My Story: Chapter 2: StartUp

Hi everyone,

I am back with the promised continuation of the articles' line about my career. I had already written about my start in the IT industry, but may have missed the precious fact, that back then, finding a job was much harder and much more versatile knowledge was required by the companies. In 2014, we did not have a bunch of free learning courses with promising internships afterwards, so you should be thankful for the opportunities provided to you and grab them. I spent a year trying to find a reliable job, although I had already started taking small fixes for money, attended a lot of competitions and wrote a bunch of games at that time.

Let me say a few words about the hard push on yourself when being a junior, then I will continue with my main story. Back then, I will accept that I was braver, but pushed myself too much, which was both a win and a loss regarding health. So you had better keep your balance and always keep some physical activities in your life. I did not have much time. For some period before leaving the company, I was studying, working for the company for eight hours, working with friends on our freelance projects for four hours, and also doing my lessons and exams at a high level. I was a very keen perfectionist sleeping three hours a day, and I thought that it would always be possible, though it was just an illusion, that was proven wrong and just made me a bit sick and tired for a longer period of time. So if you see that the sphere helps you gain more money, do not fall for it so easily. If you have time, dedicate it to your health too, eat healthy food and exercise. This is what I learned.

So where were we left off? We got to the point where Mariam resigned after winning many challenges there. I left the company as I would not grow further with them anymore, and as my English was quite good and I was capable of managing the communication between me, the client, the customer and everyone in any development team, I was also capable of freelancing on my own rather than for the company.

We resigned from the company we worked for to build our own startup. We were full of hope that it was the best time for that, as our ten hours would be free for the sacred startup. But as soon as the time they dedicated to the company was freed up, they started getting new projects for money.

Soon, our friends were very compelled with the money they could earn within ten hours for a short term. Sooner the short term became a permanent one. One day they just came to us and told us that they do not want to work on a startup, but build a small outsource company. For the short period of time, it can be considered a good decision from their side, but it was both a betrayal and a bad decision for the longer period of time.

Before that, my sister, my boyfriend and I were trying so hard to remind them of our initial decision and purpose: the startup, that will help the clients get the best developers. We reminded them of it every day and did not take any additional projects, trying to write a business plan for it and understand the architecture. But soon we realized that our dreams were not the same anymore, because our friends concentrated on making money for a short period of time, not thinking that the startup may bring them more within a longer period. We were very disappointed and sad, but still worked with our friends within the same office we settled in. My boyfriend and I joined a startup built in New Zealand as remote employees, because our hopes had burned down.

Some time later, the same startup idea was implemented by other guys, whom we did not even know. It got so many donations, was quite successful and sponsored by angel organizations. That was Toptal. Yes, we had been working on the exact same idea before them.

Do you know what our mistake was? We concentrated too much on friendship. When implementing new ideas, you need to bring to the table people who are really your soulmates from the business and job perspective, who will not give up on the idea that you have already started working on, who will not turn back halfway, afraid of their own dreams and goals.

This story hugely affected not only our dreams, but also our hearts and the friendship that could have lasted longer. Of course, we did not stay very long in the same office. My boyfriend found and brought another good business to Armenia, opening a branch for that company within the same building where we had been working with friends. Unfortunately, there was someone who put a stone at his feet and just took its management from him. You know, the person who puts stones under one's feet is a common idea in our sphere, even if it is just jealousy, let alone the materialistic advantage and money, bringing relatives into the company and building their empire. Both of us were not greedy, but people with higher ideals, which made us pay attention to the larger picture and not notice the ones putting little stones. But we are not fools. The fool is the one who does the wrong thing and waits for the good. Do not take someone's bread and money from them. Work on your strength, but do not be the person who will be remembered in such a way. We are not going to take that money to the grave, but we may take our greed, jealousy and wickedness there.

So here we are. Maybe someone will come and shoot me after all these articles, but I need to be open and savage with the truth, whether you may need it or not. You want the flowers to be brought to you, but I want to prepare you also for the thorns.

Later on, my boyfriend and I joined another startup founded in New Zealand. After a while, here came the day when I was fired from the payroll startup. The reason? I was too managerial for a developer. I wanted the database not to be a chaos, I wanted to suggest estimations and plan the work, and share the work we do with each other. They were claiming that I needed to write less documentation, not ask too many questions about the overall architecture, but write the unit tests and work on the Laravel side. It was a shock for me. Although I did not love their management, I was really good at my job. It turned out that a colleague had put some stones under my feet. Before leaving, I gave them precious advice on how to make their management better.

Guess what happened in three months? I got a feedback email about me. They were ashamed to write to me, so they wrote to my boyfriend that they really regret losing an employee like me and that their startup was facing lots of issues. After some time, they had much more difficulty with management because of the bad fundamentals. That colleague brought all of his friends to the startup and they messed up the whole architecture to the point that they had to write everything from scratch, because payroll and cloud HR systems are very serious, not only from the implementation side but also from the web security perspective.

Where is the lesson? If you are in a company where your advice is not even considered, if they want robots, run. Do not hang on and try to persuade them of your point of view. You cannot change the environment if the CEO does not admire your changes. You can try to give your precious advice and suggest changes, but follow up on whether it matters. If not, resign and continue your way within the IT industry, because there are a lot of companies that need such people within their organization.

Keep on being managerial and do not nag about the difficulties. State your opinion, but also look closer at what the company and the management represent. Help your colleagues, but share only with management. Your views should be heard by the people who hire you. Do not gossip, but look at your own arrow.

In the end, do not pretend to be a robot or something else. Your mental health is more important than any job.

To be continued.