Hey everyone, I'm Nemo, long time lurker and a longer post but I've been meaning to talk about my experience as a new graduate-developer, and how I realized big companies don't give two shits about us. One important thing is that I'm not in the US, but the company I worked for created content solely for US, and had the US company culture too. We tested stuff in Europe and Asia and released to the US.
This company had 2 teams, one main team and one side team. I was offered a role in the side team, this being my first ever job, I gladly took it. To give them credit, they were offering me more than all the other companies I was in contact with. The office wasn't too far from my home, it wasn't an open office, we actually had a bit of private space. I worked hard for about 3 months before they offered me to join the main team. I was thrilled and accepted on the spot. I didn't ask for a change in salary, nor did they mention anything about pay increase, even though my responsibilities would get doubled. I now realize how much of a huge mistake this was.
Side Team Leader: Nemo, you did a pretty good job, would you like to join the mai…
Me: Yes!!!
They probably would have given me a bullshit reason even if I had asked, but if I had asked I would have seen the red flag more clearly and would not made the next mistake. Can't really blame them for this one though, I should have asked. I was just so hyped to be a part of real developer team that I just accepted without question.
Then, everything changed when the economy attacked… My countries currency literally halved in value in a span of 4 months. Which is beyond crazy. I went from making 1000x dolars a month to 500x (after conversion from local currency).
Around the same time, I recieved an offer for a remote position that paid 2000x in dollars, meaning I wouldn't be as affected by devaluation. I was pretty(extremely) tempted, but I liked my job and the people I was working with.
So, I gathered my courage and talked to the HR manager (who was also the person who hired me)
I asked for a dolar based salary, and to double my salary just to get back to what I was earning.
To give him credit again, he was very understanding and said that he would do whatever he could.
A few days later, they offered me 750x dolars, but in local currency…
This was my second huge mistake, I accepted their offer for 750x… I really wish I hadn't and just taken the other offer. The fact that I didn't might seem ridiculus, but I was just getting used to this company and becoming an actual part of it, I really did not want to leave, even though I was earning less than what I had started with. I had to wrong idea that they would “take care of me” if the economic crisis continued. It did… and they didn't…
I kept working hard for the next few months, until the compancy moved its office to literally another continent. (guess which country :p) My commute went from 1.5 hours per day to 3 hours per day. This drained my energy and time significantly. And the new office was of the “open” type.
– Side note: One time a coworker poked me in the shoulder for 2 minutes straight to get my attention. I was listening to music and coding. When I was finally like “Wtf is on my shoulder?” and turned around he was surprised I was a bit pissed. Stop distracting me and send a message on Slack or something my dude.. Please.. Fuck open offices.
Along with draining my time and energy, I was earning about nothing as our economy crashed into oblivion. I had to get help from my parents and bring my quality of life down just to survive.
I wanted to move closer to the new office, but my rent would go up from 2500y to 8000y, and I would be at a worse neighborhood, in a worse house… Pretty good deal for tripling the rent huh?
I felt a bit stuck. One day, the currency crashed so bad that some people just stopped working. We just kind of hung around in shock and drank beer lol. That was when I realized that this company was using this is an opportunity. Since this company earns in and gets invested in with dollars, it couldn't care less about our situation. From their perspective, they are paying less salary and they can just blame the goverment, which they did, over and over again.
After some pressure, they offered to pay me in dollars (on a fixed rate decided by them), for 800x, and they wouldn't do this with everyone on the team and I couldn't talk about it to anyone. They were like “This is your second raise in 6 months, give us some credit.”. I started with 1000x dude. Come on. I said I would accept 1500x and nothing lower. They said no, and added that the raises they previously gave me were not performance increases(?), so I said im out. I'm not going to work myself out of my health just to live increasingly uncomfortably. The lead developer was weirdly shocked by this. He kept asking me if this was emotional, and that he had made a wrong bet(?).
I completed my tasks, drank a few beers with the people I liked the next day, and left. I would be really misreable now if I hadn't. Before I left though, I talked with HR and the CEO.
I point blank told him I didn't like this tactic of using the economic crash to underpay people.
This hurt because I really liked them personally, and I wanted to dedicate myself to this company. I practically begged them for it, yet they choose to find another person to underpay instead of offering everyone a stable salary. His response? Of course, “I didn't cause the crash, bla bla government…”
So I said, I know you didn't cause the crash, but you can help us be less devastated by it. You earn in dolars, you rented this new office in dollars, why can't you also pay your workers in dollars?
“That's none of your bussiness”
I'm a bit conflicted on this. Maybe it is none of my bussiness. I had been there for less than a year and I'm a pleb in the first year of my career. Yet, if they are to act in the way that is most benifical to them, hiding wages from everyone and not allowing sharing, then making deals with everyone individually just to see how much they can screw them, for how long, then I have to make the choice that is best for me. Because when someone leaves, especially a junior like me, they are rather easy to replace. Is he expecting me to ignore this public knowledge by saying its none of my bussiness? Isn't it my bussiness too?! I'm working everyday there, I'm there more then he is. What am I working for then? Nothing I invested in that company would be paid back, not the time, not the effort, just a salary barely enough to continue working there and do nothing else. I hope it doesn't work out that way for my friends still working there, but I felt it would for me.
It sucks that it had to be like this. I have to think, am I being greedy here? I was earning a pretty good wage for a new graduate when I had first started. But I didn't earn enough to move closer to the office without sacrificing my quality of life significantly. By quality of life we mean being able to buy cheese and veggies comfortably in this country… Which is extremely sad. The house I left got rented for 6000y the day after. More than double my rate… What does this mean for the families living with minimum wage? I'm lucky I have my families support and nothing binding me to that city, so I could leave. I can imagine a lot of people can't, and these companies feed off of them. That is my rather pessimistic view of it anyway.
Sorry this is a really really long post, but I wanted to put down my thoughts and see what you guys might think about different parts of it. Just thinking for a second that they would be thougthful of me cost me a lot. I know I occasionally acted stupid but hey, it a learning experience 🙂 I'm happy with the people I met there and most of the experiences I had. So, in the end its all good, at least for me. Some of my friends see it solely as a monatery issue, but I'm not sure. Working remote for a significantly smaller company, away from office politics and daily meeting where we stand up for 30 minutes listening to what the QA dude did yesterday… feels heavenly now and I wouldn't go back if they offered me 5000x.
So.. That was my 2 cents.. Or this makes a dolar? Do I need to pay in dollars? Hope not 😛
Take care 🙂