Push through or leave?

Posted by throwaway-no051222@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 11 comments

Early career SWE here, ~3 YOE. Gonna try to keep things vague to avoid doxing myself.

I spent the first 2 years doing public sector work working as a full-stack developer. Left due to the changing work culture that became political and a bit toxic.

Accepted an offer from a bank. During the interview, I was told to expect to put my skills and knowledge of a particular framework to use for their modernization efforts. However, they downplayed a part of the job description, namely that I would be deploying and configuring some 3rd party vendor software.

Fast forward 3 months in, I find that there is no real development going on aside from some scripting, and everyone is purely concerned with making sure this vendor product is free from many major flaws, is configured correctly, and deployed. Despite having automation technology, it is severely underutilized given that few of the other people (despite having software engineer in their job title) on the team don't know how to use it and prefer to do things manually. There's more about the team I can share, but I'll leave it at that.

Fast forward 6 months in and part of the modernization project is put on hold. One of the projects that wasn't and included the framework mentioned in the interview, had a complete revision and was changed to use a completely different technology. The hope that I would get to work on that projet vanished.

You're probably wondering, "why did you stick around past the 3rd month mark?". Well, me and my spouse have a little one on the way. Also, I decided to give it chance given the current job market (it took me 6 months of job hunting to even get this role).

Lately, the team has had to work every other weekend on top of the expected 40 hours. I recently had to work almost the entire weekend. This wouldn't be a problem if the nature of the work didn't primarily involve troubleshooting a flawed, poorly documented vendor product on a team with no established norms or if I found the work to be fulfilling.

I'm unsure with what to do next. I'm grateful to even be employed but I feel that this role will not be a benefit to my career if I stick it out, especially since I'm far removed from my previous role as a full-stack developer. Am I wrong to think this?

For 9 months now I've tried to fit into the role but I find the domain to be boring and the work unfullfilling.

How bad would it really be to just quit? The more I think about it, I feel it's an irresponsible thing to do as I think I'm putting myself over providing for my family. However, as time goes on, I feel I should move on as I'm growing increasingly unhappy.

Where do you more experienced folks draw the line and start seeking another oppurtunity?

From this experience, I know to ask better questions of any position I apply for. Is there anything else I should do for the next time I go job hunting?

Thank you all for your time and any advice you can send my way.

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serial_crusher@reddit

If you stay, your priority needs to be to automate the boring tedious stuff, and fix the processes that broke leading to you working the weekend. You’re going to have to use soft skills to get this done, and if you succeed it’s going to open a lot of doors for you when you tell the story in interviews for senior positions in the next couple years.

stress to management that there will be fewer problems with an automated solution. Try to get post-mortem process in place to identify the cause of failures, and make sure “somebody made a typo in this command. They wouldn’t have done that if the process was automated” comes up, and you’ll get buy in pretty quick.
with your team it’s probably about job security. I imagine these are old dogs and the manual processes are some of the only tricks they know. Hoarding ownership keeps them employed in a terrible market. For this you’ll need to find other things the team can spend its time on. If you can get some bandwidth freed up, then start delivering on some higher value projects that wouldn’t have gotten done otherwise, you can show a big win to management. Now, not only are people’s jobs safe, but they might actually get a raise for the first time in years. (with 3 YOE, you definitely need a more senior sponsor to go to bat with you for this part)

There’s a part of me that regrets leaving a similar situation when I was close to your experience level. I think it was the right move in the end, but over time I’ve realized there was a lot I failed to give them credit for.

If I had stuck around there I would have developed some much better skills at navigating politics in that kind of organization. Ive had a pretty good career doing long stints at mid-stage startups, but eventually they change over time and become what you’re describing. As somebody who doesn’t like to job hop frequently, developing a thicker skin for this kind of BS could be a necessary survival skill.

ExperiencedDevs-ModTeam@reddit

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If you have less than 3 years of experience as a developer, do not make a post, nor participate in comments threads except for the weekly “Ask Experienced Devs” auto-thread.

aqjo@reddit

I’m assuming you’re in the US, with The Best Healthcare System in the World™️
With a baby on the way, I think insurance should be your first priority. If you start a new position, there may be an arbitrary waiting period before you have coverage. You don’t want to pay hospital bills out of pocket.

Huge-Leek844@reddit

I am sorry for your situation. Unfortunely companies lure people with false promises. It happened to me and i am also in a dark place. One advice is to focus on great things in your life: this is only a setback, a few months will not harm your career and you are building a familly. Send some resumees and good luck!

sbox_86@reddit

Most public sector folks I know are loyal to a fault, so just remember: in private sector work you need to be selfish. Nobody is going to look out for your interests better than yourself. If this job isn't the right fit, find a new one.

Empanatacion@reddit

Do not leave without another job in this job market.

Also know that banking, finance, healthcare and insurance are notorious for the kind of environment you describe. Don't take another job in those industries and expect any different.

big_pope@reddit

It isn’t as black and white as “push through or leave.” Do some interviews! Maybe you find something better really soon, maybe it takes a while, or maybe your current role changes again in a way you enjoy.

throwaway-no051222@reddit (OP)

Thanks so much for this. I'm in a bit of a dark place right now, so it really means a lot to read something that gives me some hope.

Heck yeah! The market can be tough sometimes, but you’ll always have skills that produce value. Good luck out there.

Appropriate-Wing6607@reddit

Current job market is terrible. It’s not worth being unemployed in the current market thought it’s rough out there. I’ve been looking for about a month now due to my current role being terrible 60+ hours but it’s hard to get hired with almost ten years experience and 35 years old.

Few years ago I quit on the spot and found a job in a few weeks with nothing lined up that was great. Last job search took me six months.

I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling overworked. I'll make sure to proceed with caution. I'll try to get some interviews first.

Also wishing you the best of luck, stranger. Thank you