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If you are not able to finish your project on time, you need to tell your manager as soon as possible. You may not have the experience to get it done, and that

If you are not able to finish your project on time, you need to tell your manager as soon as possible. You may not have the experience to get it done, and that is fine in my opinion, but if there are deadlines, your manager needs to know sooner than later for damage control. As you said, there are possible do-overs when in college, but you need to do what you can to make a project succeed, even if that means admitting failure - it's a life lesson, failure should be acceptable, just make sure that your own failure doesn't affect others. You are almost at the end of your coding stint cycle - is the next six-month cycle more along your lines of what you want to do? If not, then I would look for something else. You have a goal of what you want to accomplish, and working on something that isn't even your field does not make sense for your future. I'm not a startup founder, but I do at times question when people have tons of short stint jobs - but if it's only one, then no big deal - a history of short stints here and there can raise concern, but even then it won't be an ultimate deciding factor when I choose to hire someone. Make sure your resume reflects your additional activities while in college - they may not be as necessary on there when you have more of a job history, but when you are first starting your resume, you want your potential employer to know what you are capable of - and this will get you callbacks where you can go in to more detail. Good luck!

lostsoul 16y ago
Thanks for the advice Elliot. Throughout the process, I've been open about my technical skills with my manager, but he keeps saying he has full confidence I can get it done; without any real advice. Luckily, its more of an independent internal project that replaces a process that's more manual right now, so it doesn't affect anything else. Yes, the next cycle is more related to what I do, but I don't want to get a reputation as someone who can't get stuff done; it's just that I feel 6 months is not enough time to learn a completely new language, especially when it took 3 months just to figure out the project requirements.
- elliottcarlson 16y ago
  It's not necessarily your fault if you can't get it done in time - you were thrown in to a position you weren't familiar with - though I stand by the fact that you should tell your manager you are in need of help with it - whether it's internal or not. It will show that you are able to handle a project even when it has potential to fail, which is a real world scenario - it's just as important of a skill as being able to get stuff done. If you feel that BigCo, and companies of that size are really not your thing, then you need to do what will make you happy. It's a fact that you will at times have to do work you will not like, that's just life, but if you are sure that the larger company environment is not for you, which is fine - it's not for everyone, then you need to make a decision... if you feel that your lack of experience will hamper your progress though, then it might be in your best interest to wait it out and gain that experience at BigCo which hopefully is a big name that will look good on the resume. This is a big decision, make sure you read mine and everyone elses advice and really contemplate what you will be doing - even if it's early in your career.

lostsoul 16y ago

Thanks for the advice Elliot. Throughout the process, I've been open about my technical skills with my manager, but he keeps saying he has full confidence I can get it done; without any real advice. Luckily, its more of an independent internal project that replaces a process that's more manual right now, so it doesn't affect anything else. Yes, the next cycle is more related to what I do, but I don't want to get a reputation as someone who can't get stuff done; it's just that I feel 6 months is not enough time to learn a completely new language, especially when it took 3 months just to figure out the project requirements.

elliottcarlson 16y ago
It's not necessarily your fault if you can't get it done in time - you were thrown in to a position you weren't familiar with - though I stand by the fact that you should tell your manager you are in need of help with it - whether it's internal or not. It will show that you are able to handle a project even when it has potential to fail, which is a real world scenario - it's just as important of a skill as being able to get stuff done. If you feel that BigCo, and companies of that size are really not your thing, then you need to do what will make you happy. It's a fact that you will at times have to do work you will not like, that's just life, but if you are sure that the larger company environment is not for you, which is fine - it's not for everyone, then you need to make a decision... if you feel that your lack of experience will hamper your progress though, then it might be in your best interest to wait it out and gain that experience at BigCo which hopefully is a big name that will look good on the resume. This is a big decision, make sure you read mine and everyone elses advice and really contemplate what you will be doing - even if it's early in your career.