Hey Cleo!
Glad that was helpful!
I’m glad you listed some things that you appreciate about your current job. Those are definitely Thriver qualities! And even though it may not be perfect, I think it’s always good to find reasons to be grateful for things that DO work for you, because life is rarely just one thing (good or bad, black or white, right or wrong, etc). We can spend a lot of time focused on what’s NOT working (and working ourselves into really bad moods and ruts) and no time at all finding the good in what IS working (which typically uplifts us and makes it easier to get through the day).
Sometimes it can be hard to tell how a workplace is going to be before you get in there. But this was a good experience in that now you can ask questions in an interview setting to head this kind of problem off, in the future. It’s totally OK to say, “I’ve had an experience in the past where the employers didn’t train me, and when I asked questions they were dismissive. All while expecting me to learn how to do the job perfectly. It was a pretty toxic situation. I’m curious how you/your company handles training people and how encouraging you are of people asking questions?”
And here’s the thing — No one is going to come out and say, “Actually we have a really toxic work environment where we don’t encourage growth or learning at all!” But if that’s secretly the case, they won’t have a very good or solid answer for you. They’ll be vague and the answer won’t be helpful or impressive to you. If they DO value growth and are encouraging of questions, they’ll have a good answer and you’ll be able to sense that they do, in fact, care. You’ve just got to be comfortable asking those sorts of direct questions in an interview setting!
Keep us posted! 🙂