got fire because I work slow

[pyros]

I am 30 years old and I have a bachelor degree in computer science. I've had several jobs in which I did a bit of everything: system admin, php, sql, etc. but they led me nowhere.

In the last year or so I've tried to redirect my career towards Java web development. I've practised at home, got a few books about java, spring, etc.

So far I've had two jobs. The first one lasted six months, and now I got another for two months but I've been fired because 'I work too slow'.

In this job I had a mentor which helped me a few times when I asked for help when I got stucked. Everything seemed to be going fine but some days ago the manager called me and fired me because he says that I need too many hours to finish a task, so I am not productive. I confronted him about this and told him that I completed two tasks and nobody complained about my performance during this time, that my mentor just put pressure on me on the first task but not on the second one, and that was it. He got surprised and asked me a few times if it was true that mentor did not tell me to work faster or why he did not give me any deadlines for the second task. He also said that if my mentor did this, it was a mistake on his part, and that he will talk to him about this. But he got me fired anyway.

In my opinion I am not slow, I am ok, but it seems I spent some time trying to understand the code, learning about the technologies I used in the project etc, because I did not want to work as a 'robot', I did not want to just copy and paste code, you know? besides, my mentor didn't complain or said anything negative about my performance, and I just spent maybe an hour or so everyday learning before I coded. And I also spent some time at home.

It is strange that after working there for two months and getting the feeling that I was doing ok, they just suddenly fired me.

Yes, I could have done it faster if I had not used some time reading and learning but I thought it was better this way. Besides, I had little experience with Java web development so I think I had to learn anyway. It seems they just wanted me to deliver code, even if I did not really understand it.

Thoughts?

 

[speed dawg]

Do you have a good attitude? Is there anything else they could possibly be seeing about you? Seems like they'd try and work with you if 'slow' was your problem.

 

[ubercat]

Firstly sorry man. Getting fired sucks. @speed dawg is right normally it comes down to interpersonal skills. I think you were doing the right thing at the wrong time. time is money so probably best to get your speed up first and then spend your own time working on understanding the project learning etc. Web Development is a pretty cutthroat business so margins could be tight.

Straight away I would get in touch with your mentor. say that you understand and you take full responsibility on yourself. ask them for feedback on what you were good at and then ask them to be a referee. when you are out of work your full time job is getting another job. it's tempting to think spending your time on more skills will make you more marketable. no spend your time I'm learning to be more likeable at interviews and going to interviews. it's just like dating the biggest Factor for success is numbers. So 40 hours a week EVERY week is job hunting. THEN u can improve your skills. I d suggest on elancer so it's a real project even if the pay sucks

What country are you in

Also the only job you can lie about it's your last one. don't tell anybody you have been let go. it's much easier to get a job when you are in a job. leave this job as current on your resume. if you have to take calls from Recruiters at home download one of those office sounds YouTube clips. Recruiter can't ring your current company for obvious reasons. so if any Recruiter asks does your company know you are looking around say no.

 

[Atom Smasher]

Looks like he's a little slow to respond to all your comments.

 

[GT40]

Starting to see why he got canned too.

 

[ubercat]

Bit weak on UI too. Guys take their time to discuss his situation and provide pages of solid tailored advice..And he can't seem to find the like button. Maybe it's @Rainman4707 under a different user name.

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

Everything seemed to be going fine but some days ago the manager called me and fired me because he says that I need too many hours to finish a task, so I am not productive.

Are you working remotely? Are there others working remotely?

If so, your manager might not know anything other than the time it took to complete the jobs based on others doing the same job. If that's the case, not much you can do, except, you know, go faster.

 

[pyros]

I had six months of experience with Java, I told them that in the interview.

I had a mentor in this job. He came to see how I was doing like once a week, but if I had something that blocked me I went to him and he helped me. He never said anything negative to me like: "you're going slow, I needed that already, you are taking too long, etc".
He just came and asked me what I was doing, I showed him, and he said "ok, good." or something like it.

Anyway, as I said, I could have done the tasks faster if I hadn't spent time understanding the technologies I was working with.
For example, if I found some unknown function in AngularJS, I would read a bit about it (maybe 10 or 15 minutes). If I found some weird configuration file, I would have a look at Google to know what was its purpose (for maybe 2 to 5 minutes) , etc. but it seems the manager just wanted me to deliver code and do the tasks as fast as possible. BUT NOBODY SAID THIS TO ME.

Also, I noticed that another developer whom helped me once or twice, didn't really understand parts of the code her worked on. He just knew where to modify things (add/change code) to get the desired result. But if I asked him: "so why does that function need those parameters?" he would reply: "I dont know, I just know that I call that function, and "X" appears on the screen, but dont ask me why or how lol".

So it seems they want developers to work like him: get it done eventhough you do not understand why you just did.

They are dumb. I could have done the same work in, let's say, 20% less time if my supervisor had told me that I needed to go faster, but he did not.
It's like he did not have any communication with the manager, so when the manager saw the amount of hours I spent, he thought they were too many.

Anyway, I told the manager this issue, the same I just told you, and he said that he understood my point, and that he did not know why my supervisor hadn't given me any dead lines or why he hadn't pressured me to work more quickly.