> So, the question is, is it unprofessional to abandon ship just 6 months in [?]
Even if the answer to this was "yes"... so what? Don't focus on how you're perceived, do what's right for you.
Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
71–80 of 288 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#72I had a job like this once. I ended up staying for a year and it didn't do any permanent career damage. But yeah, hit that eject button.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#73Run. It's not your job to fix years of issues created by other people and destroy yourself in the process.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#74It is not unprofessional to quit. It can be unprofessional how you quit and behave till your last day.
It is your life. They do not own it.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#756 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". Sweepi…
I think this is great. One thing I would emphasize more heavily is that your objection was not to the problems, your objection was to the insurmountable barriers to fixing them.
Every organization has problems, that's why they hired a new senior developer. If someone read the OP to me in an interview, I'd be sympathetic but I would also be thinking "what if our CICD setup doesn't resemble the seminal book? We've reinvented the wheel once or twice too. Will they help us improve or leave in disgust?"
So I would include specific examples of what you tried to do:
"I sent a polite email to headquarters, I created a demo using open source libraries, I tried to work within the meetings culture and scheduled one of my own to talk about the situation."
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#76Professionalism doesn't even come into it. You're under no obligation whatsoever to even tell them why you're leaving but if you do, you're doing them a favour. If they know what's good for them they'll have exit interviews but I doubt that's a thing they do if they're not willing to hear you out or fix things when you're actively working for them.
Further, anything you say in an exit interview can and will be used against you. So either tread lightly or keep quiet.
Can you elaborate pls?
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#77Running away when you've created the chaos is somewhat unethical, running away from someone else's mess is very smart and if anything should teach them a lesson (but we all know it won't).
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#78I've been in the same position in the past as every developer will eventually, except maybe the FAANG worshippers who don't work for any other companies.
Unfortunately there's nothing you can do but leave and you should. In most cases management is aware of the issues, it's just that for various reasons they can't fix them or choose not to.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, when I first got to Germany I was surprised at this but after doing it once I loved it. As an employee I had no hard feelings about just saying something wasn't a good fit within a few months of joining (I have a slightly different but similar in practice setup with a French co currently that I'm leaving after a 3m trial period). I think that it's a good way to do things & I think I reflect the consensus view he…
You two are discussing this as if it's specific to Germany... is it really that rare? Every tech job I've ever had in the UK (admittedly not a huge sample size) has had some kind of probationary period baked into the contract, although the exact details vary (e.g. number of months considered probation, notice period while on probation.) Are there countries where this isn't a thing?
It's not as common in the US, since most states are at will, either side always can give notice at any time for any/no reason (other than targeting protected groups / whistleblowing, etc), there's not as much point to a probationary period.
Re: Ask HN: Is it unprofessional to leave a new job where everything is a mess?
#80Give it an honest try. You may already have.
Once you have tried, gave it everything you had, and nothing came out of it, you will have the conviction to walk away.
Move on. No shame, no guilt.
It's like losing at sports where you tried 100%. Nothing to feel bad.
Time for the next challenge.