is it a poor fit or just trying to adapt?
 

Hi all,

I left my job of two years in the private sector which I am actually okay with it, to seek for more opportunities and also higher salary. I am currently a civil servant, been in the industry for almost about 7 months. My diploma is not related to what I am doing right now(not going to tell), which is tough but I got to say, I love what I am doing now and I have interest in it but unfortunately, got to be truthful about this, I suck at it and they don't look at how passionate I am, rather they look at how capable I am.

This has resulted me to falling into depression lately. It is a fast pace environment because of the customers' demand, and on top of that, you have to be accurate and knowledgeable in what you do. At least, that is how i interpreted it, because my manager said that it doesn't require a certain discipline to work(reason why im hired).

Back to how I suck at it. I'm not so sure if it is my fault or that I was not properly guided because i do not have a fix buddy(they took turns to guide me because all of them were too busy), but I always made the same MINOR mistake too often, and had been receiving crude remarks and words of disappointment from my colleagues. Three months into working, I had a mental breakdown. I wanted to quit but the department was short of manpower, so they made things better for me so I would stay. I made the decision to stay but now, in my seventh month, I feel like quitting again because of the repetitive amount of mistakes that I did last week, and constant amount of words of disappointment and scoldings that I received. (I honestly don't blame them because they must have expected me to be a better worker than before)

I honestly think the job might be a poor fit for me but at the same time I think it might be a period of transition too. I'm not so sure. I have no one to speak to at work. My colleagues are very workaholic and organized, and I don't think I am able to meet their kind of standard. What do you guys think? Should I quit? I'm not so sure what to say to them, after all, I've decided to stay. :(:confused:

btw. i'm 21. i do not like to be a job hopper..but i am just unfortunate to be in this situation. happiness matter to me.

I think the job is not for you. If the inability to do the job properly had been more wide spectrum, I would have said it was due to poor guidance but the fact that you are making repetitive mistakes suggests that you are either incapable of or do not care about learning. You stressed that the mistakes were minor also tells me you don't think it is that important to be accurate. I would say that it depends on how far reaching the mistake is. For example, a small mistake in patient name can result in wrong medication being dispensed and the death of a patient, or a small error in calculation could result in the wrong price being submitted for a tender and a major loss for the company. Passion is a plus but it is not required for proper job function nor is it an excuse to rationalise underperformance.

I forgot to elaborate on the minor mistakes. It's repetitive minor mistakes, but not all the time. meaning, i did it right most of the time, but at times, i might have made the same error and overlooked the same things. eg; i forgot to tick a check box in a checklist or forgot to issue a document as per customer request because i've overlooked the email. (there are other situations too) you're right, i might not seem to put the importance in accuracy, i've been told that i am very kan cheong. :(

You need to be specific what is your problem. You keep saying poor fit but what does it mean? What is your job & in which industry? What are your mistakes?

As for poor performance due to lack of formal training, I seriously doubt that. Your job is likely very junior & I cannot imagine how the lack of formal training makes you not able to perform even after 7 months on the job.

Also sometimes in life good thing which you don't appreciate & leave because of more $$$ might not come back. You don't want to hop to another company only to see the environment worse.

You are a very poor employee. Repetitive mistakes show that the person does not learn from their errors, and does not put in effort to correct it for future work. You can't be trusted to tick a box correctly and consistently, not sure how you will be able to handle bigger things in future. Your colleagues are probably frustrated at your constant mistakes, and it's even worse cos they are minor errors that you should have gotten right.