Today, March 18, marks the 1-year "anniversary" of me quitting my dev job.
One year later and I'm more regretful than ever. Sure, the environment was toxic. My manager was the most intimidating manager I ever had. He would message me on my personal Facebook profile if he saw me offline on Slack (even though I was working during this time, I would just stupidly forget to open Slack sometimes). Six months after quitting, he messaged me on social media AGAIN, telling me to take down the "shameful" reviews I left on Glassdoor, even though they weren't even mine. Again, he was paranoid as hell, and he always thought I wanted to ruin his reputation/his firm's reputation, when in reality, I had no such intentions. He would ask me to delete Facebook comments that I wrote on posts that were unrelated to his firm or programming in general...just stuff that he didn't agree with and that he thought was "not reflecting" his company's "core values".
On top of that, I wasn't learning anything. There were no code reviews. No meetings. No agile. Nothing. I did the grunt work of "slicing" and translating Figma designs into HTML/CSS. One day I got really pissed and I gave my manager my resignation letter. One year later and I'm still looking for a dev job.
I know this might not be the healthiest advice, but if you're a junior, the best thing right now is to just accept your job as it is. It may be toxic, but at least it's a job. When things in tech will shift towards a normal direction, you can make that change. But please, for the love of god, DON'T DO IT unless you have another job lined up. I know it's tempting as hell to just say "fuck it" and hand in your resignation letter in the heat of the moment, but you will most likely regret it. Don't repeat my mistake. I'm still regretting it one year later and it doesn't get easier. The job market right now is unforgiving, and this is literally the worst time to quit your job.
<https://old.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/1bhxg3n/dont_quit_unless_you_have_something_lined_up/>
One year later and I'm more regretful than ever. Sure, the environment was toxic. My manager was the most intimidating manager I ever had. He would message me on my personal Facebook profile if he saw me offline on Slack (even though I was working during this time, I would just stupidly forget to open Slack sometimes). Six months after quitting, he messaged me on social media AGAIN, telling me to take down the "shameful" reviews I left on Glassdoor, even though they weren't even mine. Again, he was paranoid as hell, and he always thought I wanted to ruin his reputation/his firm's reputation, when in reality, I had no such intentions. He would ask me to delete Facebook comments that I wrote on posts that were unrelated to his firm or programming in general...just stuff that he didn't agree with and that he thought was "not reflecting" his company's "core values".
On top of that, I wasn't learning anything. There were no code reviews. No meetings. No agile. Nothing. I did the grunt work of "slicing" and translating Figma designs into HTML/CSS. One day I got really pissed and I gave my manager my resignation letter. One year later and I'm still looking for a dev job.
I know this might not be the healthiest advice, but if you're a junior, the best thing right now is to just accept your job as it is. It may be toxic, but at least it's a job. When things in tech will shift towards a normal direction, you can make that change. But please, for the love of god, DON'T DO IT unless you have another job lined up. I know it's tempting as hell to just say "fuck it" and hand in your resignation letter in the heat of the moment, but you will most likely regret it. Don't repeat my mistake. I'm still regretting it one year later and it doesn't get easier. The job market right now is unforgiving, and this is literally the worst time to quit your job.
<https://old.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/1bhxg3n/dont_quit_unless_you_have_something_lined_up/>
sincerely,