December 20, 2017 at 16:47History of the programmer who created Maxilect, 100% working remotely
I started programming by modern standards late, as a student at St. Petersburg State University. The first place of my work was TogetherSoft"In 1998, and for the device there, I needed to perform a test task related to building a Java parser of C ++ code in Java. I performed the task on a 166 Hz Pentium with a “flat” 15 ”monitor from Sony, typed the program text into the“ Far manager ”(I still use it) and compiled it on the command line. I had several weeks to fulfill it (subject to payment in case of success), but only on the last night, in the best traditions of students, I caught a bug (I still remember what kind of mistake it was, since I drank more than one liter instant coffee while I found it). In the afternoon I handed over the result of the test task on a 3.5 ”diskette, received 400 USD for it and was hired by a strong team. My first experience was remote, the result was successful and it suited me quite well, but then I did not attach much importance to this.
I started working in the office, spending 2 hours of my time on the road one way. Then I rented an apartment nearby, left the hostel, and my life changed a lot. I worked a lot, because I clearly understood how much the result of my work affects my future (which could not be said at that moment about all courses in higher mathematics). Subsequently, some of my colleagues created several startups. As a novice developer, I received a high benchmark in terms of personal and team productivity, which subsequently determined my thorny path of development - I tried to continue to work in startups.
In the summer of 1999, I defended my diploma (the topic of which was my work at work, which was more important for me), in April 2000 I left for the USA on an H1B visa, and in 2001 I again had to work remotely, already in Los Angeles. The fact is that in June 2001 I decided to go back to Russia, made a public announcement about it, but my colleagues took it differently, and the employer suggested that I work the last weeks from home. Then I first experienced problems with motivation when working remotely, because they did not expect a special result from me, it was rather a link.
During my stay in the United States, I began to develop a test automation product with another programmer from the Russian Federation. The first entrepreneurial experience was unsuccessful, the partner left the project suddenly (although I “pierced” his work and visa at the company where he worked), and it turned out to be difficult for one to complete all the work. The project did not live up to the first stable release, and I made the right conclusions about what a partner should be and why a startup should not be developed alone.
Having returned to Russia, I did not immediately find a job in the office (and there were no other options then), and while I was searching, my former employer (or rather the manager Kostya, with whom I worked before leaving for the USA) helped me, offering to complete the task by contract, and therefore remotely. This was my third experience of remote work.
Then I worked in the office, worked for the benefit of 2 companies, and in both cases it was “open space”. By that time, I had already read the book Peopleware , and I was a staunch opponent of open spaces, where you sit facing the wall, and behind your back, anyone can look into your monitor. Then I felt low personal productivity indicators, when after helping colleagues on their issues, I did not move forward in solving my programming problems. This was disappointing, and I, as a responsible person, “cheated” myself, worried. The lag problem was solved simply: in one day of work at the weekend I could program more than in a few days of work in the office. This greatly revolted me, but what could I change in that situation?
In 2006, for three consecutive days, I received a negative answer to my question: “Do I want to go to work in the office to program”? I immediately wrote a statement, completed the job and quit my job. It was then no longer in the office, but in programming. I was always the “resultant”, I could circumvent corporate rules to achieve the goal, and realized that programming was for me a profession that I did not want to do further. Those. I came to the conclusion that in programming I didn’t like the process, but the achieved result. All this was accompanied by a desire to develop, gain new knowledge, which is difficult to apply, being in the role of a developer. A logical continuation of my career was the management of teams and projects, for which I was not quite ready. Therefore, the process of self-training began, without which work remotely is unthinkable. I read books, a lot of classics (I read almost all of Dostoevsky, and his books, in the understanding of people, gave me no less than all my past work experience, then I read “Escape from Freedom” by E. Fromm). Due to internal protest against what I saw in the work of companies in which I and my friends worked, I wrote and published severalarticles on “Career programmer”, “Trends in the development of software development market in the Russian Federation” (as I understood it then), I paid special attention to the unprofessionalism of HR services with which I talked a lot and which subsequently led to the creation of the best HR department of all in our company that I’ve ever met, and now partners are turning to us for help in closing positions. One article was written for the cnews portal about the problems of outsourcing companies, and there I did not hesitate in the statements.
The search for work dragged on, but I found a company that risked making me a project manager, but with one condition: I had to gain credibility with those programmers who already worked there. To do this, you had to dive into the theory of stock trading options (3 weeks) and develop a server component for building option spreads (4 weeks). The motivation was beyond the limits, so the brains were seething in the evening, but I did it and became the project manager. The goal has been achieved. I again worked in a strong team, traveled to the United States on business trips, and continued to develop. A year later, I solved the tasks set by the leadership, and this work also began to seem a chore. I was not an experienced project manager then, I had a “book experience” and 1 year of practice, but I wanted to move on. Self-development and ambition have done their job, In 2008, I entered a business school (MBA) and quit my job, graduated in 2010. In 2009, I decided to create my second startup. It was unsuccessful again, but it was only myself who was to blame, and, oddly enough, the knowledge from the business school that I wanted to apply at the start of the project to “do everything right from the very beginning” (instead of drinking instant coffee) prevented me liters and program, which I still knew how). I also remembered this lesson. My "burning startup" eyes were remembered by the girl I met when I was working on this project in New Peterhof: later she became my wife, enduringly enduring me and my 70-100 working hours a week. the knowledge from the business school that I wanted to apply at the start of the project to “do everything right from the very beginning” (instead of drinking instant coffee in liters and programming, which I still knew how to do). I also remembered this lesson. My "burning startup" eyes were remembered by the girl I met when I was working on this project in New Peterhof: later she became my wife, enduringly enduring me and my 70-100 working hours a week. the knowledge from the business school that I wanted to apply at the start of the project to “do everything right from the very beginning” (instead of drinking instant coffee in liters and programming, which I still knew how to do). I also remembered this lesson. My "burning startup" eyes were remembered by the girl I met when I was working on this project in New Peterhof: later she became my wife, enduringly enduring me and my 70-100 working hours a week.
Having spent all my money and received debts, I got an unforgettable experience of interviews, which most often ended in talking with cute recruiting girls. One of them was remembered most of all: it was something unimaginable for me that, after trying to create my company, I came to get a job, it was beyond the scope of her perception of the world, although she herself worked in a private company. In her eyes, I believe, I was a “loser,” in the Russian Federation a completely different attitude to the unsuccessful experiences of startups than in the United States. This all lasted more than a year, and one of my friends told me that I was “non-hirable,” and I agreed with him. As a result, I agreed with former colleagues that I would help them in the development of their business, performing various functions. This is a great company. C-Blues", Now everything is fine with them, they have become a successful food company, but then I had a struggle of contradictions from what I saw: my business is damn complicated, the work of the mountain, exhausting my nerves, but it’s freedom. There I was finally convinced that we still need to create our own “shop”, they used such a funny term to designate a company. But I “blew into the water” after the second unsuccessful startup, I needed more money, there was a wedding ahead, and I went to work as a project manager, suppressing the “entrepreneurial spirit” for some time.
As you might guess, I started working remotely. Remembering that moment of decision making, I perfectly understand those who experience distrust and fear when applying for a job to us. But I had debts again, it was July, I was already married, and there was a prospect of sitting out without work until the fall (and many meetings with pretty girls from HR services, which would have ended). So I took a step forward, after which I did not regret a single drop. The fact is that if before that I had successful personal experience of remote work, then I got experience in the selection of specialists and project management. Subsequently, I headed the “project office”, although in fact I performed the tasks of the operational director, that is the production was completely on me.
And then the circle almost closed. I lacked only experience in marketing and sales (how I received it and why these tasks cannot be given to a “cool specialist with experience” should be written separately). I quit the fall of 2014, and did not want to work for anyone else. But there was no concrete action plan, so it took almost a year for the situation to change. I had no idea for a “star startup”, I already lost my skills as a programmer, so the choice of creating a company for custom software development was logical. It was a small matter, it was necessary to take the next step forward. In complete obscurity, on a fascinating journey through the "Valley of Death", from where 90 +% of startups do not come back alive, and 2 of the dead were mine. I did not have clients whom I took away from the employer. There should have been enough money for 1-1. 5 years of life of a young family (by that time a daughter was born). And I had fear, because family, responsibility, 2 unsuccessful attempts in the past. On the other hand, I already clearly understood that I could not work for anyone but myself. The guys who earned the courses for "young entrepreneurs" helped. I saw VKontakte ads, read, and realized that this is exactly what I need. I went there for a “drive”, which should help, as I thought, to take me a step forward. In some ways, it was like a visit to the “support groups” by Edward Norton's hero in the Fight Club. Expectations were not deceived, and I received that charge of energy that I lacked. Fear was over, but I knew from my lessons that I wouldn’t create a business alone. I needed a partner, or rather 2, that would complement me - one in terms of sales and project management, the second - on the technical side. They turned out to be two of my former colleagues from their last place of work. I called them to a meeting, for which I prepared a presentation on how we should start the company together and why we will succeed. A few days later, the company name was chosen and domains purchased. The company was called "Maxilect ”, and she, thanks to the experience of the founders and market advantages, was doomed to become a company where work is 100% carried out remotely.
The start was hard and painful, realities completely shattered my plans from the presentation, but we went ahead, abruptly changed course and made several “reboots”. 3 months after the start, there were two of us left, and none of us at that time was a technical specialist (although both were programming in the past). Therefore, further, my partner Kirill Antonov and I began to build a business “from sales”, where he had little experience, but I didn’t have it at all (except for selling my idea to create “Maxilect” to him).
The dots got connected, as Steve Jobs correctly noted in his famous speech. Dozens of read articles on topics that were interesting ("without a purpose", as it might seem then) to read to a programmer (about business and management at 23), dozens of unsuccessful interviews, the first remote work back in 1998, and much more, which was difficult to evaluate to connect earlier together - all these “points” came together and helped create the Maxilect company, where there is no place for what prevented me from working as a programmer in the office, but where there is the opportunity to arrange my workplace as you see fit (and the company helps with this), and where e It is a guide that considers its main objective the creation of conditions for effective work of employees. Our HR recruiting department is difficult to distinguish from the sales department, and rightly so. We do not look at the monitor of employees, we do not use any software, allowing you to control the work of a specialist. Instead, we build trusting partnerships, where each of the parties must fulfill its obligations. We do not discriminate on the basis of geographical remuneration, because we don’t care where the specialist works - in St. Petersburg, Ryazan or Tomsk. But there is a flip side to the coin - we have no other way to evaluate the employee’s work, except for the result. And this imposes a serious responsibility, which, unfortunately, not everyone understands. Therefore, we pay no less attention to the verification of readiness to work with us than to the verification of technical skills. We do not discriminate on the basis of geographical remuneration, because we don’t care where the specialist works - in St. Petersburg, Ryazan or Tomsk. But there is a flip side to the coin - we have no other way to evaluate the employee’s work, except for the result. And this imposes a serious responsibility, which, unfortunately, not everyone understands. Therefore, we pay no less attention to the verification of readiness to work with us than to the verification of technical skills. We do not discriminate on the basis of geographical remuneration, because we don’t care where the specialist works - in St. Petersburg, Ryazan or Tomsk. But there is a flip side to the coin - we have no other way to evaluate the employee’s work, except for the result. And this imposes a serious responsibility, which, unfortunately, not everyone understands. Therefore, we pay no less attention to the verification of readiness to work with us than to the verification of technical skills.
Not everyone can work remotely. But those who have worked with us for at least a year and managed to restructure themselves are unlikely to agree to work in the office again, because this is a paradigm shift, people become different, more free and more responsible. I can say for myself 100%: I won’t return to the office, although we have it, without this, I won’t open a company in Russia. As Robert De Niro's hero said in The Heat: “I am never going back (to jail).”
About "Maxilect" today can be found on our website . In short, then:
About how we developed the company from scratch to the state in which we are now , I and my colleagues will talk in subsequent notes on Habré and in our blog . Much of what we have implemented in terms of business processes is truly unique. And we will be happy to share our experience with you. To the connection!
Article author: Maxim Korotkov, General Director, Maxilect
I started working in the office, spending 2 hours of my time on the road one way. Then I rented an apartment nearby, left the hostel, and my life changed a lot. I worked a lot, because I clearly understood how much the result of my work affects my future (which could not be said at that moment about all courses in higher mathematics). Subsequently, some of my colleagues created several startups. As a novice developer, I received a high benchmark in terms of personal and team productivity, which subsequently determined my thorny path of development - I tried to continue to work in startups.
In the summer of 1999, I defended my diploma (the topic of which was my work at work, which was more important for me), in April 2000 I left for the USA on an H1B visa, and in 2001 I again had to work remotely, already in Los Angeles. The fact is that in June 2001 I decided to go back to Russia, made a public announcement about it, but my colleagues took it differently, and the employer suggested that I work the last weeks from home. Then I first experienced problems with motivation when working remotely, because they did not expect a special result from me, it was rather a link.
During my stay in the United States, I began to develop a test automation product with another programmer from the Russian Federation. The first entrepreneurial experience was unsuccessful, the partner left the project suddenly (although I “pierced” his work and visa at the company where he worked), and it turned out to be difficult for one to complete all the work. The project did not live up to the first stable release, and I made the right conclusions about what a partner should be and why a startup should not be developed alone.
Having returned to Russia, I did not immediately find a job in the office (and there were no other options then), and while I was searching, my former employer (or rather the manager Kostya, with whom I worked before leaving for the USA) helped me, offering to complete the task by contract, and therefore remotely. This was my third experience of remote work.
Then I worked in the office, worked for the benefit of 2 companies, and in both cases it was “open space”. By that time, I had already read the book Peopleware , and I was a staunch opponent of open spaces, where you sit facing the wall, and behind your back, anyone can look into your monitor. Then I felt low personal productivity indicators, when after helping colleagues on their issues, I did not move forward in solving my programming problems. This was disappointing, and I, as a responsible person, “cheated” myself, worried. The lag problem was solved simply: in one day of work at the weekend I could program more than in a few days of work in the office. This greatly revolted me, but what could I change in that situation?
In 2006, for three consecutive days, I received a negative answer to my question: “Do I want to go to work in the office to program”? I immediately wrote a statement, completed the job and quit my job. It was then no longer in the office, but in programming. I was always the “resultant”, I could circumvent corporate rules to achieve the goal, and realized that programming was for me a profession that I did not want to do further. Those. I came to the conclusion that in programming I didn’t like the process, but the achieved result. All this was accompanied by a desire to develop, gain new knowledge, which is difficult to apply, being in the role of a developer. A logical continuation of my career was the management of teams and projects, for which I was not quite ready. Therefore, the process of self-training began, without which work remotely is unthinkable. I read books, a lot of classics (I read almost all of Dostoevsky, and his books, in the understanding of people, gave me no less than all my past work experience, then I read “Escape from Freedom” by E. Fromm). Due to internal protest against what I saw in the work of companies in which I and my friends worked, I wrote and published severalarticles on “Career programmer”, “Trends in the development of software development market in the Russian Federation” (as I understood it then), I paid special attention to the unprofessionalism of HR services with which I talked a lot and which subsequently led to the creation of the best HR department of all in our company that I’ve ever met, and now partners are turning to us for help in closing positions. One article was written for the cnews portal about the problems of outsourcing companies, and there I did not hesitate in the statements.
The search for work dragged on, but I found a company that risked making me a project manager, but with one condition: I had to gain credibility with those programmers who already worked there. To do this, you had to dive into the theory of stock trading options (3 weeks) and develop a server component for building option spreads (4 weeks). The motivation was beyond the limits, so the brains were seething in the evening, but I did it and became the project manager. The goal has been achieved. I again worked in a strong team, traveled to the United States on business trips, and continued to develop. A year later, I solved the tasks set by the leadership, and this work also began to seem a chore. I was not an experienced project manager then, I had a “book experience” and 1 year of practice, but I wanted to move on. Self-development and ambition have done their job, In 2008, I entered a business school (MBA) and quit my job, graduated in 2010. In 2009, I decided to create my second startup. It was unsuccessful again, but it was only myself who was to blame, and, oddly enough, the knowledge from the business school that I wanted to apply at the start of the project to “do everything right from the very beginning” (instead of drinking instant coffee) prevented me liters and program, which I still knew how). I also remembered this lesson. My "burning startup" eyes were remembered by the girl I met when I was working on this project in New Peterhof: later she became my wife, enduringly enduring me and my 70-100 working hours a week. the knowledge from the business school that I wanted to apply at the start of the project to “do everything right from the very beginning” (instead of drinking instant coffee in liters and programming, which I still knew how to do). I also remembered this lesson. My "burning startup" eyes were remembered by the girl I met when I was working on this project in New Peterhof: later she became my wife, enduringly enduring me and my 70-100 working hours a week. the knowledge from the business school that I wanted to apply at the start of the project to “do everything right from the very beginning” (instead of drinking instant coffee in liters and programming, which I still knew how to do). I also remembered this lesson. My "burning startup" eyes were remembered by the girl I met when I was working on this project in New Peterhof: later she became my wife, enduringly enduring me and my 70-100 working hours a week.
Having spent all my money and received debts, I got an unforgettable experience of interviews, which most often ended in talking with cute recruiting girls. One of them was remembered most of all: it was something unimaginable for me that, after trying to create my company, I came to get a job, it was beyond the scope of her perception of the world, although she herself worked in a private company. In her eyes, I believe, I was a “loser,” in the Russian Federation a completely different attitude to the unsuccessful experiences of startups than in the United States. This all lasted more than a year, and one of my friends told me that I was “non-hirable,” and I agreed with him. As a result, I agreed with former colleagues that I would help them in the development of their business, performing various functions. This is a great company. C-Blues", Now everything is fine with them, they have become a successful food company, but then I had a struggle of contradictions from what I saw: my business is damn complicated, the work of the mountain, exhausting my nerves, but it’s freedom. There I was finally convinced that we still need to create our own “shop”, they used such a funny term to designate a company. But I “blew into the water” after the second unsuccessful startup, I needed more money, there was a wedding ahead, and I went to work as a project manager, suppressing the “entrepreneurial spirit” for some time.
As you might guess, I started working remotely. Remembering that moment of decision making, I perfectly understand those who experience distrust and fear when applying for a job to us. But I had debts again, it was July, I was already married, and there was a prospect of sitting out without work until the fall (and many meetings with pretty girls from HR services, which would have ended). So I took a step forward, after which I did not regret a single drop. The fact is that if before that I had successful personal experience of remote work, then I got experience in the selection of specialists and project management. Subsequently, I headed the “project office”, although in fact I performed the tasks of the operational director, that is the production was completely on me.
And then the circle almost closed. I lacked only experience in marketing and sales (how I received it and why these tasks cannot be given to a “cool specialist with experience” should be written separately). I quit the fall of 2014, and did not want to work for anyone else. But there was no concrete action plan, so it took almost a year for the situation to change. I had no idea for a “star startup”, I already lost my skills as a programmer, so the choice of creating a company for custom software development was logical. It was a small matter, it was necessary to take the next step forward. In complete obscurity, on a fascinating journey through the "Valley of Death", from where 90 +% of startups do not come back alive, and 2 of the dead were mine. I did not have clients whom I took away from the employer. There should have been enough money for 1-1. 5 years of life of a young family (by that time a daughter was born). And I had fear, because family, responsibility, 2 unsuccessful attempts in the past. On the other hand, I already clearly understood that I could not work for anyone but myself. The guys who earned the courses for "young entrepreneurs" helped. I saw VKontakte ads, read, and realized that this is exactly what I need. I went there for a “drive”, which should help, as I thought, to take me a step forward. In some ways, it was like a visit to the “support groups” by Edward Norton's hero in the Fight Club. Expectations were not deceived, and I received that charge of energy that I lacked. Fear was over, but I knew from my lessons that I wouldn’t create a business alone. I needed a partner, or rather 2, that would complement me - one in terms of sales and project management, the second - on the technical side. They turned out to be two of my former colleagues from their last place of work. I called them to a meeting, for which I prepared a presentation on how we should start the company together and why we will succeed. A few days later, the company name was chosen and domains purchased. The company was called "Maxilect ”, and she, thanks to the experience of the founders and market advantages, was doomed to become a company where work is 100% carried out remotely.
The start was hard and painful, realities completely shattered my plans from the presentation, but we went ahead, abruptly changed course and made several “reboots”. 3 months after the start, there were two of us left, and none of us at that time was a technical specialist (although both were programming in the past). Therefore, further, my partner Kirill Antonov and I began to build a business “from sales”, where he had little experience, but I didn’t have it at all (except for selling my idea to create “Maxilect” to him).
The dots got connected, as Steve Jobs correctly noted in his famous speech. Dozens of read articles on topics that were interesting ("without a purpose", as it might seem then) to read to a programmer (about business and management at 23), dozens of unsuccessful interviews, the first remote work back in 1998, and much more, which was difficult to evaluate to connect earlier together - all these “points” came together and helped create the Maxilect company, where there is no place for what prevented me from working as a programmer in the office, but where there is the opportunity to arrange my workplace as you see fit (and the company helps with this), and where e It is a guide that considers its main objective the creation of conditions for effective work of employees. Our HR recruiting department is difficult to distinguish from the sales department, and rightly so. We do not look at the monitor of employees, we do not use any software, allowing you to control the work of a specialist. Instead, we build trusting partnerships, where each of the parties must fulfill its obligations. We do not discriminate on the basis of geographical remuneration, because we don’t care where the specialist works - in St. Petersburg, Ryazan or Tomsk. But there is a flip side to the coin - we have no other way to evaluate the employee’s work, except for the result. And this imposes a serious responsibility, which, unfortunately, not everyone understands. Therefore, we pay no less attention to the verification of readiness to work with us than to the verification of technical skills. We do not discriminate on the basis of geographical remuneration, because we don’t care where the specialist works - in St. Petersburg, Ryazan or Tomsk. But there is a flip side to the coin - we have no other way to evaluate the employee’s work, except for the result. And this imposes a serious responsibility, which, unfortunately, not everyone understands. Therefore, we pay no less attention to the verification of readiness to work with us than to the verification of technical skills. We do not discriminate on the basis of geographical remuneration, because we don’t care where the specialist works - in St. Petersburg, Ryazan or Tomsk. But there is a flip side to the coin - we have no other way to evaluate the employee’s work, except for the result. And this imposes a serious responsibility, which, unfortunately, not everyone understands. Therefore, we pay no less attention to the verification of readiness to work with us than to the verification of technical skills.
Not everyone can work remotely. But those who have worked with us for at least a year and managed to restructure themselves are unlikely to agree to work in the office again, because this is a paradigm shift, people become different, more free and more responsible. I can say for myself 100%: I won’t return to the office, although we have it, without this, I won’t open a company in Russia. As Robert De Niro's hero said in The Heat: “I am never going back (to jail).”
About "Maxilect" today can be found on our website . In short, then:
- We make turnkey solutions for Fintech & Ad Tech (high-load, stress tolerant, and then point by point - this is for us).
- We help food companies release releases faster and increase their reliability.
- We love working with startups, and are ready to offer 2 models of cooperation (custom development and revenue sharing).
- We do R&D projects (Blockchain, ML).
- The main technological stack for development: Java, Python, JS, Go, PHP, R.
- We share expertise in test automation (Java, Python, Robot Framework).
- For a number of specialties, we are constantly searching. If we do not have a project that would be of interest to a specialist, information about it is recorded in our “external reserve”. When a new project appears, we first contact those with whom we are already familiar.
About how we developed the company from scratch to the state in which we are now , I and my colleagues will talk in subsequent notes on Habré and in our blog . Much of what we have implemented in terms of business processes is truly unique. And we will be happy to share our experience with you. To the connection!
Article author: Maxim Korotkov, General Director, Maxilect