My first job out of university, I was working for a content marketing startup who's tech stack involved PHP and PerconaDB (MySQL). I was relatively inexperienced with PHP but had the false confidence of a new grad (didn't get a job for 6 months after graduating - so I was desperate to impress).
I was tasked with updating some feature flags that would turn on a new feature for all clients, except for those that explicitly wanted it off. These flags were stored in the database as integers (specifically values 4 and 5) in an array (as a string).
I decided to use the PHP function (array_reverse)[https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-reverse.php] to achieve the necessary goal. However, what I didn't know (and didn't read up on the documentation) is that, without the 2nd argument, it only reversed the values not the keys. This corrupted the database with the exact opposite of what was needed (somehow this went through QA just fine).
I found out about this hours later (used to commute ~3 hrs each way) and by that time, the senior leadership was involved (small startup). It was an easy fix - just a reverse script - but it highlighted many issues (QA, DB Backups not working etc.)
I distinctly remember (and appreciate) that the lead architect came up to me the next day and told me that it was rite of passage of working with PHP - a mistake that he too had made early in his career.
I ended up being fired (grew as an engineer and was better off for it) but in that moment and weeks after it, it definitely demoralized me.
Yep, I was put on PIP with impossible success criteria (no issues raised in PRs by senior engineers and no issues in code deployed to production - even if it was reviewed by senior engineers & QA) and fired (for failing that criteria) in 2 weeks.
Wat? Like serious issues, or minor things that can be improved? Because it's very rare in my place of work that there are no comments on a 'PR'. Something can always be improved.
+1 on this, every place or project I have touched has a backlog of tens if not hundreds of nice to haves but never enough time to touch them, and some of them are really not complicated.
It’s illegal where I am, but employers are extremely capable of abusing “performance improvement plans” as a way to constructively dismiss people - knowing most people won’t have the wherewithal to fight it in court.
My first job out of university, I was working for a content marketing startup who's tech stack involved PHP and PerconaDB (MySQL). I was relatively inexperienced with PHP but had the false confidence of a new grad (didn't get a job for 6 months after graduating - so I was desperate to impress).
I was tasked with updating some feature flags that would turn on a new feature for all clients, except for those that explicitly wanted it off. These flags were stored in the database as integers (specifically values 4 and 5) in an array (as a string).
I decided to use the PHP function (array_reverse)[https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-reverse.php] to achieve the necessary goal. However, what I didn't know (and didn't read up on the documentation) is that, without the 2nd argument, it only reversed the values not the keys. This corrupted the database with the exact opposite of what was needed (somehow this went through QA just fine).
I found out about this hours later (used to commute ~3 hrs each way) and by that time, the senior leadership was involved (small startup). It was an easy fix - just a reverse script - but it highlighted many issues (QA, DB Backups not working etc.)
I distinctly remember (and appreciate) that the lead architect came up to me the next day and told me that it was rite of passage of working with PHP - a mistake that he too had made early in his career.
I ended up being fired (grew as an engineer and was better off for it) but in that moment and weeks after it, it definitely demoralized me.