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Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

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Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#81

Post by xiphias »

macca321 wrote: post #71
throwawaysbdi wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's bad in a lot of specific ways but I'm trying not to out myself since it's a fairly small company. The overarching problem is trying to reinvent the wheel because the management thinks we can do things better than the language designers. The end result is a buggy and generally bad reimplementation of core libraries. ORM, math, dates, full text search. There's a half-baked custom version of everything.

Add regression tests, replace with your own code. or quit.

That's the worst thing to do: doesn't provide any value at the part that matters. It may worth to improve code quality where it matters (the business logic), but to improve it where it doesn't matter is a waste of time to both the employee and the employer

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#82

Post by teh_klev »

CyberFonic wrote: post #6

Couple of questions to focus your decision making: Did they pay for your relocation expenses? If so, is there a clause in your employment contract to pay it back if you leave within a given period of time? Do you want to stay in your new city? If you are unhappy enough to leave, then why not bail up the manager who hired you, tell them point-blank that they lied to you and you know that the "round the corner" talk is…

> Don't worry about it being shitty legacy stuff.

This. One of my specialities is unpicking and debugging legacy code bases, often 20+ year old mud balls. It isn't glamorous work, but you do get a few decent war stories out of it to recall in the pub.

My preference is to hire devs who've put in the hours in these environments. I see it as something of a right of passage and indicates to me you've got the experience and self-assurance to work with these gnarly and often fragile code bases (hopefully) without breaking it, fixing bugs and generally trying to make it better.

I'm not suggesting you make a career out of this, though it can be lucrative, but a year or so doing this kind of work does no harm to your CV/resume in my eyes.

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#83

Post by JSeymourATL »

> they're paying me, so I owe them something right?

Lots of quit advice here-- that's the easy path.

Actually improving the place is much, much harder. This could still prove a unique labratory to burnish your tech skills and people management abilities. Can you tough this out for a year? That's a fair cycle to measure results.

Meanwhile, squirrel away your cash and start aggresively building your local professional network. That will ultimately give you options.

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#84

Post by hfourm »

JSeymourATL wrote: post #83

> they're paying me, so I owe them something right? Lots of quit advice here-- that's the easy path. Actually improving the place is much, much harder. This could still prove a unique labratory to burnish your tech skills and people management abilities. Can you tough this out for a year? That's a fair cycle to measure results. Meanwhile, squirrel away your cash and start aggresively building your local professional…

This seems like good advice. I think there have to be SOME learnings that will help you grow at this job. I once took a job with one of the largest IT companies in the world, even though the tech and "culture" seemed opposite of what I wanted. But I learned a whole lot, because companies that big are making 1000s of mistakes every month, and you learn from mistakes. You get to see what NOT to do, how NOT to manage people, etc.

There is also a lot of resume building opportunity with a "situation" that isn't ideal, as the previous poster mentioned: can you make some progress on transitioning their stack out of nothing? can you go a bit beyond the job role and have some great things to talk about in your next interview?

I am not saying dedicate your life to a job you hate, but maybe finish out your first year then evaluate your options -- and try to make the most of the rest of the time you are there.

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#85

Post by throwawaysbdi »

macca321 wrote: post #72
throwawaysbdi wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some webforms but the majority is in a much more ancient and niche language I won't name because it's too specific to this company.

Must be Wasabi

It's literally so ancient that we bought the remains of the company that designed the language when they went under

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#86

Post by [deleted] »

wpietri wrote: post #45
throwawaysbdi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's difficult to be proud of anything I'm doing :). Whenever I propose a design for something, I'm told to do it the fastest way which is usually a bad hack. I'm amazed the code works at all. The stack traces are more than twenty deep sometimes. I can't stand to look at it for more than 20 minutes without a break. I need to be more careful next time I'm looking for a job

> Whenever I propose a design for something, I'm told to do it the fastest way which is usually a bad hack. And why do you agree? One of the differences between professionals and other workers is that professionals are experts in how to do their work. If I tell my doctor to just write me a prescription because I said so, she'll just scoff. I can make requests, but she decides what will happen and how. Especially if y…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#88

Post by sauronlord »

dkarapetyan wrote: post #46
sauronlord wrote: post #40

"..hope I don't get fired for underperforming?..." What kind of passive language and thinking is that? Everything is legacy once it is written. Imagine you, the trailblazer, only having to write new code and not having to maintain the crap you wrote. The actual problem here is your attitude and way of seeing things. Legacy? Sucks? Fucking write a better version and show some initiative instead of just hoping of being…

Was with you until you got a little too aggressive. There is a better way to say what you're saying.

Aggressive perhaps. More effective? Maybe

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#89

Post by reitanqild »

xiphias wrote: post #81
macca321 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Add regression tests, replace with your own code. or quit.

That's the worst thing to do: doesn't provide any value at the part that matters. It may worth to improve code quality where it matters (the business logic), but to improve it where it doesn't matter is a waste of time to both the employee and the employer

I would think this was implied:

Only noobs like myself years ago would go ahead and refactor a lot of code during work hours without a good reason.

However when you stumble through something and finally understand the idea behind it (good or bad) then it might be a good time to add a couple of tests.

And when you have a few tests that covers nearby code you can hopefully find the courage to make a few surgical cuts to remove the worst tumors. ;-)

Re: Ask HN: I got duped into working on legacy code, should I leave?

#90

Post by Arizhel »

manyxcxi wrote: post #80
throwawaysbdi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relo isn't a problem and I definitely want to stay in this town. I can't really mark it as time off because I already did that a while back, I don't want to end up with a lot of gaps :) I was thinking I could just apply to other places and be honest with them... But some may also frown upon me saying bad things about my current employer

As a hiring manager, if you tell me the reason you left after such a short time was as you describe in this post, I would have no real issues with it. I'd be looking for some insinuation that you gave it an honest effort and tried to work with your previous company to make it better, but in the end if you got hired for a certain role or stack and it was clearly not what you were going to be doing there's no fault (in…

>I would also make it a point to let your manager know, as well as HR during your exit interview

Do they still do those these days? The places I've left never bothered.

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