One of my favorite career writers, Annie Fisher at Fortune, received the following e-mail from a reader:

Dear Annie: I never expected to find myself asking you for advice, but I'm really stuck. I was an 'A' student in college and always found ways to stand out from the crowd (captain of the lacrosse team, etc.) at the Ivy League school I attended.  But now, after three months in my first "real" job at a Fortune 500 company, I already feel I've hit a dead end, just doing routine work. It's so different from what I expected that I'm considering looking elsewhere, but will this mark me as a job-hopper? Any suggestions on how to get more challenging assignments where I am now?

Annie tells the former Ivy-Leaguer that quitting her first job after only three months will certainly mark her as a job hopper, and with good reason.  Three months is barely enough time to glean even the haziest idea of how things work at her company and what it takes to succeed there.

I receive lots of e-mails like this myself, and have also heard new college grads complaining about the same thing in my everyday life.  I find it interesting, because when I first came out of a Top 20 national university nine years ago, it was expected that I would start at the bottom.  I spent the better part of my first year as a PR agency account coordinator making copies, processing expense reports, and faxing pitch letters.  If I was even allowed to sit in on a strategic client meeting or brainstorm, it was a good week.  I paid my dues, and in a short enough time, I moved up.  

I hear you, times have changed.  But I still think today’s college grads are simply too impatient to run the companies where they’re just beginning their careers.  Fresh ideas are important, but experience does count for something.  Managers and senior level execs are in the positions they are because, over the years, they have had the opportunity to witness various scenarios and learn the right way to proceed.  When my early twenty-something reports tell me they want to do more meaningful work, I respect that, and I give them as much freedom as I can to run with projects independently.  But more often than not, they come back to me at some point for guidance, because they get a bit overwhelmed when things are more complex than they thought.  

Volunteering to pitch in on projects that you find challenging is a great way to show initiative and to make the daily grind more interesting.  Just remember that the entry-level position is there for a reason.  Instead of lamenting your situation and searching in vain for a company that’s looking to hire a twenty-two year-old general manager (hint: they don’t exist), focus on learning everything you can, networking like mad, and practicing the behaviors that make other people in the office successful.  You’ll get there soon enough, I promise.