Let go after 3 months - Software Developer (work, companies, paid)
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I have been in client meetings where they wanted to add IT people of their own, and they came up with these nonsense requirements and wanted to pay almost nothing for those people. I talked them out of it, because it was another plan for failure, just like the OP experienced.
Part of what makes IT/development so crazy is that customers want endless features and support, but most want to nickel and dime.
I'm the application owner of a COTS financial program that should work seamlessly. It's not a sophisticated program at all. Around the first of the year, something dragged its performance to a crawl. I'm pretty certain it's AV/security related, but I've been on a carousel with multiple other teams and the vendor, all of whom agree the problem is environmental/not application related, but we've never pinpointed the cause. The correct way to troubleshoot this would be to take a PC with nothing but a base Windows image, and gradually introduce components of our environment until we find the culprit. That's not going to be possible due to infosec concerns, so my hands really are tied.
The users are having to work overtime because of the poor performance. I've spent several dozen labor hours researching and troubleshooting. I've involved other teams and their labor hours have been spent. The department director is balking on $3k-$4k in funding to put this software in the cloud and call it a day.
We've easily spent the $4k in just IT support hours alone. That's not counting the dozens of hours the users have had wasted while the program goes to not responding. They say they're "too busy" to test a trial of the cloud software, but someone could use it for an hour and it either works better or doesn't - it's not going to take long to reach a verdict.
And a lot of this fibbing comes from the fact that employers want unicorns. It's very rare for many postings that anyone who hasn't actually done that specific job would have the required expertise. People stretch to have a chance at all.
I have to wonder how much effort the OP put into getting up to speed. When I got my first opportunity to work with computers an experienced friend told me I'd have to totally immerse myself in the work 24x7. I had to soak up knowledge like a sponge. And I did. Brought stuff home to work out on my own time at night, thought about it all the time. Couldn't get enough of it. Called people to help me figure stuff out when I got stuck. Sought out and attended classes to boost my skills.
Decades later on my next to last assignment as a contractor I was the same way. Got in 20 minutes early and stayed 20 minutes late. No lunch or coffee breaks, other than going to the bathroom and coffee machine and eating or drinking coffee at my desk while working. Several new hires were brought on and let go within 6 weeks. They were waiting to be trained and viewed it as a normal job. It wasn't. It was a fast paced rocket ship ride every day. The department was outsourced to India by the end of my 6 month contract and I helped the Indians get up to speed during the last 6 weeks as they ran a parallel training system, in addition to doing my own work.
My next and last contract was 18 months working from home. 9 hours a day, working straight through, 5 days a week. That ended when I turned 62 and I've been retired ever since. Made good money and loved the work. But I loved being retired more.
I have to wonder how much effort the OP put into getting up to speed. When I got my first opportunity to work with computers an experienced friend told me I'd have to totally immerse myself in the work 24x7. I had to soak up knowledge like a sponge. And I did. Brought stuff home to work out on my own time at night, thought about it all the time. Couldn't get enough of it. Called people to help me figure stuff out when I got stuck. Sought out and attended classes to boost my skills.
Yep, that's what you do when you're a novice and someone gives you a shot at a new career.
No, just no. Please, the NDA doesn't prevent you from saying why you left a company. The OP isn't James Bond working on a top secret project. Come on, people know the industry too, and no one is going to use an NDA as an excuse of why they can't explain why they aren't working there any longer. When they do a background check and use the third-party for employment verification, they are still going to reveal along with employment dates the reason for separation was "involuntary" which means either fired or part of a layoff.
Several of mine could consider it inside corporate information-one even illegally stated that I could not discuss salary with anyone, including fellow employees. I have one (out of maybe 12?) that specifically called it out-so its not that unusual that its some james bond thing. NDAs are often poorly written garbage that is confusing and unfair. Having someone who said they couldn't discuss the exact details of what occurred is possible, and wouldn't even phase me.
I admit that many of the things I work on are far more sensitive then the average developer, but even so-I worked at tiny little firms with basic projects who still treated everything like it was some top secret black fund project with NDA's that were just nuts.
I have to wonder how much effort the OP put into getting up to speed. When I got my first opportunity to work with computers an experienced friend told me I'd have to totally immerse myself in the work 24x7. I had to soak up knowledge like a sponge. And I did. Brought stuff home to work out on my own time at night, thought about it all the time. Couldn't get enough of it. Called people to help me figure stuff out when I got stuck. Sought out and attended classes to boost my skills.
Same here with my first serious accounting job. Some months after starting, the other two accountants I was working with quit and the CEO didn't want to hire new people (budget). I was able to take on their responsibilities using technical skills no one expected me to learn. Later on, I was able to renegotiate my salary.
Some people see those type of hurdles as a golden opportunity while others don't. To each their own, I guess.
Last edited by Liar_Liar; 03-08-2019 at 02:11 PM..
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