• Regina Grogan is a tech exec who says high stress once impacted her mental health and relationships.
• Grogan has developed nine daily habits that help her reduce stress and increase productivity.
• Grogan's methods include cold plunges, meditation, and gratitude lists for better mood.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Regina Grogan, a Zillennial technology executive, AI founder, and former Google consultant based in Salt Lake City. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I worked in high-stress Silicon Valley for over 10 years, including as a Google consultant, before transitioning to being an associate security engineer at one of the largest banks.

Working in the tech industry is stressful — it has extreme volatility, which has led me to feel anxious and depressed in the past. I've seen tech startups shut down very suddenly with zero discussion. I've also worked in big companies undergoing layoffs and wondered, "Am I next?"

High stress also impacted my relationships. My work took up a lot of my personal time, so I wasn't able to build as many relationships as I wish I had.

Over the years, I've discovered hacks to mitigate stress, boost my mood, and increase productivity. These are my favorites.

1. Cold plunge

I take a 15 to 20-minute ice bath or cold shower every morning. The first five minutes are awful and shocking. Then I acclimate to it, and it actually feels really good.

During the plunge, I feel extremely alert, the world looks brighter, and when I emerge, everything feels like a new beginning.

2. Meditation

I was very addicted to my digital devices until I noticed it was severely affecting my mental clarity and focus. Now I try to stay off my phone as much as possible in the morning, and instead, meditate for 25 minutes.

Ever since I made the switch, my mind has become quieter and I feel reset from the attention obsession that my digital devices create.

3. Increase my bodily awareness

I've realized I have to create balance in life by tuning into my body and intuition for guidance. I now listen more to my instincts.

One time, I was working on a partnership and felt physically uneasy while reviewing the terms. Looking back, I realize I was sensing a subconscious resistance in my body about this partnership, which ended up going south.

4. Take a walk without my phone

I often use my phone as an anxiety and comfort tool. The only way I've had luck mitigating this anxiety is by leaving my phone at home, coming back, and seeing that nothing horrible has happened.

5. Think about what I can and can't control

Let's say a vendor messes up a project, or the intern accidentally gets spam-attacked and is freaked out. Instead of panicking, I use the psychological strategy of the "circle of control," asking myself, "What can I control in this stressful situation?"

If the answer is nothing, I have to let it go.

6. Ask myself, "How can I help others today?"

Doing small acts of kindness helps me take the focus off of myself and redirect my energy toward helping others. This can be helping someone at work, volunteering, or simply letting someone in front of me in traffic.

At the end of the day, I can say, "Today didn't go super well, but I did something in my control to improve things."

7. Make a list of what I'm grateful for

I live a privileged life, and it's easy to forget how hard life is for many other people. In my case, I used to have depression. I've seen bad days, but it's easier to forget when I make a gratitude list.

When I zoom out, I can see how lucky I am and that I have a lot to be thankful for.

8. Epsom salt bath

Every evening, around 9 p.m., I take a hot Epsom salt bath. Epsom salt regulates the nervous system and also staves off loneliness — or so they found in some studies.

I do this as a "day ender" to help me officially close out the day. Otherwise, I'll keep working into the night.

9. Write down my worries and wait to review them

Before I go to sleep at 10 p.m., I write down everything I'm worrying about as a "brain dump." I put it in a box and revisit it a week later to see how many of them came to pass.

Almost none of them do. Over time, I've gained more confidence and calmness.

Ever since I started using these hacks, I've been in a great mood and more productive than ever

My colleagues always talk about my energy and good mood. These hacks allow me to be creative and productive at work, even in a stressful environment.

If you work in Big Tech and have productivity hacks you'd like to share, please email Tess Martinelli at [email protected].

• Stephen Wu transitioned from tech to finance, starting a hedge fund with $10 million.
• Wu's experience at Amazon and Microsoft taught him efficiency and managing technical debt.
• He said trading is more fun and more money than tech.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephen Wu, a 29-year-old hedge fund manager from New York. It's been edited for length and clarity.

If you ask Alexa to play Taylor Swift, my team built the system that recommends similar songs to listen to afterward.

I studied computer science and philosophy at Carnegie Mellon during college and always thought I would work in engineering. I applied to work at Amazon during my senior fall semester in college and started at Amazon Alexa right after graduating. I was hired as a software engineer in Seattle, creating and building the music recommendation system and overseeing a team of three engineers.

It was a good mix of my passion for music and engineering, but eventually, I left Amazon for Microsoft and then left tech to start a hedge fund with about 80 investors.

I raised almost $10 million from friends, family, high-net-worth individuals, influencers, and others in the hedge fund space that first year. I still love engineering, but hedge funds make money, so they're much more fun.

Amazon taught me how to prioritize and be efficient

Working at Amazon, I learned that its ethos differs from other tech companies.

Google and Meta are more engineering-focused. Microsoft aims to build the best tool for the customer, even if it takes extra time. Amazon, on the other hand, seeks to make things fast.

Instead of building it right the first time, Amazon allowed me to create the minimum viable product usable to meet the deadline. While working there, I learned a lot about prioritization and efficiency.

Still, after about three years, I wanted to explore new roles. A Microsoft recruiter reached out to me via LinkedIn. I took the call and was intrigued by their offer of an engineering-heavy business role. I would work directly with engineers to build and plan the machine translation system used by Microsoft Azure.

I liked the opportunity to combine my strengths in engineering and business for this role, so I accepted it in 2020.

I learned a lot in tech and used it to launch my hedge fund career

I loved working at Microsoft and worked there for about three years. In my free time, I dabbled in hedge funds, which are any fund using a non-traditional investment style.

One crucial learning takeaway that helped me in my future endeavors was technical debt — if you build something too quickly and take shortcuts, you may spend twice the time just fixing the bugs.

I can tell if a product wasn't built right or if it might incur additional unforeseen costs that other hedge fund managers may not know about. Also, because I built statistical models and AI algorithms recommending songs to users at Amazon Alexa Music, I understand the statistical behavior of price movements. This allows me to take a more data-driven, probabilistic approach to trading, while most fund managers focus on financials.

After 6 years, I left Big Tech for the finance industry

I specifically invest in options trading after volatile events. I always loved it, but I never thought I could do it full-time.

Along the way, I discovered a very lucrative strategy for trading in a specific niche in the options market. I did this for fun with my portfolio through 2020 and 2022. It was during the pandemic in 2022 that I realized that NASDAQ was down 33%. That year, I proved my strategy in a bear market and felt confident enough to pursue this as a serious career.

For years, my friends and family asked to invest with me, and I was finally comfortable trading with their money. I left Microsoft in April 2023 to work on the hedge fund full-time. I worked extremely hard during my first year of fundraising and trading simultaneously and was very stressed.

Fundraising was difficult initially, but I allowed investors to try with a small amount first and see the returns for themselves. The minimum amount to invest is $100,000.

I love trading and plan to do it forever

Since our trades are weekly, I allowed them to withdraw any week if the performance was poor. This was highly unusual and risky for hedge funds because they could withdraw any week, and my fund would die. However, I was confident I could perform. After several months of good performance, many of my investors doubled or tripled their investments.

And now, more folks continue to invest through word-of-mouth.

I aim to grow this to a $100 to $200 million fund in the next few years. It's just me, so it's a lot of work, although I have part-time analysts helping. Once reaching $100 million, I can hire more analysts and expand the strategy.

I love trading. It's fascinating because it's like solving a puzzle every single day. As an engineer, I was making a solid six figures a year. It depends on how much profit I generate this year, but if my fund is $15 million and I achieve the 30% yearly profit target, I'll make $1.2 million.

I enjoyed solving complex engineering challenges, but trading offers a more dynamic, fast-paced environment and I plan to do this for the rest of my life.

If you left Big Tech for another industry and would like to tell your story, please email Manseen Logan at [email protected].

• Aprajita Anand has been a life coach for children of the ultrawealthy for more than a decade.
• Anand says most clients come to her after failing to find success with traditional therapy.
• She emphasizes the importance of taking action, shifting motivations, and contributing to others.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aprajita Anand, 41, a life coach in New York City. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I've been a life coach for children of the ultrawealthy for 12 years. I started on this career path very organically. I was working as a tutor in New York City, largely supporting wealthy students, and I found them to be emotionally struggling in profound ways.

Society often dismisses them as spoiled rich kids who are perhaps unworthy of sympathy, though I think this assumption makes them a strangely underserved population.

Therefore, I pivoted into life coaching and dedicated my career to helping my students —teens and young adults — navigate the core issues their wealth brings.

Most of my clients have the same story

Problems typically arise when the child encounters rejection, failure, or a struggle that cannot be solved with money.

Many of these problems are social in nature, such as a breakup or excommunication from a friend group or even more systemic issues like racism.

This shock response is commonly followed up by a withdrawal from academic, social, or family life in which they numb themselves with social media, video games, drugs, online shopping, or another behavior of choice.

The parents' first response is often to send their child to a therapist or psychiatrist. I'm a huge believer in therapy, but in some cases, these children end up feeling even more lost and despondent because they're sitting in their feelings and don't know what to do with them. They may wonder how they have every advantage in the world yet are still unable to escape from difficult emotions, which can cause them to sink deeper into their numbing behaviors.

This is often the point when parents bring their children to me.

3 steps to overcoming the 3 biggest issues

In my experience, much of traditional talk therapy is about processing feelings and breaking down thinking patterns. I use some of those elements as a life coach, but I emphasize taking action. I've developed a curriculum to guide young people through three core problems with three core actions.

1. Shift to an internal point of control

Many of my clients fall into a victim mindset, believing they are at the mercy of an unkind world. I empower them to understand they can choose how they respond to any situation.

I had a student who didn't get into her first-choice college, which was difficult for her because it was possibly her first major rejection.

She begrudgingly went to her second choice but refused to engage in freshman orientation or socialize with her peers, and locked herself in her room, numbing herself with social media and Netflix. She was causing unnecessary suffering by sitting in a victim mindset.

When we began working together, I focused on helping her take back her locus of control by taking action, any action. The action she wanted to take was to mount a transfer application to her first-choice school. I agreed to support her if she engaged in a mindset shift, which is step number two.

2. Find internal motivation

Our culture generally equates success with relatively superficial trappings like grades, prestigious colleges, flashy jobs, and lots of money.

However, I assumed someone raised in a wealthy environment would feel unburdened by money and free to live a life of indulgence, free from expectation. To my surprise, my students feel the opposite. They live in an environment that reinforces the idea that money and status are their source of worth.

So, in my client's case, going to a very good school instead of a great school was a complete failure.

While she waited to hear back about her transfer applications, I encouraged her to tap into positive things in her current environment and engage in things that brought her joy. She reluctantly started attending an interest-based club and started going to her professor's office hours just to talk about big ideas on her mind. Slowly, she began to feel like a member of the campus community.

At the end of that year, she got accepted into her first-choice college and ultimately rejected the offer. She had changed her motivation from external to internal and decided the personal reward was greater than the status.

3. Contribute to someone else's well-being

Many of my clients have never had to work, clean, or think about anyone other than themselves. But the amount of time they spend thinking about themselves can be exhausting.

I advise my students to find a way to contribute to someone else's life, such as volunteering with a professional organization or simply helping with chores around the house.

In the case of the student, she took a leadership position in her sorority and ended up loving her role of helping recruits settle into the community.

Contributing to something greater is a positive, healthy way to put down personal problems and find joy in helping someone else. I make sure they understand it's not to pad their résumé or check off a box; it's necessary for building a meaningful life.

If you work with children of the ultrawealthy and would like to share your expertise, please email Tess Martinelli at [email protected].

• A poor performance review at work led to significant stress and weight loss for the author.
• The review was unexpected, with unclear feedback from a new manager causing confusion.
• The experience taught the author valuable lessons in self-advocacy and career management.

During one particularly difficult fall, in the span of three months, I lost 15 pounds, and people around me quickly noticed. Some friends in passing exclaimed that I looked incredible (I was startlingly underweight). Others expressed concern, asking, as discreetly as possible, if something was wrong.

I'm certain my friends and family would've found it oddly comforting to diagnose this sudden and dramatic shift — maybe it was a devastating break-up or financial stress. How could I tell them that I was unwell because I was just really stressed out? Like, really, really stressed out, all because of a bad performance review.

My first poor performance review

After years of working in tech, I received my first poor performance review. I was deeply anxious about how that would affect my career trajectory and struggled to understand how I "didn't meet expectations" without knowing it.

I interpreted my hitting key milestones, conversations with my manager, and the feedback I received from my peers as positive signals — green lights to continue working as I always had, not red lights that obstructed my career growth.

I was exhausted and discouraged, and the poor performance review only increased my mental fatigue. I saw no escape route.

I didn't know what I did wrong

When I asked why I received a rating for not meeting expectations, which colloquially translates to "not doing your job," I was repeatedly given opaque answers. I continued to ask for supporting evidence for the poor performance review but never received a digestible answer. I struggled to understand my review rating and, as such, struggled to understand how to change it.

At many companies, a performance review is made distinctively by one single person (your manager), and even with the feedback of colleagues and peers, managers decide the final rating.

A bad performance review, which can obstruct impending promotions and team transfers at best and be job-threatening at worst, is often not standardized. Each manager can have a different process and subjective evaluation of employee work. In my case, this was problematic because I had such difficulty understanding how my work translated to the review I received.

A standardized performance process and clear communication would have significantly reduced my mental fatigue and increased my productivity in that specific role, which would've, in the long term, benefited my team and company.

Not understanding the reason for my bad review caused more stress than the bad review itself

To me, it felt like the sentiment from my manager was that this poor review was "just one quarter."

I teared up at how cavalier this seemed. It felt like my job security was being torn apart at the seams. I panicked at the thought of losing my salary, my progress in my career ladder, and my reputation in my role at the time. I often thought about how it must have been only a passing thought to my manager.

The worst part is that I had no idea how I arrived at this point in my career or how to fix it.

My judgment felt clouded, and I had difficulty separating fact from fiction. I didn't and couldn't understand why and how my performance was not meeting the expectations outlined for my role.

I was so poorly equipped to navigate this ambiguous terrain and so stressed at the thought of losing my job that, over the following weeks, eating and sleeping felt like impossible hurdles.

Shortly after, two friends shared their own experiences about damaging work environments, managers, and performance ratings. The surprise of these stories, in conjunction with my own, made me reconsider everything I knew about performance reviews.

The entire experience taught me a powerful lesson

I always avoided asking about my performance at work. I lived with a preconceived idea that my work should and would always speak for itself. If I didn't apply pressure to my performance trajectory — if I didn't ask, engage, or insist on understanding my work evaluation before it was delivered — I avoided what I then considered painfully awkward questions. I now consider those conversations necessary interactions for self-advocacy.

This experience taught me to directly ask the following questions before reviews:

• Do you have any feedback for me?
• What are areas in which my work can improve?
• Is there anything I should be aware of before my next performance review is delivered?
• Where do I stand?

One bad performance review doesn't need to signal the loss of a career. It can be a compelling signal that something isn't functioning as it should — an opportunity to repurpose your current approach to work, a nudge to take agency of your career trajectory (like in my case), or even to recognize that maybe it's time to move on from your current role or company.

The lessons I've learned in self-advocacy are more consequential than any exceeding expectations review could have ever given me. I've learned to speak up, disagree, and champion myself all because of one bad review.

I'm forever grateful for those lessons and where they've led me — to a job I love, a renewed self-confidence in myself and my work, and the excitement to share my story.

Sandra Milosevic works in engineering, product, and design enablement. She has been in the tech space for over eight years and is a former Uber and Snap employee passionate about people, learning, and development processes.

• Amy Zhang has faced five core struggles since quiet quitting her corporate job to start a business.
• Zhang says navigating the current economy and finding the right clients were among the roadblocks.
• Zhang says entrepreneurship involves making mistakes, but it has redefined her idea of success.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amy Zhang, a 31-year-old founder based in New York City. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I spent eight months "quiet quitting" my corporate job, which started in June 2022. I then launched a company focused on growing small businesses. I've developed an appreciation for all the ways people can become successful.

But my learning hasn't come without issues. These are the five biggest struggles I've experienced since actually quitting and starting my own business, and what to keep in mind if you're considering it.

1. You have to be able to work alone for days on end

The transition from working with a team to being completely independent has been isolating. The socialization that used to be guaranteed is now a task that falls completely on me, and sometimes I don't leave my house for days.

Being an entrepreneur requires hustle and struggle, which makes it tough for me to put my computer down and stop working.

I make sure to maintain my routine at my gym, where I have a group of people I talk to. I also try to say "yes" to invitations from friends even if it's easier to say no and keep working.

2. You must be prepared for stress, mistakes, and ambiguity

When I started my venture, I realized I was the only one to blame for poor decision-making. The pressure to not make any mistakes plagued me in the beginning, so I've been learning to forgive myself.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was figuring out what tools and technology systems to spend money on and when to make the purchase. I purchased based on referrals and quickly learned that buying tech solutions too soon and solely based on recommendations can be a waste of money.

I also made the mistake of subscribing to annual contracts for discounts. Looking back, I realize the flexibility to cancel month-to-month contracts would've been more financially responsible.

Despite these mistakes, I know that having patience with myself is important for not burning out and giving up.

3. The economy is different now than five years ago

I've noticed that those who started their business five years ago relied heavily on networks and word of mouth to jump-start their companies.

In my experience, right now, I feel like prospective clients need more convincing, touchpoints, and trust to go into business with someone. I've been able to show my commitment through time spent, being active and responsive, and through action — putting my money where my mouth is.

4. Clients might want more time

I thought working as a consultant would benefit companies — it's cheaper for them to hire me with part-time pay, the ability to cancel at any time, and no health insurance. However, many businesses hesitated to work with me because they wanted full ownership of my time.

Don't get me wrong — the clients I work with now are awesome and completely get it. They like having the flexibility and quality of work at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

There's just something about having full control over an employee that I think some businesses still latch onto.

5. Others will try to rank you by title

There's a social bubble — especially in the corporate world — that defines success by titles, promotions, and company prestige.

Even in social circles at events and parties, when I was introduced to someone, the default second question after asking my name was, "So what do you do for a living?" That question used to feel like a way to rank myself among my peers.

Since quitting and starting my own business, I've realized there isn't just one way to be successful, happy, or make money.

If you've "quiet quit" your corporate job and would like to share your story, please email Tess Martinelli at [email protected].

• Andrew Yeung landed roles at Google and Meta by perfecting his résumé.
• Yeung submitted a one-page, black and white résumé with clean formatting and bullet points.
• He said job candidates can stand out if they customize, simplify, and quantify their résumé.

I was able to land a six-figure role at Google as a global product lead and Meta as a business planning and operations lead. I also made it to the final rounds at highly competitive tech companies like Amazon, Uber, and Spotify — not because of an Ivy League education or a stellar background, but because I perfected the craft of creating an impactful résumé to sell myself.

While there may come a day when your LinkedIn profile, personal website, or X account is all you need to land a job, your résumé is still the standard document required for the majority of jobs today.

A résumé is often the first point of contact between a job candidate and a company — they'll usually review it (for an average of six to seven seconds) before speaking with you, so it's crucial to have everything in order and avoid common mistakes that most people don't realize they're making.

Here's the résumé template I used.

Master the fundamentals

Remember to nail the essentials: Make your résumé a one-page, black-and-white PDF with a clear name (e.g., "Andrew Yeung's Resume"). Use well-formatted bullet points, proofread for typos, and include your contact info, LinkedIn profile, and personal website (if you have one), and make sure the layout is clean and visually appealing.

Nothing else matters if you don't have the fundamentals in place.

Customize your résumé to the role

During my job search, I created three distinct résumés tailored to the roles I was pursuing: strategy and analytics, product management, and sales. Each résumé included specific verbs, phrases, and concepts that were relevant to the role I was applying for, often pulled directly from job postings.

Most job seekers send out the same résumé everywhere, but recruiters and managers can easily spot the "spray and pray" approach. Even worse, applicant tracking systems may even flag your profile and auto-reject you if your résumé isn't relevant enough.

Lead with impact

Don't just do what everyone else does on their résumé: list their responsibilities. Instead, emphasize the impact of your work by using the following format:

"Achieved [insert impact] by [quantitative metric] by doing [insert activity]."

Example:

• OK: Responsible for reaching out to new distributors for the men's apparel category.
• Good: Increased sales for the men's apparel category by reaching out to closing distributors and onboarding them.
• Great: Increased sales for the men's apparel category by $10M annually by reaching out to 15 new distributors and onboarding them to the platform with a closing rate of 85%.

Generalize and simplify

The hiring manager and recruiter will often have much less context than you do on your previous experiences. They will know far less about your specific projects and initiatives, meaning you will have to simplify concepts, explain technical jargon, and elaborate on acronyms.

When in doubt, start by generalizing a concept to make it widely applicable, then narrow it down as necessary.

Example:

• Too specific: Launched Company X's GBM FY24 CX initiative to 5,000 EG customers and increased our NPS by 15, ICSAT by 15% while reducing regrettable churn by 20%.
• Simplified: Launched Company X's customer experience initiative for our global business marketing function to 5,000 enterprise customers to increase our NPS by 15, internal customer satisfaction metrics by 15%, and reduce our customer churn by 20%

Quantify as much as you can

The easiest way to spot a rookie résumé from an experienced one is by evaluating how many numbers are included.

Rookies leave numbers out. Pros try to quantify the impact of everything because they recognize the value of a P&L and know that is how business decisions are made.

Quantifying your impact not only proves you made a difference but also demonstrates good judgment and critical thinking. For every line item in your résumé, ask yourself: "How does this impact the bottom line of the company?"

Ask yourself: What attributes do you want to demonstrate?

If you're great at working with clients, prove it by including line items on your client management and customer service skills, and your coachability.

If you're a data wizard, include line items about your analytical abilities, excel prowess, and technical coding competence.

If you're a rigorous operator, include line items about your project management, leadership, and communication skills.

Recruiters and hiring managers will form an impression of you based on your résumé. It's your job to shape that impression.

Finally, remember to be creative — think outside your résumé

Though your résumé is an important piece to the puzzle, you can't solely rely on it for a successful job application. You need to build your network, often before you need it (see: career cushioning). Learn to pitch yourself effectively, master the interview process, and find sponsors within the target company.

Take the time to polish your résumé, and you will see a significantly higher response rate from hiring managers and recruiters at your target companies.

Good news: Once you've perfected your résumé, you likely don't have to do it again for a while.

Andrew Yeung is a former Meta and Google employee who now throws tech parties through Andrew's Mixers, runs a tech events company at Fibe, and invests at Next Wave NYC.

• Madeline Mann, a career coach, advises job seekers to be careful about what they post online.
• Mann said job recruiters will check a candidate's LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
• She said sharing about your current job search journey on LinkedIn could backfire.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Madeline Mann, a 32-year-old career coach and CEO of Self Made Millennial from Los Angeles. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I've been a career coach for about six years. As the CEO of Self Made Millennial, my career coaching service, I want people to feel confident in selling themselves and ultimately land the job offer.

When it comes to job hunting, I tell my clients that recruiters will definitely check their LinkedIn profile — but they might not stop there. It's very likely they'll search for candidates on other social media platforms too.

For that reason, when looking for work, there are several things you shouldn't share online. Here are four of them.

1. Don't share your job search journey

When you're job searching, I'd heavily advise against documenting your journey. There has been a surge of people on LinkedIn, sharing what it's like to apply for jobs in today's market.

They say things like, "Oh, I just went through this company's interview process, and I didn't get the job," or, "Look how silly this job application is — and here's how I feel about it."

While it might get you some good engagement, understand employers are watching, too. As a job seeker, you don't want them to think, "Oh no, if we put this person through our interview process, what are they going to publicly say about our company?"

Although the job search journey can be pretty isolating, and it can feel good to talk about it, you really want to be cautious here.

2. Mental health

Similarly, I would advise against sharing your mental health journey online. This is something that has become a much more mainstream conversation and for such good reason.

But understand, it's something that an employer could make snap judgments on. Those hiring might question your ability to do the role, and you might not know it — as they won't tell you that.

Sharing things about depression, or anxiety, might make an employer wonder, "How is that going to impact our business?" and "Are they going to be capable of this job?"

Even if you're being uplifting and reflective, it's very risky. Instead, I'd try to keep this more to your inner circle, where you can control who has access to knowing.

3. Don't share your résumé online

On LinkedIn, there's an option to share your résumé — and I wouldn't recommend doing that.

If you share the same résumé everywhere online, you're missing the chance to tailor it to what that company is looking for. This is especially important if you have diverse interests in different roles; that one résumé could send the wrong message.

Instead, I suggest only sharing your résumé with the company you're applying to, rather than making it public on your website or LinkedIn profile.

4. Consider not sharing political campaigns

If you've worked on a political campaign, it's important to consider whether you should actually include it on your LinkedIn profile.

Yes, you likely gained valuable experience, but before posting it, think about the cities you want to work in, the role you're applying for, and the jobs you'd like to pursue.

Many people struggle to separate their beliefs and may make assumptions based on who they think you voted for. These differences can cloud someone's judgment, and when you're applying for jobs, you don't want that to happen.

Even if they shouldn't, small biases can make a big impact. In the end, you don't want to give people the ability to quickly judge you before they get to know you.

Protecting your accounts

When applying for jobs, go to Google, type in your name, and see what comes up. A recruiter will usually start there. They might see your LinkedIn profile, but they could also come across your X and Instagram accounts, too. If those platforms appear, they'll likely click on those links.

To protect yourself from that happening — you can do a few things. First, you can put your social media accounts on private, which isn't necessarily foolproof, but a start, or you can set your social media accounts to include just your first and middle name, so your last name doesn't appear.

You can also slightly misspell your last name. For example, I saw someone whose last name starts with "W," but he used two "V"s instead. That way, if someone searched his last name, it wouldn't show up.

But just as a general rule, know that if someone does get through your privacy settings, there are ways to see what you've liked and who you follow.

Before posting, ask yourself is this the right way to portray myself? Should I just send this in a group text to my friends instead? Really consider those things before posting.

If you're a career coach who would like to share helpful job searching tips, please email Manseen Logan at [email protected].

• Jessika Roso Malic got a job as a stewardess for Emirates in 2010.
• She moved from Phoenix to Dubai and worked there for six years.
• Malic said life in Dubai was glamorous, but she got burned out at work and missed parts of Phoenix.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jessika Ros Malic, a former Emirates stewardess from Phoenix, about living in Dubai. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Moving to Dubai was a whirlwind. In 2010, I heard that Emirates was hiring. After going through the interview process, they notified me of acceptance in April, and I moved to Dubai in August with my life packed up in two and a half suitcases.

It was my first time over the Atlantic.

There were so many international businesses and restaurants that it was almost as if the entire globe was in one city. That's what I loved most about Dubai — the many different cultures in one place.

Living there was a crash course in global interactions. But I moved back home to Phoenix permanently in 2017.

I had a glamorous life in Dubai and loved traveling

Upon arriving, Emirates housed me in an apartment. I had two and a half months of intense training before starting a hectic work schedule. My monthly schedule was only released at the end of each previous month. This meant I could only plan my life for a month at a time, and I was rarely in town.

When I was home, I spent much of my time socializing. Working 11-hour shifts was difficult, and back then, all there was to do in Dubai was party, go to bars, and shop.

You could go anywhere and meet people from, say, 10 countries speaking 15 languages. It's a fascinating city because only about 20% are local nationals, and 80% are a complete mix of expats of other nationalities. Temperature-wise, Dubai is comparable to Phoenix, but Dubai is much more humid because of the ocean.

Once in a while, we'd go out to the desert.

Some things were better in Phoenix

I missed that there was much more to do in Phoenix besides nightlife, such as hiking, visiting nature preserves, camping, museums, festivals, and more.

In Dubai, I found it impossible to get anything done over the phone. There was also no address system back then. I had no idea how their local mail system worked and never learned how to mail something to anyone living there.

We took taxis everywhere as they were affordable, and the lack of addresses meant you had to know exactly where you were going. If it wasn't a well-known location or destination, I often had to tell the driver to head to landmarks or direct them exactly where to go.

We're so spoiled in Phoenix. We live on a grid, so you can easily get from one place to another. In Dubai, it's like someone took some crayons, swirled them on a page, and said, "This is the highway system."

My job gave me perks, but the physical toll was too much

Luckily for me, housing was provided for Emirates crew members. Another perk is the live-out allowance — a stipend for living away from home. Because of Emirates, Dubai was affordable for me.

At the same time, I was sick every month and got food poisoning at least three times a year. The physical toll made me tired of flying, and I just wanted to go home. I met my husband in Dubai and married in 2013. He was also ready to move, so we explored purchasing property in Phoenix.

Moving back to Phoenix made me happy

We bought our first house during a visit back home to Phoenix in 2015, although we didn't move back permanently until early 2017. It was located in South Phoenix in a new development and was a dream find.

Our home was 2,500 square feet, close to the freeways, had a three-car garage, and had four bedrooms. We paid $187,000 cash with my husband's parents' help. I loved that house, but we eventually sold it after we divorced this year.

I miss my glamorous days of traveling and living in Dubai, but I'm happy to be settled and close to friends and family in Phoenix. These days, I'm working as a communications and events manager at a nonprofit, and the work is satisfying.

If you moved out of the US for a dream job and want to tell your story, please email Manseen Logan at [email protected].

• Greg Mansell says some employers are scrutinizing accommodation requests amid rising RTO mandates.
• Mansell says the process can be stressful for disabled employees, leading to some job resignations.
• Mansell advises employees to use their primary care doctor instead of a specialist to file requests.

This as-told-to article is based on a conversation with Greg Mansell, 40, an employment lawyer based in New York City. It's been edited for length and clarity.

Requesting an ADA health accommodation should be a collaborative process between the employer and the employee in which the main goal is to provide a medically necessary accommodation that doesn't place an undue burden on the employer.

With the rise of RTO mandates and the subsequent increase in work-from-home accommodation requests, some employers are elongating the process and scrutinizing requests more thoroughly. I believe this is to ensure employees aren't abusing the system.

Unfortunately, increasingly drawn-out and laborious processes can put added stress on disabled employees and, in some cases, may influence them to walk away from a job.

As an employment lawyer of 15 years, here are my tips for employees to overcome four hurdles in the accommodation request process.

1. Don't wait for your specialist

After an accommodation is requested, employers may ask the employee's medical provider to fill out an accommodation request detailing the underlying impairment, the restrictions it imposes, and the requested accommodation.

The employer may want the request filed by a specialist if the patient sees one, but these doctors can be hard to get a hold of. I remind people that their primary care doctor has access to all medical records and can provide the same information. It doesn't have to come directly from the specialist's mouth.

2. Prepare the request for your doctor

Some doctors simply don't like dealing with the employment process, so it can be helpful to take the burden off them in any way possible. It may be useful for the disabled employee to prepare their own accommodation request and present it for their doctor's review.

The doctor may approve it or change it for accuracy, but it makes the process significantly less taxing for the doctor.

3. Consider consulting a lawyer

The Americans with Disability Act is one of the most complex employment laws, so employees and medical professionals may make mistakes that lead to a wrongfully denied accommodation request.

For example, the medical professional may not specify the medical condition and, instead, state only that an employee needs an accommodation. This does not give the employer sufficient information to determine if the accommodation, or some other accommodation, is medically necessary.

Employment lawyers understand the process and can make sure an employee provides everything needed and hold the employer to the ADA's requirements. The downside, of course, is that this is a time-consuming process and the attorneys' fees can become quite expensive.

4. Document everything

If you consult a lawyer, it's helpful to have as much documentation of the accommodation request process as possible. Documentation helps us determine whether the employer followed the proper procedures.

You can't force an employer to have a conversation through email, but you can and should follow up any virtual or in-person meetings with the bullet points of what you discussed as a way to memorialize the conversation.

If you're going through the accommodation process amid your company's RTO mandate and would like to share your story, please email Tess Martinelli at [email protected].