March 23, 2009 at 22:52So the bubbles burst?
The financial crisis that struck us last year touched almost all sectors of the economy, without leaving behind the sphere of high technology. Startups, until the winter of last year, bred like mushrooms, gifted with a monetary rain of investment funds, were put in difficult conditions - this is especially true for those projects whose development took place during the recession. Many resources have been suspended or minimized.
In this topic I want to talk about one campaign in which I happened to take a direct part - the development of a new social network. I will not specifically indicate either the name of the network or the names - this will be correct.
In early June 2008, having decided to try my luck, I went to Moscow - at that moment, I considered myself a good programmer, ready to work in a serious company. Immediately upon arrival in the capital, I was scheduled several interviews in different companies - they offered approximately the same financial conditions, which in my case was perhaps the determining factor.
As a result of the first interview with the technical director of the company (hereinafter referred to as the TD), I decided to stay in this company - I liked the working conditions and development prospects described by the TD so colorfully (and it is worth saying that much of the promise was fulfilled, and I think if it wouldn’t be a crisis - everything would come true, however I am getting ahead of myself).
The organization was new - in fact, I became the first ordinary employee - a web programmer, except for me the company consisted of directors: General, Technical, Creative, PR-Director - their abundance first rippled in my eyes.
The first, and probably the second working week was not remembered by anything special, but even then I had questions: how the project will develop, in which direction (technically) we will move. There was no technical task, there was no objective project scheme — there was only an idea, everything was “in my head,” as TD said. It was very difficult to understand initially how the system will be built - because my first three weeks were essentially wasted - almost all that code, with the exception of a few working classes, and some developments in the structure were later rejected. Even then we were wasting time.
A little later, about three weeks later, a leading programmer (VP) appeared, whose arrival was waiting for some time until he solved his problems, with his appearance at the very beginning, probably during the week the work began to boil - the project structure was drawn up, the VP sketched a skeleton a project, using the classes that I collected and wrote, which was accepted.
After that, in the last month of summer - the work froze. And there are a number of reasons for this:
1) The connivance of the leadership — there was practically no our General in the summer — sunbathed in the south; TD is a very kind and pleasant person, comrade, but unfortunately, he is not a manager, this is not his path.
2) It flowed from the first point: we began to be lazy. There was a week when, instead of working, we lost to online games, and all this went on with the active participation of the TD.
3) Oh yes, then we bought Wii - another week is lost.
4) Birthday after birthday (at that time the organization numbered about 10 people) - it was necessary to have time to eat all the cakes and other goodies in store for the birthday man.
The initial lack of a clear technical task, the lack of a real goal and objectives statement led to the fact that by September 1 we had a semi-disassembled project - a bunch of code that sometimes interacted with each other.
The general returned - tanned, pleased, but looking at the state of affairs, was upset - the tan remained. Ordeals began with the design of the project. A lot of money was allocated to develop the corporate identity and design of the project - the company, in general, coped with the company. style, frankly ruined the development of the project template.
After that, several more companies were also involved in the development, which also successfully failed the project.
Although it is probably more correct to say, it’s not another matter that the contracting companies have failed the project. The quality of the design layout was evaluated by two people: the general and creative directors - these are professionals in their field, but not on the Internet, not in site building, and therefore, sometimes we took our heads off from their remarks, trying to explain to them that the Internet other standards, other solutions are suitable here.
Therefore, I can say for sure: only professionals should deal with each business!
Time went on, and there were problems with the design, for some time on the beta version of the project there was even an option drawn by VP. A nightmare - and this with such financial and administrative capabilities !!!
By the way, it’s worth mentioning about them separately: huge amounts of money were allocated for the project, and the administrative opportunities due to the kind of people and money involved in the project are simply impressive.
In a hurry, a designer was hired by the staff - after that, finally a design layout appeared, which is still being used on the site.
Then it became more fun. The management, represented by the general, trying to somehow rectify the situation, invited a person to the team who, in theory, was to become the chief editor of the project (GR). GR, having come to the team, at first everyone didn’t like it at all, the girl-designer suffered especially from him, then after getting used to the requirements, we all got used to GR, and later he became “ours”.
The invitation of GR, bringing with it a generally good goal, led to the opposite effect - he did not immediately understand what this project was - and in fact proposed to rebuild it into a sort of mini-hub, of which he was apparently an admirer. The General ordered to fulfill all the wishes of GR. And it began ...
After each meeting between the GR and the general one, the “concept changed”, not taking into account the code already written, and we, the programmers had to rewrite some parts of the code several times a day - it infuriated. Many of the ideas adopted before the GR, which have been spent a lot of time, have sunk into oblivion, as unnecessary. For example, I spent a week studying the Jabber protocol for organizing an online messaging system between project participants through the appropriate site functionality, it was possible to organize, for example, an online conference between members of one community - all this was forgotten - probably still, this code is lying around server sprinkled with ashes. It’s good that I managed to save time and defend Sphinx in the search for what is important for a project like this.
The concept was changing, and changing ... Tired. They began to work seven days a week, and it was too late - of course, no one paid us for this.
And in view of the crisis that broke out, they began to delay salaries, began to save on everything - they even stopped buying water for the office.
I had to leave for a few days in my historical homeland. Arriving in Moscow, they asked me to write a statement on my own, and not just me. Well, it happens that it’s not one of me who left, another is interesting.
In accounting, the money accrued for unused vacation was transferred to salary cards, but the general acted cunningly.
We were all asked to write a letter of leave at our own expense for the month preceding the dismissal, and thus the company was able to not pay us officially for this month. As was said, the money deposited on the card (those that are for vacation) is our advance, that is, two birds with one stone were killed with one sum. The rest was given in an envelope, and even more ridiculous money was given less than it should be and TD from my personal funds compensated me for what we had not completed.
Many may object immediately it was not necessary to sign anything. Not necessary, but at that moment I wanted the best, and honestly, expecting the same from the management. I got something else: no advance, no money for worked half a month.
So the bubble burst.
ps probably missed something, but not the point.
In this topic I want to talk about one campaign in which I happened to take a direct part - the development of a new social network. I will not specifically indicate either the name of the network or the names - this will be correct.
In early June 2008, having decided to try my luck, I went to Moscow - at that moment, I considered myself a good programmer, ready to work in a serious company. Immediately upon arrival in the capital, I was scheduled several interviews in different companies - they offered approximately the same financial conditions, which in my case was perhaps the determining factor.
As a result of the first interview with the technical director of the company (hereinafter referred to as the TD), I decided to stay in this company - I liked the working conditions and development prospects described by the TD so colorfully (and it is worth saying that much of the promise was fulfilled, and I think if it wouldn’t be a crisis - everything would come true, however I am getting ahead of myself).
The organization was new - in fact, I became the first ordinary employee - a web programmer, except for me the company consisted of directors: General, Technical, Creative, PR-Director - their abundance first rippled in my eyes.
The first, and probably the second working week was not remembered by anything special, but even then I had questions: how the project will develop, in which direction (technically) we will move. There was no technical task, there was no objective project scheme — there was only an idea, everything was “in my head,” as TD said. It was very difficult to understand initially how the system will be built - because my first three weeks were essentially wasted - almost all that code, with the exception of a few working classes, and some developments in the structure were later rejected. Even then we were wasting time.
A little later, about three weeks later, a leading programmer (VP) appeared, whose arrival was waiting for some time until he solved his problems, with his appearance at the very beginning, probably during the week the work began to boil - the project structure was drawn up, the VP sketched a skeleton a project, using the classes that I collected and wrote, which was accepted.
After that, in the last month of summer - the work froze. And there are a number of reasons for this:
1) The connivance of the leadership — there was practically no our General in the summer — sunbathed in the south; TD is a very kind and pleasant person, comrade, but unfortunately, he is not a manager, this is not his path.
2) It flowed from the first point: we began to be lazy. There was a week when, instead of working, we lost to online games, and all this went on with the active participation of the TD.
3) Oh yes, then we bought Wii - another week is lost.
4) Birthday after birthday (at that time the organization numbered about 10 people) - it was necessary to have time to eat all the cakes and other goodies in store for the birthday man.
The initial lack of a clear technical task, the lack of a real goal and objectives statement led to the fact that by September 1 we had a semi-disassembled project - a bunch of code that sometimes interacted with each other.
The general returned - tanned, pleased, but looking at the state of affairs, was upset - the tan remained. Ordeals began with the design of the project. A lot of money was allocated to develop the corporate identity and design of the project - the company, in general, coped with the company. style, frankly ruined the development of the project template.
After that, several more companies were also involved in the development, which also successfully failed the project.
Although it is probably more correct to say, it’s not another matter that the contracting companies have failed the project. The quality of the design layout was evaluated by two people: the general and creative directors - these are professionals in their field, but not on the Internet, not in site building, and therefore, sometimes we took our heads off from their remarks, trying to explain to them that the Internet other standards, other solutions are suitable here.
Therefore, I can say for sure: only professionals should deal with each business!
Time went on, and there were problems with the design, for some time on the beta version of the project there was even an option drawn by VP. A nightmare - and this with such financial and administrative capabilities !!!
By the way, it’s worth mentioning about them separately: huge amounts of money were allocated for the project, and the administrative opportunities due to the kind of people and money involved in the project are simply impressive.
In a hurry, a designer was hired by the staff - after that, finally a design layout appeared, which is still being used on the site.
Then it became more fun. The management, represented by the general, trying to somehow rectify the situation, invited a person to the team who, in theory, was to become the chief editor of the project (GR). GR, having come to the team, at first everyone didn’t like it at all, the girl-designer suffered especially from him, then after getting used to the requirements, we all got used to GR, and later he became “ours”.
The invitation of GR, bringing with it a generally good goal, led to the opposite effect - he did not immediately understand what this project was - and in fact proposed to rebuild it into a sort of mini-hub, of which he was apparently an admirer. The General ordered to fulfill all the wishes of GR. And it began ...
After each meeting between the GR and the general one, the “concept changed”, not taking into account the code already written, and we, the programmers had to rewrite some parts of the code several times a day - it infuriated. Many of the ideas adopted before the GR, which have been spent a lot of time, have sunk into oblivion, as unnecessary. For example, I spent a week studying the Jabber protocol for organizing an online messaging system between project participants through the appropriate site functionality, it was possible to organize, for example, an online conference between members of one community - all this was forgotten - probably still, this code is lying around server sprinkled with ashes. It’s good that I managed to save time and defend Sphinx in the search for what is important for a project like this.
The concept was changing, and changing ... Tired. They began to work seven days a week, and it was too late - of course, no one paid us for this.
And in view of the crisis that broke out, they began to delay salaries, began to save on everything - they even stopped buying water for the office.
I had to leave for a few days in my historical homeland. Arriving in Moscow, they asked me to write a statement on my own, and not just me. Well, it happens that it’s not one of me who left, another is interesting.
In accounting, the money accrued for unused vacation was transferred to salary cards, but the general acted cunningly.
We were all asked to write a letter of leave at our own expense for the month preceding the dismissal, and thus the company was able to not pay us officially for this month. As was said, the money deposited on the card (those that are for vacation) is our advance, that is, two birds with one stone were killed with one sum. The rest was given in an envelope, and even more ridiculous money was given less than it should be and TD from my personal funds compensated me for what we had not completed.
Many may object immediately it was not necessary to sign anything. Not necessary, but at that moment I wanted the best, and honestly, expecting the same from the management. I got something else: no advance, no money for worked half a month.
So the bubble burst.
ps probably missed something, but not the point.