> but they might also encourage you to do it in such a way that you fail spectacularly.

A skill one must develop is identifying no-win-scenario tasks that can be avoided. POCs are often such tasks.

A teammate and I got roped into some POC where everyone in the room seemed to silently agree the product was not fit for purpose. The meetings went in circles of seemingly trying to find anything they could do to use the product, rather than assessing it objectively on the use case the vendor pitched.

Behind the scenes it turned out the product was being pushed by someone seniors brother. So the thing was getting bought no matter what. What they were really looking for was the patsy to own finding any sort of use case for the stupid thing, integrating it and owning it.

Obviously a "the product cannot fail, it can only be failed" scenario. Run run run away.