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Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

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141–150 of 619 posts

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#142
What's crazy to me is the company didn't expect anyone to take their story public. Not even the woman in marketing.

I hope you guys continue to expose fraudulent startups and CEOs like this. It really is a service to us all.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#143
post #47
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landing page: > WrkRiot pulls signals from your resume and matches them to job posts. That's right, we do the searching for you. We'll be updating this section with videos, walk thru's and more. "walk thru's"? This website looks like garbage

Just look at the blog too. I'm not sure who thought that a blog post entitled "10 WAYS TO SURVIVE AT WORK WITHOUT SLEEP" would be a hit with job seekers. (Not to mention that 100% of their blog content -- 7 posts -- was posted 3 days ago)

The content to it was horrendous. Just scanned the 10 points out of morbid curiosity, and the last one is "see a doctor."

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually not a good idea. This opens you up to: defamation lawsuits, contract violations, and provides cause for firing which could hurt your own claims. Scumbag Startup: "We fired Screwed Employee for cause." Screwed Employee: "No you didn't! It was retaliation." Scumbag Startup: "Sure we did. Look at what he/she posted publicly after leaving the company. Screwed Employee behaved similarly around the office and was n…

Ah, you misunderstood. When I said blow things up and make things public, I meant make all my communications with management and the company very out in the open, CC everybody. That way, if they do fire you for cause, you have a paper trail, and you tend to keep a lid on their worst tendencies because then they have to justify their words/actions to their own employees. No, you never escalate publicly, not to people…

Even doing this with unrelated parties inside the company is dangerous. The best thing to do is just CC your own lawyer. It's sad, but you potentially open yourself up to liability by warning your co-workers. If you do want to warn them, the best way would be through a quiet, short conversation in a private place away from the company. Possibly your lawyer's office.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Startups are incredibly hard, and this can bring out the best in people... or the worst. Just like you, I'm early on in my career. I appreciate the incredibly valuable and lifelong lessons that I've learned from them. I feel that in the long run I'll be better off for them since I know exactly what to look for to identify bad situations before I'm in them, and how to protect myself if I do end up in one. Most…

Biggest mistake is thinking you have to "get" experience. I'm 42 and at the other end of the scale. To me the line now that "it's a good learning experience" and "I'll know better in the future" are just ways of saying "I'm making mistakes". From someone who has been there and done that, best not to make the mistakes in the first place. I had strong ethics to begin with and compromised them many times because I thoug…

I totally agree! I have a number of trusted family members and advisors that have saved my bacon many times.

But I accept that I will make mistakes throughout my life. When I do, I think about them to figure out why I made the mistake and how I can avoid it next time. Then I let it go- beating myself up doesn't help. Honestly, if I'm going to make a mistake at some point, I'd prefer that it be sooner rather than later.

I'd say I had strong ethics to begin with, and these situations gave me a chance to test (and uphold) them.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#147

The fake wire transfer receipt is fraud. That's a criminal offense. Have a talk with the local DA. California has a large prison system, with cell space available. I've never heard of a startup going that far.

I would second talking to the DA. The photoshopped Wells Fargo receipt is just too much.

You'll be doing someone downstream a huge service. Someone these guys would end up scamming otherwise.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#148
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worded it poorly. It's not a work visa for that case specifically, but I know there are work visa's for people who were students that have their h1-b applications in the lottery. I think non-stem students with masters get 2 chances while STEM students get 3? I work with a lot of immigrants so this is from what I understand. Sorry if I'm giving false info.

Yes, it's called "OPT", but is only for students on f-1 visas to get practical training in their areas of study. While it is temporary work authorization, it is not a work visa. There's a pretty huge difference in that h1bs offer a path to naturalization, whereas f-1 opt does not.

Thanks for the clarification. They did mention OPT and OPT extensions while they waited for the lottery, but I couldn't remember the name.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#150

>Michael said under his breath in our second language, “Look at those Chinese kids. They’re pretty happy they got paid, huh?” Kim (the writer) is a korean last name, is the company CEO korean too?

If the company and employees identified by other people in this thread are correct, then yes, it would seem that this company has a Korean CEO who enjoys the loyalty of a Korean clique within the company. Some of the Caucasian employees have close ties to Korea as well. OP was ostracized and eventually kicked out because she didn't go along with the clique despite sharing their ethnicity.

The H1B's are Chinese and probably have no influence over how the Korean clique runs their company. The quote from "Michael" suggests that he has little more than contempt for the "Chinese kids". I can almost hear the Korean version of that remark in my head, and unfortunately this kind of racism is all too common among the assholes who give my country a bad rep.

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