Quote Originally Posted by The Fury View Post
The reason I say that has to do with other people that described their first week. Aside from the inevitable mistakes and bad luck that usually happens when starting a new job, they seem to describe an opposite situation. They all said that it's OK to take your time and don't be afraid to ask questions. My experience has been more, "Pick up the pace! Wasn't that already explained to you? Didn't Rory (not really a name of anyone there,) already show you how to do that? Why are you so slow?" "What do you mean you've never seen one of those before? Aren't you in school for this?"

The takeaway from being told things like that from my second day onward is 1: I'm starting out with a below average skill level for a beginner. 2: I'm here to work, not to learn.

Predictably, I'm making mistakes in trying to go faster which slows everyone down even more and increases the workload for everyone.
The trainer is bad. They don't understand how to train.

In The Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks' classic work on managing software projects, he estimates that when a new programmer is added to a project, it takes three to six months before they start making a net-positive contribution. This because, of course, new people don't know what they are doing yet and have to ask the skilled people lots of questions. This is what is expected when you hire a new person in a technical field -- several months of them trying to learn their way around, bugging the experienced people with questions, and making mistakes that the experienced people have to correct.

If your trainer expects you to be net-positive in 1 day, that means your trainer doesn't understand how the world works, not that you are doing anything wrong.

I don't have any practical advice for you beyond keep trying anyways, and read documentation when available, but know that the trainer is being unrealistic.