Questions:

What do you like about the job?

What are you learning?

Who are you meeting?

Who are you working with?

Free advice:

1. "Long term" in terms of a new graduates career is pretty long. Some day, odds are, you'll be sixty three.

Lots of small workplaces have structured hours and limited freedom and in exchange for a big hierarchy, the boss can start to take ten minutes late to your desk and long lunches personally even if you stay late every day...which is to say that big organizations are more likely to have experienced professional managers than a place where the boss has their child's college tuition on the line.

I'm not saying that working for a big consulting firm is the right decision. I'm suggesting that it isn't likely a bad place to gain experience in the world of work while figuring out a better answer to "why did you leave your last job" than what sounds like, "I don't really like going to work".

That better answer is probably in terms of a specific opportunity. Historically, working for consultants is a great way to widen the opportunity surface.

Good luck.

1) I like how great the benefits are, and how amenable my firm is to making sure that I don't totally hate my life (crazy, inconsitent hours and a good work-life balance). But at the same time, I find the stability to be stifling - I'm not opposed to working 14 hours/day if I know that I have a tight deadline coming up, but why do I have to sit at my desk to hit a 40 hour/week deadline if I don't have 40 hours of work to do?

2) I'm currently in a long-term project, and it's the nature of my firm and the projects that my group has that you tend to stick to a project over a fairly "long" time period (1-2 years for consulting might as well be forever). I am doing a lot of self-education during the times during my 40 hours/week that I don't have anything to do, but even so, there's only so much I can do. I've worked on harder projects that taught me more in internships. This is what I'm most dissatisfied with, but I don't want to rock the boat because I want to remain in the good graces of higher-ups.

3-4) My current project is in a field that I have relatively little interest in, and I've found that a lot of the people I am working with want to be lifers - something I DO NOT want to do. I want a creative and diverse (in thought) group of people, and I tend to be in a stagnant place.

Like you say, "working for consultants tends to be a great way to widen the opportuntity surface", but I haven't seen that so far. It may be that I am in the wrong place in my firm, but as I've already said, I don't want to rock the boat and possibly jeopardize the current stable state of affairs, which is significantly better than nothing.

> I've worked on harder projects that taught me more in internships. This is what I'm most dissatisfied with...

Turns-out that the lack of feeling personal & professional growth is a very common complaint with people early in their careers. The pace and variety of corporate work life can be extremely stifiling compared to university & internships.

Before you jump to a new job-- one way to consider the next step in your career is ask:

- What are the most important problems in your field?

- Are you working on one of them?

- Why not?

- How can you leverage where you are now into the Next Big Thing?

On this subject, Richard Hamming offers brilliant advice> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw

It's never too early if you really hate it. You just don't want to get in the habit of leaving companies after working there less than a year. A lot of companies get turned off by that. The advice I got from multiple people was to stick with your first company at least a year. I am not suggesting staying a year, but you should plan to be at your next company 2-4 years at least.

I suggest you should follow what genuinely interests you. But before you quit your current job, do some course on CS on courseera or edx or MIT. They are available online for free and if you need a certificate or course credits that option is available too. By doing a course you will be able to know if you really like programming or not. Also once you complete it properly (most shouldn't take more than 3 months), you will be in a better position to start working as a programmer if you still want to. This will also be the safest option as you will have an year experience in current job. You can experiment with your programming ideas and who knows where that would take us. Be passionate about it. Even if you will be working for no one other than yourself, without some structured hours, its going to be a bite back long term. Hating structure is a common feeling with first time job. Part on good terms. Do not quit abruptly on any job without proper notice period and don't make enemies.

I have a lot of experience in programming, and one of my internships was extremely programming intensive. As well, I have a few side projects where I am the sole programmer working on them. I really love it, but more from a higher-up, project perspective. I can get my hands dirty with code, but I feel like I am best when I can see the forest rather than the trees. I want something where I have to do a little bit of both.

Interview at a few places before leaving your current job. Try to find a place you're really excited about. But also realize that you might have to repeat this process multiple times to find a really good match.

The job market is very inefficient. There are are limited number of great jobs available, so you're unlikely to find them if you don't put in some effort. It's so hard to find a great job that lots of people start their own companies (and then fail to create very many great jobs)...

Most recruiters make their placing fee within 90 days of placing their candidates, so for most of us, I would consider 3 months or less to be too soon. (That said, new agencies pop up daily, so finding someone else to place you isn't hard.)

Six months? You're fine. I left my job at Google within 8 months and didn't have an issue landing an awesome gig. (I got a lot of questions for it though)

- "When is too early to start applying for new jobs?" Never, imo. Just be ready to be able to have a good answer when the recruiter/HR asks you why you are looking for a new place. However people that tend to only work short stints and jump around might get frowned upon (just my personal guess..)

You cant really know if the grass is greener on the other side, that is the beauty of life.

3pm is too early, I'd stay till 5pm

I left my job at a big consulting firm 6 months after i finished college. It was one of the best decisions I made. I left only after i had another job offer in hand.

Never, never allow an employer to dictate your next move. This is your life, and your career.

Do you have debit? If yes, make a big dent in that now.

Do you have savings? If no, get some of that too.

Then you can comfortably find the right gig.