How would it be perceived by future employers if I had quit my job just after one month in, due to the work culture not being suitable for me? [closed]

Question

I am from south Asia and I am thinking about quitting the current job which I joined a month ago. Reasons are,

• 500 developers are working in a single git repository ( backend, frontend, tools etc ) and I am not able to do any optimisation for my projects because that will affect rest of the teams. Manager told me that delivery should be my priority and I should not focus on repository and process changes. Without those changes I proposed, I have to do plenty of repetitive and duplicate tasks which is no fun.

• The technical debt in this project is astronomical. No proper code review is done. When I raised this point in a meeting, the team told me that they have very aggressive deadlines so no time for reviews. Again the manager told me that the team has to sort out this among themselves and come to an agreement on whatever works for them.

• I am not a fan of ASAP culture. But here everything needs to be done ASAP. Meeting minutes should be sent within an hour the meeting is over. If I propose an idea that will save maintenance effort in the long run, the POC should be ready by tomorrow. Absolutely no time for research and do a SPIKE because every Friday we need to deliver something.

• There was a meeting where I tried to interrupt to tell them that the discussion is going in a wrong direction. They asked me not to interrupt until they say so ( mostly because I am a new joiner ). After one and a half hours, I couldn't continue and just interrupted them hard and made them understand that we were wasting our time. There were 3 such occurrences within one month.

The manager does not have any vision and is not ready to take any risk. He just want to deliver the product week in, week out. Colleagues wants to be code monkeys without thinking about any optimisation or automation. I see them working even until 1 am and weekends (unpaid) too which can be avoided in the future if they spend some time thinking before touching the code.

I am the highest paid developer in the team and not working more than the hours I signed for. I feel like an outsider because I don't work as much hours as the other colleagues do and does not deliver as frequently as others do. I do deliver quality code which reduces maintenance effort but that is not valued within the team.

When I told my manager that I am going to have a surgery on so and so date because of my health issue, the first thing I was asked was how many tasks will I deliver before the surgery date so that he can commit that to the management. I understand that missing deadlines can be a bad remark for him, but I am sad that that was his first response when one of his employee is ill.

1. So, how would it be perceived by future employers if I quit my current job with only one month in? Or is my situation one of those that is customarily considered an opportunity to fight for improving the process and everyone's mindset?

2. Have I overestimated the severity of the situation?

Answer 1

Fact is that as one person you are not going to change how the company with 500 developers is working - unless you manage to work your way up to vp of software development in 20 years time, but there is no guarantee that the company will still be there in twenty years time.

If you are leaving, the sooner, the better. Best is: Look for a job that suits you better. Once you find a job, and signed a contract, you give the minimum amount of notice required. Staying longer than needed isn’t going to benefit anyone.

Answer 2

So is it okay to quit this job just after a month of joining?

Depends what you mean by "ok". It's certainly not illegal as long as you follow proper process and don't break any contracts or laws. It's not great on the resume but can be dealt with especially if the rest of your resume looks fine.

No one can force you to work at a place where you don't want to. You just have to look at the pros and cons.

Or I should ... fight back to change the process and everyone's mindset?

No. That seems like a highly unrealistic target. Changing a company of that size with deeply ingrained behavior and culture is very, very difficult and requires full buy in and support from the the leadership, which will be almost impossible to get.

Are these reasons valid to resign from a job or they will be seen as a red flag by future employers?

These are certainly valid reasons. Whether that's a red flag or not, depends A LOT on how you explain it. The best approach depends a bit on country and culture but in general you should

1. Don't bad mouth your current employer. You can point out the difference in development culture but don't judge and don't call one better than the other. Make it about personal preference (which is always yours to decide) and culture fit.
2. Own up to your mistake. Interviewing is a two way street and apparently you did a poor job in assessing the company. You should not have joined in the first place. What have you learned from the experience and what will you do differently as a result of it?
3. The hiring manager will want to assess whether you are a good candidate for the long term or flighty. You may get the question "You left company A after only one month. Why will this not be the case with us too ?". Make sure you have a good fact based answer to this.

Answer 3

I don't know where you are, but around here it's standard to have 1-3 months of "trial" or "probation" period for jobs. This period is meant to give both you and your employer a better understanding of each other. It is written in your contract and it typically features:

• The employer can fire you at moment's notice during this period;
• You can quit at a moment's notice during this period;
• [Optionally] There is reduced pay during this period.

If all goes well, at the last day you have another meeting with your employer to see if there are any more unresolved issues, and if there aren't you become a full employee.

If you have something like this in your job agreement as well, then don't feel bad for using it. You tried the company, you didn't like it, you decided to move on. Fair enough. That's what the trial was for.

Answer 4

Yes, leave quickly and don't look back. And if I were interviewing you, I would listen to you explain, even complain, if you could tie it to code quality and maybe come equipped with a couple straightforward examples. From your description you sound like an experienced engineer with desirable professional qualities.

But you listed a bunch of red flags so regardless I would advise you to run and possibly not even list it on your resume.

Answer 5

I did exactly the same. Worked for one month, took my money and quit the next day. There was a toxic culture in that company. I think it was a good decision. Before and after that I've had long-term contracts so I believe that issue was not with me but with that particular employer.

wrt taking the money, I don't find it too nice of me. On the other hand I badly needed money at the time as well employer didn't properly inform me about the kind of work I was signing up for in advance. So anyway, this is what I did.

I think it was the right decision. Afterwards employer implemented some of the things I reported to them as broken. So I guess they were not so dumb and I provided some value for my salary (which was not so big to begin with).

I would recommend you to stay only in case you need something in your resume or need a salary until you find something better. If you are not very new to the industry and have some meaningful experience, no need to stay against your better judgement.

Answer 6

I did it once- and at a company that would be many people's dream job. The culture was just not a fit for me. It took weeks to get me code access, I was prohibited from talking about my work internally to people on other teams working on the same overarching project as me, or to other people on a similar piece of code on other projects. There was a deep layer of paranoia. I had a meeting with a lawyer where he described what I should or shouldn't put in writing and when I should or shouldn't cc him to get the email to be privlidged. It was scuzzy feeling.

I don't regret doing it. I would have been deeply unhappy, and I had enough financial resources to avoid talking about it. I just leave that job off my resume, and I don't talk about having worked there. If someone was to ask about the tiny gap (they never have), I would say I took time for personal reasons. It was an uncomfortable conversation leaving (especially as my manager had been the owner of a startup the two of us worked at that the company bought), but it was less awkward than a year of dealing with all that.