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Discussion on: What are some red flags to look out for in the first few weeks of a new dev job?

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Hamish Dickson • Edited

On top of what others have said, I have a few more:

  • you were hired for a specific team, but you get there and no one on your new team interviewed you (imagine being in their position in 6 months/a year)

  • you get there and no one is sure what you should work on first (lack of planning)

  • you don't have a PR raised on day one (or at least have things set up and you're close to getting something small done)

  • no one takes the time to help you navigate your way through code on your first few tasks

  • your team uses a process (and I include agile/TDD/pair programming in this) "because it's good practice" without really thinking if it makes sense

  • lots of meetings are a good indication that people care more about the stuff around developing great things than actually doing it

  • people on your team don't dogfood (use the product you're working on)

  • you're only introduced to your team

  • your team should take you to lunch the first day, or at least take you with them. A great workplace will take you to the pub for lunch/one evening early on, your team will want to get to know you

  • you feel pressured to work weekends/evenings early on

  • you feel watched or you have to guard your words/hide what's on your screen (if that happens for any reason at all, get out that day)

  • there "isn't time" to learn about new tech/libraries/etc that you think could be useful later on

  • you have someone on your team who rewrites all your code/rips apart your PRs/makes you feel like your a bad developer

  • everyone on your team should own the code, if you have one person (even someone with a job title like "tech lead") who must review everyone else's code and makes final decisions (or won't stop arguing until they get their way), that's a worry