Things turned around for me after a rough start

Been seeing tons of posts lately from folks stuck in terrible jobs or cant find anything decent and wondering if the industry is worth it. figured id share my experience since i was in the same boat not too long ago

graduated back in may and posted here a while back about this nightmare consulting gig at some tiny firm. place was so bad i literally had thoughts about just driving off the road on my morning commute rather than show up to work another day. thankfully they ended up letting me go because it was obvious how miserable i was and they caught wind of my job hunting

within a week i landed something at a much bigger environmental company doing contaminated site work but focusing more on phase ii assessments. night and day difference from my last place. these people actually give a damn about employee wellbeing - they'll tell you to take mental health days when you need them. i can work flexible hours as long as i get stuff done and they bumped my pay by around 15k not counting overtime

crazy part is after being there about a month i got offered a government position too but turned it down since i was already settling in well

never thought id end up in site remediation long term but im actually enjoying it and can see paths to branch into other areas since its a larger company with more opportunities. keep seeing posts from people burned out at these tiny firms that take on way more work than they can handle with their skeleton crews - trust me there are better places out there

biggest tip is network like crazy and dont torch any relationships even if a place sucks. i actually had interviewed with my current company before taking the awful job but passed on their offer. when i reached out months later asking if they had openings the whole process only took about 2 weeks since we already knew each other

happy to answer questions if anyone wants to chat about it