Shortest amount of time you spent at a particular job

DatabaseHead

Doesn't matter the reason.  Laidoff, quit, contract.....    Just curious.  

Mine was 3 months.  I took a data integration project that lasted exactly 3 months.  Once that completed they tried to bring me on as a asset management manager, tracking PC's and other devices in a database wasn't my thing so I moved on......

Pmorgan2

My shortest was 7 months.  I quit shortly after the MSP owner was released from jail.

cyberguypr

2 hours. Worked a summer job at the local fire dept when I was 16 and they put me to wash ladder trucks. Did half of one and said NOPE.

paul78

Not sure that it counts as a job but I occasionally take advisory calls which are one hour in length with random companies. I do about 3 or 4 of those a year.

shochan

1/2 day, took a non IT job right outta high school at Skippy Peanut Butter plant.  Had to flick off bad peanuts off a line going WAY too fast...I lasted 4hrs & did not return after lunch, LOL!  

JDMurray

One week. A small business hired me to write software for a millimeter wave scanner on the assumption that they would very soon land a big contract with the US Navy, but it didn't come through. I didn't bother putting it on my resume. Such things happen.

JoJoCal19

Similar to shochan, 1/2 day. When I was just out of high school, got a job in a warehouse and they had me just taping boxes together for the pickers to pack. Tried to help out the pickers but was told to just do boxes. Went on lunch break and never came back. You have no idea how incredibly slow the time goes by just taping boxes over and over and over....

Johnhe0414

JoJoCal19 said:

Similar to shochan, 1/2 day. When I was just out of high school, got a job in a warehouse and they had me just taping boxes together for the pickers to pack. Tried to help out the pickers but was told to just do boxes. Went on lunch break and never came back. You have no idea how incredibly slow the time goes by just taping boxes over and over and over....

I know that feeling... i was a security guard for 4 or 5 months out of high school (back in the 80's) and time just seemed to stand still.. while i just paced back and forth.

PC509

1/2 day. Worked at a potato plant. The moving conveyor belts, smell of bleach and other cleaners, etc. just made me feel like crap, so I just left. 

In IT, my shortest has been 3 months. Amazon. Then, I got escorted out. Apparently, another guy that shares my name in Seattle was let go several years previous. They got the names combined/mixed up/something, and I was out. Great place to work, great people, but that was really crappy. I am still friends with the people I worked with and the new people there (data center). And I'm glad I moved on, as it wasn't a position that would really lead me places. Where I am now, I'm growing in my career and am ready to leave with a lot more experience, education, certs, etc. that I wouldn't have gotten working at the data center. So, it worked out in the end. 

DatabaseHead

PC509 said:

1/2 day. Worked at a potato plant. The moving conveyor belts, smell of bleach and other cleaners, etc. just made me feel like crap, so I just left. 

In IT, my shortest has been 3 months. Amazon. Then, I got escorted out. Apparently, another guy that shares my name in Seattle was let go several years previous. They got the names combined/mixed up/something, and I was out. Great place to work, great people, but that was really crappy. I am still friends with the people I worked with and the new people there (data center). And I'm glad I moved on, as it wasn't a position that would really lead me places. Where I am now, I'm growing in my career and am ready to leave with a lot more experience, education, certs, etc. that I wouldn't have gotten working at the data center. So, it worked out in the end. 

Since you were "terminated" from Amazon how do you explain that on your resume or do you just omit it?  I'm assuming if an employer called up there could be a possibility that they would have less than stellar things to say about you, right or wrong.

PC509

DatabaseHead said:

PC509 said:

1/2 day. Worked at a potato plant. The moving conveyor belts, smell of bleach and other cleaners, etc. just made me feel like crap, so I just left. 

In IT, my shortest has been 3 months. Amazon. Then, I got escorted out. Apparently, another guy that shares my name in Seattle was let go several years previous. They got the names combined/mixed up/something, and I was out. Great place to work, great people, but that was really crappy. I am still friends with the people I worked with and the new people there (data center). And I'm glad I moved on, as it wasn't a position that would really lead me places. Where I am now, I'm growing in my career and am ready to leave with a lot more experience, education, certs, etc. that I wouldn't have gotten working at the data center. So, it worked out in the end. 

Since you were "terminated" from Amazon how do you explain that on your resume or do you just omit it?  I'm assuming if an employer called up there could be a possibility that they would have less than stellar things to say about you, right or wrong.

I was up front about it. Otherwise a great background, so it works out. It was a small time there and just one blip on my record. It wasn't a big deal with my current company. In the future, not so sure. But, being here almost 8 years, I don't see it as being a big deal. I'm back on the market very soon, though, so I guess I'll find out. 

Domm362

2 months, more or less a summer job working at a FedEx Ground shipping warehouse as a package handler. Did not enjoy it, is all I can say.

DatabaseHead

PC509 said:

DatabaseHead said:

PC509 said:

1/2 day. Worked at a potato plant. The moving conveyor belts, smell of bleach and other cleaners, etc. just made me feel like crap, so I just left. 

In IT, my shortest has been 3 months. Amazon. Then, I got escorted out. Apparently, another guy that shares my name in Seattle was let go several years previous. They got the names combined/mixed up/something, and I was out. Great place to work, great people, but that was really crappy. I am still friends with the people I worked with and the new people there (data center). And I'm glad I moved on, as it wasn't a position that would really lead me places. Where I am now, I'm growing in my career and am ready to leave with a lot more experience, education, certs, etc. that I wouldn't have gotten working at the data center. So, it worked out in the end. 

Since you were "terminated" from Amazon how do you explain that on your resume or do you just omit it?  I'm assuming if an employer called up there could be a possibility that they would have less than stellar things to say about you, right or wrong.

I was up front about it. Otherwise a great background, so it works out. It was a small time there and just one blip on my record. It wasn't a big deal with my current company. In the future, not so sure. But, being here almost 8 years, I don't see it as being a big deal. I'm back on the market very soon, though, so I guess I'll find out. 

8 Years of service should wipe that out no problem.  Heck I only list 10 years back anyway......   Hasn't hurt me ever.   Either way good luck

yoba222

One day as a Linux administrator. On day two I discovered how much they were going to charge for employee sponsored health coverage. At the time I'd been paying maybe $1000 to $2000 per year for minimal single coverage and was about the going rate in my area. With this place it was like $8000/year. That was for a $60k/year gig. I don't know why anybody still worked there at that rate.

Pmorgan2

yoba222 said:

One day as a Linux administrator. On day two I discovered how much they were going to charge for employee sponsored health coverage. At the time I'd been paying maybe $1000 to $2000 per year for minimal single coverage and was about the going rate in my area. With this place it was like $8000/year. That was for a $60k/year gig. I don't know why anybody still worked there at that rate.

Ouch!  I pay about that much for my whole family on high coverage and I feel like I'm being ripped off.  $8000/year for a single basic is like having no employee assistance at all.

DatabaseHead

That is a lot of money for single insurance.....   ~ 3 positions ago I worked for a start up that charged us 0 for insurance.  Sure it was part of the benefits package but not 1 dollar came out of our check.  I had to ask 3 times to make sure I understood.  Haven't seen anything like that since.......

PCTechLinc

3 months for me.  My first "real" job was shortly after I turned 18.  I was a bench tech at CompUSA, also the only person on staff with A+.  Well, the first tech manager got fired for swapping out a customer's SCSI hard drive with an IDE (thought he wouldn't know the difference), and we got a new tech manager that was an absolute tool.  One particular day it was just the tech manager and myself there, and he decided to exercise his power.  Instead of working on customer computers, he had me take a volt meter and test power supplies until the end of the day.  The next day, after everyone else left, he told me to go to the janitor closet, get the mop, and clean the tech area.  I told him no because we had paid janitors that did that everyday, and he shouldn't have a power trip around me.  He proceeded to yell at me saying that he would have me washing the walls if he wanted.  I called the next day and quit over the phone.  Looking back I probably should have done more, but at 18 years old I didn't know much of anything about work policies and procedures.  Oh well... lesson learned.

UnixGuy

one working week (5 days). It was an internship when I was a uni student. I was told it's a 'network engineer' internship. First day the guy asked me if can 'fix a PC', I said maybe. He sent me to fix desktops (re-install windows, AV, install office,...etc). I realised this wasn't a network engineering internship so I stopped showing up. They tried to call me but I didn't pick up.

scaredoftests

3 days.

JoshuaT

2 weeks. It was awful! 100 tasks and you are must survive there...

DatabaseHead

JoshuaT said:

2 weeks. It was awful! 100 tasks and you are must survive there...

Did you find another position or did you just bounce on them?

vCISO2017

This thread brings back memories - got a daily rate contract for a security infrastructure job for a major bank - went in and realised how bad the situation was - raised hell about people, processes, aged technology, sloppy controls, etc over six or so weeks. Was asked to stop at the end of that month by my contract agency and I said fine, later that day got asked to finish at the end of the week and I said fine, finally that day I was asked to leave the following day which prompted me to immediately leave! The bank subsequently were unable to meet their regulatory deadline for a new system and in a separate incident had systems down for multiple days. Perhaps I could have been more politically correct and adapted the military method of "yes sir, no sir" but it's not in my nature (and I'm ex-military!)
I did 13 years in my employer prior to that engagement and 6 years with my current employer since so it wasn't me!

JoshuaT

DatabaseHead said:

JoshuaT said:

2 weeks. It was awful! 100 tasks and you are must survive there...

Did you find another position or did you just bounce on them?DatabaseHead said:

Of course i quit and found new better Job

DatabaseHead

JoshuaT said:

DatabaseHead said:

JoshuaT said:

2 weeks. It was awful! 100 tasks and you are must survive there...

Did you find another position or did you just bounce on them?DatabaseHead said:

Of course i quit and found new better Job

How long did it take?

JoshuaT

1 month and half

thomas_

2 months - It was a temp job supporting a software program over the phone.

6 months - The owner of the company was pretty shady.  Once he started asking me to do borderline illegal stuff(if not illegal, then it was definitely breaking contractual obligations with other companies), I bounced to the temp job above.