Leave job after a month? - not meeting (my wrong) expectations

August 16, 2017 9:25 PM

Hi metafilter, what would you do? Been in new job for a month full-time equivalent, and it matches job description but not my interpretation of said job description. Other positions that match what I thought I'd be doing have been advertised. Current job is contract till end of year and isn't critical to current project, while advertised are contracts till mid or late next year (so no difference in stability). It's a small industry. Apply or not?

I started a new 2 days a week job 2 months ago (in other words, about 4 weeks full-time equivalent). It's a software project and I thought I would get to be involved in making new functionality. That is part of the job, but it's more the vendor codes and we as testers are entering data to test the code works (sorry if this is IT 101 but as a non IT person this is all new to me). This was explicitly said to me by my boss.

That would be ok, except I then also thought I'd be liaising with stakeholders to agree on said functionality, but I'm not - the workflow mapping people are, and then are telling people in my team to implement it (so I believe I will be too). In other words, I believe I will be up for data entry only without any of the fun stuff (stakeholder liaison, coding).

So you can see how the job description of "developing functionality" is accurate but I interpreted it wrong.

Now I've talked to a workflow mapping person from another workplace and they do what I thought they do, and they said someone from my team left to join her team for the same reason, and she thinks from my personality I'd be better suited to workflow mapping. However, my boss is my classmate from uni and everyone who's involved in this project at other workplaces know I'm in this job as I've been put on the socialising mailing list.

Our project is going live in a few weeks, but I'm not crucial to it--my boss is just training me in anticipation for next year. I'm on a contract which finishes end of this year.

So my concern is burning bridges rather than interrupting any actual work, especially given these advertised jobs are also contract (but longer, but only by 6-12 months), and that I am potentially dealing with limited info, only having been here a month full-time equivalent.

If it is indeed worth applying to those jobs (I've made sure to ask if I can expect to do workflow mapping and they have said yes) and if so, do I include this current job in the resume (this is my first job in the area, so I have no other way of demonstrating that I understand the project).

Thanks!

posted by glache to Work & Money (4 answers total)

Response by poster: Extra info - culture of current job is great. One advertised job, commute may be 10 mins longer, other would require moving but I will move for the right opportunity (have done plenty of that before)
posted by glache at 9:55 PM on August 16, 2017

I think you'd be better off sticking it out until the end of the year and getting this job solidly on your CV. It's only a few months, you like the culture, and it sounds like your CV isn't strong without this job on it.
posted by hazyjane at 11:01 PM on August 16, 2017 [3 favorites]

Given how short the timeframe is and how it sounds like the role is a bit meh rather than being actively horrible, I'd stick it out and use it as a jumping point at the end of this contract to say "I worked doing testing but after that I realized I'd really like (more of a challenge, dealing more with stakeholders, etc etc)". That sounds like good interview fodder and shows you're interested in learning and growing.
posted by brilliantine at 5:28 AM on August 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks guys! Both equally as good answers. Thanks again!
posted by glache at 8:02 PM on August 17, 2017