for all my childhood. I really feel I’m going to be the failure, everyone has setup high standards for me, but I just can’t commit to anything. I’m really in the lowest point of my life, need a bit of advice, thanks!!

Recently, every friend or colleague of mine have been on rant mode and very dissatisfied with jobs despite being paid bomb money and crazy esops. Is everyone in every organisation in all functions so unhappy or is this just GenZ problem of setting wrong expectations from the Job?

Why even after working your ass off from office and being part of Big Financial giants You have to get laid off and doubt yourself from the core?? And some just even after being at best mediocre, Enjoy all the benefits of remian employed? Working from home? Enjoy the perks?? P.S. I am not demeaning anyone. I know the person personally and I know what he/she is capable of 😀 But here I am super depressed thinking even at all I will be able again to come back on track?? I am just sooo depressed Have a family to support and bills to pay.

Some days going to office just feels like I am just existing to show up. Anybody feeling the same way?

27 Male ,got an offer of 20.5 lpa. Most of the people I know here at grapevine are making way more and friends in my circle are making around 35-50 lpa. Now I am confused,I have a lot of questions in my head. Did I slack off? Or did I do okay?Cause I was avg in college(7.6 cgpa) tier -3 and started my job at non-dev role. I thought market was down hence I was happy with 20.5 lpa,but now I see folks making more money. My progression : 3 lpa to 5 lpa (Accenture for 2 years) service based S.A.P basis job. Drone tech startup: ML Engineer (2.3 yoe)[8-12 LPA] Now I will be joining an MNC : As Sr.MLE offer in hand (20.5 LPA) Overall I have 4.3 yoe. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I might be insecure,I cannot talk about this problem with my parents or friends (or anyone around me)

My current salary is 42LPA. I am from IIT, have 7 years of experience and work in product. Honestly, my value in the market is higher than what I’m being paid but I am very demotivated to optimise for that. When I do see less deserving people minting more money, I feel that I am doing injustice to myself and playing the wrong hand. More and more though, the thought of earning more money chokes me a bit. I have dreams of building something of my own - that gives me control to build something my way and freedom to live my life as per my terms. But the mindset of “zyada paisa pareshaani hai” doesn’t leave me. My family also is not dependent on me and whatever is needed from my side, I actively contribute to. I also lack any motivation to focus on my investments and see my money grow. I just have money sitting around in my bank account purely for nothing I also look at my lifestyle choices from time to time and go into existential debate of why we need the things that we do. This has come to a point where I really do not understand my relationship with money and why we earn and spend it. For me at this point, it’s just a show for the world. There’s very little that you need, and really no limit to what you want to show. And I just don’t see a point in it anymore.