I was removed from Project and asked to exit or change the project [closed]

Question

I have 5.5 years of Experience in Java and 1 year in Angular. I joined a (4 year old) Startup Company on Jan 2019 with lots of hope and excitement. At the time of interview they promised that I would be trained in Hadoop and Spark. Since there was lot of work and compulsion to reach deadlines, for the 1st month no work was assigned to me as I was new to the company. The poor management didn't train or take care of new employees.
On February I took some task/bugs. My Team Lead (India) doesn't care what team members do and never complained about my work, as he is occupied with a lot of work.
On March I had serious health issues so could not put my 100% on my work. Daily I travel to office 20 km, and team lead works from home mostly. After traveling 20 km no one cares what work I am doing and how much time I am taking to complete the task.
On April they gave me some work, since the project is in new technologies I had some difficulties in completing the task (took bit extra time to complete).

One day (May Month) my Team Lead (from USA) said that I am working slow and need to pick up. He gave me work on different technologies which I am not having 100% confidence.

I completed the task from searching from internet, showed it to India Team Lead. But the US team lead didn't like my work and he took that work and solved.

Finally they stopped giving work to me, and gave me easy work. After around 3 weeks, my HR called me and said, "you are not doing good in the project and we want to remove you from the project".

He gave me 3 options

1. If you have an offer, leave the company.
2. Move to another project (Java Gaming Project).
3. Continue in same project (if your performance doesn't meet expectations after 3 months, you will be fired).

I was surprised and have no idea what to do.
I joined this company only because of they train me and make it work.
I don't have much interest in Java Gaming project.
I told the entire story to my India Team lead, he suggested to leave the company even if I chose Options 2 or 3.

I came to this company from Big MNC, only because they would train me and make it work.
My question is is this my Mistake or Company's?
If it is my mistake, how should I have handled this situation?

Answer 1

Both sides made mistakes, but it won't help you that your employer made mistakes. Often small or young companies are not good at training new hires.

You should have learned during your free time in the office.

You joined in January and you are stating yourself that you didn't have much to do, then why didn't you start looking at documentation and tutorials? Hadoop like any other technology isn't magic, you just have to invest some time and the internet is full of self-paced learning material. Asking for a training after working half a year on that project, will make you look lazy.

You missed that opportunity, but your company still is giving you a second chance. Now your best bet is to switch to another project and learn the technology on your own time, if you want to work with it in future. Make sure your performance at the next project is improving drastically before diving into project-unrelated technology.

Answer 2

Startups in particular need the ability to pivot rapidly, and tend to work on very tight budgets, so can't guarantee you'll get training in anything specific or at any specific time. To be successful in a startup you need to be able to pick up technologies on your own initiative, and regularly get out of your comfort zone.

"Since there was lot of work and to reach deadline, for the 1st month no work assigned me"

strongly suggests they were avoiding assigning you anything because they believed you weren't able (or willing) to take on tasks. You had three months in which you didn't produce much. If that was the case, you've no doubt created a very bad image for yourself and you will struggle to recover. It seems the offer to move to a Java role is a way for them to put you in a position where you could be productive quickly without training, based on your past experience - with a heavy hint that this is your last chance. Your team lead is right, it would be wise to start looking for other work even if the Java project works out.

Answer 3

So the team lead in the USA (who apparently calls the shots) didn't like your work. What didn't he like? Do you see a way of improving yourself, based on his feedback?

It's not easy to deal with negative feedback. It's something you need to learn when working in a team, and your company's goals don't always align very well with your own, personal goals. There is no such thing as a perfect workplace; however, often there is often a better place of work. You have to figure out for yourself whether it's them, or you, or a little bit of both.

However, reading the signs, if I were you I wouldn't wait until they kicked me out, but instead start looking for a different position, so that you don't run the risk of being out of a job all of a sudden – and having to explain that during an interview.

But do your research well, and don't just go for the highest wage, or the most exciting technologies. Rather, find something where you will be happy, and you can recover a bit from the situation that you find yourself in.