A: How is your new job?

B: The salary is good. But my employer gave me no help when I started it — I was just left to sink or swim. Fortunately I figured it out and got everything under control after a short period of time.

A: Good for you!

Note: This idiom is used to refer to a situation in which someone either must succeed by his or her own efforts or fail completely. Literally it means “to swim to the bank or sink to the bottom.” If you are left to sink or swim, you are given no help so that you either succeed or fail completely, all by your own efforts.