Chaotic first job: should I wait it out or start looking elsewhere?
I started my first job after university about a month ago, and I’m already wondering if I should leave but I can’t tell if I’m reacting too quickly or if the situation is genuinely not great.
I work in a small engineering consulting firm where we’re only 5 employees.
The main issue is that the organization feels really chaotic. I don’t really have a proper referent/supervisor because the only person who does the same type of work as me (hydrology) is leaving in a month. He’s currently on holiday, so I already feel quite alone trying to figure things out. When he leaves, I’ll probably have to take over a large part of his workload, but there won’t really be anyone qualified to answer my questions or supervise me.
It makes me anxious because I never really know if I’m doing things correctly, and I constantly feel like I’m improvising.
Part of me thinks It’s only been one month. Every first job is stressful. Maybe I just need more time to adapt. But another part of me wonders if this level of disorganization this early on is actually a red flag, and whether I should start looking elsewhere now instead of waiting months hoping things will improve. I ’m scared of leaving too fast and regretting it, but I’m also scared of staying in a situation that’s making me stressed every day if deep down I already know it’s not a good fit.
Did anyone have a first job that started out chaotic but eventually became much better? Or did your first impressions end up being right?