AMA: Quit my job as a Product Manager at Jio within 2 months

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

Your manager joined(Jio) from which org?

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

When are you planning to switch?

This is exactly what’s happening in my org.

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