I joined a consulting company a month ago as a tech lead.
So far, the company culture seems promising, the team is supportive, and the salary is competitive.
It is one of the few places where clear career path is provided and it is encouraged.
I don't have big ambitions. I am expected to bring modern C++ tools and technologies to the company.
My manager believes I have the mindset and necessary skills to become a software architect. I never thought about that before.
So we've got a client. It is a big manufacturing company with old, outdated technologies such as ClearCase and many other custom stuff.
I will work on a PoC that determines whether some tools are worth consideration. If the PoC will succeed, they may consider hiring a developer team to work on this new project.
The client has a big monolith that is costly and difficult to maintain and most engineers are old – reluctant to learn newer technologies -. The original software was started in 1970s.
They asked us to help modernizing the software: starting from the core (which is also way huuuuge).
We believed this is the perfect opportunity to introduce modern tools as well. So we prepared some proposal that we introduce Cmake, Conan, Docker, C++17 and git.
And when is the best time to introduce new tools? It is now in the very beginning.
And here comes the problem.
The client was dismissive. They didn't even listen. During the presentation they always interrupted here and there. Their counterargument was that they have a flawed and broken internal process basically, and it is lengthy and cumbersome to introduce new tools. They requested us to conform to their internal process and don't change on the process.
They were disrespectful and rude.
They took the whole thing personally and the whole discussion went into an argument and wasn't professional at all.
I am hurt, and ashamed of.
Could you please give some thoughts regarding this.