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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

One of the things I have seen many times with junior engineers is that, when things aren't going exactly as they desire, instead of having conversations with their managers: "Hey, can you give me a timeline of when I'll be able to focus more on frontend dev, i.e. React", instead they bail (or, mention it in the slightest of passing, and then if stuff doesn't change they feel their concerns weren't addressed and leave).

To be clear, I do NOT blame junior devs at all for this. It takes experience and growth to build the confidence to know how to be direct with managers in a way that is constructive to all parties. I'd just highlight with eng managers to be extra aware that, for junior engineers, that you'll likely need to "pull" more and dig out if there is something more that the engineer wants. Of course, you may not always be able to accommodate them, but if they do leave you will know it wasn't for lack of communication.

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Earlier in my career, which is not too long ago, I behaved exactly as you've described. It was not worth the risk of seeming "difficult" or "demanding" as someone with little experience, to be asking for (ostensibly selfish) changes from my manager. It seemed much less confrontational, and often more lucrative, to simply find work elsewhere.

If the candidate was misled in the hiring process, and the organization (which is the sum of its people) is dysfunctional enough to result in that outcome, it's not unreasonable to think asking for it to be fixed may be taken negatively by the folks who put you in that situation.

> may be taken negatively by the folks who put you in that situation

From the author's account they seem to have extremely supportive managers. Not only that, the business spent a lot of time and care helping the hire figure out if they are a good fit and with all that invested I am sure they'd prefer a shot at fixing the problem. I'd be a little upset if as a manager my report resigned cited any of the issues the author reported without at least allowing me a chance to work with them on it.

Also worth noting, the author is a senior dev.

> From the author's account they seem to have extremely supportive managers.

Would you shit talk your previous company/managers with your name attached to it? Especially if you were early in your career?

Probably not.

"To be clear, I do NOT blame junior devs at all for this. It takes experience and growth..."

Also, as software engineers right now we have a very weird experience where the job market is better for us as employees than almost anyone else ever anywhere. Like this is as good as it gets.

So it gives the illusion you can find the perfect job, if you don't like a place, why not leave for something else, you can easily do that!

So while generally I'm partial to your point of view, job hopping so quickly is unlikely to lead to the job satisfaction you hope it will. But... in that environment... if you wanted to mostly work on JS and that's not what the job was, why not leave for something that is what you wanted all along?

On the flipside, there's nothing stopping a manager from diving into knowing their subordinates and assessing their mood and figuring how to make them happier if they happen to be unhappy.

In my previous role, I had two managers: one who made it a point to ask me how I was doing and if there was something he could do and another who never had a one-on-one with me until I handed over my code when I left the company.

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