I have very recently experienced a rather uncomforatble situation.

Here is a quick recap of the events:

Early last year I got an offer for a pre-employment (not sure if this is the correct term) while I already had a job. The idea was that I would start off as an employee of company A and work as a consultant for company B for 6 months. Company B would then offer me a position if we got along professionaly.

I was at the time looking for new opportunities and the process seemed very interesting to me, especially since I would have the safety net of my employment at company A.

The hiring process started with a recruiter (let's call him Bob) from company A and a manager (Jon) from company B.

Fast forward to my first day. I arrive at company B and get greeted by manager Dan who replaces Jon.

Due to Covid and remote work, my start is complicated, especially because the colleague I was supposed to assist left the company just before my arrival.

Because everything seems really slow to me I request a meeting with Dan at the end of the first month so that I have a better vision of what I have to do, the tools and systems I have to work on and so that I can get help from the rest of the team to learn about the job.

As not much changes and I'm getting worried as I learn close to nothing, I reiterate my meeting with Dan at the end of the second month. Dan then proceeds to explain to me the pre-employment isn't something that happens company B (so what I was promised wasn't possible to start with) but he'll try to find a way for me to get hired.

A few weeks later, Dan announces to me that Covid induced massive budget cuts and that he can't offer me a job in the team because of that. At that time, I have around 3 months left at company B as a consultant. Dan also explains that because my other colleagues are overworked he can't task any of them with teaching me stuff.

As a result, I mostly trained in programming and did a bit of code punctually here and there at the request of Dan but nothing exciting nor stimulating.

I ended up leaving company A shortly after my mission at B was finished.

My feeling is I've wasted a bit over 6 months with a job that didn't make me grow as a relatively junior dev/ops.

In this story, I blame Jon for having promised me a job while knowing he wouldn't be my manager and Bob for not having checked that Jon's promise was actually worth something. Dan was in my opinion very professional and did everything he could so I could stay at company B. He also didn’t hide things from me which in my book is good.

Now here is my question: was I wrong to expect the pre-employment to actually happen?

As a side question, what is the right thing to do when one’s manager doesn’t give one things to do (tasks, work…) even after requesting something be done about it? In my case, should I have acted differently?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Sorry if some parts aren’t clear, I’m not a native speaker.

I have very recently experienced a rather uncomfortable situation.

Here is a quick recap of the events:

Early last year I got an offer for a pre-employment (not sure if this is the correct term) while I already had a job. The idea was that I would start off as an employee of company A and work as a consultant for company B for 6 months. Company B would then offer me a position if we got along professionally.

I was at the time looking for new opportunities and the process seemed very interesting to me, especially since I would have the safety net of my employment at company A.

The hiring process started with a recruiter (let's call him Bob) from company A and a manager (Jon) from company B.

Fast forward to my first day. I arrive at company B and get greeted by manager Dan who replaces Jon.

Due to Covid and remote work, my start is complicated, especially because the colleague I was supposed to assist left the company just before my arrival.

Because everything seems really slow to me I requested a meeting with Dan at the end of the first month so that I would have a better vision of what I have to do, the tools and systems I have to work on and so I could get help from the rest of the team to learn about the job.

As nothing much changes I'm getting worried as I learn close to nothing, I reiterate my meeting with Dan at the end of the second month. Dan then proceeds to explain to me the pre-employment isn't something that happens company B (so what I was promised wasn't possible to start with) but he'll try to find a way for me to get hired.

A few weeks later, Dan announces to me that Covid induced massive budget cuts and that he can't offer me a job in the team because of that. At that time, I have around 3 months left at company B as a consultant. Dan also explains that because my other colleagues are overworked he can't task any of them with teaching me stuff.

As a result, I mostly trained in programming and did a bit of code punctually here and there at the request of Dan but nothing exciting or stimulating.

I ended up leaving company A shortly after my mission at B was finished.

My feeling is I've wasted a bit over 6 months with a job that didn't make me grow as a relatively junior dev/ops.

In this story, I blame Jon for having promised me a job while knowing he wouldn't be my manager and Bob for not having checked that Jon's promise was actually worth something. Dan was in my opinion very professional and did everything he could so I could stay at company B. He also didn’t hide things from me which in my book is good.

Now here is my question: was I wrong to expect the pre-employment to actually happen?

As a side question, what is the right thing to do when one’s manager doesn’t give one things to do (tasks, work…) even after requesting something be done about it? In my case, should I have acted differently?