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Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
51–60 of 288 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#52In Germany you have a probationary period of 6 months where both sides can give notice of 2 weeks without having to give a reason. The probationary period is really there to make sure that you fit the organization and that the organization fits you. It is not usual that people don't make it through the probationary period, but it happens. If you know 5 months into a job that it is not for you and won't work out, then…
I know a few people who bailed out just a month or two into the job. Their reasoning was simply that it wasn't what they expected (and they wouldn't have accepted the offer if they knew that while interviewing).
Doesn't really have to be any simpler than that, and for further interviews it does allow you to make those expectations clear if the question is asked.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably his paychecks aren't bouncing.
They've mentioned Europe. We don't do paychecks here. Money just lands on your bank account.
The same is true in the US, for the most part, we just still call them "paychecks" even if they're directly deposited.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#54A company I worked for once interviewed someone who had just started at a different company. We asked why he was leaving so soon, he explained he had some differences of opinion and that it wasn't going to work out well. He seemed great, we hired him, he was indeed great.
After we'd hired him, we asked about the old company again. "Oh, it was an utter shitshow" and he went on a long and very compelling rant about how badly managed it was... in far more detail than he had when interviewing.
I feel like this is a reasonable way to do it; don't badmouth your current employer while job searching, but no need to stick around unnecessarily.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably his paychecks aren't bouncing.
They've mentioned Europe. We don't do paychecks here. Money just lands on your bank account.
This is probably facetious, but in America, "paycheck" is a colloquialism for your regular payments from your employer regardless of how they are delivered. Virtually every white-collar worker is receiving payments from their employer via a direct deposit into their bank account, not a physical check. According to this [1] fewer than 7% of employees in the US still receive paper paychecks.
My first job was paid by check, and I know some people that still take them, mostly people that can't keep a bank account (perpetual overdrafters etc.)
[1] https://www.nacha.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/Direct%20D...
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#566 months is a perfectly reasonable amount of time to judge a job and leave it.
The important thing is to be able to defend it in future interviews, and do so in a reasoned way rather than an emotional one. For example instead of "the team were incredibly frustrating to work with and ignored all my suggestions", instead "the culture made it very hard to do quality engineering, which over time was demoralising". Sweeping statements about crap organisations sometimes come off as petty on the part of the person making the comments - individual specific examples work better (e.g. a specific, obviously wrong, architecture problem with one framework, rather than talkinga bout them all as a group).
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#57Professionalism isn’t about how long you stay at a job, it’s about how you act around work, which includes joining and leaving a company. There are ways of quitting which are unprofessional but not the act of quitting itself. How much detail you tell them is up to you but don’t feel pressured to go into detail if you don’t want to.
As for career/CV, it’s only a flag for me if there are a lot of instances of short jobs that were obviously meant to be permanent. Personally I still ask the candidate about why that is.
If it’s any consolation, my shortest resignation from a perm job was the morning of the third day. The MD’s motivational strategy turned out to be angrily shouting at people.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#58> protect my well being and my career prospects
This must always be prioritized above the company's well-being.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#59A company I worked for once interviewed someone who had just started at a different company. We asked why he was leaving so soon, he explained he had some differences of opinion and that it wasn't going to work out well. He seemed great, we hired him, he was indeed great. After we'd hired him, we asked about the old company again. "Oh, it was an utter shitshow" and he went on a long and very compelling rant about how…
This. You're only unprofessional if you start ranting about it at every opportunity you have, specially during a job interview.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#60You are under no obligation whatsoever to slog it out for some arbitrary period of time. I think your obligation ends once you’ve made a good faith, professional effort to help them improve. Once that’s been repeatedly rebuffed (which is fine; it’s their choice), you need to choose how to invest your scarce time and mental energy on this rock.
Start looking now. When you find a place you’d rather go, submit your notice. Nothing is the least bit unprofessional there.