How do I know if a job is a good fit for me?

Think about the field you want to enter in the future (GIS) and look at what you're doing right now (trucking). Spend some time thinking about how those two blend into each other. You're likely relying on GIS data to navigate. How can that data be delivered in a better fashion for somebody behind the wheel. Routing and transportation management (TMS) software is likely being used to schedule your routes and your deliveries. So how does it work and how well does it function? Are there things you're going to see as a driver in the real world that aren't necessarily accounted for by the TMS? Take advantage of the position you're in to learn as much as you can. Let your bosses and superiors know (although not in a pushy way) that you're fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes and in the logistics office. Remember logistics and transportation is a growing field (and will likely be a healthy industry for some time), so any experience you can get from it, that you can (eventually) bring into your studies will put you head-and-shoulders above some kid fresh out of high school who may not even have a driver's licence. And yes, what everybody else said. It's long, hard, stressful work, and you're new to it. You have to give yourself time to get acclimatized. Plus, you'll need to learn about yourself as an employee, and figure out how you function best.

Everybody's different, but eventually when I got a job I enjoyed more, having a really mediocre job initially was kind of nice because it got me used to being an adult employed person. A lot of my stress was just due to being a working person for the first time.

I am almost 40 years old. You make as much as I do (and I make more than almost all my friends). My benefits are probably better than yours and my job has no heavy lifting, but seriously, don't underestimate making good money. As a single childless person, you can live a really comfortable life on this money and save at the same time - hardly anyone not in the 1% can do that. In a month or two, you'll be comfortable with the work. In a year it will be virtually automatic. Concentrate on either preparing to go back to school or doing fun hobby stuff outside of work. Every new job is physically exhausting - when I started my current gig, I was tired every day for a couple of weeks because learning all at once is stressful. Your job is more physically tiring, yes, but you're really getting hit by the newness of it. You know what? You made a great choice. You are young, you have your employment taken care of for a few years, you have a skill - even if it's not a super-exciting skill - which will be a fallback to you in later life. Good job, you. And what's more, once you've powered through the first few months of this job, you'll have the mental/emotional skills to power through the first months of any new challenge. I assure you, this was a wise choice and it puts you in a good position.

Definitely try to stick it out. I don't always say this, because there are often really very good reasons that AskMe posters have that clearly indicate they should leave a job. But I'm saying it now, to you, for a couple of reasons:You are very young and (presumably) have very little job experience, which means that you: don't necessarily know your limits; probably haven't had a chance to prove to yourself that you can tolerate unpleasant stuff; must not get into a habit of quitting things which are hard; and, must not generate a ton of evidence which will demonstrate to employers that you're a person who's likely to quit (after screwing around for a while first.)You're not being abused by your coworkers, you're not crying yourself to sleep, you're not turning to drink just to keep yourself from wallowing in despair, etc. That is to say, you're uncomfortable, but not miserable. It's important to make the distinction.There are no compelling economic or social reasons for you to leave (getting married in another state, not able to pay your rent, etc.)You don't have any formal plan (let alone a good formal plan) for what to actually do if you quit now.You invested two months into the training, and stuck it out, but this is the first week in the new job. This indicates that your discomfort may be due to the difference between education and workplace culture/behaviors/expectations/etc. - it is absolutely vital that you get to a place where you're OK in a workplace setting. Even a life as a professor or stay-at-home-parent or itinerant banjo player is more like work than like school.You didn't go over the likely material consequences of quitting in your question at all - I don't know whether you haven't thought that part through, or you just didn't share, but thinking that through, hard-core, is essential prior to quitting.Having said that, I think you should be really working on an official, practical exit plan: one with deadlines and specific action items and a cheerleader/coach/etc. who you're keeping updated on the process. Mostly I think this because it's pretty obvious that you don't just not want to do this job but also don't want to do anything that's particularly related to this job and moreover don't want your physical activities to be anything like this job. That indicates you're not going to do too well at turning this into a brilliant long-term situation, at least not without a lot of highly intentional self-coaching and stuff, and I'm not sure that it'd be worth that level of work for something you appear to have no actual interest in doing (beyond self-preservation and your current lack of direction.) You can however totally cope, and thus should do as best a job you possibly can of coping (and reminding yourself of the good parts of this job, and why you're staying for now) while putting that exit plan into action. And stay away from booze and other unhealthy habits while you're in coping mode, please. That will very quickly turn this kind of annoying situation into a crisis.

It sounds like this is your first job ever. I know your whole life you've been told a job should fulfill you as a person and make you feel complete and blah blah blah but sometimes a job is just a way to pay the bills (and there is nothing WRONG with just paying the bills) and maybe you need to have a plan to work towards whatever it is you actually want or find a way to explore some outside interests while you do this for now. It took me 4 years of working to get to a point where I was making $40,000. What I would suggest is you approach this like a kid going into the military: Your job is to do this and save money for college, it doesn't have to be what you do forever, and in 4 years or whenever you have enough saved up, you'll bail. You're making really good money, you're going to have a ton of interesting stories that make you stand out as a person and as a job candidate (seriously "Ask me about the 4 years I spent being a trucker" is WAY more fun than the usual "tell me about yourself" answers), and you'll learn what it's like to work a job in a low stakes environment, since this isn't a lifetime career. The idea that a job must complete you as a person is a very modern idea, for many, many generations before us it was just a way to pay your bills and not starve.

Oh, and I wanted to add something. I'm a mid-career professional in a field I've been in for over a decade and I still have "http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing-dog.jpg" days. That's perfectly normal. The big secret to being an adult is nobody really knows what they're doing, everyone is just doing the best they can and muddling through.

You have a job and make decent money. Any new job is stressful while you're getting the hang of it -- it's a good idea to stick with it until you're into the swing of things. Also, it's only a few years, not a career. I would look into ways to make it less tedious, so you can stay alert. Do you like stories? Get some books on tape to listen to so you don't get bored.

Keep doing this job until you've done it for 12 months. Save as much as you can. Keep your eye on the ball. If you continuously look out for things to do next while using this job to develop your work discipline and build up savings, you will probably have a good idea of what you want to transition to by the time the year is up. And yes, your job is certainly "harder" because you're new and not used to these long days. It will take you some time to get used to it. In the future, you will be surprised by what experience turns out to be valuable.

My husband was a truck driver for five years, for similar reasons to those you give. He stuck with it that long because he made good money consistently and he had few other options for earning that kind of salary at the time. That said, being a trucker used him up. The schedules expected of truck drivers by their companies, plus the regulations and paperwork imposed by the DOT, combined with the generally crappy conditions of being on the road for millions of miles will 'use up' most people. He worked like a dog during his trucking years, was always tired, not in the greatest health due to poor diet and lack of exercise (despite his best efforts of making as much food for the road as he could and exercising at every ok oppurtunity...jogging at rest stops, that's a good time), and missed out on a lot of day-to-day life at home due to the extended periods on the road. He 'retired' after five years, as soon as he had enough money to pursue his current interests. I think at the end of the day he's glad he got the training and took the job, but he won't go back to it ever. So in summary, trucking as a full-time career can serve you as a means to an end but it sounds like you want to have a grander plan for your life. Think about how trucking can get you to what you want to be.