What to do if your first job has more responsibilities than what you can assume? [duplicate]

Question

I just passed a job interview with a development company, and I'm trying to figure out whether taking this job will help or hinder my career. I'm fairly new to the field and the job will require a great deal of self-learning and independance. I'm concerned that the opportunity could be overwhelming rather than merely challenging.

Some Details:

The job is for Ruby On Rails developer, the company primarily uses the .Net platform and its related technologies. The company has a client with a business application built upon Ruby On Rails. The client's application needs many optimizations and improvements. Given the company's main competency in .Net, they searched for a Ruby On Rails developer who can take on the whole responsibility of this client job.

Knowing nothing about the work at hand, I applied for the Ruby on Rails position. I am new to Ruby On Rails, and I saw this as an opportunity to learn more about Ruby On Rails and sharpen my skills in that field. I wanted the opportunity to work on real projects within a development team, regardless of the salary.

They called me for that interview, I passed it, and received an offer, which included a description of the opportunity. I am now afraid that I do not have the necessary skills and experience to assume responsibility and succeed in this work. This isn't at all what I expected.

I know that this will not be the last job that for a Ruby on Rails developer. Ruby On Rails is in high demand, and if I sharpen my skills I will get more chance to get better positions.

Given that this is my first job, and that I am not well prepared, I don't know what will be my benefits/risks in case I take the job. Options I've considered include:

• Take the position
• Fill my portfolio with more applications from personal projects

I don't want to lose the opportunity but I don't want to put my self in a situation that may have a negative impact on my full career in the future.

What advise would you give me? take this adventure or take the second way?

Answer 1

I think this comes down to a judgement call. They vetted you, you passed the interview. So the company believes you are sufficiently qualified. You didn't lie or cheat in the interview process, so I'd say 50% of the responsibility for figuring out if you are a good fit is the company's responsbility, and they are willing to take the chance. Thus far, you really don't know how hard the work will be. Sometimes optimazation is quite easy (when the code is horrific) sometimes it's very hard (although you'll learn a LOT). You really won't know until you try.

The reason to say no to this would be if you have your focus set on working in a team and getting mentoring from senior engineers. That's not unreasonable - and it's certainly possible in the software industry to get that sort of help. This job offer does not include that as a feature of the job, and you are within reason to hold out for what you really want. A solitary job isn't for everyone, and if you know you won't thrive, don't take it.

I really wouldn't worry about not being qualified. Every job has a learning curve. If they are willing to pay you, clearly they think you'll do a good enough job for the salary they've offered you.

Answer 2

Join the club. A LOT of computer work is people being asked to do things they aren't qualified to do. What matters in this situation is whether you have a good grasp of software fundamentals, and whether you have an approach to understanding problems and business processes. It won't take long for them to understand that they overestimated your capacity, however if you patiently chip away at it and start to produce any result at all, they are likely to keep you around. The only reason they will let you go is if you appear to be completely clueless. Quitting on them and going somewhere else will put you back in the same situation. Leave it up to them to make the first move.

I was working for someone in 1976 that was telling me about a computer deal he closed in 1963, where the customer bought a computer with a printer, three tape drives, and three reels of tape. It was the company's first computer, they had no idea what they were doing, and the sales rep couldn't offer them any guidance.

I had taken two accounting courses in college, and having done so I was asked to write a General Ledger application for a minicomputer. I had no idea where to start. At that, I had an unusual requirement - the user had minority ownerships in various companies, so we had to do consolidated balance sheets as well as multiple income statements. I happened to see someone else's implementation in the same language, suddenly understood how this would translated to code, but wrote something completely different since their solution couldn't possibly work for what I was trying to do.

When bigger organizations are dealing with large amounts of uncertainty, they use tools: Program Evaluation and Review Technique and Critical Path Method. During the 1950s, the US was trying to develop ballistic missile submarines, at a time when nuclear submarines alone were only a few years old and the military considered a 'successful' rocket launch one that didn't blow up on the pad. Launching a missile from a submarine at that point was a real stretch. Did any of them know what they were doing? No. Could they get on a discussion board and ask questions about launching nuclear warheads from submerged ballistic missiles? Good luck with that.