[melissawoj]

Okay, hear me out. I am a 22 year old girl, recent grad with decent credentials but little to no experience besides my current position. I got hired before I graduated by a very small public accounting firm (by small I mean that the only workers there are the 3 partners and myself). I realize and appreciate my luck at landing a job at a casual small local firm before graduation.

I have been working here for nearly five months now. I hate my job. When my boss hired me, he explained to me that I would know nothing coming out of college and they were prepared to train and work with me, in hopes of me staying forever and taking a partnership track so that my boss (who is 65) can “retired” in a few years. My boss is the worst teacher I have ever had. I am stuck doing difficult work right now since it has been a slow summer, and he offers little, confusing, or no guidance on how to do things. Then when I come to him with questions, I am clearly annoying him. When I do the work to the best of my abilities and go to him for review, he constantly is saying things like “What are you, stupid?” or “What did you mess up now” (forgive me if I am simply being oversensitive, but these things bother me when he has offered no help).

It is also draining to be working in such a small firm with three old conservative men while you are the only employee they have and are also 40 years younger and much more liberal than them. I don’t have much casual stuff to talk about with them and it makes it awkward a lot of the time.

I recently started applying to other jobs to see if anything better or more fit for me would come up and I surprisingly got two call backs in one day. I feel like this firm and position are not meant for me. My boss have pushed me to take the CPA exam (something I originally wanted to put off until I got the educational requirement of 15 more credits done) and they paid the $3k+ for Becker for me, so I feel a sense of obligation to them. They also hired me right out of college. I just don’t feel comfortable here, and the “learning” process is a lot more frustrating than I think it needs to be.

I understand that a new position may not be great, but they say if you’re miserable in life about something, change it. I am miserable at my current job – so miserable I spend too many days secretly crying in my office. I didn’t even hate my old waitressing job this much and my boss there was psychotic.

I do not want to continue in this position for so long that I end up screwing my boss over on his retirement plan, and I feel like if I quit now, they may ask for me to pay for the Becker course, which I cannot afford. But the thought staying here for the rest of my life or even another year makes me so depressed. Any advice? Do I leave? Do I stay until I get a little more experience under my belt? Do you think they will make me pay for the Becker course? Do you think they will resent me for leaving and I will be left without a recommendation?