Your first job isn’t a life sentence. It’s the place you figure out what you never want to do again.

Early jobs hand you information more than they hand you a direction. You find out how you handle boredom, what kind of manager you shut down around, whether you would rather be moving or sitting. Ruling things out is real progress, even though it never feels like it while you are clocking in.

Keep a short note of what drained you and what you did not mind, and read it back at the end of the month. The pattern in it is worth more than the paycheck when it comes time to pick the next thing.