Five years industry experience here, in a variety of different roles. I recently found a job offer with a much stronger customer interaction focus than is usual for my field, so I took the job over a slightly better paying position because I figured broadening my range was worth it. After a month of learning the bare basics of my role and our product, my boss said it was time to “throw me to the wolves” and put me straight into the customer's line of sight for a whole slew of products they hadn't trained me on, and with zero training on customer interaction.
But in retrospect, this almost feels like the new normal. At most of my other positions I've been expected to just figure out everything myself just by reading a pamphlet and gotten eye rolls when that wasn't enough to immediately understand how to operate complex machinery. Everyone seems to treat properly training someone as a luxury, and if there's anything specific you as the employee don't know about it's your fault for not having asked. So looking back I really don't know what five years experience means when 90% of that has just been me being left to my own devices pretending I know what I'm doing. Anyone else feeling this?