191–200 of 278 posts
My first paid developer job was writing backend code for what I would later learn was the Canadian mafia. I was doing some backend and embedded work to build super shitty gambling kiosks for them. They already had some person "managing" project and the Indian contract house that was building flash games for the kiosk. He was useless, so I was stuck figuring everything out. Including getting things running on a then o…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A senior dev in London makes 60-80K This is just not true. Senior dev at non FAANG could well add 50% to those numbers.
A senior dev in a hedge fund may make more than 200K£ and I was well into 6 digits before becoming a manager, but a senior dev at non-FAANG wouldn’t usually make more than 80K and I know several good senior devs who make less than 70K£.
This literally could have been written by any developer in the UK. I think most of us start out like this! I think the best one was a company I worked for in Leeds, it was building a secure learning platform for schools which ultimately fell flat on it's arse. The company was run by a self-made millionaire who was notorious for scamming people. He'd randomly lay off huge numbers of the sales team, and the first anyon…
The product we were making was complete BS, and I think the boss was just siphoning off money for himself. All he did was download songs on Napster all day and blare them from his office.
Our top developer was a guy from Australia working under the table because he couldn't get a visa. He missed two days while deathly sick. The boss docked him $800.
There are so many other horror stories. I always compared the guy to a cross between Captain Bligh and Mr. Smith from Lost in Space.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> we'd have to ring the "office manager" (ex-SAS) I'm not sure what's the fetish with the SAS, but I apparently know more people who where in the or with strong ties to the SAS than regular British folks... OTOH, after knowing some actual members of various special forces for 2 decades: If they saw action, they don't brag. They are usually shy to admit anything even if it is not classified. Or the other way around: T…
> > we'd have to ring the "office manager" (ex-SAS) That's when you ask "What colour is the boat house at Hereford?"
This is hilarious, and sadly not that unusual. You really do meet some utter lunatics working in these sorts of agencies/software houses - it seems worse in the UK too.
My first job was in a "new media" agency in London in the late 90s and you're absolutely right. It was basically Nathan Barley but for real. There were employees who slept under their desks, job applicants who ran screaming from the building mid interview, egomaniacal bosses - the works. I lasted a month but it was hilarious in retrospect.
We referred to his end of the office as the rich end as opposed to the ordinary millionaire end where the VC CTO sat along with the rest of us (just $ millionaire's at one point)
First Tuesday back in 1998-2000 had a few chancers. I saw the original boo crew presenting and thought I could pick 3 managers at random where I worked and boo would have done better.
My first paid developer job was writing backend code for what I would later learn was the Canadian mafia. I was doing some backend and embedded work to build super shitty gambling kiosks for them. They already had some person "managing" project and the Indian contract house that was building flash games for the kiosk. He was useless, so I was stuck figuring everything out. Including getting things running on a then o…
There’s a Canadian mafia?
My first paid developer job was writing backend code for what I would later learn was the Canadian mafia. I was doing some backend and embedded work to build super shitty gambling kiosks for them. They already had some person "managing" project and the Indian contract house that was building flash games for the kiosk. He was useless, so I was stuck figuring everything out. Including getting things running on a then o…
There are many times I have regretted not listening to my gut, something feeling "off". OP's story had obvious red flags but in all situations, paying attention to how your body (or "gut") feels is always a good idea.
“One thing that might strike you as odd is the bizarre graphics.” No, no! It's quite enjoyable, actually! The cute sheep. The purple cow. They gave me a good and hearty laugh once I saw them.
It is quite enjoyable. It’s also quite bizarre seeing them on a gambling website. It does give the whole thing a kind of trustworthy vibe though. Like, they use cows as their mascots, how bad could it be.