Should i Quit? | Hacker News Reader

Should i Quit?

2 points_yields4 comments

Here is my awful situation. My grammer isn't that good, keep that in mind while you read.

I work in a PHP (a language i despise) devshop as the lead developer (i only have 1 year experience in programming), we build CMS powered websites. I started working in this company a few months ago, before that i worked at 2 other similiar companies.

The main thing i hate is the workflow, for example here is how we build a website:

  * a design is sent to me by mail.
  * i go to a website we've already built and download it's source
  * i clean the source folders (images etc..)
  * i go to a website we've already built and export the database tables
  * i clean them.
  * i build it.
  * i upload it with ftp.
  * test using the refresh button :o
  * done.

at no point unit testing is used (my boss says it's a waste of time). we don't use revision control tools (my boss says no one uses it). we don't use tools to automate stuff (deployment etc..).

When i suggest to my boss to use those stuff, he comes back "i have more than 5 years of experience you have 1". My boss isn't a developer, he thinks Firefox was built by Google and "IETester is better than ie9 so use it".

All of our websites have stuff like this in the code: `mysql_query('select * from foo where id = ' . $_GET['id'])`. Some of our websites have no password verification on the admin panel.

Keep in mind that i have seen those stuff in all 3 companies i worked in, this is awful.

HN'ers should i quit and start my own company ?

Should you quit? Probably. Should you start your own company? That depends. What's your background (beyond "I only have 1 year experience in programming")? Do you have any contacts with people who would potentially want your services, or do you think that you could make them quickly?

My suggestion would be to keep the job solely for income while you hunt for another one. Ask questions during interviews like "What tech stack do you use?", "What version control do you use?", "What kinds of workflow automation do you have?"

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I started programming 1 year ago, i'm a self taught programmer, that's basically it.

I know a lot of programming languages, mainly Google Go, PHP, Javascript and some Scala.

I have some customers i did a little bit of freelancing.

The funny thing is that in my job interview for the current job, i asked "do you use bdd testing" to which he replied "what's unit testing".

the problem i'm having is that most companies from where i am from, don't use or know those stuff....

If you're comfortable doing freelancing, it might be worth trying to set out on your own.

You have me curious as to what location you are in, although I would understand if you don't want to divulge that (to maintain your privacy). You might look into what remote opportunities exist, or maybe consider relocating.

you say you are lead developer then you should be able to get heard then, write a letter to your boss with all the improvement you can help produce in the company (write only 3-4 items), their long term benefits and tell him you want to dedicate 20% of your time to make them happen. If they say no or are ambiguous leave as soon as you get another job, if they say yes what the hell, stick there and if anything works ask for a raise.

what ever you do remember that your priority #1 is learning and growing professionally, with 1 year of exp I would guess that you can learn more in a job at a more organized company with senior devs to look up to than working by yourself.

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