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New job is turning out to be kind of the opposite of what I was expecting, based on interviews.

I thought I had done a pretty thorough job asking the kinds of challenging and specific questions during the interviews and was pretty satisfied with the answers.

Three weeks in, I’ve more or less been turned loose onto my first project which is….installing patch updates.

Next few projects through the end of the year and into Q1 next year are similarly sysadmin-chore work, which I’m not going to act like is beneath me or unimportant but it’s not quite what we talked about in the interview when I applied to an SDET position.

Point of order to talk about once I wrap up these first few projects, it doesn’t exactly seem like they know where I’m supposed to be or where to even really put me (on the org chart I have a line reporting up to boss, but I’m also the only one not on a functional team) and reading through the wiki last guy just kind of did everything.

If that’s what this is….eh I need to know if that’s how they want to use me and find out soon.

Comments
  • 4
    Also I may have mistapped but this shouldn’t have gone under joke/meme.
  • 1
    What's SDET?

    Sexual disease electronically transmitted?
  • 3
    You’re thinking of NFT’s

    Software Development Engineer in Test. Basically the new word for QA.

    Role was billed as lots of unit tests, much automation, plus platform and API performance testing.

    First two weeks instead have been apt-get and updating cron jobs

    Which. I mean. I guess it’s the platform but…🤷‍♂️
  • 2
    @ComputerToucher devranters around here be like
  • 2
    @sariel me before I wake up baby me after I wake up and have to deal with the rest of the world 😂
  • 2
    @ComputerToucher say no.

    Honestly, it's not what you signed up for and imho an entirely different field.

    *prep the torches and pitchforks*
  • 2
    @IntrusionCM Yeah end of the month is first official 1:1 with boss (we’ve had a couple these first two weeks just to check in during my onboarding and all that jazz) where I plan to bring it up and do the whole “what would you say I’m doing here” song and dance.
  • 1
    @IntrusionCM I agree with this, but also think of the opportunity to automate the job on your own and become over employed without them even knowing.

    At that point you have them by the balls because if you leave all your shit goes with you.
  • 3
    @sariel See that’s why I’m of two minds here. On the one hand yeah I can (and already made plans to) automate much of these -ops chores, on the other hand once I show I can deliver on it you know what’s gonna (and has commonly) happen?

    “Hey since you did that one thing really well we’re gonna just make you the guy for all of it and everything that looks like it”

    Which is why I suspect my predecessor left and why I need to make it clear it’s not what I have any interest in doing otherwise buh bye.
  • 1
    @ComputerToucher the trick is to feign borderline incompetence enough that nobody suspects you're 10 grades above your role.

    "I need this by tomorrow!" "Best I can do is next week."
  • 2
    red flags flying imho.
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