Some background: didn’t go to college after high school. Mostly worked in service and blue collar jobs until I grinded enough for an engineering degree. Graduated in 2020, job market was rough without experience. Took something out of desperation. The job description was very misleading and it became clear to me that this wasn’t an actual engineering position, it’s a freaking glorified data entry job but they wanted an “engineer” because of how inefficient their process is. Somehow an engineer is going perform mindless data entry to a higher level and fix their terribly inefficient system. I feel so foolish and like my degree, time, and effort getting that degree was completely wasted.
Here’s the thing. The actual environment is egregious on top of the abysmal pay. No wfh is offered despite the fact that there is zero fundamental reason why I need to do this in their office. Their office is awful. No sunlight, sometimes water delivery is missed, middle management loves to project their misery onto me, they’re very stingy with the AC. And on top of all this, their favorite way of communicating is just shouting across the room to each other. This leads to a very distracting environment, where mistakes in their stupid brainless tasks are much easier to make. I complained about this and I was met with “noise is a part of work. You can choose what you think about and where your attention is going”.
I feel so stupid. I feel like I actively took a giant step back from a somewhat decent paying career. I feel so trapped. I am dying to get out of this place, but I’ve been rejected to every single other job Ive applied to. Even something I was referred to by an old engineering classmate rejected me. I’ve only been at this place 9 months, and I feel like walking away will only harm me.
I was honestly much happier working part time as a chef/waiter and going to school. I had less free time, but I felt like I was working towards something to better myself. Now I feel like I’m actively working against myself.