Hi everyone,
I could really use some advice because I feel kind of stuck.
I graduated in civil engineering and have been working a remote estimating job for about 2 years. It’s not super formal, mostly takeoffs and linking, but the pay is decent and it’s pretty flexible now. It used to be 6 pm to 2 am, but these days I can work whenever as long as I hit deadlines.
I recently joined a new company as an Associate Planning Engineer because I thought it would be a good career move. It’s a well-known company, so I was pretty excited.
But honestly…. I didn’t expect it to be like this.
The shift is fixed (6 pm to 3 am, 9 hours), and they monitor everything. If I stop moving my cursor for a couple of minutes, it marks me idle and deducts time, which feels a bit much.
They also put me into a GC trade I’m not really comfortable with. I’ve touched on it before, but I’ve never done pricing, and their whole system/format is different from what I’m used to. The training feels rushed, but they’re already planning to deploy me to a client on May 11.
At the same time, I’ve got sessions, assignments, a PPT, and a quiz to finish ASAP. It all feels like a lot, especially since I’ve only been here about a week.
I did try talking to my managers, but they basically said switching trades would “limit my growth,” and that since my name’s already been shared with the client, nothing can really be changed. They also said I was hired for GC experience, even though I was upfront in the interview that I hadn’t worked directly with clients and don’t have pricing experience.
It’s gotten to the point where I’m actually feeling physically sick from the stress, which is kind of a red flag for me.
The thing is, I still have my old job, which is stable, flexible, and pays almost the same. So now I’m stuck trying to figure out if I should stick this out for the experience or just walk away.
Would it be a bad move to quit this early? And if I do, how do I do it without burning bridges?
Appreciate any advice, I’m kinda lost right now.