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by thisismyaccoun7 1459 days ago
Working in government, we're seeing a larger amount of folks leave within a few months of hire. I had never heard of that before COVID.

When I started here years ago and not remote except a one day a month telework option, it took weeks to get involved in a project. Everyone is laid back and wants to give time to acclimate and understand the place and the project first. My PM told me basically, "Hey I hired you for algorithm development, but just look around and see what's needed, what's interesting to you, and from there pick what you want to do."

That might sound awesome, and to me now with experience it is the reason why I stay here. However, as a new employee, it made me super neurotic to not have any sort of direct tasking. It felt like I didn't have work and wasn't being assigned any. I think if I had been remote it would have made things even worse; at the time, one of my saving thoughts was I could be there on time and be seen looking around Confluence or reading to learn about the research topic.

I would definitely be interested to hear how folks onboard freshly hired junior devs onto a project or team, how much direct tasking they give, how much time or how they allow for adapting, etc.

1 comments

I work in (state) government as well, and I'm noticing the same. Our institution is definitely like what you mention - "find your own work" kind of deal. It _sounds_ good until you are basically expected to find your own billable hours in Month 1.

My wife actually works in the same institute as I do, but in a different wing - my experience vastly differs from hers. I am basically full-time on one project with consistent billable codes, and she's expected to shop around to try to find projects with open hours, so she can get her 40 hours in every week.

She comes from the private sector, so she's admittedly put off by that idea, especially not really knowing anyone and not being well-versed in academic research as a career. I couldn't imagine being put in that position as my first position out of college.