How can a juna survive as the only developer on a project?

Question

Career in IT

In touch backend june after the institute. First job. Came as a Python\Django dev junior. The company writes a CRM system for interacting with clients + supports client projects of varying complexity (from online stores to complex logistics systems). All of course custom samopisny and without documentation. Staff of 20-30 people, 5dev teams, 3 people per team (Front, Back and workbench), the rest are managers and admins. Situation:
They took me immediately after the interview, they didn’t even give TK, only an oral survey. From the first day, no one followed what I was doing, they immediately put me as the only back-developer in the team with the same junior front (project on React) and a workbench girl. I pushed anything into the project repository, and even with my June brain I understood that I was writing fierce crutch nonsense, plus there are no full-time testers in the company (developers do testing themselves, or outsource for expensive and large projects). To all my attempts to find out from my senior comrades how it was right, I received answers like: “Well, just do it somehow, you see the edit sheets? We will fix it later, now the main thing is to do it. Now, almost all developers at a level above me have successfully quit and are working elsewhere.
The project is a wild custom, according to TD, I'm not even in the top ten people who support it (the project has been in operation for about a year and a half). There is no documentation, everything is written by different people and covered by tests in almost no way. And because of this wild turnover, the only person from whom you can learn something is TD, who is part-time co-owner of the company and is busy with much more than directly writing code. There is also a June like me, only a little more experienced, but everything is sad with him too. After talking to the girl of the personnel officer, I found out that this situation is normal here and they change from 40 to 60% of the staff every year.
And now a little of what I experienced:
On the first day of work, I get root access to a remote dev server. I crash my database on it (for the first time I worked with psql). I know that they do not backup it. I swear, I merge the database from production.
By the end of the second week (the first update of the project) I get root to the production server and a strong recommendation to update the project on production (django + psql) with a downtime close to zero and quickly.
By the end of the month, I notice that one and a half people use the git.
This week I'm taking on a project that was being written in production, and the last push to git on its master branch was already in April. Having root access, I looked at what they had on the git and on the prod, compared ... This situation is far from uncommon. More than half of the projects are written bypassing the git directly on the production server.
The only plus is that the salary for the junior position is significantly higher (more than 1.5 times) than the average in Moscow.
I want to get out of there before I take on this project. The trial period ends in early September. There is already official employment. Am I right now, or should I wait? More experienced comrades, how to determine whether this is a temporary personnel crisis in the company or the result of a distribution ... unprofessional attitude to work processes?
And if you do leave, what are the pitfalls? Arrangement for the period of probation is oral, salary in an envelope, etc. He has not signed any papers and is not bound by contracts.
Two years later, as a warning to posterity :
In general, I stayed there for almost 10 months, then I lost my nerve.
Implemented pyunit, front-line tests on cypress, agreed with TD to reduce the number of teams after a new wave of layoffs. Introduced scrum, wrapped customers in part of the scrum team (demo, planning, impact mapping, 8 out of 10 were happy, many still ask to do something / advise for good amounts of ₽). Gitlab and docker are everywhere. Having told the TD about Kubernetes, he went into the sunset for a salary 2 times higher than what was offered on the spot.
The experience is fun, but a lot of stress and I'm more of a survivor's mistake. For six months and 30 people who came and left, a maximum of 3-5 were able to take something useful out of this company, and then only because they were in my team or worked with us on one of the projects. The rest degraded wildly, lost all motivation to write code, or stopped developing. Everyone fled the company.
I would not recommend this to anyone, except for those who suffer from masochism and are ready for 14 hour working days, run. You will fall down, many people in such an environment began to have mental problems, I saw it with my own eyes.
Don't run after money. Find a growing company that is ready and willing to experiment with at least one person who knows what's going on and stick with it. Also, sleep and exercise, of course.

Answer 1

I once worked under similar conditions. Perhaps even worse. 1 deed, spat on the protection of their system and the work of other programmers. I was careful, and protected everything that related to me with backups, a git, a deployment system, etc. And at the same time, my comrades were writing code straight from notepad through its mother Samba. Samba is open without a password and is available with a waffle. The waffle has a password of 12345678.

Just spit on the work of others. Do your projects the way you want. You have access to the training ground, where you just have the opportunity for self-development. Set up git flow, deployment system, all sorts of uni-tests. Ask for a whiteboard or an A3 sheet and do Agile for yourself and the girl. Feel like a leader ©

Answer 2

I didn’t read it, but don’t throw the girl :)

Answer 3

Life has challenged you. You can accept it and maybe win, or maybe lose. Or do not accept and lose unequivocally. I have been in similar situations.

Answer 4

In my opinion, you need to stay in such a situation, because. it turns out that the main team fled, you were left alone and with a 99% probability a normal contract will be signed with you, you will get tremendous experience, it just comes to you, it will not be easy at first. After you clear the rubble and set up the processes as needed, you will feel how much you have grown. Perhaps after a while you will already recruit juniors yourself and try to delegate ;-)

Answer 5

well, write tests, formalize documentation, a rich field for work and development of yourself, and there is no one to even kick you

Answer 6

IMHO:
Firstly, if you are a junior, then you must initially look for teams where you will not be the only back-end programmer and there will be a mentor.
Secondly, since we got where we got to, I would recommend sitting for a year. Especially if they pay well. Because a quick job change will not be the best point in the eyes of other HRs. Yes, of course you can tell that you got into such a company. But how would a recruiter know? Maybe you messed around there, and you were asked to "write in your own way."
Thirdly, the mess that you described in ~ 80% of companies. They just pay pennies. And do not forget that employers also lie - they can promise "rapid growth" (including salary) - you will go to them, but in fact there will be no growth.
In general - to learn, develop, look for experienced developers in the company, and in a year look for a new job. Thoroughly and without haste.

Answer 7

plus there are no full-time testers in the company (testing is carried out by the developers themselves, or outsourcing for expensive and large projects)

What a spoiled one you are.
Testers are not needed, except for large projects.
Decide for yourself what is more important - money in your pocket today and the restrictions of prof. growth.
Or prof. growth, but less money today.
It would be more correct to ask colleagues how it was there. Always or just now.
As a rule, the salary is given out 2 times a month.
In the worst case, you will lose your salary for 2 weeks.