Can you leave a graduate job?

LegacyUser

I'm currently 6 months into a graduate job.The contract I signed is a fairly standard 3 year graduate contract. For a few reasons I'm not happy in it. The job itself is not what I expected, my co-workers are not what I expected and I am not dealing with the pressure nearly as well as I expected.

I've had all the chats with family and friends about sticking it out, putting up with it and it will get better etc. but I am finding it so difficult. I keep getting sick, coming down with colds, stomach bugs etc. which I never usually pick up, I'm constantly upset and worrying about work, and I just always feel exhausted. this all only started about two months into the job, when it started to go wrong.

What I want to know is whether it is career suicide to leave a graduate job six months in? How do you go about explaining in interviews that you left your first proper job but won't leave any subsequent jobs? Can you leave the first job in your field because you can't cope, and expect to find a job that you will be able for and will enjoy, and can you expect future employers to hire you after leaving a grad contract?

LegacyUser

I am in somewhat the same position as the OP and would love to hear people's thoughts.

Cheers.

davo10

The answer to your question is, yes you can leave a graduate job by giving the required notice, and yes it probably will effect your ability to get another job particularly if you work in a specific sector.

You will be asked at interview about previous employment and why you left when you did, you probably won't get a great reference from your current employer.

OP, you have to consider a number of points before you quit. Rarely does a job match the expectations/dreams we have about the job before we start. The working environment can be a shock to the system after graduation, the type of work, work load, the stress, dealing with colleagues not all if whom you get in with etc. But there is no guarantee that the next job will be any different.

If you are unhappy, you are unhappy and should quit if you feel that strongly but you may have to accept that this is your introduction to the reality of the modern workplace and though the grass may appear greener somewhere else, it's just as hard to smoke.

Jawgap

My initial thoughts would be that you should stick it out, but if it is affecting your health then you need to think long and hard about staying or not - might it be possible for you to elaborate a bit further on what the issues are. Is the volume of work or the type of work? Are your colleagues being non-supportive, hostile, presuming you have a level of knowledge that you don't?

The two maybe linked - if its a pressurised environment, maybe everyone is a bit frazzled?

It's not exactly 'career suicide' to leave a job, but you are very much going to be on the back foot at every interview you go to when asked about gaps in employment. Plus, as @davo10 has already pointed out your current employer may not give you a glowing reference - a bland, non-committal reference can be damning because of what it doesn't say. Plus, people 'gossip' and by that I mean they talk, call colleagues etc when assessing people for positions which means you will, in all probability, struggle to gain a job in the sector your involved with at the moment.

I would look on the first year or so of any graduate job as the 'hazing' period - you are at the bottom of the pile so you get the scut work. You probably expected to be doing something more meaningful with your hard earned degree, but that's just life in the workplace.

If you can, you should wait until at least the next round of graduates are taken in - at that point you'll be a bit further up the tree and, hopefully, the nature of the work or assignments you are involved in will change. In the mean time, is there anybody you can trust who is more senior in the company (not your line manager), or someone you know who works in another company in the same field (at a higher level) etc who you could 'recruit' as an unofficial mentor?

Good luck.

LegacyUser

Thanks for the replies, I know I should stick it out, everyone is telling me to, and if I hold on I will get three years of really wide ranging experience, which is difficult to get in my field. I put all my eggs in this basket when I was looking for grad jobs as this company was where I wanted to get a job. I was so delighted when it worked out, which makes this all the more difficult.

I don't think its just culture shock as I worked full time in a tough industry for a few years between school and college, and am not a stranger to hard work or responsibility, but I just can't seem to get my head round this job at all. It is a pressurised environment, and its a small department in a big company so everyone is under pressure but I go home in tears regularly, and am really struggling to keep the head above water. I hate going into work every day.

Jawgap wrote: »

might it be possible for you to elaborate a bit further on what the issues are. Is the volume of work or the type of work? Are your colleagues being non-supportive, hostile, presuming you have a level of knowledge that you don't?

The two maybe linked - if its a pressurised environment, maybe everyone is a bit frazzled?

At the moment it feels like its everything you have mentioned! I suppose the biggest problem is that there is definitely a presumption that I have knowledge of company specific things that I would have no way of knowing. When I bring it up I get brushed off or get a 2 minute summary that will explain the exact issue at hand but if anything related comes up I won't have the knowledge but am told its already been explained.

The type of work is an issue, but not because I am being given the scut work. I was expecting that and was prepared to keep the head down and deal with that for a year or so, but instead I am being given sole responsibility for a number of key areas, with no one willing to give a hand or check up on what I am doing. Then when something goes wrong, I get all the consequences down on my head, which doesn't seem fair as I am only in the door, and when I am left to figure things out I'm inevitably going to figure wrong on occasion.

There is also an immense volume of work, and I feel like I can't possibly get through it all. There is a division of labour between myself and my colleague but they are currently involved in a huge project and I'm expected to pick up the slack and do two peoples jobs.

The issue with my colleagues comes down to one person, who is not so much hostile as changeable. I never know where I stand with them and they have already thrown me under a bus twice by denying all knowledge of me trying to check something with them before doing it to our manager, then 5 mins later they were making small talk and wondering where we were going to go for lunch. I know I need to work at separating work and personal but when someone blatantly denies telling you to do something when things start to go wrong it can be tough!

I've had conversations with my manager around a few issues I'm having (I haven't mentioned the difficulties with my colleague) as its obvious I'm not enjoying it and finding it tough going, but I feel like my manager is focusing on me (i.e. trying to implement things to make me more confident etc.) and not seeing that there may be wider issues within the department.

I just don't know what to do as I don't want to leave but I am finding it all so so hard at the moment...

mahamageehad

Did you make up your mind on this over the Christmas break? I'd imagine most offices would be heading back in tomorrow at the latest!

pauliebdub

davo10 wrote: »

OP, you have to consider a number of points before you quit. Rarely does a job match the expectations/dreams we have about the job before we start. The working environment can be a shock to the system after graduation, the type of work, work load, the stress, dealing with colleagues not all if whom you get in with etc. But there is no guarantee that the next job will be any different.

^^^This^^^

I think you maybe need to manage expectations and examine what it is about the cuurent role you dont like and how it differs from what you would like to do. Is there a mentor or team leader that you can have a chat to about your issues? There is every possibility that if you leave you will find it a lot more difficult to find another job and what guarantee is there that it willbe any better? I would stay stick it out for at least another six months if you can.