Cursed jobs

  • Started
  • Last post
  • 8 Responses
  • honest

    Has anyone else had jobs go bad for no true reason? And for the duration of the project, it's as if it's cursed as each stage comes with numerous fuck-ups/challenges to overcome? We're just finishing a beast of a project that won't die regardless of how much sunlight, silver, holy water, Enya, etc.

  • chossy0

    Currently in the middle of one just now and it will probably cost a few jobs at the company I work for. All because the MD keeps fiddling and changing it to accommodate absolutely everyones idea no matter how good or bad the idea is. So basically we have a monster and it won;t stay buried.

  • i_monk0

    Once did a window wrap job for a shoe store that was renovating. It was plagued with re-designs, then a rare AI bug caused a typo to be uncorrected, then the guy applied the wraps to the outside of the windows instead of the insides.

  • d_rek0

    Oh yeah. I had an e-commerce site that wen all manner of foul.

    The launch was delayed by 2 months because of the client not having the necessary infrastructure to accept online payments.

    Then, when we finally had all of that implemented about 2 weeks after launch online payments inexplicably stopped working - the merchant had about a dozen orders from customers where the payment just disappeared into the aether.

    After troubleshooting for far to long we finally decided to drop the clients online payment processor (some quickbooks related trash) and trying to hook up to another system we weren't met with any success.

    In the end we had to hire an independant contract developer to help troubleshoot the site.

    Turns out that the e-commerce platform had updated and a major part of the update was related to payment processing. We had to backup the site and theme, install the latest version of the e-commerce platform, re-install theme and migrate the backup data, and then adjust the theme for the latest version of the platform.

    After all that was done the site finally functioned as it should have... 8 months later.

    And this is why I have swore off of e-commerce. Never. Again.

    • was it magento?
      ********
    • No. Pinnacle Cart. Which I might add the Pinnacle Cart staff was super awesome in helping.d_rek
  • vaxorcist0

    argh... Looking back on some cursed gigs from the past...

    1. Does it seem most were due to decision/communication process.... i.e. not confronting a minor issue early on that later bites you in the butt?

    2.Unpredictable Dependencies... whenever you have to depend on an IT department, link to another software package, or hookup to a payment system, it seems the odds of random shit multiply...

    3. Nobody seems to have read "The Mythical Man Month" ... a project management book written in the 70's about the idea that adding more people to a late project will make it even later... and the "second system effect" where the second system a designer designs will often be full of random extra stuff because they put in all the stuff they had to cut out of the first system....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theā€¦

    • This book is a collection of essays about software engineering... FYIalbums
    • yes... but useful for projects like large e-commerce sites,etc....vaxorcist
  • cannonball19780

    lol@ enya

    Plan the project better. Dedicate a first phase to more evaluation and analysis. Get more inter-departmental communication going.

  • antagonista0

    The design business is all about managing disasters.

    • Horrible way to go about design. Sounds like you don't have a process?studderine
  • Peter0

    Like Chossy I'm currently in the middle of one just now and it will probably cost a few jobs at the company I work for.

    It's not cursed, it's all due to the having 2 idiots run the show, but it is turning very bad for no true reason: 2 owners believing in these 2 idiots abilities to run the show without much more than a misguided trust in it being "the Japanese way".

    ...despite 1/2 of the company dissatisfied and generally pissed off, and 1/4 ready to leave (and more once their contracts expire).
    What a sad waste of talent.

  • mathinc0

    I just took a project where basically every red flag I own was hoisted within the first 10 minutes of talking to the client. Surprisingly, it's gone okay so far. I'm just waiting for everything to crumble. It's got to happen, I swear EVERY red flag was raised. I honestly ended up taking the project because the client accepted my strict payment terms and I said to my wife, 'what the hell, at the very least I'm going to get some awesome stories out of it.'

    Stay tuned.