Have you ever been tempted to walk into a job you KNEW was probably toxic? How did you resist it? If you gave him, what went wrong? ►► Know your options! Access my FREE data hub for the top 25 software industry roles, TechRolepedia → jaymeedwards.com/access-techrolepedia/
@monterreymxisfun3627
8 ай бұрын
I took a job at a toxic company to increase my skillset. I achieved that objective and ignored their criticism before getting fired. I took what I needed; no regrets.
@sadboisibit
8 ай бұрын
I worked with a dev for 4 years who was a massive jerk. He got a management position at a nearby company that was 10x the size of our company within our niche manufacturing vertical. He instantly offered me a position. I knew I would hate working under him but I accepted because the scale of the company interested me. Nothing specifically went wrong. He was a jerk. I knew he would be a jerk. After a year he got fired.
@madcatandrew
8 ай бұрын
I have a final round interview tomorrow for a remote job, really glad you made this video as I've got some strange feelings about this one. They work in completely "flexible" hours and don't care when people work as long as the work gets done. I already felt like this had the potential to be extremely toxic, but now I'm feeling quite a bit more strongly about that sort of scheduling. I wrote down quite a few questions for them, inspired by this.
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
@@madcatandrewbest of luck. It still could be a good gig, definitely go with your gut!
@willembeltman
8 ай бұрын
I told them exactly how I handle toxic people / situations. They got so scared they pulled the plug.
@ricko13
8 ай бұрын
"we are like a family here"
@rafael.aloizio1769
8 ай бұрын
This one never fails
@CORE409
8 ай бұрын
I always reply on this saying: "IDK, my dad was dead cheap..."
@PaulSebastianM
8 ай бұрын
Omg first thing I fell for in my career. 11 years.
@Ssalamanderr
8 ай бұрын
massive red flag anytime I hear this
@despahotaru
8 ай бұрын
RUN DUDE RUN
@docopoper
8 ай бұрын
Regarding thinking of a toxic job as a stepping stone. My friend recently gave me some really good advice by pointing out that a toxic job is often a stepping stone to more toxic jobs. You'll get known in the industry as somebody who is willing to work those kinds of jobs and will get offered more. You'll also be meeting and connecting with people who are in the mindset that has them engaging in toxic working cultures.
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Gold! Thanks for sharing this with us.
@DiogoMudo
8 ай бұрын
Yeah, I can relate to that one also.
@KT-ey3lh
8 ай бұрын
Oh, I kinda see that now in my current job. When I was just applying for that job, I asked the interviewer if I will be expected to wear multiple hats in the role I'm applying for, the interviewer said, that won't be the case. But when I got accepted and deployed into projects, I wore multiple hats. Btw, I started my IT career in a company that expects its employees to wear multiple hats.
@ab5441
8 ай бұрын
I some what broke this orbit. I started in the industry with a toxic mess. Now i only work with meses as ive become an expert on doing a little bit of everything and reverse engineering other peoples code. I'll add that it is the same case with your skill set be mindful of what you are developing.
@nickvledder
8 ай бұрын
@@ab5441 Absolutely!
@AntonioPetrelli
8 ай бұрын
In one of my interviews, the interviewer asked me a strange question. "Suppose that you are a manager and the customer asks the team to always work on Saturdays from now on, how do you say it to your team?" I was honest and said that simply I cannot say it, it's beyond ridiculous. If this is not a red flag, tell me what it is. Obviously I have not been chosen for the job, but later this company went bankrupt. Oh the joy 😂
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Good job staying out of that fiasco! Yikes.
@disgruntledtoons
8 ай бұрын
It is absolutely none of the customer's business to dictate these things.
@InconspicuousChap
8 ай бұрын
Tell them you have to respect Shabbat, and their very request insults you so deeply that you have to say goodbye right away.
@AntonioPetrelli
8 ай бұрын
@@InconspicuousChap too late, they do not exist anymore.
@Distagon76
8 ай бұрын
@@InconspicuousChap, yeah, on Saturdays we are cooking pork pie🤪
@donparkison4617
8 ай бұрын
I went to a new company and was asked to be a Dev Lead. So I started doing Dev Lead things, like doing in depth code reviews with the team and finding out things like how estimates are done. In order to try to make a plan for setting up developers for success with better estimations, better processes and whatnot. Then it quickly became clear that they thought being a Dev Lead was just about doing timesheets and smacking devs over the head when their project manager gets upset. But that is not what a dev lead does, so I figured I would show them what a Dev Lead does and after six months or so, we will have the improved performance of the teams to show how this stuff works. This company literally freaked out and let me go after two months. They didnt want me looking at the developer's code and the Really didnt want me asking questions about how their projects were run. Before that, I had been baited and switched a few times so there are some pretty short times in my recent resume and now that is hurting me as well. I am pretty tired of these firms honestly. They have leadership filled with people who have no idea how software is made, and they are perfectly fine lying to your face about what they expect from you, until you are stuck.
@yashpatel261
8 ай бұрын
The idiots are in power
@JayDoge
8 ай бұрын
Remove short XPs. Keep the last one you stayed at for longer and add a bit to it.
@johnsmith-ro2tw
8 ай бұрын
The press always talks about "disruption" in tech. In reality, as an employee, if you come in with a disruptive mindset, no matter how good your intentions are, you will be seen as a troublemaker, as a threat to them and to the business. Management does not like people who question things, suggest new ideas to make things better. Management like employees who just get the can rolling, go on with the daily routine, etc...
@joanvallve7647
8 ай бұрын
I think you're the one that doesn't have a clue what a Dev Lead has to do, dude. 😅
@donparkison4617
8 ай бұрын
@@joanvallve7647 So educate me then. Making sure developers have what they need to succeed in their tasks seems to be what I believe it to be.
@Pierre-HenriBourdeau
3 ай бұрын
Something I've learned the hard way: never share your dreams unless it's with someone you trust for decades and never, ever, trust a smile
@citricdemon
2 ай бұрын
Similar situation. I had an older coworker (PhD, same job) ask which job I (no PhD ) was learning so many languages for. I said I wasn't learning them for any job, I just like learning. He grunted weird and was silent. He began sabotaging my work and harassing me after that, and I was gone within two months.
@theadventuresofred19
5 ай бұрын
Work hard, play hard... TOTAL red flag. One project the PM told me on day 1. "Remember that you're only a contractor, don't make any decisions, don't make anybody look good, don't lead!"
@AnimeReference
Ай бұрын
Actually as a contractor you don't have to listen to him.
@JasonRobards2
Ай бұрын
He has a point though. Follow the chain of command. If ambiguous, throw it back.
@tatlock29
6 ай бұрын
"for the time being you're going to have to wear multiple hats"
@Dontstopbelievingman
2 ай бұрын
If the moneys right that could be an opportunity depending on what the hats are and how the role is recognised. One of the issues I've had advancing is that the people who have, have been pulled into projects outside their role description and gotten experience you can't go to school for. Or it can mean you're going to be swamped with garbage. But can be an entry into areas you might not otherwise have access to.
@HaganeNoGijutsushi
Ай бұрын
"Weird dress code but OK."
@hak0nnn
8 ай бұрын
From my experience, it is hard to figure which questions you should ask to detect a toxic job, until you have had one. And then you have only experienced one type of toxicity, but there are so many ways a job can screw you up. I would appreciate more concrete stories of what actually happened on the job, and how the thinking went before taking it.
@John__K
4 ай бұрын
This is so true, one may think he is aware of all the red flags but somehow there is always a new flag you simply havent encountered in your previous jobs!
@JasonRobards2
Ай бұрын
Here are some red flags I encoutered during my interviews: I once asked for a written job description for an engineering job and their reply was: "oh, that makes that you won't do anything that isn't in your description?" I once had a supervisor tell about him: "i'm a color yellow, but I know this about myself. When things get stressful, I get heated" More than once I had simple questions about basic procedures brushed off with annoyance. Clear red flag. These was in engineering jobs in large industrial plants. "This is a multinational with a SME mind set" (in engineering this unequivocally means the worst of both worlds) "You'll need to prove yourself first" (I've been out of school for a while now...) Not understanding the responsibilities of the position they opened the vacancy for. "The guy you are about to replace has started out at the production line" ("does he know I am here to replace him?") "The guy you are about to replace has worked here for 30 years." ("Is he willing to share his responsibilities?") "The guy you are about to replace has started out as a xxx and we want you to start out as a xxx" ("What percentage of his current job is actual engineering?") "The guy you are about to replace worked here started out as xxx, but we feel we are getting past his natural abilities and we want to go to take our systems to the next level. To get you acquainted with the company, we want you to start out as xxx" I once jumped through 5 separate interviews and an intelligence test (basically a first years bachelor's exam) to end up in a self guiding team where one of the team members was doing the interview. He barely graduated his bachelors and interrupted each of my answers to tell me his glory stories when he was a student. Apparently I was not a match for the company, a big multinational. More than once I received genuine insults after I mentioned my focus was attaining the required experience to apply for more responsibility.
@ckehoe86
8 ай бұрын
I had a red flag with the interviewer in some of their behaviour during the later stages and I ignored it because of the money. Paid for it in the long term. Lesson learnt! Another good one is when I was at a toxic company interviewing this guy with other devs, and he asks “What’s fun about working here?”. Everyone looked at each other in bemusement. Definitely one way to trip them up! Weirdly the guy who asked it joined a few weeks later…didn’t see the warning sign right in front of him 😂😂😂
@JasonRobards2
Ай бұрын
A very good one!
@wolfman5740
8 ай бұрын
Tip to avoid a toxic workplace: don’t apply to finance industry employers. They will wave some decent money at you and then throw you to the wolves.
@mecanuktutorials6476
8 ай бұрын
Is that true? I’ve seen all over Reddit that banks tend to have great WLB. Video games is definitely the worst deal.
@michaelnurse9089
8 ай бұрын
The finance industry is a big place. Plenty of narcissistic monsters crawling the corridors but also plenty of decent people. Try to speak to other people who have worked for the same department or group of people.
@TheClintonio
8 ай бұрын
Fintech is one of my favourite industries. I get along well with the kinds of people who work in (London's) fintech industry, enjoy the intensity of the workplaces and the money is fine, I've done better but in terms of daily grind it's my favourite. The worst kind of workplace to me are the places that copy Silicon Valley giants and try to make the office into an adult playground. Those kinds of firms are also the ones recruiters will tell you are best too because they get rave reviews from recently graduated engineers and people with no other experience than those types of firms. My experience with them is that you work 10am-8pm+ and nobody really complains? I never understood it.
@InconspicuousChap
8 ай бұрын
Poor wolves. How could they do this to them. I was actually working in such an environment in a global investment bank. Found that it was not a big deal to handle arrogant idiots (there were so many of them that I always wondered why would the upper management not buy some decent people for that money - until I realized that the upper management just can't distinguish them because of their own arrogance and idiotism, so they play it like gambling, and massive firings interleave with massive hirings as a sort of natural selection environment). After all, idiots don't produce anything, that's why they become really dependent on people who do, and most of them can't conceal it efficiently. The biggest problem was not to turn into another arrogant idiot there.
@nathanbutcher7720
8 ай бұрын
Preach brother
@ChiefOblivion123
6 ай бұрын
I like the "badge of honor" thing. It drives me nuts that there are devs out there bragging about working 60+ hour weeks just because a feature was released or something. That's not something to be proud of, you should be proud that you are delivering quality work and working no more than 40 hours. Late nights happen but make up for them later when things aren't so bad.
@Said-l7b5t
8 ай бұрын
Toxic Tech companies will hate you for that,great content!
@Don_Giovanni
8 ай бұрын
Nice clickbait reference! 😂
@elenagavrilova3109
7 ай бұрын
These companies will not even detect the case, bc all employers / emloyees are sure someone else is toixc, but namely they are perfect. This topic is too 'relative' for 'fixed' discussion.
@itshsilva
6 ай бұрын
I had a job interview once, for a Berlin based company, where the interviewers were literally saying for me to not join and how problematic the company was... it was a crazy experience, but I'm very grateful for their honesty. The recruiter of the role harassed me for a couple of days after I rejected... lol
@SlowAside5
8 ай бұрын
I once took a job even though I saw the red flags in the interview. I didn’t do it for more money or a better title or anything. Rather, I did it out of desperation to get out of the job I was already in. I’ve since learned that even though it might be hard, you really need to wait for the right job to come up. Don’t swap one bad job for another bad job.
@JasonRobards2
Ай бұрын
6 jobs in 6 years. I think I spent only 3 years actually working.
@Scruffylookingnerfherder-s8f
8 ай бұрын
I work for a company that had a couple of the red flags you mentioned. -no expected work hours -unlimited vacation days -we will be vary happy if you answer messages after hours It worked out great, I work 20-35 hours a week, in my first year I took 24days off, in the second 44days. Usually I answer 2 mails per week after hours. I was scared before I signed with them but my job before was really awful, my boss was a total control freak. So I just tried it, I am now in my 4th year there and as happy as I can be. I work there as a cloud solution engineer.
@InconspicuousChap
8 ай бұрын
Clouds are a growing market. May be that's the reason.
@shardator
8 ай бұрын
There are always exceptions. But the rule is the opposite usually. Happy for you to have this.
@JD96893
7 ай бұрын
you are so lucky man! I hope you never have to change jobs!
@hamza_dev
4 ай бұрын
I mean I don't have much issue with replying to messages after hours as long as they're just messages.
@zornslemon
Ай бұрын
That’s what I’m hoping to find. Is it a fully remote job, so they don’t know you work such short hours? Or are they actually ok with it? In hindsight were there any indications it would be so chill? Attitude in the interview? Glassdoor reviews?
@ChrisTbilisi
8 ай бұрын
The best thing that happened to me when courting companies and meeting with the CEOs and CTOs, where it probably would have been toxic, was THEY read the room, saw my nature and value system, and identified that they wouldn't fit, and thus turned me down. I would have fallen for it, and been damaged, if they hadn't. Through mentoring with Jayme, I saw the light and had the courage to build my own solution and enterprise with the right people, and it really paid off to respect myself and find the right place for me to thrive.
@TezukaKohei
7 ай бұрын
Here's the problem. 9 out of 10 companies are bad. So how do we tell which one is the best of the worst?
@darshanp8332
Ай бұрын
They're all running behind profits lead by a greedy psychopath and his posse of obeying psychopaths who sicks Dick from the top and shots below to the next in the hierarchy.
@dsbau
7 ай бұрын
Absolutely, I also think overdoing it is a red flag. I took a job at an Australian University in Sydney and in the interview they gushed about their commitment to work life balance and what a great place to work it was. Seemed ideal as I had young children and an elderly parent. A week in I was told that leaving on time was unacceptable and that I should be working "at home" and on the weekends. When I asked about the work life balance thing, the woman looked at me like I was crazy. Fortunately, we're not dependent on work for health insurance and there's a lot of work so I just resigned. The so called manager looked stunned. She even said "I need a minute to process that." Weird thing was it wasn't a particularly busy space, they had a lot of really big projects moving at glacial pace, the busy thing was just a act and it could have been a great place to work.
@JasonRobards2
17 күн бұрын
I think I feel your pain. I just terminated my contract on a great place like that (at first and second glace anyway). I was taking over on a position with fairly big responsibility. The thing that gave a red flag was how upper management downplayed my position within the company. To clarify: they deemed the job was not important for the company. I was taking over for a guy that had worked al but autonomously for 30 years and they had no idea how much work he moved. To upper management, it was still basic input. The position requires permanent availability and is the final line of responsibilities whenever a problem pops up, for example. I made the mistake of trying to explain what the job actually entails and I got a similar surprised response to what happened in your situation. Her response was "we are not asking you to work overtime" (she just introduced the abolishment of overtime pay, in a company that had heavily relied on it). Her response to whether if during an emergency I could just leave for home at 5pm, was met with a blank stare and "oh, no, of course not. But it is part of your responsibility". Suddenly I did have that responsibility I should have left soon after. However, I did not want to leave an otherwise good company. Eventually upper management framed me as a permanent unhappy employee and forced me to leave.
@ant-dev
8 ай бұрын
protect this man from the corporate matrix 🙏
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
He's already been chewed up and spit out, lol ;)
@EzBz982
8 ай бұрын
Watching your video as I begin my last day at a company that is exactly as you described, and I rationalized exactly as you told. Headed back to my previous employer with a solid raise over what I left at. It was a life lesson I needed to learn, and fortunately the ending to my story was a happy one.
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Oh man, I'm happy for you. Hope the return is everything you need it to be.
@sealsharp
8 ай бұрын
I think unpayed overtime is a very strong indicator because it's a sign of misalignment of goals. Unpayed overtime from an economic PoV is someting the employer wants to maximize for economic benefit while the employee wants to minimize it. Employment should be set up in a way that both employer and employee benefit from planning towards the same goal, like creating projects that meet deadlines and delivering a good product. A situation where an employer would financially benefit from mismanaging you is a red flag for sure.
@tiagodagostini
Ай бұрын
Employers also do not want to maximize it. Because it means their own planning were wrong. Companies with success tend to not like when it is happening frequently. I get really nervous is my workers need to work more than 1 extra hour per week. VERY nervous.
@stroudcuster4483
3 ай бұрын
"My door is always open..." The open door is a trap door that swallows you
@nathandowney9434
8 ай бұрын
I was interviewing with a startup and I made it through multiple interview rounds until I finally got interviewed by the CEO. He was very condecending during the interview and said that because I didn’t have the backend skills needed for the job that I would have to do unpaid training outside of work hours to get caught up. I am all for putting in time to build my skillset outside of work, but when it’s required by my boss and unpaid that’s a different story. At the end of the interview he said I could have the job if I wanted it, but they weren’t going to tell me what the salary was until I accepted. I was tempted to take the job because I like working in startups but there were just too many red flags here for me to feel comfortable accepting the role.
@ZealotOfSteal
8 ай бұрын
Haha, what? Who expects someone to accept a job without knowing what pay is? That's like signing a contract without reading it. Bizarre expectations.
@katec9893
8 ай бұрын
@@ZealotOfStealIt's crazy. People need to know that the salary will cover their rent/mortgage and bills. Companies should legally be made to state the salary when they advertise it.
@The.Harsh.Truths
7 ай бұрын
@@ZealotOfStealyeah that part was hilarious lol. Imagine you take the offer, then they’re like “drumroll….. your salary is $1/yr!!! See you on your first day sucker!”
@ssygon2
2 ай бұрын
You dodged a bullet, coz they think ur flexible and can control u so you can work weekends...
@citricdemon
2 ай бұрын
If you ever find yourself in this situation, lucky you, contracts can't be enforced if they are entered through deception or substantially different from what a "reasonable person" would expect them to be. A clause about "also you owe us your soul" isn't enforcable, for example, if presented in the fine print of an iTunes download. They can write it, but the judge won't enforce it.
@monterreymxisfun3627
8 ай бұрын
A good manager can neutralize the effects of a bad company. My experience is that you don't see the dysfunction until you have been at the company for a couple of months. Don't shut down your interview pipeline after you start a new job. Being willing to get fired is key.
@Asto508
8 ай бұрын
I disagree. A good manager may hide it for longer, but eventually, he can't fix fundamental dysfunctions in a company that stems from a much higher level than he is at. Eventually, it will trickle down to you, it's just a matter of time.
@genechristiansomoza4931
8 ай бұрын
It's nothing if you really don't give it an f and just work within 8hrs and go home. You work they pay. Don't stay over time if not needed.
@steveoc64
8 ай бұрын
That's not a "good manager", that's a professional liar with a hidden agenda I agree though with pushing through the interview. It pays to trust people and assume good intentions all round. People are generally good, and honest, and are out to do good things for everyone involved. But when people show their dishonesty, its time to say bye All of which is well and good, unless you have bills to pay and no way to pay them, then you don't really get a choice I suppose. Unfortunately, that situation describes 99% of all junior devs who want to break into the industry. So the whole corrupt system is rife for exploitation, and is full of predators. The best advice I can give to any junior developer asking "what language should I learn ? Should I learn Python, should I learn Rust ? what about AI ?" ... is simply - get your finances in order and give yourself some options. THEN .. you can use whatever tools tickle your fancy. Until then, you are a nobody, and will do whatever you are told to make it through to next pay day.
@michaelfrankel8082
8 ай бұрын
@@genechristiansomoza4931 But overtime is *always* needed.
@Caixinha-s3q
8 ай бұрын
I agree with @Asto508, I willadd that managers protecting devs from toxic culture will only work for the short term, eventually stakeholders will find a workaround and devs would burnout
@Coufu
8 ай бұрын
Physically writing things has been game changing. Been doing it since last year. It makes you slow down and process emotions while you write down your thoughts. If you’re a fast typer, then typing your thoughts will just make you go from thought to thought too fast without time to process them emotionally.
@Marshark50
2 ай бұрын
Interesting
@Widkey
8 ай бұрын
The number of Corporate IT sweat shops is numerous.
@zbychoo
8 ай бұрын
It's 8 pm here in Poland. And it's great way to end the day listening to your thoughts!
@nickvledder
8 ай бұрын
... and guitar-playing as well.
@CORE409
8 ай бұрын
This is one of the best videos. Two years ago, I faced a dilemma between two great job opportunities. I asked to visit both offices, but it was during covid, so one of the offices was deserted and the other one was lively. I talked with different people from different teams and received a warm welcome. However, I chose the company with the empty office, and it turned out to be a mistake on many levels (toxic vibes on daily basis, lack of a functional team leader during my onboarding process, ambigious task description and lack of accountability). I made this decision because I was driven by fear (the second job required me to start a project from scratch on my own, and I thought that was too much for me). In the end, my relationship with the current company ended after 2 years with frustration, tears, and gray hair. One of the returned sentences of the team leader was "[The Company Name] paying us a lot of money so it's our responsability to work hard", only now I get how twisted this saying was.
@HaganeNoGijutsushi
Ай бұрын
I mean, that doesn't feel fucked up to me if "work hard" is defined within reason. For the time I am supposed to work, I feel an obligation to do so well. But that's not a license to try and take away all my personal time too.
@JasonRobards2
17 күн бұрын
"They pay us a lot so we must work hard" - most often heard in companies that actually don't pay a lot. I was a recent hire in such company and was paid more than those with double my experience (and still less than many people outside our industry) One basic trick of figure out wages is to drop a number, eg. the wage of a mutual colleague. If they make a spluttering sound combined with an excuse to why that mutual colleague makes that amount, the colleague is paid a lot less. In companies where they work hard because the boss pays a lot of money, the amount of money they receive is a really touchy subject.
@Distagon76
8 ай бұрын
Your words resonate deeply, Jamie. Your simple yet profound insights are weaving into the fabric of my being, reviving feelings of self-care and self-respect. It's not therapy, but the shifts I feel while listening to your channel are akin to it. Thanks for that. A couple of litmus questions from my side: 1. Story Points for estimation are cool. But what about time mapping? Joe does 4 SP/day, Ellie gives 5 SP/week. Do you equalize by paying per SP/day or go with traditional man-days? 2. Co-working with neurodeviants - those brilliant but sometimes clumsy folks. Any experiences dealing with their quirks disrupting plans? 3. Mistakes happen. If, say, a QA engineer accidentally drops a table in production due to cloud misconfiguration, what's the punishment? Instant firing or a chance for redemption? 4. How do you maintain competition spirit among colleagues? In fact, there is a lot of useful questions. But entering an interview room feels like my head turns into a djembe drum - pretty much empty! 😁
@sergiocarmona7238
8 ай бұрын
i did that i rush to be a engineering manager at 29..30 , i acomplish but my health was hurted. i know developers who made more money with two jobs.. my dad pushed me to be a manager he wanted the best for me but times changes and what worked in the past wont work anymore.
@ScriptCheetahOfficial
3 ай бұрын
Earlier this year, I started a job in which my boss, who interviewed me, seemed like a great guy, really good leader, etc. Then within the first 48 hours of working for him, I instantly noticed he was verbally abusive to his employees. He would hold any failure or gap in knowledge over an employee's head, complain about their shortcomings, but then refuse to teach. Needless to say, I left within a month. Sadly, this is a trend I have seen in at least 3 other IT departments in my region.
@adminator
5 ай бұрын
How I wish I had seen this video 11 years ago. I joined a small, digital advertising agency where I had two abusive bosses, acting in a "good cop, bad cop" fashion. I tried leaving the company after six months, but somehow the "nicer" boss convinced me to stay. After I decided to stay, his wife threatened me, saying not to do that again. The other boss was probably the most toxic person I've ever worked with. I saw the red flags, but I didn't pay attention to them. I was also afraid of the ensuing conflict if I tried to leave again. The result of all that is that I developed panic disorder. Only after getting ill was when I felt I had an excuse to quit. Leaving that place was a relief and they went bankrupt after a few years. I stayed home, unemployed, for five years.
@HealthyDev
5 ай бұрын
Man, I'm so sorry. Glad to hear you did finally get out. I've been there (different situation, same lesson).
@adminator
5 ай бұрын
@@HealthyDev Thanks, man. Also, thank you very much for these tips, they're invaluable!
@HealthyDev
5 ай бұрын
@@adminator of course!
@kralkatorrik34
8 ай бұрын
11:40 That's on point. I did this in the past, convincing myself that earning 8x median wage is worth it, but in the end I regret it so much. I would much rather have less money and be happier.
@hottroddinn
7 ай бұрын
The biggest problem of producing these quality videos exposing all the truth is, most of the companies have really caught up and are learning to dish out quality lies. They are training their interview panel to blabber text book nonsense when you ask the tough questions. You'll have to research the companies quite well and have to pick up a lot of cues during the interview itself and let them paint themselves into a corner. The best part of this video is "ignoring the red flags" section. It has truly opened my eyes to all the BS things I tell myself and also reminded me about a recent interview where the interviewer BS'd me. I'll be confirming that I won't be moving forward with them. Please keep doing these quality vids!
@pw6002
8 ай бұрын
First red flag: if they refer to Elon Musk as their role model.
@carlinhos10002
4 ай бұрын
I actually would like that. Don't want to be spoiled by slackers
@kittysaywut
3 ай бұрын
@@carlinhos10002until your whole division is gone because your skip level used the urinal next to Elon’s.
@KickAssAndChewBubblegum
8 ай бұрын
Jesus, you've made me realize Ive only worked for toxic shops. Last job, we had one of those guys who woukd make sure to be the first in and last out and send emails at 10pm at night with useless updates that didn't need to go out to all employees. Management always talked him up yet the guy really didnt produce much. So glad I'm done working for people.
@pencilcheck
4 ай бұрын
management loves guys who does that. it is not toxic actually it is that guy is smart and he knows how to make management happy.
@SJ-oxy
2 ай бұрын
Oh, so you know James? (not "Jimmy" or "Jim", he insisted on being called "James") Well, that was his name at my job. He got promoted partially because he stole someone's idea and submitted a patent on it with himself as Principal Author. Would never talk to you if there was someone at a higher level to talk to. Threw everyone under the bus whenever things went bad, but took credit for anything that went well. Management loved this guy.
@pencilcheck
2 ай бұрын
@@SJ-oxy but just so you know, everyone knows that kind of person from far far away, does he have real friends? probably very few.
@NoSpeechForTheDumb
Ай бұрын
"Didn't produce much" is rather vague. Did he adequately fulfill his assigned tasks within their respective deadlines or not?
@gabromanato
8 ай бұрын
Another potential red flag is the kind of questions that they might ask you during the initial interview(s). If they look much like a psychological trial, thus involving even the analysis of your non-verbal communication, this usually means that they have an high turnover rate and an employee recently quit his/her job because of the way they treat "human resources".
@JasonRobards2
Ай бұрын
Automation engineer here. Western Europe. 6th job in 6 years. This video should be taught in classrooms during our masters.
@HealthyDev
Ай бұрын
There's a very good reason why it's not...
@JasonRobards2
22 күн бұрын
@@HealthyDev Indeed. Or why none of the unions give more light to this issue...
@joshanderson4658
4 ай бұрын
I literally had this similar experience for a new job I started this month. Interviewed, had a company lunch, when I started the role was a complete 180 of what I interviewed and was outta there in three weeks. Glad i found this video afterwards as its the same feelings im going through.
@stand4justice4867
2 ай бұрын
I've recently learned the hard way to not pursue companies with a track record if massive layoffs like big tech.
@HealthyDev
2 ай бұрын
Sorry to hear you had to learn this the hard way. I hope going forward that lesson helps you have a calmer career.
@emilwandel
2 ай бұрын
in my last project my project manager let the customer lead the team. This was catastrophic as hthe customer changed their mind from week to week and still held us responsible why work would not finish.
@stormsake
2 ай бұрын
Not sure if this was also same pre-covid, but since 2 years I see a lot of "remote" openings, then they tell you in the interview you have to visit office on x,y and z. I even was guilttripped for not visiting the office regularly, and when I told them the job is defined also written as remote work, they shut up. Then I resigned. I see this quite often, and when I realise what they advertise on the JD does not match what I hear in the interview, I just withdraw, not worth it.
@MS-wy4sb
7 ай бұрын
Man, the one about a toxic job being a stepping stone to more toxic jobs threw me for a loop. That's been my whole career! It makes a lot of sense now. My resume shows it too as I've developed a lot of skills to good degrees. An expert in some areas but generally pretty good at several things. The irony here is that I had to develop these skills to survive because of the chaos, disorganization, and dysfunction ubiquitous to these toxic work environments. It's not necessarily what I wanted to learn, more what I had to learn to solve the problems that didn't need to be there had processes and healthy people been in place. Now, the best kind of places I'm suited for are toxic and I don't want to continue working in these environments. It seriously affects your mental and physical health. Central problem is how to escape this loop. I've seen these people in old age. They rarely make it to 80 and start displaying health problems starting in their 50s to 60s. I want a different kind of life.
@BittermanAndy
7 ай бұрын
Yes, realising that you are extremely well adapted to an environment that you don't want to live in any more can be extremely difficult. The good news is, it's never too late to adapt, but that's not to say it will be easy.
@bigneiltoo
8 ай бұрын
I've been programming 30 years. I usually have more experience than the project manager/founder. In my last 10 jobs or so I told them exactly, precisely what would probably go wrong, and was always right. But they don't give you credit for that. It's like telling your wife "See? I KNEW you'd cheat on me!"
@bigneiltoo
8 ай бұрын
What usually goes wrong: 1) They vastly underestimate how hard it is to set up a new developer from scratch on a new machine. 2) They have some hardware device that has never actually been tested. 3) They force you to be a hardcore Linux programmer when you're a Windows programmer. 4) Gatekeepers want you to fail.
@da39vinci
8 ай бұрын
@@bigneiltoo I get point 1 and 2. But could you elaborate more on point 3 and 4? I mean I kinda get point 3 in regard to the difference environment between linux and windows especially in the shell experience.
@Darth_Bateman
8 ай бұрын
@@bigneiltoo So they have unrealistic expectations of how fast a newbie can learn to use the machine. They use wild hardware that hasn't been tested. They want you to be a hardcore linux user for no reason. They want you to fail, which goes back to reason 1. . . . . This sounds like a cycle of insanity with two extra steps. The two extra steps being they want you to use linux , step 1. step 2. They want to use wild tech without testing.
@bigneiltoo
8 ай бұрын
@@Darth_Bateman At least they don't usually want you to use Macs (Windows for girls). Bad interview question: "Do you program the Mac?" Worse interview answer: "No, I'm heterosexual".
@munzutai
8 ай бұрын
@@bigneiltooYou sound like a fun person to talk to, immediately bringing gender and sexuality into a completely unrelated discussion.
@johnsmith-ro2tw
8 ай бұрын
Seriously, treat the job interview as an opportunity to interview them too. Pick various hints to get a feel of how it's like at that company. The employer is there to show you how great the management is, how great the projects are, as much as you're there to sell yourself. Resist the temptation to take that job if it feels it will be bad, even if it pays +20%. Because if the place is toxic, if you are treated as a code monkey fixing bugs and spaghetti code all day, what happens next is burn out, and depression, and it's really hard to recover. Not worth the extra money.
@ketankshukla
10 күн бұрын
I just stumbled upon this video and immediately liked and subscribed. Honest as hell! Very few people like you in this day and age in the software development business. Kudos!
@HealthyDev
10 күн бұрын
Welcome to the channel!
@flamesword3397
6 ай бұрын
Last time i ignored my gut on a job i wound up attacked in a backroom. Dont ignore your gut people, it is very very right.
@HealthyDev
6 ай бұрын
Jeez! Sorry, that's harsh.
@adaptivedeveloper
8 ай бұрын
I wonder how crazy it would sound for you, but the best way for estimating I found is to not estimate. Instead chop anything in as small an experiment as possible. It freaks many people during the hiring process, yet it helped us avoid many blame wars and gridlocks.
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Absolutely! This is what story points were supposed to do. Help us break stuff down to pick small things. Not then convert them to hours for measuring progress.
@Hakkology
2 ай бұрын
I got into this company a couple months ago and you basically described all red flags I witnessed here. Then again, this is my first software engineering job and i really need this as a stepping stone.
@HealthyDev
2 ай бұрын
No shame in hanging with it. I have a whole playlist on the channel of true stories of projects I've been on. Many of them had serious dysfunctions, but I also learned something from each experience.
@matthewdouglas2373
Ай бұрын
Here are some I have noticed: 1) inappropriate and premature over-endorsement of your aptitude. Basically if a recruiter or interviewer says things like “I’m really impressed by your qualifications” but you are a junior who hasn’t realistically done much, then they want a body to fill a seat and use budget dollars and log contract hours to the customer. 2) position is sold as some sort of hybrid role that gives freedom and you have “opportunity” to work with a myriad of disciplines and teams. This role is amorphous and you will probably not have much to do, or alternatively, you are going to be overly relied on as the SME in all things because the org doesn’t understand that or want to pay for the actual work force required to do what they want. They will label you as a go-getter star player but you will have unrealistic expectations put on you.
@HealthyDev
Ай бұрын
For sure. These subtle manipulations are extremely hard for the majority of people to see through. I wish they weren't so common.
@TheClintonio
8 ай бұрын
Okay I'm just here to rant; I took a job in Tokyo two years ago, I did this not as a career move but a life change. Before the move I owned my own consultancy, and before that I was a head of engineering of a department of 40 people, before that I was various levels of tech lead, principles and engineering manager or smaller department head, so to say I had experience as an SE would be an understatement. (17 years now I believe?) Anyway, I took this job as a "stepping stone" to get into Japan like an idiot. I took a regular role, mediocre pay, for a big B2C firm in Japan. None of it matched my usual SME/tech lead/fin tech/B2E profile but like an idiot I decided it was best for my _lifestyle_ than my career. They told me the job was cutting edge, that they used my preferred tech stack and followed the same principles I care about (CD, TDD, EDD, FP, etc). I'm used to getting lied to in interviews but I assume one or two things will remain true and that they're at least STRIVING for the values they espouse even if they're not anywhere close. I take the job, I get to Tokyo, I start the role. First task? Update a batch job. Now, I hadn't seen a batch job in years by this point, I'd seen similar things, but the idea of running a batch process rather than have everything event driven was like taking a 5 year step backwards. I mentioned this to my manager, I didn't say anything controvertial just "so we don't use event driven engineering here?" he replies "That's not how we do things here, and there's no way you can change that". I was taken aback, I asked very diplomatically about the state of the company and got a pointed and honestly harsh response. EVERY SINGLE QUESTION in the last two years has been answered that way by him. "That's not how things are done here" and "You can't change that". I just have to implement shitty little tasks that even a shred of proper engineering of the system would basically make redundant and that's it. Oh and a LOT Of writing shit up on wikis, more than when I was a department head of 40 people. Literally I do MORE writing now than when I was in charge of 4 teams, 5 if you include the fact I was also head of the data science team despite being woefully underqualified for that position. So I'm still working there, currently just wasting my now extremely burnt out demotivated time on KZitem abusing my WFH privileges because I hate my job so passionately I'd rather be fired than do any work. I used to be so ambitious I'd harm personal relationships over it, now I don't even care enough to complete a task to add a metric to some boring fucking service I don't care about. I will quit soon, the issue is the market in Tokyo isn't so large I can just quit and be okay.
@TheClintonio
8 ай бұрын
It's funny how I fell so hard into the "stepping stone" section from this video.
@VickieEB
8 ай бұрын
🤕
@citricdemon
2 ай бұрын
Dude, honestly? Just do it anyways and copy his boss. Go over his head or something. Japanese hire Americans because they want loud Americans, not quiet Japanese.
@kahnfatman
3 ай бұрын
HR: "We are family here!" Me: Did you fire your mother and father? Did the Red Guards of Maos get into you recently!?
@ajlau9481
7 ай бұрын
Had an interview with a company for a really cool title called "risk analyst" for a client in the gaming industry. Red flags: 1. The interviewer choked when I told them my expected salary that's reflecting a mid career salary. Turns out HR never read my resume and didn't know I had work experience prior, assumed i was a fresh grad. 2. Work hours are super long and are in shifts that requires the role to be running on a 24/7 basis. Was told I was overqualified for the role...but for the job description, you're never overqualified, it's a constantly evolving field that requires flexibility and new algorithms or ml models to test and deploy etc. again, HR never read my resume to realize i was never fitted for the actual role of being a reddit mod. I put 2 and 2 together and understood that the risk analyst role was simply to be some paid online security guard for the client. that explains why i was considered overqualified and the ridiculous hours. a proper risk analyst position will write algorithms and design ml architecture and deploy them. let the algorithms be the security guards, not the person. felt cheated, the job description misused a lot of those fancy corporate jargon to lure me over.
@KA-wf6rg
4 ай бұрын
Man the comments you gave there about stress, racing thoughts, and family presence is huge. Sometimes we can do that to ourselves. But sometimes the workplace can heavily influence those sorts of things without us even realizing it. I think the past two years I've been at a job like that, where my energy has been sucked out of me where I've felt less energy to devote to my family. But the weird thing is I'm not sure I realized it until recently.
@Hyacsho
8 ай бұрын
It's amazing how similar dev and marketing sectors are. Thanks for this 🙏
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Definitely, a lot of the things I share aren't specific to software developers. I just find we need them explained a little differently to understand how they apply to us.
@Hyacsho
8 ай бұрын
Agreed, so many of your points resonate; and honestly, life is too short and important to sacrifice to the level some toxic companies some how expect. @@HealthyDev
@rynkydynky
7 ай бұрын
For those who tell themselves "I can handle the stress" well, guess what? You body can't. Don't learn this the hard way.
@dissident1337
8 ай бұрын
Been at it since 2006, haven't had a single job in the industry that wasn't toxic. I'm really strongly considering quitting my current job too. I'm certain I need to do something for myself, but I'm so burnt out and I've never been able to establish any degree of autonomy or independence. I'm just gonna get stuck in another job where I'm miserable and where I'll make no headway for myself. I honestly have no idea how people thrive with their careers.
@uranblut
Ай бұрын
Oh man, I can imagine many people can relate. Not that it is of any help.
@nitemunky76
2 ай бұрын
Your initial story of bait and switch is so familiar to me, it's happened to me a couple of times - being completely mis-sold a role. In my case it was a twice in a row - I was ready to quit engineering altogether. Luckily I was headhunted by someone I knew and trusted for my next role.
@adkocol
8 ай бұрын
Job interview, where I supposed to meet with the manager. I call in to the meeting and there are 5 other people joining. HR lady explains those are the team members who will intervew me, because manager don't know much about the role and subject of the job I applied. They asked me to turn on the camera but from their side nobody did it. During interview those team members didn't know what kind of questions to ask, so they were making them up on fly. After 10 minutes manager joined (finally). He introduced himself (with camera off), and he said he has no questions and he will just listen. Job supposed to be hybrid - part of time from the office. Last thing they wanted to check with me at the end of the interview was "in fact job will be in different country than you applied to, but that shouldn't be a problem, right?" Job was from big pharma company. After this interview I thought it was a scam, but I checked them and it wasn't. Red flag on how they are organized and what respect they have to you and your time.
@NoSpeechForTheDumb
Ай бұрын
LOL classic one last small thing you applied in NY but surely won't mind working in LA or not? 😂
@comgamilwebranger
8 ай бұрын
Very correct ..we ignore red flags for the reasons you have mentioned . We need to respect out gut feelings and act on them. Check with people working at the company you interview for and get their input
@ItsBillsFault
25 күн бұрын
I once interviewed for a position at a branch of a gaming megacorp (I'm not naming it, but it's one everyone knows, so take your pick and use your imagination). I was already uneasy by the time I got to go to lunch with the team I'd be working with, but then I talked to them informally over pizza and they told me they were probably still a month or two away from the end of a deathmarch crunch and had no idea what was going to happen once the game shipped. I spent the rest of the interview smiling and nodding with the management people who took over and then left the building walking away as fast as I could, shaking my head subtly and muttering "no, nope, no way, no how..." to myself. They offered me a job, but I declined and took a different offer and the place was shut down a few months later. Best decision ever. Trust your gut.
@mr_noodler
5 ай бұрын
This advice applies to all engineering jobs, even outside of software development. I'm a mechanical engineer and I can relate, and so many things this guy says, ring home so hard
@nii-san5485
8 ай бұрын
during a big product launch we were all hands on deck and in the office late 2021... right after a 12 hour day the CEO (micromanager) sits everyone down to lay out the next 6 months of work for each of the 3 most senior programmers, long story short they've all left since then. I'm hoping to join another company that one of those guys went to sometime this year 🤞
@ladeutschevitabyGraziaCosta
8 ай бұрын
At my previous job, I noticed multiple warning signs, but I decided to overlook them. After only a month, the situation deteriorated rapidly, and I could only tolerate it for three months.
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Happens to the best of us. I've been in the same situation, where I couldn't bail immediately. I try to be realistic and put up with a reasonable human level of dysfunction. When it gets next level, is when I don't have an environment I can be successful in!
@Ssalamanderr
8 ай бұрын
Not tech, but my partner was in a super toxic company right out of college. They had a "work hard, play hard" culture with beer Fridays, constant partying, etc. Imagine the CEO of your company pressuring you because you aren't drinking enough. Someone almost drowned during their company camping retreat because everyone was so hammered. They also hired fresh college grads into salaried positions and then made them do dozens of hours of overtime every week. All with the "we're a family" rhetoric.
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
Classic tech bro culture. Never heard of someone almost drowning though. Wow!
@marcohidalgo1101
2 ай бұрын
Was the company Konrad Group? Numerous Glassdoor reviews of them say they look down on you if you don't join their drinking parties.
@mauricioac
Ай бұрын
I can relate to so many points, across so many videos. Not sure if I should laugh or cry
@HealthyDev
Ай бұрын
Hang in there. I don't make these to upset people - just to help them know they aren't alone, and try to encourage them they can get through it. I don't always pull it off and sometimes it's too negative. I'm working on it.
@bananadane
2 ай бұрын
😅 The exact same thing talked about in the start of your video happened to me and it is so freaking cathartic to hear somebody else describe it. I got so turned upside down by the experience. Thank you for making this, And sharing your story, It has really helped me
@HealthyDev
Ай бұрын
Sorry you had to experience that too. Glad this helped you know you're not alone, at least!
@perboeggild
2 күн бұрын
The relational impact list is a fantastic advice ❤
@ebx
2 ай бұрын
I regret joining my current job so much. Worst part is that i rejected another job that was probably better. This video is really helpful now that im finding a new one, knowing what to ask is really great.
@ebx
27 күн бұрын
Just an update: I actually asked the correct questions and found a WAY better job. I'm glad I watched this!
@capt.sparrow8898
5 ай бұрын
My current project is nightmare. The client has kept 10 different teams from 10 different companies to work on one single web application. And there is so much stupid way of measuring performance of teams, bugs are considered so bad that every team just tries to push it to other team and try to stay clean from bugs, this alone has made me go crazy... On top of that the architects are idiots, the process is stupid, there are just 2 development sprints out of which 1st goes in design most of time and very less development, no matter how big estimations are they just want things ready by sprint 2. Bugs keep coming and we have to do them as we do development of current features which sucks lol... The process :- sprint 1 and 2 are dev, 3rd is qa, 4th is for preparation of next cycle and cleanup. But they fking deploy the features so late and testing continues even after new cycle starts, so previous feature bugs we have to keep fixing while working on current feature development. There was one feature where we had refactor one whole section which was not a joke, and only one architect had worked on it that too 3-4 years ago, and no one else was familiar with the code, and guess what the idiot architect said he will allow max 10 days estimation, our team lead somehow pushed it to 26 days which was still not enough its like 2 months work lol... And our internal team is more shit than this client, as i said before they want this by sprint 2, sprint 1 went in design phase and basic structure, sprint 2 which is just 10 days only 2 devs worked when our team lead said 4 devs will work..and after 10 days with just 2 devs working they want things ready lol...We had big drama and its still happening and this has killed whole teams motivation to work lol...And our team lead sucks he is just good in taking calls, he doesn't know the code because of that he made us do design and all and wasted our sprint 1 when he was supposed to prepare deign and basic structure before sprint 1 starts, and he made only 2 devs work when we clearly said we need 4 devs working on this... One resource left, we got overloaded, then they brought one so called full stack developer with 10 years exp who had no idea about front end he couldn't even use inspect tools to find CSS and he left within week, we have been just overloaded since past 4-5 months, and our development is stretching till 4th sprint lol and we worked 2 weekends straight ... and this refactoring just exploded it...and all 4 developers put resignation
@trafficface
8 ай бұрын
Day one, if it doesn’t go right it’s time to go. I got 2 months and I ignored a lot to. Just don’t do it, they might seem really nice and narcissistic at the same time.
@zaldabus
8 ай бұрын
I have experienced every single thing you mentioned in this video, including the project underestimated by a factor of 4
@HealthyDev
8 ай бұрын
This is way more common than people realize. They just don't like to look at the history of the project with honest, clear eyes.
@davet4051
8 ай бұрын
Thanks! Great advice for everyone, not just SW developers.
@JohnThompson-u7x
8 ай бұрын
I'd like to add a reed flag, pre-recorded interviews. Why do we need to do a TikTok video?
@BittermanAndy
7 ай бұрын
That happens?
@JohnThompson-u7x
7 ай бұрын
Sadly, yes@@BittermanAndy
@uranblut
Ай бұрын
Wtf :)
@SpaceMonkey23101
5 ай бұрын
What really puzzles me is: why do these toxic environments exist? I don't understand why people create such ridiculous and/or hostile situations. Maybe a subject for a future video?
@HealthyDev
5 ай бұрын
Because all people are inherently driven by self interest. And when those people get into power, without humility and experience they tend to create environments that make work hell for their own comfort.
@Saturn2888
4 ай бұрын
I was working a super toxic job (I've worked quite a few), but this one had me pulling 100-140 hours a week IN THE OFFICE. I was the guy who turned off the lights. They fired me a year later with no severance. Was I pissed? Oh yeah. I didn't let that go for months. And what I got out of it was a much better job where my boss wouldn't let me work more than 40 hours a week, and now, that's normal. It's 5p? I'm out unless it's a rare case where I think it's worth my time to stay longer. I have 3 kids now, and when I was working that other job, my wife and I had a kid for 6 months before I was fired. She told me she was contemplating leaving because of how much I was working. And what did I get out of it? LITERALLY NOTHING but stress. I glad I used that trauma in my life and the coding experience to grow because the desperation could've lead me to yet another slaver's job.
@citricdemon
2 ай бұрын
Yeah, and a new wife
@Saturn2888
2 ай бұрын
@@citricdemon no, she stuck with me the whole time
@citricdemon
2 ай бұрын
@@Saturn2888 yeah, i can read. did you forget writing she was contemplating leaving? because that's what i'm talking about
@mikesveganlife4359
2 ай бұрын
I think those I interview are a little surprised about how transparent I can be during a hiring manager interview. I'm looking for the right person for this role, so why wouldn't I want to make sure they know what we are looking for, what working on the team is like, and all of that to make sure they feel it would be a valuable place to be. Not every role is perfect for every person.
@H33t3Speaks
Ай бұрын
Brilliant advice that spans industries. It’s about people and their personalities just as much as the work load and the expectations.
@gauloise6442
4 ай бұрын
They talk about the company like its a cult and talk about the owner is if he is a charismatic leader. They try to change your language, by making you call really common things by their terminology. You ask them specific questions about concerns/unhappiness about your job and they just ghost you or tell you that it is coming in the future (future faking)
@gauloise6442
4 ай бұрын
I had the same thing happen to me, they hired me for a senior role then had me doing entry level Project Manager work, I think because they were having problems with younger people doing things in a half-baked manner. I would bring up that I am not a PM and didnt want to be one, and they kept kicking the can down the road, telling me the great things they had in store for me once they sorted things out behind the scenes, but when I asked for specifics it was just vague "it will be amazing" I lasted 9 months before I bounced (while taking a 3 month unpaid leave to travel Europe in the middle) but it really affected me negatively and undermined my confidence because it was so degrading doing such menial tasks, and I am still recovering from the manipulation and game playing. It's not like you quit a toxic place and then everything is rosy. They kill a little something on the inside. My only solace is that with the 3 month European travel leave, I at least kept them dangling and screwed them over as much as they did me.
@xcoder1122
8 ай бұрын
How do you know a tech company is toxic? By the fact that it is a tech company. Extra toxic if it is a startup tech company. There are millions of companies today in this world that develop software and employ software developers but would never call themselves a tech company. That's because technology is something you use, not something you produce. E.g. a car company uses all kind of technology, they develop software, they develop hardware, they have programmers, they have engineers, but they don't produce tech, they produce cars. For them technology is a tool and not the goal. If a company cannot even tell you on one sentence the products they produce, they don't have a specific category of products and that's the biggest red flag of all. I know what you think. What about companies like Google or Apple or Microsoft, that produce pretty much everything, from cell phones to game consoles, from operating system to cloud services? But that concept only worked for a handful of companies in the entire world, that's why there are so few, that's why they are the valuable, that's why they are so big and trust me, those companies burn people like crazy! That's partially due to the fact that every 5-10 years their entire business focus shifts. Compare that to companies that produce the kind of products for 50 to 100 years. You say you have a tech company if your company is about everything and that effectively means it's about nothing. If your company has a true purpose to exist and is a real business, you can come up with a better description than "tech company". If your company makes software, then you are a "software company" and not a "tech company". Then there is a clear focus and then you know what to expect as a developer. Actually most companies are even more specific, as they don't just make any kind of software, they make very specific software, e.g. "banking software" or "manufacturing control software" or "car entertainment software". And you don't need to work for a software company at all, e.g. you may like to write device drivers for a hardware manufacturer that produces a specific kind of hardware. Trust me, those are usually the good jobs, as here software is not what everything is all about, software is just a gear in the gearbox and you will be working with all kind of different people, like electric engineers, product designers, etc. And those kind of companies cannot afford to burn people, as they need to build up a team and once they have a team, everyone in the team is equally important for the final product and you cannot rip teams apart just like that, as that will cause the entire production to suffer for months. In those companies you are part of the team, part of the company and not an easily replaceable work slave code hacker. You cannot be fired just because some manager has a bad day. In those companies the manager is the most replaceable person of the team, as it always should be, since it's his job to manage everything and if things don't work well, he has failed at his job and he cannot simply pass on that failure downwards, put the blame on some team members, fire them and continue as if nothing has happened. You don't hire manager to shame and blame and fire people, as that's a job every monkey can do. You hire them to manage risk, to manage problems and to manage failure; that's why they are named managers.
@SvetlinNikolovPhx
Ай бұрын
Real life situation: A lead interviews for a backfill position. Two months in, several good candidates have completed the interview process and a few more are near completion. C-level management decides to close the position. The lead has only one junior developer in the team at this point so the lead figures out his team is being killed, so he throws in his resignation. The C-levels reopen the closed position as they realize they need to save face in front of the company and the clients. Ultimately one of the candidates gets hired. Imagine all the red flags and what this candidate was told - "well yeah, the person who interviewed you is now gone so there is no team lead anymore, but thanks to that, we had the budget to hire you so... welcome aboard and we hope you enjoy this awesome environment! :D"
@HealthyDev
Ай бұрын
Damn! That's wild.
@KimJImagery
8 ай бұрын
Not everyone has the luxury to be choosy about the job they go for people like me have to get a job no matter how toxic it is so I can pay the bills and stay off the streets.
@SJ-oxy
2 ай бұрын
My lesson learned after a long career -- if you REALLY want to work at a startup, make sure it's YOUR startup. I saw so many of my friends working 100 hours a week in the hope for an IPO that either never came, or was structured in a way that no one but the founders (and the VCs) made any money. The backstabbing you saw in "The Social Network" is the tip of the iceberg.
@aa-km1nk
Ай бұрын
One of the more interesting bits of advice i was given by one mentor, is to always put in your employment contract that at least one share of stock vests on day 1 of your employment, though if the company is already listed on the stock exchange, then buy one share BEFORE you interview with them. This gives you minority stockholder rights, including your right to sue the company staff as a minority stockholder. "You're damaging the value of my investment by your poor business practices."
@HealthyDev
Ай бұрын
Interesting tip! I'm not sure if most engineers would want to spend the resources and time to pursue a lawsuit, but having it as an option is definitely some leverage that would be worth consideration.
@I_am_who_I_am_who_I_am
8 ай бұрын
I've been in the industry for more than 20 years. Your video was much appreciated.
@NoahNobody
8 ай бұрын
I've gone to one of these companies because I needed that first job experience. I lasted 6 months and I hated every minute, but it got me the experience I needed to get me my second and current job, which I like.
@InconspicuousChap
8 ай бұрын
The problem with the red signs that there are literally so many of them that it's easy to check a subset and left the rest unchecked. It's like a minefield, one wrong step, and it blows up in your face, but fortunately, unlike the real sapper, you have got a few tries.
@doesthingswithcomputers
2 ай бұрын
I have never thought the following in my life: This is an excellent reflection on one’s career experience. No method of resolution for the viewers. We take toxic jobs because that is all there is. People lie, often you cannot catch it before its too late. You learn like this guy does and gradually work your way out of it.
@allo1579
8 ай бұрын
When you join not a software team (maybe engineering) and they say “with your experience, we have so many plans for you”. Very soon on your argument that it take solid time to develop anything properly they will say “but that’s why we hired you, so u did it 5 times faster”
@Marva123
8 ай бұрын
I very much agree with setting boundaries on work-life balance.
@rafaelzeffa
8 ай бұрын
I had a very similar experience in my Career. Because of this short experience in my CV, recruiters always asked my why did you stay only 5 months in this company? I ended up removing this experience from my Resume.
@RyuEnGamer
2 ай бұрын
“We’re building the ship as we’re flying it” Translation: We have no clue what we’re doing and have no intention on changing that.
@H33t3Speaks
Ай бұрын
Remember, the only optional component of flight is take-off.
@parkourninja21
8 ай бұрын
I'm an attorney interviewing for law firms and this tips are applicable and helpful. Thank you!
@nikolaybilov9539
8 ай бұрын
My new job is developer in a bank. It is a department of hell on earth. Nasty and completely insane security, plenty of damn passwords. In my opinion architects of this system are psychopaths their main aim to break a will of an employee, and the security is only a perfect excuse for it. They set company site , an awful one with jumping bright pictures and even dialogue forms sometimes as default page of a browser and it is forbidden to change it
@uranblut
Ай бұрын
Do I know you? Sounds like my employer :P.
@vivianriver6450
4 ай бұрын
I once attended a user group hosted at a small, local tech shop. I had a conversation with one of the company reps there that went something like: Me: "Hi there! Nice shop you have here. I suppose you must have hosted this group because you hoped that the group would attract talented people to your place and you might find new hires that way." Them: "Yes, of course." Me: "Then please tell me about your company. What do you do?.... What is your tech stack?.... Finally, I asked, "What kind of hours do you keep around here?" Them: "We're usually here morning to afternoon, Monday thru Friday, but sometimes late when there's something urgent." Me: ...silent Them: "Sometimes, we'll stay here overnight when something needs to be done." Me: ...stilent Them: "I can't tell my customer that his product is going to be late because one of my developers has to play his X-Box." That was pretty much the end of the conversation.
@ishimoto9762
8 ай бұрын
Great points sir. I’m learning a lot from you. I would be glad if you can make a video compiling some of the critical questions a developer would have to ask during an interview 🙏🏾
@parkourninja21
8 ай бұрын
I agree, that's what I'm scrolling the comments for :) A video compilation, please!
@Ch17638
3 ай бұрын
It is also vital to learn how to professionally decline companies that do not fit your requirements; in my experience, companies are usually one hiring/firing of a manager/owner/CIO away from a positive culture shift, and you do not want to be blackballed from future opportunities by HR or the recruiter they are using as it's easy for them to create the perception that you are challenging to work with rather than work on flaws. Avoid being critical on a personal level when declining or pointing to specific people who said and/or did something unless they did something unprofessional.
@Kfjssms
4 ай бұрын
I like the guitar breaks as they help me digest what I just heard. Great content!
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