I have seen people survive being put on a PIP and ones who did not. In every case of those who did not, they made almost no effort to make the changes required by the PIP. In every case of those who did get past a PIP, they took it as a wake up call and permanently changed their behavior.

As to the best thing to do. First, make a genuine effort to make the changes required. The behavior change will be necessary even if you go to another job, so start working on improving your ability to work with your boss and your attention to detail. In the next job you do not want to create the same problem again. You need to pay attention to managing your boss and his expectations. Technical is only about 25% or less of what gets you success at work. You need to understand the politics of managing your boss and getting positive attention at work. As for the technical, you can't mess up that attention to detail thing, you are in a detail oriented profession.

There is no reason not to start looking for another job at this point even if you are going to try genuinely meet the PIP. That is for your own protection. You have 60 days - use them well to improve your performance, but don't neglect to see if there is something else better out there for you.

The one thing you should not do is quit without another job.

If you get fired before finding another job, rest assured that people will be asking why and they will want you to have learned something from getting fired and change your attitude and/or behavior. This is one reason why it is critical to make a genuine effort to meet the terms of the PIP. It shows you understood you had a problem and you worked to fix it. You also want to be thinking about how you will describe what you learned in trying to meet the PIP and how your behavior will be different in the future.

You need to learn to adapt to your boss's expectations and the organizational culture of any job. They will often want things done that are not the way you want to do them or what you want to do at all. The company paying your salary and its representative (your boss) make that determination, you do not. You need to find positive ways to present your ideas before decisions are made, you likely need to find ways to make your boss aware of problems before they become bigger problems (telling someone that you will miss a deadline is far better than actually missing it before he finds out for instance).

You need to work well with people you despise and have nothing in common with and never let them know that you feel that way. You need to make sure that your accomplishments are known in the organization as that tends to make the mistakes less important. In other words, you desperately need to read about organizational politics and start learning how to manage the way you are perceived in the workplace.

I have seen people survive being put on a PIP and ones who did not. In every case of those who did not, they made almost no effort to make the changes required by the PIP. In every case of those who did get past a PIP, they took it as a wake up call and permanently changed their behavior.

As to the best thing to do. First, make a genuine effort to make the changes required. The behavior change will be necessary even if you go to another job, so start working on improving your ability to work with your boss and your attention to detail. In the next job you do not want to create the same problem again. You need to pay attention to managing your boss and his expectations. Technical is only about 25% or less of what gets you success at work. You need to understand the politics of managing your boss and getting positive attention at work. As for the technical, you can't mess up that attention to detail thing, you are in a detail oriented profession.

I see no harm to you in trying to meet the terms of the PIP. I see very much harm if you do not. Yes you still might lose your job, but you have gained time to look for another one. YOu will learn some skills that will come in handy on the next job and you will not be a quitter who runs away every time things are uncomfortable.

There is no reason not to start looking for another job at this point even if you are going to try genuinely meet the PIP. That is for your own protection. You have 60 days - use them well to improve your performance, but don't neglect to see if there is something else better out there for you.

The one thing you should not do is quit without another job.

If you get fired before finding another job, rest assured that people will be asking why and they will want you to have learned something from getting fired and change your attitude and/or behavior. This is one reason why it is critical to make a genuine effort to meet the terms of the PIP. It shows you understood you had a problem and you worked to fix it. You also want to be thinking about how you will describe what you learned in trying to meet the PIP and how your behavior will be different in the future.

You need to learn to adapt to your boss's expectations and the organizational culture of any job. They will often want things done that are not the way you want to do them or what you want to do at all. The company paying your salary and its representative (your boss) make that determination, you do not. You need to find positive ways to present your ideas before decisions are made, you likely need to find ways to make your boss aware of problems before they become bigger problems (telling someone that you will miss a deadline is far better than actually missing it before he finds out for instance).

You need to work well with people you despise and have nothing in common with and never let them know that you feel that way. You need to make sure that your accomplishments are known in the organization as that tends to make the mistakes less important. In other words, you desperately need to read about organizational politics and start learning how to manage the way you are perceived in the workplace.