I took a job that was dishonestly presented to me. What should I do?

Question

I have taken a job at a company that I deeply respect, being promised the opportunity to see the inner workings, the problem solving aspects and get to work in a competent team, in a field that is highly interesting to me.

The offer almost struck me as too good to be true, which it turned out to be - I am now working alone on a different floor than "my" team, doing literature research on a topic which has nothing to do with my education or interests, getting almost no input and on top of that, I am being treated with very little respect by my boss. I am doing nothing remotely related to what I was told.

Currently I am still in my old job as well, which pays a LOT better - I still have the opportunity to go back to it if I wanted to.

But I am afraid that by quitting after only a few weeks, I will lose my chance to work anywhere at all at said company, or worse, not get a job in any field, since I might take a hit to my professional reputation if I quit.

How can I quit or address my wish to quit without taking damage to my reputation, making enemies, etc.?

Answer 1

I assume you are still in the probation period of your contract.

Sit down with your manager at the new job, address the gap between what was discussed during the hiring process and the reality of the job your are doing right now, then draw your conclusions.

It can be that before starting the new job you need to go through some massive learning or some other sound reason (in that case you might want to hold your horses and keep the job), or it can be that reality is different from what you were told.

If you decide to quit within the probation period and it happens only once I see no big deal, and it is also easy to explain to any future employer who may question about it (assuming that you even list this experience in your CV).

If instead it becomes a constant behavior with you quitting during probation over and over, then it is another story.

Answer 2

If you still harbor a desire to work for this company (just not doing what they currently have you doing) then the first place to start would be to have a frank conversation with your manager about your expectations for what the job would entail and ask whether there is any plan/opportunity to adjust your role to be closer to that.

If they say that the current situation is only temporary then you'll want to push them to give you timescales (anything billed as temporary without them tends to be much closer to "permanent" in my experience with these things) and then it's up to you to determine whether you find what they are saying credible enough to stick it out.

If they don't offer you a satisfactory plan for transitioning the role into something you would be happy with then, well, you have your answer. At that point you can politely say that you don't see it working out and that you think it would be better for everyone if you returned to your old job.

As for longer term consequences - if you can't come to an agreement on what the job should be then it's unlikely to make you enemies or have any real impact on your future employment prospects in the industry as a whole. Sometimes these things just don't work out. It only becomes a problem for your reputation or employability if a pattern develops. As for whether it will affect your future chances at this company - that's harder to answer as it will depend on how well they take it and also whether there is some sort of blanket "never re-hire anyone" policy that would apply (as stupid as it sounds some companies do have those!) but you have to think and decide that if they aren't going to give you a job you want, even after they have already hired you then do you really want to work there anyway?