Ask HN: Feeling lost and defeated. Need career advice.

If you are not able to finish your project on time, you need to tell your manager as soon as possible. You may not have the experience to get it done, and that is fine in my opinion, but if there are deadlines, your manager needs to know sooner than later for damage control. As you said, there are possible do-overs when in college, but you need to do what you can to make a project succeed, even if that means admitting failure - it's a life lesson, failure should be acceptable, just make sure that your own failure doesn't affect others.

You are almost at the end of your coding stint cycle - is the next six-month cycle more along your lines of what you want to do? If not, then I would look for something else. You have a goal of what you want to accomplish, and working on something that isn't even your field does not make sense for your future.

I'm not a startup founder, but I do at times question when people have tons of short stint jobs - but if it's only one, then no big deal - a history of short stints here and there can raise concern, but even then it won't be an ultimate deciding factor when I choose to hire someone.

Make sure your resume reflects your additional activities while in college - they may not be as necessary on there when you have more of a job history, but when you are first starting your resume, you want your potential employer to know what you are capable of - and this will get you callbacks where you can go in to more detail.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice Elliot. Throughout the process, I've been open about my technical skills with my manager, but he keeps saying he has full confidence I can get it done; without any real advice. Luckily, its more of an independent internal project that replaces a process that's more manual right now, so it doesn't affect anything else.

Yes, the next cycle is more related to what I do, but I don't want to get a reputation as someone who can't get stuff done; it's just that I feel 6 months is not enough time to learn a completely new language, especially when it took 3 months just to figure out the project requirements.

It's not necessarily your fault if you can't get it done in time - you were thrown in to a position you weren't familiar with - though I stand by the fact that you should tell your manager you are in need of help with it - whether it's internal or not. It will show that you are able to handle a project even when it has potential to fail, which is a real world scenario - it's just as important of a skill as being able to get stuff done.

If you feel that BigCo, and companies of that size are really not your thing, then you need to do what will make you happy. It's a fact that you will at times have to do work you will not like, that's just life, but if you are sure that the larger company environment is not for you, which is fine - it's not for everyone, then you need to make a decision... if you feel that your lack of experience will hamper your progress though, then it might be in your best interest to wait it out and gain that experience at BigCo which hopefully is a big name that will look good on the resume. This is a big decision, make sure you read mine and everyone elses advice and really contemplate what you will be doing - even if it's early in your career.

First, you don't realize how lucky you are: there are thousands of posts across the web about people complaining that their employers give them no training at all and you're basically getting 2 years of "apprenticeship" training right off the bat.

Make the most of it. It will never happen again! This is old-skool training and more companies should be doing it.

Second, your manager needs to know ASAP that you can't finish. Whatever the consequences of not finishing are, they will be much worse if it's a surprise to him at the deadline. Just walk into his office and TELL HIM. Don't sugarcoat it, just explain what's going on. I've had to deal with exactly this situation in the past month. It happens, we deal with it.

People not being able to do the work isn't new to any experienced manager, he'll figure something out: that's his job. Yours is to keep him up to date.

How bad is it in real life? In real life, not finishing a project on time can be the end of a company. I sincerely doubt you are doing anything that crucial, but you asked. Things get a lot more important when people are paying you to do them We all do shit that we "just don't enjoy" but we're paid to do them well anyway. It's not like they expect you to do this for the rest of your time there.

Don't switch jobs unless you are otherwise a fantastic candidate and you can come up with an amazing excuse in the interview for why you only lasted 6 months. And it had better be along the lines of "the boss beat me daily with a stick because I wouldn't wash his car." No, I'm not kidding.

What college did you go to that you got "do-overs?" Friggin' lucky. If we were late on an assignment, it was an automatic 50% off and got worse with each passing day (sometimes hourly).

This isn't a rant, and I'm not picking on you. I read inexperience in your post and I think you have a great opportunity you're about to throw away. Think carefully before you do.

    Don't switch jobs unless you are otherwise a fantastic candidate and you can come up with an amazing excuse in the interview for why you only lasted 6 months. And it had better be along the lines of "the boss beat me daily with a stick because I wouldn't wash his car." No, I'm not kidding.

I completely disagree with this statement - a job needs to go both ways, and just like some companies will make the wrong decision in the hiring process, a job applicant will make the wrong decision in which job to accept. It happens. Just don't make it a pattern - because then it's an issue.

It's perfectly reasonable to leave a job after six months. Hell, it's reasonable to leave after the first day if you can see that life is going to suck.

But in real life, the next person to interview you will want to know why you left so soon. If your answer is along the lines of "I was being rotated through different departments for training and I didn't like the first rotation" that person will probably not hire you, expecting that you'll leave the first time things don't go your way.

You are correct that an applicant can make the wrong decision, but that's not what matters. What matters is how he responds to making that decision.

If the company is rotating him to positions that aren't his line of work, or what he studied for then I think it's a perfectly reasonable reason - he should be prepared to explain it more than "I didn't like it" - because that would be an issue, but otherwise I don't see the harm. In the end he needs to be sure that he is making the right choice in leaving and deal with the consequences if it's the wrong decision - or possibly be happier else where if it's the right decision.

As I mentioned previously, the 2nd cycle is more along the lines of what I studied for. More than that, I think I realize that I'm not meant for a BigCo and startups want a certain level of experience, and rightly so.

I'll talk to my manager first thing tomorrow. Yes, its more of an internal project, and I'm the only one working on it - so me not finishing won't shut down the company.

I didn't mean do-overs, more like it was okay to fail and you had time to learn from your mistakes.

And thanks for replying, I appreciate that you responded.

Consider the coding project at work an investment in yourself. You're right, this isn't college anymore. Your performance at work and in groups directly affects your co-workers perception of you. Sure, if you truly hate the place then you probably won't care, but people are very good at detecting when other people truly dislike their job. This has a full circle impact. Getting yourself into this mentality will only make your experiences at that company less enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. If you actually cannot handle the task that you have been assigned, then speak up. Tell your project manager how you feel. Somewhere along the way you obviously gave them the impression that you were fine with the programming tasks, so they most likely are just not aware of your feelings towards programming. I would just advise against "giving up" and subconsciously forcing yourself out of that position or company.

And of course you can always change jobs. If you dislike this company and can already tell that the big corporate life style isn't your thing then start looking for new jobs. Too early to switch jobs? I'd rather find one that I like now instead of 5 years from now.

I was open about my previous experience when I started; I told them first-day that I have limited coding experience, and had not used the language they wanted me to develop in.

In terms of switching jobs - I'm worried about appearing disloyal, and how it will look on my resume down the line.

I don't understand why you're in a development position when you know you don't like it. And you're working for BigCo when you don't like it.

Don't worry too much about switching after six months at this point. You just graduated and you're finding your place in the world. Explain yourself as you've done here, and don't make it a long-term pattern. The best way not to make it a long-term pattern is to find the kind of company you want to work for, doing work you like and are good at.

As for how to get in somewhere... I had heard that if you really wanted to work somewhere then you should let them know, and also follow up. Once I picked a place that I wanted to work and I applied. They turned me down, saying there were no openings (I just cold applied, not in response to a job listing). Every few weeks I checked back with them. Yes, they hired me. ;-) I only did this once, but that makes my success rate 100%. YMMV.

That sounds awesome dwc, I'm definitely with you on the power of persistence. Thanks for responding :)!

If you're coming to the end of your cycle at the end of this month why are you thinking about leaving anyway - why not see how you find the next placement before you make any decisions?

Talk to your manager and explain that you're not going to make the deadline, you're not going to be the first person to have missed a deadline and I doubt you'll be the last. It's highly unlikely that you'll get fired.

Thanks for replying Imran. I'm definitely going to wait to see how I like the second placement, but I was worried about how companies generally deal with < 100% success with deliverables.

Projects going over schedule are, uh, not exactly an uncommon occurrence. In fact if you've been honest with your manager about your level of skill (as you said in another comment) and assuming you've been keeping him up to date with progress and he hasn't done anything to get the project back on track (like getting you a mentor to work with), then it's really more his responsibility than yours if you don't finish. (That's not to say he's doing it wrong - this may be a deliberate strategy on his part; it's obviously not a life-or-death project.)

On the other hand, if you wait until the last day before announcing that you're only 60% done, that is your responsibility. Don't be that guy. You should be talking to your manager now about how far along you are and what is an achievable state to leave the project in for somebody else to pick up (actually you should have started this some time back if you haven't already). e.g. you mentioned a lot of work went into gathering requirements - if you are not going to finish the project then that work probably needs to be captured.

Communication is the key, and that's got nothing to do with whether you're doing coding or marketing. Nobody is going to make any inferences about your marketing abilities from your coding abilities or vice-versa, but if you prove yourself incapable of communicating with your team in either placement then, well, that would be the time to start getting worried.

Failure is not always bad, but trying to cover up failure always leads to very, very bad things and it never, ever works. Remember that and you'll be fine.

You are raising two distinct issues. First, a situation in which you cannot finish your project on time. Second, the fact that the job/company does not meet your expectations.

Before doing anything about the second point, deal with the first. Normally managers should only assign tasks that are possible, relative both to the timeframe and to your skillset. If you have the right skills and enough time, then you should do whatever it takes to finish, even in your own time, otherwise your self-confidence will suffer. If the time is too tight and/or you do not have the necessary skills/experience/training to do the job, then raise the issue with the manager more forcefully and asap. Repeat your message in an e-mail so that your complaint is officially registered and acknowledged. If there is a mismatch between the job description, as spelled out in your contract, and your actual work, this is also a legitimate issue.

Once the first problem is out of the way, and you are again feeling comfortable at work, deal with the second issue. It is always legitimate to seek better work. The best way to switch jobs is to find a new job while still holding the old job. It is a catch-22 fact of life that no-one likes to give a job to someone who does not have one. Also, you will be in a much stronger negotiating position if you are still receiving a salary. When you go to an interview, argue along the lines that the job is going fine (do not criticize your old company/manager) and everyone is happy with your performance, but that you feel you need more challenge/less routine/a better fit to your skillset/a smaller environment etc.

Good luck. Starting out in the world of employment is always a difficult time in life. Things will work out.

About switching jobs - 2 great articles from Mark Suster's 'Both sides of the table:

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/04/22/never-hire-job...

http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/04/25/job-hoppers-re...