How long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

How Long It Takes to Know

  • Experiences range widely:
    • Some say they know within days or a week if it’s wrong, sometimes even before starting (e.g., offer shenanigans).
    • Many report 1–2 months to get a strong feeling, then a few more months to validate it.
    • Others need ~6 months, especially if they’re prone to anxiety or impostor syndrome.
    • A minority say it can take 2–3 years, and that no job has ever felt truly “right”.
  • Common pattern: it’s much faster to recognize a bad fit than to be sure it’s a good one.

Red Flags and Early Signals

  • Interview and onboarding are seen as strong predictors:
    • Disorganized recruiting, unclear reporting lines, or misrepresented roles/tech often foreshadow chronic dysfunction.
    • Overcomplicated access processes, broken dev environments, or chaotic desk moves signal low respect for engineers’ time.
  • Codebase and stack are used as a proxy for culture:
    • Shoddy, outdated, or “magical” tech plus long-tenured, defensive staff is a frequent anti-pattern.
    • Several note that job ads overstate “modern cloud” while the business runs on brittle legacy systems.
  • Simple heuristics: if you’re seriously thinking of quitting in the first weeks/months, it’s probably not the right place.

Tenure, Job Hopping, and Career Strategy

  • Multiple 2–3 year stints are considered normal now; ultra-long tenure in the same role can be read as lack of ambition.
  • Very short stints (weeks–months) are sometimes omitted from résumés, though people say they learned valuable skills even in those periods.
  • Some explicitly optimize for:
    • Skills that help with the next job.
    • Remote-first culture and pay vs. “mission”.
    • A good “bullshit/pay” ratio.

Culture, Management, and Growth

  • Staying longer can teach you to live with the consequences of your own decisions; frequent hoppers may miss this.
  • Misaligned incentives (PE ownership, bonus structures, fake “mission”) and lack of product–market fit commonly drive people out.
  • Several argue alignment of personal and company goals is like two boats tied by a rope; when tension is too high, it’s time to disconnect.

Mental Health and Perception

  • One commenter realized depression had colored their perception of a neutral job as terrible; treatment shifted their view.
  • Others debate whether mild depression yields more accurate models of reality versus known cognitive distortions.
  • Takeaway: gut feelings about a job can be valid, but may also be distorted by mental health; both should be considered.