Fairytale Kingdom Nix Solutions
Hello dear readers. I'll tell you a story that happened to me before I moved to live in Russia.
Background
My story begins in 2019 in the city of Kharkov (Ukraine). I, a typical self-taught person without courses or any experience, still decide to find a relatively stable job with prospects for career growth. My gaze falls on IT. Fortunately, at that time I had quite a lot of IT specialist acquaintances, and I received detailed instructions for action. Let's skip the boring process of sending out resumes and failing at job interviews, but in the end my search led me to the very place that we will talk about today.
Fairytale Kingdom Nix Solutions
In 2019, the company was quite large, especially for Kharkov. She was engaged in outsourcing in IT and desperately needed juniors in almost all areas. Because of this, everyone considered her to be a kind of forge of IT personnel. There was also EPAM, which was much inferior in terms of “entering IT,” but that’s not what we’re talking about. For any newcomer, two bright ten-story offices in the very center of the city and the company’s catchy merch already had a somewhat intoxicating effect. Plus the effect of novelty and the aroma of new life prospects. It seemed very strange, of course, that according to its corporate culture the company calls itself a “fairy-tale kingdom,” its employees “residents/subjects,” and the owner the “King.” But to me, as a newcomer who finally got into the coveted IT department, this did not seem unusual, although it should have been the first bell. Special greetings to the King – Igor Braginsky aka Garrick. Monarchists, don't miss this great opportunity to get your dream job!
Kingdom life
The processes for such a galley were organized quite well, both internal and external, which additionally turned off vigilance. People, for the most part, were friendly, welcoming and ready to help. Well, or they seemed so, since other behavior was STRICTLY contrary to corporate culture. The projects were varied: from local nonames in UA and RU to IBM, Lenovo and so on. Accordingly, there was a burdensome legacy, there were new projects, there was everything that created a good visibility of opportunities and the absence of stagnation. The company also conducted internal and external training on various aspects of various specialties in IT. I think I was very lucky with the team, which kept me there for so long. I understand and forgive Lida, since he is a cog in this system and could not do otherwise. I wish them all health and all the best. In general, I wish this for everyone except the elite represented by the King and his closest hangers-on. However, if everything were so fabulous, this text would not exist, so we move from the world of pink fairies to harsh reality.
Decor
Everything here is standard for Ukraine at that time. Individual entrepreneur (individual entrepreneur) – then a contract for the provision of services and oars in hand. It should be noted that there were vacations and sick leave paid at a lower rate. But since you are an individual entrepreneur, you actually rented space in the office and were a service provider with all that it entails.
Salary
Salaries were significantly below the market in almost all areas. They paid hourly with various jokes in odds plus bonuses. Disclosing my salary was prohibited by the NDA, like many other things. But few people cared. An insane number of people, my respect to them, did not stay there longer than a year or two, sufficient to start a career. After which they went on to conquer the IT seas, earning 1.5-3 times more than in the “kingdom”. There were also quite a lot of loyal people who worked in one place for more than 5 years. But I’m just sure that with their stability and diligence they would have had much more, having changed 3-4 companies during this time. The condition for salary growth was the so-called DM (personal growth plan), which you agreed with your lead and were obliged to carry out once every six months, so that your salary would be at least slightly revised.
The decision maker was a complete fool and usually consisted of a hodgepodge of things, and sometimes of frankly abstract nonsense like “get more involved in teamwork” without clear criteria. This was VERY annoying, since the decision maker was actually the ONLY condition for a salary increase. The company tried with all its might to turn employees into “excellent students”, so that everyone would run for a good grade and an abstract “I did well,” and the results of the main work were more considered as attendance, if there were no problems with efficiency. So it turned out that in addition to the fact that you learn to perform your tasks better, master new techniques and technologies, deepen your understanding of the project and begin to participate more actively in its processes, you have to beat your head with these decision-makers. For the students, the line is invisible, but the rest were very unimpressed.
COVID
The virus arrived, and, to some extent, became a great blessing, but more on that later. At that time, the company had 80% of the infrastructure ready in order to completely transfer the majority of people to full remote work (not counting office system administrators and employees similar in their occupation). However, the King resisted to the last, because for him, people working remotely are not effective enough and must be at the workplace (rented, of course). This greatly worsened the epidemiological situation. The order to switch to remote work was nevertheless announced, but this happened AFTER a bunch of people got sick. I’m not talking about the “King’s letters”, in which at the very beginning he completely denied the existence of the virus. Remote work has become an excellent opportunity to look at all processes from the outside, adequately assessing the pros and cons. I confess, I was small and stupid, I decided to stay in the company. Like, the team is like a family, and the project is interesting. Experience, comrades, is not always free.
SVO
Since this is a sore subject, I will try to convey only the main points without making value judgments regarding what happened. Only “kingdom”, only hardcore.
Let's start with the fact that the country's leadership knew about February 24, top business knew, and our King knew too. While many companies exported people in ADVANCE with entire families to Europe or at least to the western regions of the Square, our fabulous ruler took his sirloin to Budapest, taking with him those closest to him, from where he later broadcast, writing his letters to his subjects. All the company could offer us was to sit out in the parking lot under the office center for the first time, since there were some supplies of water and Wi-Fi there. They also brought a generator and there was an opportunity to take a shower. We slept on the asphalt of the parking lot, throwing cardboard and pillows from chairs and sofas over it. Thank you, we were able to organize the delivery of food for some time. They left a couple of people from the security service and those in charge with us. They promised to take those who were stuck in Kharkov, at least to the west of the country by train or buses. Spoiler: we were simply abandoned. In an atmosphere of some kind of social experiment, we spent almost several weeks in the basement. People were slowly going crazy, and I was no exception. On the first of March, an order came from the King: “Work, slaves, you have concrete over your heads, you have access to the Internet and electricity, you have food.” Week of war. Well, you understand what it’s like for people to work under stress, waiting for a rocket to arrive and with no prospects for the future, worrying about their loved ones. However, it should be noted that the “excellent student syndrome” worked well here too, many proudly ran to wave their picks for the gentleman, after all, contracts in general. Stifling underground parking with critical levels of CO2, families with children, beds scattered on the floor and hard-working “intellectuals”. And all this in an atmosphere of continuous panic, lack of real information and growing madness. Kharkov, 21st century, oil painting. It all ended with no one taking anyone anywhere. The company has screwed us over. The guards said that we were leaving the building because it was a strategic point and someone would occupy it. All.
At this point, in my head, I not only quit there, I became completely resistant to rose-colored glasses for the rest of my days. You can search for the letters of Igor Braginsky aka Garrick aka the King on the Internet. People were throwing something online, for which they received real threats from him to find and punish him. This is how all the fairytale kingdoms ended for me; I can no longer believe in any corporate culture/team-family/interesting tasks, even if I wanted to.
Conclusion
This text was written for those who still have illusions about their privilege due to the “fashionable” and “necessary” “highly paid” work in the IT industry. The goal of any company is to make a profit. Everything else is measures to maximize it. As long as we have a market, your goal is to sell yourself as dearly as possible and do as little as possible for this. Learn, raise your price, don’t stay in your job for more than a couple of years, develop your consciousness and subjectivity, even if it seems to you that you have already understood this life to the end. Socrates will not let you lie. Don't believe in interesting tasks and “family”. Don't be loyal to the company. This is how you will come to really interesting tasks and really decent pay for your work.
I sincerely wish you peace, good luck and health!
