Different teams for Different profile is must. 
 Dev - QA - DevOps - Scrum master(TPM) + Product manager  
  
 If they don't have devops or QA, you are gonna cry in nights.

Software Test - QA

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

What are those Red flags to watch out for before joining a small company

Senior Software Engineer

What are those Red flags to watch out for before joining a small company- Grapevine

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

As a software engineer considering joining a startup or company, what are the essential questions you recommend asking HR or the CEO to gain insights into the company culture, growth opportunities, and overall work environment? And whether to join there or not. 

Please share your experiences or any red flag you noticed, would be very helpful for our community.

Thanks in advance

Things to enquire before joining a startup/company

Product Manager

Software Engineer

1. Red flags during the interview conversations 
2. Red flags on social platforms - Glassdoor etc 
3. Red flags on LinkedIn

What are some red flags while looking out for next company

Software Developer

Welcome to IT Company Discussion's Private Community

I usually see 1 or the other in every 2nd company I interview for. What do you guys ? I have been interviewing a lot lately and came across this list on LinkedIn

Company red flags during interview process

Data Analyst

What are few red flags to observe.

What red flags can be tolerated?

I have heard different views for micromanagement. Like it go away with time. 

What to do if founder is too much involved in what ever you do. Looking at every detail,

How to know a startup that you ahve joined is nice or toxic?

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

I interviewed for a company called tooljet, cleared all the rounds.

During the negotiation with HR, in the later stages of negotiation I had asked few questions like
1. Is there any Esops(no)
2. Appraisal cycle(it's a startup, depends on performance)
3. Promotion possibility(it's a startup so depends on the performance)
4. Performance bonus(it's a startup depends on performance) no range given
5. Medical insurance ( it's a startup so no)
6. Probation period(3 months)
7. Leave policy(21 days yearly, can't take more than 3 days consecutively) the head of product and tech lead said it will be unlimited
8. Public holidays(national holidays yes + 1 day for diwali) so 5-6 days I'm assuming 
9. Work from home expenses if any?(no)
10. Working hours(10-7, it's a startup so you might have to work long hours)
11. Working days( 5 days)
12. Notice period( 1 month)
13. Joining date(tomorrow) lol, I asked her to defer it by a week

1st call was regarding my expectations ( she said she will give me 30-35% increment on previous)
2nd call was about her offer(gave me 23%)
3rd call was regarding all these questions
4th call I accepted asked her to defer it by a week
5th call she said no, saying you asked a lot of questions, we want someone who can focus on the growth of our startup and not worry about these things.
I never got a chance to negotiate, she never accepted or even bothered to listen to any of my requests. I asked her to increase it by 30% and she didn't even bother to listen and refused it. Her entire attitude was , take it or leave it.
She said she can't negotiate each and every day,and I barely got a chance to even negotiate.
Did I say anything wrong or is the HR stupid?

Negotiation with HR

Backend Engineer

I am awaiting an offer from a big MNC, and I have discussions ongoing with some small companies as well. My notice period is now over, as my project is finished and they asked me to leave in a month (they don't want to keep me on the bench)

So, I wanted to check if there would be any issues if I opt to join a small company whoever offers me first and then whenever the big ones offer, leave the small company dropping them a mail and returning their assets, and join the big one without serving the notice period in the small company? Kindly advice.

Is there a problem if I join and leave a small company for a big one?

Senior Consultant

Welcome to Product Managers's Private Community

I will start:
1. Having low hit rate with junior PMs than with leadership level folks (Dir & above) 

Rant - these PM interviewers with fewer years than me and just 1 org haven't seen enough failures to learn humility or not trained to understand experiences and approach not like theirs.

2. Accidently interviewed with a startup with product leader coming from service IT background - who didn't understand impact, outcome pointers in my resume and was asking if I had PRDs I have made in my personal laptop. 

Rant - Jesus H Christ. This person thought I didnt understand tech, mocked me for making lofi wireframes in a case submission. Only interview where I told back to the person in their face and in email feedback later - seriously, I have no interest in working in a delivery IT team like theirs. Tata, goodbye and thanks for wasting my day.

3. Product leader being critical that I'm only attracted by shiny projects and keep jumping because of my career break and short stints at startups (macro stuff, startup low hit rate at early stage reasons) - because they worked in a b2b org for 10 years and is in a new place to do the same.

Rant - this is after they were poaching me for my prior experience with 2 verticals of products they were trying to build out and me being cleared by their Director, senior PM and HRPB.

And have more, but over to you guys to share yours and red flags to lookout for.

Share your weird PM interview experiences?

A 2 yrs old small B2C startup has put the following conditions along with offer letter to my friend: 

1. 6 months probation period.
2. 7 days notice period during probation.
3. 7 leaves during probation.
4. ESOPs will be given after 3 months of performance evaluation. 
5. No WFH (might get on situation basis), might need to work on Saturdays as well if required.

there are about 15 tech team members, they are in the growth phase right now.

are these conditions normal for a small startup? 

what else does he need to find before joining?

Is this a Red Flag ?

I was going through the careers portal of this decently funded startup and they had opening for SDE2 Backend and Frontend both. 
But the discrimination they did between FE and BE just got me to nerves.
1. The BE role was just termed as SDE2 whereas FE role was termed as SDE2 - Frontend Engineer, Why?🤷‍♂️
2. Both the roles are of same level but the experience required for FE is 3years whereas for BE, its just 2years. A big Red flag about the culture 🚩 
3. For BE role they haven't wrote anything language specific (which is a good thing as they're language agnostic and focusing on the core instead) But for FE they've filled their JD with languages, frameworks and even fcking libraries.

All this together makes it a very risky bet for anyone looking for a SDE2 - Frontend Role. 
Passing this one and recommend everyone to look for such small red flags 🚩 which tells us alot about company.

Thanks
FE JD ⤵️, BE JD is in comments.

I rejected to apply at a company seeing their JD.

Would you guys consider joining a startup with only 3-4 people in the office? I’m a recent graduate and got an opportunity to work with a team of 4 

however i’m not sure if i should join because i’ve always wanted to work at bigger organisations and get that corporate feeling and i im also an introvert and hate being “seen/perceived” (iykwim) and that’s the case with smaller teams 

but again looking at the job market rn im scared id end up employed 

what to do?

Joining a startup

Marketing Associate

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Got a offer from a BNPL product based startup which is fairly known in india. 

Offer is as expected. Though while going over the offer I realised that I am employed by their "wholly owned subsidiary" which was setup in June 2023. That startup has been in business for years now.

I am not sure but this seems like red flag. By hire through a subsidiary?

Any suggestions on how to proceed further?

Got a offer - but a red flag?

Company name - Chat360

It's pretty small and inconspicuous, but if I save even one person from joining this organisation, I will consider it worth it. Based on first hand accounts from 3 very reliable sources who are confirmed employees.

A very basic chatbot platform, being marketed as a Gen AI first product. They don't even have basic NLP and claim to be Gen AI. 

The founder & ceo is completely directionless. This is his side hustle, but while interviewing new hires he claims that he is the full time CEO (this is not true, he is barely available and always busy in his main business which is a car dealership) 

The co-founder is an IIT-grad, and due to the Founder's absence is basically running the show though he has zero business acumen. He constantly bitches about the founder to senior employees.

Of course, with such a toxic back story, it is hell to work here. No unity in the team, lot of back biting and bitching, public humiliation on WhatsApp groups, constant blame game. Basically, a shitshow. 

Do not, do not, do not join this place. Avoid it like the plague.

Toxic startup

A few people who are in advanced stages of the process and/or have offers from slice have been asking me whether it's a good idea to join.

My answer has always been consistent and I'm posting this so that people have more clarity.

Good folks are leaving in droves which is why they are trying to fill in some roles fast.

The company doesn't have a proper CTO, with engineering being managed by two people, one the head of analytics and data science being the 'people mananger' who is highly under-qualified for the job, and the second a toxic and borderline abusive character who is the 'chief architect'.

On top of that, there are some AHs from Bizops who'll do everything to blame you if things go wrong and steal credit if things are good, making your day worse rest of the time.

The critical Glassdoor reviews are totally true, and present points in an elaborate manner, while the few positive ones are clearly planted with 1-2 lines written for each.
Plus the company is suppressing many reviews with the help of community guidelines.

Your package might have a generous ESOP component, but it is bloated and the company is looking to raise the next round at a highly diminished valuation.

There are more things in life than a few lakhs of extra base pay, for your long term well being.

I'm speaking about it openly since I left the org for a better opportunity recently and I don't want people to suffer more.

Your mental health isn't worth a slightly higher base pay in slice

Slice is a known red flag. Stay away at all costs.

Founder

Switching careers. Currently a fresher in IT. 24M.  
 
I am unable to choose a company to apply for due to its reviews in AmbitionBox, Glassdoor etc. 
 
Even if a company has 4+ out of a 5 in overall review, I am skeptical about it because of the few VERY negative reviews it has. 
 
Can somebody please help me with this confusion? How do I choose a company? 
 
I don't want to work for a very large company like something that has more than 5000 employees. I am ok with working at a seed startup that less than 10 employees too. But, I am seriously concerned about the team culture, salary and growth.

How to choose a company?

With so much going on in the startups scene and companies going in any direction (Think Dunzo, Byjus, Dukaan, etc from recent memory), how exactly should you judge a prospective company from the outside?

Tips appreciated

Sada shukriya Shri Shri angoori dev ka (#GrapeVine Lords)

Judging a company before joining

Program Manager

What questions would you ask to evaluate if you should join an early stage startup in this market?

The objective is to ensure job longevity, avoid getting laid off and experience a reasonable amount of growth.

Is there anything else that we can do apart from asking questions to the company folks?

Evaluating early stage startups in this market

Hello people,
We are building a recruitment platform to make hiring easy and fun. Having worked with a recruitment startup, we weren't able to hire for our own team. Hire first, fire faster mode ON tha humara.

So, we found this gap mostly in the early stage startups who don't invest in their recruitment properly.

So can you guys please share your experiences with landing a job with early stage startups.

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