TL;DR: Junior person promoted to more senior position, boss unavailable, lacking experience/ coaching, want to continue to develop my career. What would you do?

I am looking for advice on my professional growth in the realm of architecture. I am unsure if I should 1) begin looking for a new job, 2) should try to work things out at my current position, or 3) both. I understand that I’m not providing all the context here - if you have questions, feel free to ask.

I work in architecture at a small firm. Over the last 3 years - my only experience in professional architecture - I have learned and grown a lot. My core team consists of 5 people: the principal, my manager, me, my co-worker who is my manager’s direct report, and my co-worker who is my direct report.

For the first 2 years, my boss taught me skills and explained the context of situations - whether that was the politics of a construction site or the reason we draw things certain ways. They were truly a wonderful manager: understanding, helpful, insightful, great at delegation, and communicative.

After 2 years, my boss announced that they were going to pursue their dream of teaching part time while still working at the architecture firm for 10 hours a week. During the next several months, my boss had no time and became distant, uncommunicative, and ultimately unreliable. I learned a lot in their absence, but I fear that I learned inadequate coping mechanisms, and the principal did not fill in the coaching role due to their other responsibilities. I was told that I had learned a lot and to just “go” and “do it.”

After 2.5 years, I was promoted as a surprise - likely beyond my competency (as an aside, I know I am a competent person. This is not a self-dig. I still do not feel like I have sufficient experience and knowledge to take on this role) - and likely to fill the gap that my boss had left behind.

I felt unsupported and communicated this explicitly to both my boss and principal several times. Their response was that I needed to find answers for myself based on the tools they had previously provided and that I was doing a great job and so didn’t need to worry. Until the end of my boss’s school year, I led the team. I coordinated with who I needed to coordinate with, asked my boss questions when needed, and “just did it” like asked. I do not think that the deliverables my team produced during this time were great, and communicated my concerns to my manager about issues arising during construction, but they hand-waved this comment and said all people in my position feel that way at first.

Throughout the school year, my boss said they didn’t want to teach again and were excited at the prospect to be full time at the firm again. Of most importance to me, they told me that they would “back fill” all the things they hadn’t had time to teach me.

At the end of my boss’s school year, our team was incredibly relieved. We got through it. I waited for the back fill, but my boss was suddenly busy doing principal-level tasks, and then took a 3 week vacation. I and my team were confused about our roles and what was happening, but continued to work as though my boss were still teaching.

After they returned from their vacation, they began to do the work that they used to. Our team communication continued to suffer, but at least we knew what my boss was working on and what they wanted us to work on. They were providing feedback on our work as well, which was a rarity during the months they were gone. This lasted for about 3 weeks.

This week, 2 weeks before school starts, my boss informed us that they planned to teach again. I felt (and feel) frustrated. I was excited at the opportunity to learn from them again. I brought up concerns with the workflow from the first school year to both my boss and principal: the lack of communication, the lack of coaching, the lack of support. They said: 1) They’ll try to have more consistent meeting times, 2) The principal is going to coach me, and 3) The principal will try to help more with my team’s projects.

I don’t believe that this will happen, based on what happened last time. But other than that, they think all is hunky dory and didn’t proactively try to solve any of these issues before I (and my team) brought them up.

As a microcosm of our team’s communication at the moment: on Monday, I expressed concern that I would be able to reach an internal deadline. My boss said that my coworker could be moved to my project. The coworker was not, in fact, moved to my project. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I let my boss know that portions of the deliverable were ready for their review. On Thursday, I again expressed concern that I would be able to reach an internal deadline because my coworker had not been working on the project. They said, “Do your best.” On Friday, my boss reviewed these portions, and expressed, “You should have pushed back more on the Friday deadline. This deliverable is not ready for internal review. We need to find a better method of communicating your concerns.” To which, I think, subjectively, understandably, I was frustrated. I stated that my coworker was not moved to my project as planned, and was told to do my best. They re-directed the conversation.

So - as a junior person promoted to a senior role without much support - what would you do? Would you continue to try and solve what I believe to be an innately structural problem at the firm? I don’t want to grow to be “learned helpless” - i.e. “it’s not my fault, I don’t have support” - but I also don’t want to be unsupported and go the “trial by fire” route and learn bad practices for the next several years.

I am, thankfully, well compensated, but the project type this firm focuses on is not what I’d like to specialize in.

I should also add for context that I applied and had interviews at several firms during my boss's first school year. None offered comparable levels of compensation by a margin of 10% - which leads me to believe that my boss is compensating me beyond my experience and wants me to stay.