[bearforcenine]

What do I do when I quit my current job, move across the country, and then get fired 30 days later? I would likely never accept an offer at a company that tells me up front there is a good chance I will be let go in 30 or 60 days.

[Clubber]

There is only a good chance if you misrepresented your abilities and aren't able to get up to speed in 30-90 days. If that is the case, you deserve to be let go.

[bearforcenine]

Is it, though? There are so many other ways that someone might not be a good "fit." Maybe you found another, slightly better candidate who is willing to accept a lower offer. Maybe a manager or individual contributor feels that their position is threatened by the candidate. Maybe they don't attend weekly happy hour.

[underwater]

I can’t imagine firing a competent employee for any of those reasons. Hiring (and firing) an employee involves a lot of work and is a big onvestment. You don’t throw that all away to roll the dice on someone who might be incrementally better.

[Clubber]

Yes but being a FTE doesn't shield you from that sort of thing either.

[ModernMech]

You run that risk with any assignment that's at will, whether it's explicitly stated or not.

[majormajor]

The size of the chances varies wildly.

There are times it makes sense to do the high-risk ones: devs that are unproven, without great academic and work backgrounds, looking to get a foot in the door. Companies that are not well funded looking to find diamonds in the rough, since they can't attract people who already have proven themselves. I've been that dev myself, based just on a strong sense of how the CEO and myself were on the same page based on our conversations.

But it's definitely not a risk I'd take again from where I am now. At a more established place with people I know who vouch for the folks involved, there's a much lower chance of a new FTE getting canned within a few months for anything short of egregious behavior.