Quitting a role due to a project

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Just curious how many people have found themselves quitting or thinking about quitting because of a project.

I'm in situation where I've been lumped with a massively bloated piece of ****ware written about 5 years ago in terrible code with a mix of .Net, c/c++ and 3rd party OCX controls which don't have any visual components!!!. None of which work correctly or efficiently and its massively over complicated for the task its trying to achieve. Its been through 4 other developers before it got to me.

In its current state it will never work correctly and yet they keep selling it ignoring my warnings that its **** and it needs to be scrapped and started again. So im basically the only person who understands how it works and im basically the only line of support for the product.

uhhhh... Vent over.

Sounds like CV polishing time.

Any chance of getting more money to compensate them for your anger monkeys.

Left my last role early because a lead dev in the US (who had the ear of the business) insisted that the Java class model was too restrictive and had implemented his own typed dictionary model based on HashMap (reminder this is written in Java). Claimed that it would lead to a looser data model and more rapid flexible development.

Anyways, despite adding my voice to the constant push back from the London devs nothing happened. Meanwhile I was being asked to performance test and fix lots of performance and memory issues. No surprises which classes cropped up all the time. Life is just to short.

+1 to moving on

I came close on a death march project but stuck it out. It was never released and I don't put the technology used on my CV. I'm still annoyed with myself for not quitting that job at the time but I foolishly thought it would be a big opportunity.

I'm not that phased by being stuck maintaining garbage other people have left behind but I'll sure as hell rant about it to anyone who'll listen!

I attempted to quit 3 weeks in to my current role, they convinced me to give it another shot. Now in my second month and have resigned again, can't wait to be out of the place.

Moral of the story is: if you are thinking about it (and posting about it online) its time to go. One love to my fellow developers suffering incompetence.

Oh God, we've all been there - some more than others.

One think I would say is that projects like this rarely have a happy ending. Also the maintenance/development ratio will be very high and the quality will just get worse and worse. Sitting in a sewer and adding to it, is how I've heard it described.

You should leave. Companies must realise that there is a cost to crappy projects. Also, now is a great time to be looking. Plenty out there.

Good luck and go for it.

yop wrote: »

Same as you a few years ago, was more a cause of the project timelines were ridiculous and continuous introduction of new technologies without any time to learn brought me close to a nervous breakdown (I'm not kidding), in the end my mates could see I was crumbling and told me to leave, I did and thank God it was the best move ever as in hindsight what I was learning you couldn't even put down on a CV as it was more firefighting to learn snippets of tech to just survive.
Move on if its too much, the IT market seems busy so you should be good.

I think you hit on one of the most stressful things in IT - the proliferation of 'new' pieces of technology and, worse, toolkits being used in funky ways.

I wish people would realise that when you add a new library, framework, whatever, you are increasing the maintenance cost on a project. Rarely done, because it's the hotshots that make the decision, leave a pile of crap behind them and swan off to shine their lights on the next 'new' project.

BrokenArrows wrote:

I've taken next week off as I'm borderline about to have a mental breakdown in the office. I'm going to do some serious thinking about what I'm going to be doing...

Posted the same week as I left for a week before I lost my mind. Said "need a few days" and I vanished. I do have 12 years experience but problem is I was unemployed before this job so I'm being paid net minimum wage (wage - tax - high commute cost = €8.95/hr) to do an embedded linux/c programming/microcontroller/electronics position in the environment from hell (building site outside the window). Which doesn't seem reasonable really.

Plus, as as it's an EU program (Framework 7) the manager has decided that it would be a great opportunity to run his personal project in parallel and get me to do it with my salary paid by the EU. And, no, I can't have a raise. Or the promised bonus. Later maybe. Feeling abused... :mad:

As ChRoMe says: if you are thinking about it its time to go but I'm gritting my teeth not to up and quit before I find something else. I was thinking there wasn't much for my odd combination of software QA, embedded C programming, electronics interfacing etc. I'm a mongrel :-) But maybe it is a good time to be looking and learning C# or some such as that seems to be the in-thing these days. It's always a good time to have a resume in your bag!

Had to post here to mention why I went looking during my last job. I was assigned to a testing role despite the fact I'm a software developer! Couldn't believe it, they didn't give a sh*t, they saw testing as part of IT and I worked in IT so whatever!?

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Had to post here to mention why I went looking during my last job. I was assigned to a testing role despite the fact I'm a software developer! Couldn't believe it, they didn't give a sh*t, they saw testing as part of IT and I worked in IT so whatever!?

Another one that grinds my gears. This seems to happening more and more. Part of the Agile manifesto, perhaps?

No-one should object to helping out occasionally when required. Doing the odd bit of testing, documentation, whatever, is fine and good for both you and the company.

What is NOT OK is the attitude that roles/skillset are interchangeable: Every developer should be a tester, one language/system/framework is much the same as every other so you should be able to switch between them. The arrogance of such an attitude is breath-taking. Have these people ever heard of economies of scale, professional competencies, etc?

Next time someone suggest to you that as a developer you should be a tester too, ask them if the Finance Director, HR manager will have a go at it too? Better still, ask them if you can have a go at their job as well, After all, it's only work, innit?

If the company don't respect your skills, leave. You're a technocrat, your skills - profession are all you've got. Anyone that tries to denigrate/disrespect your profession should be shunned. (Actually I can think of something else that should be done to them but it's probably illegal!)

Image someone suggesting that a Doctor do a nurses job coz it's all health, innit?

If people don't respect you, it's because you don't respect yourself.