I recently took a job as technician to repair multi-functional electronic devices and was upfront about my limited knowledge about tools, electronics and anything mechanically-related.
My now boss, reassured me that “training” would be provided to get me more familiar with what the job entailed. Fast forward to the first week of training, I was told to disassemble my first device and then reassemble it back to fully functional capabilities.
Since this was my first time attempting to disassemble anything, it took one whole workday. No big issues there since I followed the instructional video. However, putting things back together was more difficult because it required me to realize that I should have taken photos of everything before the disassembly. Again, no big issue. I decided I would just watch the video except in reverse and follow the movements.
After everything was reassembled, I turned it on and of course, error codes everywhere. Naturally, I was a little bummed out, but I expected to make a few mistakes. My instructor pretty much said start over. And over. And over. This has been at least 12 times over the span of two weeks. Every time I asked for help or clarification, it was met with a begrudgingly worded response and a shady “you sure you’re in the right profession?” I now see that this training is more so “figure it out” and only ask if it’s necessary.
Fast forward to today, my boss calls me in the office for counseling and pretty much said that as a man I’m supposed to know how to fix things regardless if I have a background of being handy or not. I stated that we all have to start somewhere and I’m sorry I spent the last 17 years of my working career never needing a reason to turn a wrench. He even stated that the instructor felt very strongly about not seeing me succeed since I just “don’t have it in me”.
So now the option are: walk away no harm, no foul or basically wait until they find a reason to fire me.
What sucks even more is that I left a decent (although lower paying) job for this one and now I’m feeling regretful.
TLDR: Took a job that I had absolutely no experience in, employer was fully aware and okay with it. Now I’m facing termination if I don’t decide this isn’t a good fit for me.