I graduated from college last spring with a degree in the History of Art and Architecture. Two weeks later, my best friend and I moved to New York City from the Midwest. We had both dreamed of doing it and decided that this would be the best (and possibly only) time to actually do it. Neither of us had a job lined up when we moved. The week we spent here interviewing and apartment hunting was only fruitful on the apartment front, but that can be just as hard (if not harder) to find than a job in New York. So when I moved out here, I knew that I had better find a job to pay that first huge rent check that was coming due.

I took a job as a receptionist with a 5th Avenue law firm. I had worked in law firms on my breaks in college and knew that there was money to be made there. I figured that I would work in law for a little while, then move on to find a job in a creative field, like publishing or design. After a few months, I was asked to fill in for a secretary to one of the 3 founding partners at the firm. This partner was notoriously scary throughout the firm, but she was going on maternity leave, so I figured it would be only a few months, and a lot more interesting than staring at the desk waiting for the phone to ring.

When the few months were up, she decided not to come back and I was offered the job permanently. My roommate was planning on leaving a few months later at the end of our lease, but I wasn' t ready to go yet. The job came with the kind of salary that could allow me to stay in the city on my own, so I accepted. I also thought that it would be great to have this job on my resume at such an early age, not to mention the salary requirement I now had under my belt.

So it' s been about 9 months since I started doing this job, and since then, I have trouble sleeping, body aches, and stomach aches from the stress. The responsibilities seem to keep piling up, due to the death of another secretary and one of my (MANY) associates that I work with taking a month off. My boss also seems to be bipolar...One minute, he will be screaming obscenities, and then asking how your weekend was the next. We have kind of a father daughter relationship and I know that he cares about me, but he is also a very large man (probably about 6' 3", 260 lbs.). So when he yells, which he does very often, it shakes me for quite a while. One of his pet peeves is if there are any mistakes on routine client correspondence. Things like this can pop up without warning, and I therefore am nervous every single day. I also absolutely hate the work I' m doing. I don' t know if you' ve ever filed patent and trademark applications, but let me tell you, it' s the most boring work in the world. I' m pretty miserable while I' m there and have really lost all motivation for doing the work itself, so I feel like I' m not giving 110%, which I hate.

I most definitely want to pursue a career in a creative field while I still live here, but do you think I should wait out my job a little longer since I accepted the permanent position? I would feel a little guilty leaving after such a short time, but it' s really bringing down my quality of life these days. I know that I have no real obligation to stay since my job is "at will", but I also don' t want to burn any bridges.

Any thoughts or comments you might have would be GREATLY appreciated. This is just adding another factor of stress to my life!