Ask HN: How long do you give a new job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How long do you give a new job?

My standard advice to folks starting new jobs is:

"You need to give it _at least_ two months before you decide to bounce, because anything less than that, and -- outside extreme circumstances -- there is just no way to know anything about anything at that point. Whether people are being mean and lazy, or are just incompetent and stupid, or any other combination of behaviors. It's fine to look before then, of course, because...America."

I think this is generally good/excellent advice.

That said, is it?

Asking for a friend.

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What's an extreme circumstance? Some people are very hard on themselves and have a higher tolerance for what amounts to mistreatment. To them, extreme circumstances would amount to actual physical abuse or constant, in-your-face shouting, for example.

To someone else, extreme could mean that they sense a strange bitterness rather than team harmony, and they can't focus at all as a result. They can't focus, so they can't work, and they are committed to doing their best or nothing at all, so they leave.

Others get a strong intuition. For example an employee had a really bad feeling about his workplace. It wouldn't stop--something was off. He contacted someone who used to work there. She said she had sued, and won a judgment against the company for an invasion of privacy and discrimination by the CEO.

This person hasn't themselves suffered through that other person's experience; they simply had a bad feeling and learned something really awful about the company. Is that extreme circumstances for them?

IMO there is work to be done around that phrase "extreme circumstances."

I guess I'm more harsh about such things. The quickest I've bounced from a gig is 1 week. It was a startup, and the owner couldn't stop telling me all kinds of fantasy stories that were clearly made up on the spot. His ex-girlfriend was part Jinn (a Genie!) and he claims to have been shot through the chest with a scud missile while serving in one of 2 different wars, depending on when he retells the story.

It drove me nuts. I couldn't even tell if he had a real product by the end of that week because his grasp on reality was so loose, and it really seemed he was stringing his investors on.

As far as I can tell, he since lost his investors and his business is tanking / tanked, so at least some of my estimations of his ability to start a business were correct. The police had to "escort" him out of his lab, and last I saw of him, he was soliciting people to do his Lisp programming on a free volunteer basis. The quantum industry already has enough wankers, and he was at a special level of wankery.

I will generally give a company 6 months to a year, if they follow through on all of the items within the offer letter and do not do anything illegal (theft, fraud, harassment, etc.). Shorter employments will be asked about in my experience, and so you need to be able to explain why you left.

The time you give them also depends on the type of company and environment you're in. A year at a startup can be a long time, and you shouldn't have trouble getting a job if you are in a startup hub and good.

> [Is two+ months good advice?]

For for not uncommon problems probably. You might want to factor in whether your new health insurance has kicked in.

For something egregiously heinous (according to some definition), don't feel bad about leaving before then.

I left one job after six months. During that time there were three CFO's. The fedgov raided the business and seized the owner's race car, on display in the lobby.

Those were not the reasons I quit.

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