Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg • Hacker News Board

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#51

Post by nraynaud » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 12:57 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #28

nraynaud wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be quite funny to be in a company where almost nobody communicate in his native language. I've seen some russian language messages in youtrack followed by a stern response to write in english in public places. The trick is always the same, when you use english as the common language in your company, you immediately give a strong communication power to native english speakers, they always look so confident whe…

Ugh. I work in china where English is the working language. Many of my Chinese colleagues are very confident in speaking English, to the point that my advantage is limited to helping with paper editing when submission deadlines approach.

I have seen from experience that the command of english is a discriminator in the workplace and in negotiations. You seem to say something in the same direction by saying that it's because you have some good english speaking people around you.

Imagine they would be a vast minority, that most of them would be struggling to make a sentence, and that sentence would be hard to understand (this problem sometimes arise inside a language with local accents and dialects), how would meetings turn?

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#52

Post by whoisthemachine » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:10 PM UTC

personally, i'm not a fan of the "open" work environments, but you had a cat in there so that changes everything.

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#53

Post by optymizer » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:17 PM UTC

oddx wrote: post #33

stevoski wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone know why JetBrains, which seems to very much be a Russian company, has their head office in Prague? I've long assumed it was for marketing and business reasons. So many of us in the west automatically are suspicious of dealing with a Russian company, especially when it comes to handing over credit card information. A prejudice for sure. The Czech Republic, however, is close enough to Russia, with a clos…

You are right mostly, here the full story (in Russian) http://www.xakep.ru/post/60338/ . In short: 90% of employes (including founders) in JetBrains are Russians, and founders moved to Prague in 1999 because of economic reasons. Headquaters remains in Prague mostly because of it was founded here and, probably, because of reasons you are mentioned.

Glad to see xakep.ru is still around.

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#54

Post by hhariri » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:17 PM UTC

systems wrote: post #43

why do they need such a big office, i also didnt know they make this kind of money but seriously , this must have cost several millions, why spend so much on office space!!

Because we need it?

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#55

Post by seanmcdirmid » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:24 PM UTC

nraynaud wrote: post #51

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I work in china where English is the working language. Many of my Chinese colleagues are very confident in speaking English, to the point that my advantage is limited to helping with paper editing when submission deadlines approach.

I have seen from experience that the command of english is a discriminator in the workplace and in negotiations. You seem to say something in the same direction by saying that it's because you have some good english speaking people around you. Imagine they would be a vast minority, that most of them would be struggling to make a sentence, and that sentence would be hard to understand (this problem sometimes arise ins…

I quite expect they wouldn't meet the bar for working at an American company in Beijing. It's already worked into the hiring process.

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#56

Post by fidotron » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

That music room is an inspired idea I've not seen in an office before. Just being able to play piano for twenty minutes can do wonders for the mind.

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#57

Post by mark_l_watson » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:30 PM UTC

nraynaud wrote: post #14

hhariri wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Sales office is located in Prague, with a small Dev department. Most R&D is in St. Petersburg and in Munich.

It must be quite funny to be in a company where almost nobody communicate in his native language. I've seen some russian language messages in youtrack followed by a stern response to write in english in public places. The trick is always the same, when you use english as the common language in your company, you immediately give a strong communication power to native english speakers, they always look so confident whe…

When my wife and I were traveling in China a few years ago, young people were very friendly, speaking to us in English. Perhaps they were both being friendly and practicing speaking English.

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#58

Post by ivan_gammel » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:57 PM UTC

seivan wrote: post #7

skrebbel wrote: post #5

Does anyone know why JetBrains, which seems to very much be a Russian company, has their head office in Prague?

Talent. By being in certain countries you exclude certain talent because of discriminatory laws. Russia for instance can forget about any talent that might be part of or supportive of LGBT. Not sure if Prague is better though, but at this moment most countries are better than 'state sponsored' national socialist attacks.

It is the funniest reason I've ever heard. There's crazy shortage of talents in Moscow and SPb, so any employee will hire a gay, a centipede from Tau Ceti or a satan and shower him with money and lots of perks if he is good in programming. However, lack of gay developers is definitely not the cause of this shortage (after all, their rights are protected by Constitution and being in top 10% of citizens by income, IT people in two russian capitals have more options to defend them - living in Russia is not comfortable, but it's not dangerous as well).

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#59

Post by e12e » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 1:58 PM UTC

whoisthemachine wrote: post #52

personally, i'm not a fan of the "open" work environments, but you had a cat in there so that changes everything.

I wonder how that works out if they want to recruit someone who is allergic to cats?

I like cats, but being (mildly) allergic, I don't think I could work every day in the same room as one (sadly).

Re: Check out JetBrains' new R&D office in St. Petersburg

#60

Post by nraynaud » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 2:14 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #55

nraynaud wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen from experience that the command of english is a discriminator in the workplace and in negotiations. You seem to say something in the same direction by saying that it's because you have some good english speaking people around you. Imagine they would be a vast minority, that most of them would be struggling to make a sentence, and that sentence would be hard to understand (this problem sometimes arise ins…

I quite expect they wouldn't meet the bar for working at an American company in Beijing. It's already worked into the hiring process.

If the company is american, then what I emphasized doesn't apply at all, it's absolutely normal that most things must be done the american way, and selecting people for their ability to speak with the headquarter makes sense.