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Failing the startup game at Unbabel

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Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#61

Post by rokhayakebe »

jprince wrote: post #52

As terrible as this experience was, what's most alarming is that you're 37, have been working for nearly 20 years in this field, and don't have enough savings to tide you over even two months without work. You really need to learn to save your income and cut your lifestyle. I hope that if it turns out your story is true, that these guys are in some way brought to justice, karmic or otherwise. Best of luck.

Did you read yourself?

What do you know about his life? Could he have lost all his savings due to a a divorce, or an accident, or some other type of tragedy? What if he always had to support others?

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#62

Post by mmgm »

In the Portuguese labour law the default "experimental" period lasts a minimum of 90 days (for both employer and employee).

During the experimental period any of the parties may void the contract without any compensation (except for the time already worked) unless noted otherwise in your contract ...

Also there is no notice period required.

As a disclaimer, I note that I am friends with one of the founders of Unbabel. I don't know their side of the story and I am sad this happened to you.

Still, from what you say, as far as I can tell, they acted within the boundaries of the portuguese labour code.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#63

Post by anmonteiro90 »

As injust as Unbabel's behavior towards you might have been, I feel this story is being told from a rather extreme perspective, wouldn't you agree?

As a 37-year-old who has been writing code since 8, I feel that you should be more used to finding clumsy code, especially in a startup (that I suppose is iterating very fast, trying to make ends meet).

As someone who confidently relocated from Sweden to Portugal, were you aware of the Portuguese economic situation? Didn't you make sure you had enough savings in case it all went down the drain (as it turned out to happen)? I can't help to feel that you took this somewhat blind leap with little to no information at all.

This doesn't all mean that I blame you solely; the situation is, of course, tremendously shameful for Unbabel.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#64

Post by ownagefool »

ransom1538 wrote: post #26

Ok. I have been hacking in startups for 10 years or so. A few rules to note. 1) Startups almost always fail. Pretty much assume at any point you can be let go for any reason. If you can't afford to blow 3 months of salary and be paid in "promise" - don't do it. 2) Startups are not for everyone. Enjoy good code? Like a peaceful atmosphere? Need comments? Love structure and strategy? Welp - you will fail at a startup.…

Contractors, freelancers and businesses get stiffed on what they're owed on a semi-regular basis. You pretty much have to take legal action sometimes to get your money and there is no business worth working for that'll look negatively at you for going after monies owed.

That said, even if he had a "3 Months Contract" there's probably a release stipulation with a notice period. As long as he's got paid that, there's no legal recourse.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#65

Post by debt »

qxmat wrote: post #39

I feel for you. I made a similar leap from an OK-paying regional job at an established niche cashcow to a London start-up. The perks: a coffee machine, senior pay cheque. The reality: a shit coffee machine, low moral, no realistic prospect of a profit and no willingness to pivot. 80% of costs have been sunk on a Facebook clone 'with a spin' while the owners try to sell snake oil to investors. We operate like the bad…

Facebook has a market cap of nearly 200 billion, some of the most talented engineers in the industry, a world-class AI lab, nearly unlimited perks and over a billion users.

So unless this startup can start where FB is right now, no one will "clone" FB.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#66

Post by raverbashing »

I see two sides to this:

- Is Unbabel making money? If they haven't shipped yet, bad for them, but on the other side, the software may be doing its part (of generating revenue)

- People sometimes come with an idealized view that in a perfect world all code is fully tested and follows all rules and conventions. Most often than not, it doesn't.

There's a balance between improvement for the sake of code and adding new features and bugfixes (not necessarily related to the lack of unit testing or stuff like this)

" I repeatedly asked for more guidance but all I got was reprimands for not taking every little detail into account in the code I wrote."

Here's the thing, no one will hold you by the hand. There's a lot of things you'll have to find out by yourself.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#68

Post by danjac354 »

jacquesm wrote: post #32
homakov wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe he wants his story to sound more dramatic >So here I am, back where I started with barely enough money to eat. Come on, you're 37 years old Java professional from Sweden (which is not Nigeria or something). Even unemployed people there get more money which I used to make being programmer. > When I informed my landlord that I wouldn't be able to stay as long as planned she kicked me out of the apartment What,…

Yes, we should all toughen up and so on. But shit still does happen and it does not always happen to the right people. I've seen people be treated in a very coarse manner by their employers and this story does not read 'off the scale' in any way to me, it could very easily have happened as described. I've seen far worse than this. Yes, the poster has a partial responsibility in how this all happened and turned out, I…

Another possibility - if practical for the position - is to do some remote work for a month or so first. No location costs and it gives a good idea of the work culture and codebase.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#69

Post by seestheday »

adambenayoun wrote: post #30
malanj wrote: post #11

It seems that given Andreas' move to join the startup - if his explanation is accurate and complete - the level of responsibility of the founders does increase. I've been a founder asking people to move before and I've always felt that it adds a significant extra responsibility. You need to be quite a lot more certain it'll be a good fit before asking someone to move to join your company. In my mind "culture fit" is…

Moving across continents to work for a company which you're not sure it'll work well with them is a too big risk to take to be honest. I'm a founder of a startup and I would only move someone across the continents after working with him for a while. For example I would fly him over for a month to work for us to see if there's a fit (without asking him to leave everything yet), covering his expenses, flights and anyth…

How many people are realistically willing to do a trial for a month? Developers are in demand. They likely already have a job.

Re: Failing the startup game at Unbabel

#70

Post by raverbashing »

qxmat wrote: post #39

I feel for you. I made a similar leap from an OK-paying regional job at an established niche cashcow to a London start-up. The perks: a coffee machine, senior pay cheque. The reality: a shit coffee machine, low moral, no realistic prospect of a profit and no willingness to pivot. 80% of costs have been sunk on a Facebook clone 'with a spin' while the owners try to sell snake oil to investors. We operate like the bad…

Sorry, what's a PLC?
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