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A few months back, I applied for a backend engineering position at a company. I did a few programming challenges and had a few interviews, and got an idea of the projects they were working on (Go and Ruby on Rails were mentioned, both with which I have some experience.) After not receiving a response after the last interview, I took another offer.

A couple weeks ago I was called back, asking if I was interested in a DevOps position (I've been wanting to start focusing on that type of work, so I would have passed on it if it was for the original position I applied) so I agreed to a couple more interviews. The interviewers didn't really have a good idea of what I'd be working on, but I asked infrastructure/devops focused questions and based on that information it seemed like a good fit. They gave me an offer, and I accepted.

Now that I've been here a week, I've been put on an application development team, doing work exclusively on a Node.js project (which was not mentioned in any of the interviews.) I'm not opposed to learning new technologies, but I have no experience with Node and would rather work somewhere that I can build experience with something else.

With that said, am I justified in leaving this job after a week? I feel misled (whether intentionally or not.) I'm not worried about being out of work until I can find something else.

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    Have you talked to anyone about how long you'd be doing this Node.js work? Have they said whether this is a temporary situation or not? – BSMP Feb 18 at 17:27
  • What did your manager say when you asked about it? – Mister Positive♦ Feb 18 at 17:39
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    "The interviewers didn't really have a good idea of what I'd be working on..." This is a good red flag to watch out for in the future. – AffableAmbler Feb 18 at 17:53
  • FYI this is a very common question, maybe look for dupes – Fattie Feb 18 at 18:07
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With that said, am I justified in leaving this job after a week?

You don't need a justification. What you need is to be happy and pay your bills. If you can do both somewhere else, that's what you should do.

That said, there is no reason to quit without another solid job offer (in my country that means a signed contract, your's may differ).

Please keep in mind that you have had your original job you took, this job and the next job in a very short period of time. Make sure your next job is something you can stay with, having 4 jobs in less than a year makes you look like a flight risk to potential employer #5.

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  • there is no reason to quit without another solid job offer -- if you are going to switch jobs again you better have this first. – Mister Positive♦ Feb 18 at 17:50
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After a week? I think it's perhaps a little premature to be jumping to feeling "misled" and talking about leaving.

Instead I'd suggest having a conversation with your line manager about what sort of work to be expecting and over what sort of timescales. If it's going to be all Node.js or 3 days a week of goat taming or whatever and that's not what you want to be doing then you can talk with them about that and if you can't reach a compromise that both parties are happy with then it starts to make sense to be moving on. Probation periods go both ways after all.

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  • It's amazing what happens sometimes when you just have a conversation. – Mister Positive♦ Feb 18 at 17:43

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