When I took my first job I just assumed that it was a sort of trial.

Two people were hired. Me and another dude.

The other dude was invited to look elsewhere (they let him stay and work while he looked for a job so that was very nice), and I got a series of raises after they clearly were comfortable with me. They then started looking for a replacement for the other dude.

Effectively I assumed (correctly) I was on a sort of "trial" anyway.