More desirable position comes out just after I already took another one in the same company - What should I do?

Question

Some background: I'm a Computer Engineering student close to graduating and I've been looking for a C/Embedded job for a while. I'm not really into hard electronics which is why I didn't take EE but I don't really like doing web stuff since most of the languages are clunky and I don't ever want to deal with IE again in my whole life.

Right now I'm about to take a C++ job for a company which I'm really interested in, but literally the day after I finished the interviewing process I saw they posted an ad for an embedded C job. Now, the tech interview was mostly focused on low level C stuff, with almost no OO/C++ related questions, so I'm guessing I'll still get to work on what I like anyways, but I want to know if it would be ok for me to ask them to switch me to the C project from day one, or they'll think I'm nitpicking and not really interested in the job I originally applied for.

Answer 1

No, you can't ask to change jobs as you start. It makes you look like you don't want the job, and them look like maybe they hired the wrong person, because they were looking for someone to do the job you were hired for. Hiring is expensive, and they don't want to think they made a mistake.

However, there are still things you can do:

• Get to know the company policies and procedures. Those will be needed in whatever job you have in that company.
• Get to know the people in your department, as well as those working in the area you think you're more interested in. You will then know more about working conditions throughout the company.
• Do really good work where you are, and work that job for at least the minimum time required. In many companies, you need to work for about a year in a job before transferring. By that point, you will be known as a good worker. You will also have more and wider experience.

If the company is big enough, that kind of job will come up again soon enough. And at that point, you will be an insider, knowing the company and people already, they will know you as a good worker, and you will have a better chance when you apply for that job.

Answer 2

You can ask for a change if you really interested in it, or else you can first work in current domain and then prove your worthiness with your hard work and dedication by this you can achieve two things:

• first, you can show your seniors that you willing to work with dedication and can handle multiple things together.

• second, you will get a another domain knowledge, along with you interest one. In future when you reach at architect level or principal engineer, you can educate juniors for this.

If your interest is really in C project then you can go ask for it, but for you experience in both is same.

I suggest you ask for change, if they agree you will get a chance to work, but you can give them assurance that you can ready to learn any new technology in near future which will help company. Even with current selection, there is no harm in learning a technology. It will be good too if will have experience working in multiple technology.