How long is reasonable to wait before accepting that a new job isn't what you were promised?
Three months in and I'm genuinely not sure if I'm just adjusting slowly or if I walked into something I should already be thinking about leaving.
Left a job I'd been at for three years in February. Wasn't desperate to go, just felt stuck and the growth conversations kept going nowhere. New role was sold as senior level, real ownership, team lead track within the first year. Asked specific questions, got answers that sounded specific, accepted the offer.
The actual job is not that. Day to day I'm doing execution level work with no real autonomy, everything goes through approvals, the team lead opportunity is one person who's been there twelve years and runs themselves fine without me. Last month I brought it up with my manager, kept it pretty measured, asked what taking on more would look like. He said trust takes time and the first year is about learning how things work here.
I've been at jobs before where I had that trust already. I left one to come here.
I'm not looking to vent, I want practical input. Is three months too early to know if this is a bad fit or is that actually enough information. And if I did start looking again, how do you handle the "why are you leaving after three months" question in interviews without it becoming a whole thing