AMA: Quit my job as a Product Manager at Jio within 2 months
I applied for the opening at JPL (Jio Pvt Ltd) in June of last year. Received the interview call on 4th July and concluded the entire process with the final HR round on 17th August (already painfully slow). This was followed by a period of complete silence from the HR's end, which finally broke on 30th September (after probably 30+ follow-ups) when they gave me a verbal offer and gave me confidence for the final offer release within a few days. Well, the final offer came on 27th December 2023, close to 3 months after the verbal offer (again, after probably 40+ follow-ups). Joined on 16th January 2024 (due to some emergency), and was treated to a GREAT campus in Navi Mumbai. --And this is probably where everything good with JPL ends. After spending 2 days, I understand that things are not what I expected from any Product organisation, and that I made the wrong decision. Gave myself 30 days to ensure the feelings were backed by more experiences, and I'm not acting impulsively. Day 31, I started interviewing with other organisations, and fortunately was able to get in touch with the HR from another organisation that I rejected for Jio, and they were kind enough to resend the offer letter. Dropped the bomb on 8th March 2024, startling everyone because people usually don't like leaving their comfortable lives at Jio. My L1 and L2 aligned on a 14 days notice period, but the "smartasses" in the HR department thought its a great idea for me to serve the entire notice period of 60 days, and thus I'm stuck here till 6th May 2024. Opening the forum for people with any amount of experience to ask questions about the hiring process, the culture, the turn-off, the decision to quit, ANYTHING.
There are a few reasons
1. The culture is not Product conducive. There is no discipline around Product Thinking.
2. Product Managers are not allowed read only access to the DB
3. There are no KPIs/KRAs/Goals (my manager said this to my face). This means the growth internally would be factor of your rapport with the manager, and not skills. And either way, its majorly single digit appraisals
4. No peer to peer learning because nobody is driven here. Horrible atmosphere for learning. Everyone has their egos at the tip of their noses, but wouldn’t be able to give the right answer when you ask them something
5. My manager is a great human being, but a terrible Product Manager. There was nothing I would learn from him/her (there are a lot of instances where she showed clear lack of user empathy and prioritised features based on her “gut” feeling, sitting in an AC room)
6. MacBook is seen as a luxury. I gave them a clear reason that I’ve been solely hands on Macbook for the last decade, yet I was given the cold shoulder because there was no “business” case for me, yet the Product Manager sitting right across me in the same team has one.
There are a lot more. Feel free to dive deeper into any of the mentioned points
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Hey I don't know about the learnings and all but Jio is having the worst and toxic work culture I have ever seen....! Trust me...! Typical laaala culture where all the senior/managerial positions are held by some dumbass laaalas.
I agree. There is no thought put into requirements. A Lala at the top tells the puppets to build something, and they release a half baked product
Is it better to be called gay by your friends rather than gay people calling you friends?
Same boat, mate. Interviewed in October'22. Got a draft offer in November'22. After 100+ follow ups, got the offer at the end of April'23. Have been here since May'23.
And I can second everything you're saying. It's pathetic. Sycophancy of highest order. Name dropping to gain respect. Product culture is a big lol. Copy your competitors and keep stakeholders happy.
We make what our leaders found interesting while reading random blogs over the weekend. I've been waiting to cross 1 year mark.
DatSon
Stealth
5 months ago
This is exactly what’s happening in my org.
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MightyLazyGeekStar
Stealth
5 months ago
What makes it a terrible place
Since you are a recruiter yourself, I’ll share the blunders by the HRs (imo)-
Apart from the slow hiring process panning across 6 months, my time here after joining also has been quite bad.
My first request from the HR was that I wanted a MacBook since I’ve been hands on for the last decade. I was blatantly told no, because there was no use case for me. I clearly mentioned that my productivity will be hampered, but that didn’t matter to them. I would’ve still been okay if I was the first employee asking for a Mac, and there was a no Macbook policy, but the Product Manager sitting next to me (in the same team) was given one.
I tore my Achilles Tendon playing Badminton inside the office. After a 6 week recovery period, when I saw no improvement, I went to the doctor who suggested an MRI and further suggested I go for surgery. I had already resigned by then and had aligned on a 2 week notice with my L1 and L2. The HR however thought that it was unfair for me to leave without serving my notice period, despite no dependencies and a need for surgery, but because “it took me 6 months to get onboarded, I should atleast spend 2 months on notice”. I was dumbfounded to hear this, and have given up on all hope when it comes to Jio.
I’m sure there are a ton of reasons more, but these are the ones that stand out
For issues related to work, I’ve mentioned the same in other comments. Feel free to dive deeper into any one of them
Why you want to serve complete notice period? If you haven’t deducted any PF then move on; simply leave everything & go…
Exactly my thought. Or he can just take huge leaves in between as a worse case. Tell them you can pay me for 2 months but I'm not coming to the office or doing any work.
Maybe he is checking everyone responses & then will take action in future. 😉😅
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Not so much different from Reliance Retail org's product culture. We people think it's great at JPL. But glad to know we're all on the same boat 🥲🥲
Retail has an added con of work pressure. Rest everything is the same.
Horrible across Reliance.
thesuperhooooman
Stealth
5 months ago
Hey, how did you convince the HR in the other org that you want to switch from Jio in the short span?
Be honest. Told them exactly what was up, and all the recruiters appreciated it
thesuperhooooman
Stealth
5 months ago
Great! I am confused here, whether to reveal their toxic work culture, delayed and skipping salaries. I get this hiccups when they ask why the short tenure at the last XYZ Company.
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Sabre
Student
5 months ago
What tc did they offer also the new org bumped the pay up?
I’m at 34LPA here. Joined at the same CTC in the next org as well (since I gained no skills here at Jio)
They have set the expectations pf toxic work hours, but amazing growth and learnings.
Anyday better than the shit I do at Jio everyday
Thanks for sharing this ... this offer delay is a sign of companies with fickle minded management ... Lendingkart did the same to me ... they interviewed and never reverted, at least close the loop if you are not hiring... but they reverted very late and said they want to offer coz the candidate ditched them at last moment 🤣 ... i had already joined some other company by them .... i told them .. thanks but no thanks 😁😁
Well atleast they are being stuck up idiots and not doing reverse psychology with about your reasons to quit 😂😂😂
For the 31 days that you were in Jio, what was the nature of work that you did?
Was it more
Program management?
Pure product thinking ?
People management?
Or just running around pretending to be an officer
I’ll tell you exactly what I did-
Majority of the day used to go into responding to customer support emails because the product I was looking after (JioMotive) had a half cooked released, and the customers had to wait for months to receive resolution.
The customer support team was trash and would forward even basic queries to me and I had to respond to them.
About 10% of my time went in coordinating with other teams to streamline the product, where people would give me the cold shoulder. I asked a person in the refurbishment team to share the flow chart for JioPhone so that we can replicate. He responded- “You don’t need it. We will handle” and left the call shortly after.
I couldnt work on the roadmap because there was no data to back things up and prioritise. Wrote requirements for whatever my manager told me to.
I was just applying for a job at Jio half an hour ago. The site was very very slow so I closed the application process mid-way.
They asked for Aadhar Card and PAN number. Big red flag
Sentipanda
Stealth
5 months ago
I recall my experience some 2 years back. I specifically asked to have an introductory all with the GPM before interview. They agreed . I had a meeting with the GPM, seemed like a nice fellow but it was clear that it had no product culture and the traditional IT folks was more powerful.
I was also convinced that they were pretty much still on ad hoc solutions and spreadsheet based processes. I also enquired about the product hierarchy . I said I wouldn’t want to proceed on the intro call itself.
One pointer I forgot to share. When I asked for the PRD, I was handed over an Excel sheet which was their version of it.
I was dumbfounded. Had no words at all. Just accepted my fate
You mentioned that you rejected an offer and choose JIO, what was the reason that you gave the HR at that point of time, so later on she was willing to resend you another offer ?
Well I had a personal emergency at that time as well (fiancee lost her father), and thought it would be better for me to stick around in Mumbai. Told the HR everything honestly.
Later on once things had also settled, told her that I cannot sabotage my career at Jio and would want to be considered again.
Also, even if my manager reads this, s/he knows everything that was going on in my mind. I told her everything during the 1:1 and s/he was happy that it happened so early, rather than later when there would’ve been dependencies on me
What was your original CTC for previous company and JIO and did the new guys give a better hike?
I was at 28LPA before this. I knew I was on the higher side of the band when I asked Jio for 34. They agreed. Joining the next org also at 34LPA.
Stricker141
Stealth
5 months ago
All the best buddy. I wonder how these orgs show profits in books when the products and services are crap.
UnfitChafe39
Stealth
5 months ago
Is it legal for them to extend your notice from 15 to 60 days? I thought it's a norm to have a short notice during your probation
Here’s the catch- there was no probation. Permanent from D1. 15 days notice was aligned with my L1 and L2.
On my offer letter, it did say 60 days, but in my case, there is no point keeping me here for that long. Ethically or legally there is nothing wrong, but definitely wrong morally — the part where they disregarded my surgery even after seeing the MRI report showing a tear, that was sad
