Got my dream marketing job straight out of university, and I hate it :(

[AGoldenAutumn]

I managed to get my dream job after university. I hate it. It's a marketing role in a fast-paced agency with swanky offices and I hate it. There are so many perks and the pay is pretty good with lots of opportunity for progression but it just doesn't feel like 'me'. I don't fit in, I'm not outgoing enough. Everyone seems nice and friendly, but I think there is this undercurrent of bitchiness that I'm starting to pick up on.

I desperately need the experience this role will give me, but at the same time I'm completely questioning my entire career and thinking maybe marketing is just not for me.

I am good at the job, my first pieces of work that got sent to clients received really positive feedback, but I'm miserable. I'm comfort eating and engaging in too much retail therapy, and on the weekends I keep myself so busy to try and avoid thinking about having to go back to work on Monday.

I don't know what to do.

Update your CV and leave.
My dd kept at the geaduate sales job which she hated and ended up signed off with stress for 3 weeks. She bottled it up for too long.
She's found a new job in a tiny start up doing content management and she loves it.

There's marketing, and there's marketing.

I'd say agency life is likely that more high intensity, young, ambitious environment. Maybe an in-house marketing job would suit you better.

I've done both, and am currently at an agency, but it's small and chilled (as it's for a fairly sedate industry in the main).

Don't give up on a career because you don't like one job.

Agree with pp - don't make career decisions based on the one and only job you've had since graduating. But do make plans to leave and get marketing experience elsewhere. Can you stick it out till Easter or the six month mark? In the meantime sort your CV and LinkedIn out and start looking at what other sectors you could get into as an in-house. Spend this time researching - make moving jobs a positive well resourced decision.

How long have you been there and are you in a new town too?

Once you know you have a plan to leave things get so much better. Even if it's a secret plan. Start applying now!

I'm glad it may just be the company rather than the career as a whole, I was panicking as I have no plan B of what else to do!

There's not many jobs to apply for, they all require at least a year's experience and I have... six weeks. It will look awful on my CV but I know my mental health is already suffering and I worry I'm heading in a really bad direction. I will keep looking and start applying though.

I interviewed remotely and had 3 job offers to choose from but I picked this company as I feel like I clicked well with the interviewers. However, I know if I had been to the office for an in-person interview I would have declined this job and gone for something else.

I'm living in the same location and commuting to the office, it's a 1.5h commute so not ideal but manageable. I WFH 3 days a week and go into the office 1 day a week.

I feel like I need to speak to my manager about how i'm unhappy, because he is none the wiser. I'm doing well at the actual job and getting lots of good feedback, it's more the company culture and office environment and politics that I'm struggling with.

The grass isn’t often greener. You have just pretty much summed up what it’s like to be an adult I’m afraid. Don’t worry though, you’ll prob only have to work for another 50+ years.

I'm sorry but am I the only one who's going to say this..? You only need to be actually in the office environment for two days a week? Even if you hate it, you're clearly doing a good job. Suck it up. It's great experience.

Are you an over thinker?

You don't have to "fit in" and be more outgoing if the client feedback on your work is all good? Surely?

Just do you and be confident in doing you. Don't let them smell fear / insecurity

When you say speak to your manager...what do you think the conversation would look like? Do you think going into the office more often would help, for example?

I think you should give it a bit more time to be honest; recruiting is expensive and time-consuming and to be honest I'd be a bit pissed off if someone new to my team came to me and said they didn't like the job, without any ideas of changes we could discuss.

Work isn't uni, and not every boss will care how happy you feel.

I never enjoyed agency marketing, in house was much more enjoyable for me. I prefer to be the client and I like to be invested in what I was marketing. So it was important to me that the product or service was something I believed in. Also agree with PP, agencies cultivate a buzzy young trendy culture, which I didn't enjoy either.

You're six weeks in. Everything is always miserable after 6 weeks. You're out of the golden period and into the reality and you don't know what you're doing and haven't had a chance to work out who is who in the office (in terms of personality rather than job description) and that has been made even harder by only being in the office once a week or so. In normal times, you'd be out drinking with the other grads or other grads in their new jobs most nights and able to get it all of your chest and into perspective.
Unless it is actually destroying you, you need to stick it out for at least a year so how are you going to achieve that? My solution when I was in a job I hated was to make sure my weekends were as fun filled and action packed as possible and being childfree and with disposable income that was pretty easy to achieve. 20 years later, the 2.5yrs I stuck in that job still pays off.

Could you be more specific about what aspects of the culture you don’t like? Only being in the office two days a week and doing well at your actual work suggests it should be feasible to tune out a lot of the more annoying aspects of office culture … ?

You can walk out/resign and not mention this job on you CV
Your mental health is more important than anything else. The longer you lease it the longer it'll take you to get back to feeling satisfied

Stick it out for now. It sounds like a great first job. As you are working from home part of the week you won't have had as much chance to get to know people. Have you tried to build friendships? Is there anyone else relatively new to chat with? What makes you think people are bitchy?

Given how little you're in the office, I'm tempted to say stick it out, give it 9 months then start looking for a new role.

Agree with pp that a client side role might suit you better.

I've done both agency and client-side and am agency at the moment. My previous role was at the agency that everyone wants to work at - and I absolutely hated it. I was miserable, doing the same commute as you, and my mental health was suffering. My boss wouldn't have given a shit. I gave it a looooong year, but now I'm in an agency I love - great team, perks etc. And I'm mid forties, it's not the same young hip vibe everywhere!

Rather than walking away, use this time to figure out your next move and start working towards it. If it's client side you fancy what can you do to get into the industry its in, what networking opportunities can you take, what extra study etc.?

Hope that helps and good luck.

"You're six weeks in. Everything is always miserable after 6 weeks"

This is 100% true

I'm trying to reflect on what it is I don't like and I think it's lots of little things. I'll make a list:

• I hate WFH, I find it isolating and lonely despite regular coffee catch-up meetings over Teams with my colleagues. But my commute is so long and so expensive that I don't want to go into the office any more often than necessary. My job was advertised as being located in one of two locations, one of which is a 10 minute drive away from me, and so I thought my commute would just be a 10 minute drive, but once I started I was told my entire department is based in the office further away.

• I find talking to clients really stressful and I hate it. Even emailing clients I find stressful, as I have to CC in my entire department and I worry about typos and spelling mistakes. I don't have very good social skills as I'm quiet and reserved so find it hard to "build a relationship" with clients.

• There are two other new graduates there and they are really close, I started a couple of weeks after them and they pretty much ignore me. A few times I have messaged them on Teams and they have completely ignored me even though I can see they have seen the messages.

• I'm not doing well with how fast-paced everything is. My workload is really high and I'm having to work evenings and weekends to catch-up on everything. I feel like I'm constantly working at the same high-stress level I was at during the worst parts of my degree, but constantly.

"My job was advertised as being located in one of two locations, one of which is a 10 minute drive away from me, and so I thought my commute would just be a 10 minute drive, but once I started I was told my entire department is based in the office further away."

Well, if you decide that you really can't hack this job then at least the above gives you a good reason to explain to future prospective employers why you quit this first job after 6 weeks

Ok so based on what you’ve said, I would say:

• reason 1 sounds like a good thing to tell them if you do end up quitting, as @LimitIsUp says
• 2 may be evidence that you’d be happier in-house where you can develop long-standing relationships with colleagues rather than dealing with an ever changing array of clients
• 3 is annoying but don’t let them get to you
• 4 is something to have a constructive conversation with your line manager about. If they’re any good then they should be able to offer support and encouragement and help you identify some ways of improving the situation.

Quiet and reserved does not equal no social skills. Actually, making low-key one on one relationships is very important, and a lot of your clients will notice and appreciate you for it. It's not about being an extrovert, it really isn't.

On the calling and emailing clients thing: that's a basic in any job that doesn't involve working down a mine, basically. You need to just get stuck in, check it for errors before sending, and your confidence will grow over time.

The other graduates are not your problem. The commute is though - but how easy is it going to be to find a job that appreciates your quieter side, doesn't involve contacting clients, and is a ten minute walk from your door?

This is you building your career, and you're having a bit of a panic. I'm 44 and I still have imposter syndrome freak outs, and I head up an agency!

Everyone (or almost everyone) feels this way to start with. You're no longer in the somewhat safe world of education, it's hard to know what's expected of you. But you can either let this hurdle beat you, or let life grow you up a bit.

Another marketer here. Don't write off marketing altogether, it just sounds like this particular company or type of role may not be for you.

I personally find that marketing has more than its fair share of extroverts. I'm quite introverted and found this a bit of a struggle when I first started out (particularly because the company I started with was big on extroverted culture, think loud parties and dressing up in costumes at every possible occasion!). But now I'm more senior I find that if anything it's an advantage, because when I do actually speak up people will listen.

Marketing is so varied, you might find you're better off in a client side role, or in a different specialism. I myself work client side in FMCG, to be honest I don't really fancy ever working agency side, I know it's not for me.

If I were you I'd stick it out long enough to get some decent experience on your CV (a year if you can) then make a move to a different role. Use the time to scope out different types of marketing roles or companies, and see what you think you might enjoy more.

Hmm, I'd say you need to stick it out.

The other two chummy grads don't reply to your messages? FUCK Them. Do your own thing instead.

Get a good spell check app on your communication. If you don't know what tone to use, Google the client beforehand.

If you're wfh 3 days a week I'd try and make that work in your favour, whatever makes you happy.

Try and do a year then move somewhere in house.

• I'm not doing well with how fast-paced everything is

^

You are obviously doing well because the feedback has been positive. Maybe just slow down a bit? The old, 'give them an inch and they take a mile' saying? Pace yourself when doing a piece of work (specially if you're wfh

I think as others say, if you can do stick at it for at least a years experience on your CV. I work in house and it’s very different to agency work. I commuted 1.5 hours each way 4 days a week before Covid and now do that twice a week, I think colleague interaction is important as you can definitely learn from them, but sounds like your work is being well received.