I work in a product IT company: developers share their experience

With this text, we are launching a special series of materials in which programmers who write in Java talk about different types of IT companies. We hope that the experience of our heroes will help JavaRush students and juniors understand what kind of company they would like to work for. In this text, Maxim Kmets and Anzor Karmov share their experience of working in product companies: what are the advantages and disadvantages, which people are better off working in a product. I've been doing product development for almost 6 years. During this time, I worked in two food companies. The first company I worked for made a product in the telecom industry. The second company I currently work for is SDK.finance. I worked for some time in outsourcing (it was a company called Lohika) because I was burnt out on the product. Now he's back. At SDK.finance we are working on a set of tools for developing payment systems. Our task is to solve the pain of launching any payment system: it could be online banking, a currency sales service, or a securities sales service.

I will highlight the following advantages of the product company:

• Important mission. It may be a cliche, but at a food company I feel like I'm making a difference in the world. I recently read that people who can answer what their mission is are happier. I think this is true.

  When I came to SDK.finance, the team had about 5 developers and several devops. Then growth began, we got HR, the team expanded, and we changed the office. This is very inspiring: you see that with your work, in fact, you created new jobs and grew together with this company.

• Family atmosphere. Employees at a grocery company are often motivated to stay longer and work longer if necessary. These hours go by easier because we are not thinking about how to work 8 hours, but how to make some feature before Friday that will solve the client’s pain. This factor unites the team. I communicated and communicate with many guys, some became my friends.

• Career prospects. When you join a company that has just opened, you can expect growth and influence as it develops. The expertise of an employee of such a company can be more valuable than in outsourcing. An employee’s value increases if he has a good understanding of the product and is able to solve complex problems. This is rewarded with bonuses, bonuses, and career advancement. In outsourcing, everything depends on the framework you have learned or, conversely, not learned. By the way, my experience in outsourcing helped me in a product company.

  At SDK.finance, I rose to senior position largely thanks to my expertise, because I understand a lot about the product. Leadership prospects opened up for me. I see more potential in a product company in terms of building a career than in outsourcing.

The disadvantages include:

• It is difficult to maintain a balance between work and personal life. I left the product for a while due to burnout. I’ll explain why this happens: when you work on a product for a very long time, you become attached to it, for you it becomes something personal and important. Due to this, I tried very hard, worked on weekends, did not maintain balance and became very burnt out. I worked in outsourcing for a short time, tried more new technologies, and visited two different projects. I left outsourcing for two reasons: firstly, the coronavirus started and they simply couldn’t find a project for me, and secondly, there were unfinished business in the product project, problems that I wanted to solve. Since SDK.finance opened a new direction to solve these problems, I returned.

• Routine. You need to constantly look for new challenges for yourself. The longer a person is on the product, the harder it is, because he wants a change of scenery. Very often people rush from outsourcing to product, from a product company to outsourcing, because the desire for stability is replaced by a desire for variety and vice versa.

In my company, the main principle is common sense. There is no such rule that we created, and then realized that in a particular situation it does not work, but we still follow it. We have a very loyal work tracking system, it helps to maintain balance. We work 6.5 hours a day. Almost all well-known product companies, including Google and Facebook, allocate part of their working time for training and the opportunity to relax. It gives you discipline because you realize that you have less time to work in a day than before. At the same time, the person does not recycle.

Should a junior join a food company?

It all depends on the company's strategy. For example, at Netcracker, where I used to work, the product was large and written on the company’s special software. Mostly they recruited guys without experience, but with a good base (sql, java core) and education in IT. The same applies to such large companies as Google, Facebook and so on. They have their own schools that train personnel from scratch. They also hire people with experience but a good background. If the product is a startup, then, as a rule, you need a developer with experience and that he also be a devops developer, a front developer, and everything in between. The more experienced, the better. I wouldn’t recommend starting in a product (only if you have no knowledge and you go through school at a product company). The point is that an engineer first needs to gain more expertise in different technologies. In every product you can often find the phrase: “This is how it happened historically.” This means that a mistake was made in the development or design, but it can no longer be corrected or it is very difficult. Therefore, I advise you to study the base and work for a year on an open source project with different projects, and then study some product deeply and efficiently.Loyalty Plan is my first product job. Our product is a set of marketing tools that we make for different brands, mainly for restaurants, but it is also suitable for gas stations, beauty salons, shopping centers. The product consists of a CRM system and a mobile application. If we consider it in the diagram with a restaurant, then we are making a mobile application for it. This mobile application is downloaded by restaurant clients, the restaurant owner gets access to the CRM system in which he sees his audience and can send them offers for various promotions. The audience gets the opportunity to accumulate points in the application and exchange them for certain gifts. A separate block of our work includes integration with payment gateways. We entered the international market much earlier than the quarantine, but it was during the quarantine that there was a massive need for home delivery of food. Many people needed the ability to place orders through a mobile application and many turned to us. Our clients who did not use the delivery module asked us to set it up for them. This helped them maintain business during the quarantine, because restaurants survived only through delivery. I think interest in work depends on the product that the company is developing. If we talk about large projects, then to fully understand it, you need to spend a lot of time. Afterwards, some tasks may seem like a chore because you've already done it a thousand times. If the project is small, then this will happen much faster. But on the other hand, the product will evolve all the time and new features will need to be created. The interest in such work also lies in the fact that since you are sawing the product, you see the result of your work, how other people use it. Routine does not appear in all work, but in frequently repeated tasks. I can’t say that this is super uninteresting, but it does happen from time to time. Previously, I spent about an hour adding each new feature. Then I came up with a thing that allowed me to do this without my intervention. You can get rid of any routine task if you get creative. In our company we have always openly said that the offer is lower than the market one. In return, they offered freedom to make decisions, to take on more responsibility and participate in the life of the company and influence what the product would be. Instead of a percentage of profits, we promote partnerships between a specific employee and the company. Within this relationship, we share both the difficulties and successes of the company. If a company is going through a difficult period, everyone understands it. Those who make it to the end will share the common pie within the framework of the partnership. There is no such thing in outsourcing; you are like a cog in the system. Some work for options and ultimate success, others like to create something meaningful, everyone is individual in this regard.

Should a junior join a food company?

One of the benefits of working in a food company is career growth. As a rule, there is only one product that a company creates. And as you work on it, you get to know it more and more. After some time, you will become one of the owners of “secret knowledge”. For example, because you once did something, but there was no time or desire to document it. People will come to you with various questions about what you once did in some part of the system. Your area of ​​responsibility will constantly grow. As more experienced colleagues leave the company, their area of ​​responsibility will be distributed among the remaining comrades. Do your job well and over time you will be able to take responsibility for entire areas and even more. When working for a product company, you will be tied to a specific technology stack. This will allow you to have a deeper understanding of certain frameworks and technologies. But on the other hand, it can limit your horizons if you don’t “follow the trends” and try something new.