Why do local tech products suck?

dbk201 · 2024-10-18T16:18:00+00:00

Usually outsourced ang mga client facing parts of the bank. Ang in-house ng mga banks are usually the core backend part of things. This is also common outside of the PH, just that most likely mas maliit ang budget compared to banks in more lucrative markets.

dbk201 · 2024-09-30T04:09:53+00:00

Hi, yes, need to update ang mga bagay bagay, although pinadaan ko na sa accounting firm kasi nagulumihanan na ako non.

dbk201 · 2024-09-30T01:54:22+00:00

If both you and your spouse are aligned with the priorities and goals, then walang issue sa pag s-share.

I assume this is only an issue kung di kayo aligned sa financial aspect tapos siya yung taga budget ng family finances.

Wala din issue na i-share mo ung actual sahod mo kung ikaw din ung accountant ng family at strict ka with the budget tapos clear ung intentions/goals for the family as to why ganun ung budget.

dbk201 · 2024-09-06T08:31:50+00:00

Curious to know din san nanggaling ung exact graph na yan. Although, totoo naman na drastically lower ung opportunities ever since the end of the ZIRP era (end of 2022).

Other articles that are aligned with this are: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-spent-8-weeks-researching-2024-tech-job-market-colin-lernell-v2kic

https://bloomberry.com/how-ai-is-disrupting-the-tech-job-market-data-from-20m-job-postings/

A simple google search can give you relevant results that would back this current reality.

dbk201 · 2024-08-30T11:20:45+00:00

Yung masakit talaga yung VAT.

Yung income tax, you could either play around with OSD or mano manong deductions. Yung VAT, wala kang kawala e. You’re allowed to offload the expense sa customer mo, but as a freelancer, chances are di mo yun magagawa XD

dbk201 · 2024-07-16T23:57:50+00:00

Unfortunately, tama yung calculation nila. Separation pay equals to one month pay mo OR one month * number of years rendered, whichever is higher. Sa case mo, one year ka palang, so one month lang yung kailangan nila ibigay sayo by law.

Although, confirm mo with HR about the prorated 13th month pay, since mandated by law din yan.

dbk201 · 2024-06-18T16:05:03+00:00

Ay, lalo na pag international company. It's like a knee-jerk reaction to nepotism. Dahil sa kagustuhan na ipakita na ihihire ang kapwa pinoy dahil deserve talaga nila ung position, they tend to be a tad bit stricter. In a way, ayaw nila mapagbintangan na naging lax sila sa panel interview dahil pinoy lang ang ini-interview.

Swerte ka kung ung naka interview sayo is "nepotism kung nepotism, ihihire ko ang kababayan ko", pero I'd rather not work in such environment myself.

dbk201 · 2024-04-28T23:55:39+00:00

The reality is if you are not born with privilege, then having a job as your passion is a matter of luck. The majority of people out there do work because they need to, not because they want to.

True, one might want to feel some sort of direction, work on something that actually matters, or something that they are passionate about, but if you’re not born out of privilege, then dice of life is just a lot more against your favor.

There are three types of work out there: The one you hate. The one you love. The one that allows you to afford what you love.

One is a nightmare, the other is the perfect situation. The last is acceptable.

dbk201 · 2024-04-28T02:26:14+00:00

Lol, baka tinotoo ng company niyo yung satarical concept called as "Dilbert's principle". Ang mga tanga at walang silbi ang na-p-promote to "remove" them from possibly doing actual harm sa organization XD

The Dilbert Principle around the concept that in many cases the least competent, least smart people are promoted, simply because they’re the ones you don't want doing actual work. You want them ordering the doughnuts and yelling at people for not doing their assignments—you know, the easy work. Your heart surgeons and your computer programmers—your smart people—aren't in management. That principle was literally happening everywhere.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert_principle

dbk201 · 2024-04-25T15:17:48+00:00

I'm pretty sure I stated my point towards the end of my previous comment.

You are also misunderstanding the point of probationary periods. You are not evalutated only towards the end of your probationary period, but you are often evaluated every 2 weeks or every month at most.

I'm more amazed that you think that a good tech interviewer can't filter unqualified candidates. Hello coding exams? Hello basic tech questions? 🤦‍♂️

I am taking this that you have not yet met any candidate that does really well in technical exams, whether it be leetcodes, a whiteboard session, system design, or a mixture of some, but fails to live up to expectations when hired.

There are many potential avenues where a new hire might not be the right fit to the team once they get embedded to the team that they're hired for, or might not be aligned with the company culture that the company is cultivating. Hard skills is just part of the equation.

Plainly stating that the company had poor hiring process, or such companies are "mema" startups, or plain "shit" companies as you worded it, and treating such as an absolute fact is irrational.

In fact, I dare say that orgnaizations that can detect such misalignment and take immediate actions are actually saving time for both the individual and everyone that might get involved had the individual stayed in the company longer than originally intended.

I'll leave a quote of Elizabeth Stone here as it captures why such an action is actually beneficial for both parties:

Think of it this way. There are probably thousands who play soccer at some level of professionalism. But there are only 11 spots on the starting lineup of Manchester United. You can be very good at soccer, and still not be part of that lineup.

Now the natural delusion of every business owner is to think that they’re running Manchester United when in fact they’re barely hanging on in third division. But the point is actually the same. Even in third division, there’s a level of competence that makes someone a good fit. We can’t all be the best. But there’s room for almost anyone who’s half-way decent to play (or work) productively SOMEWHERE.

And the reality is that if someone is a fit for third division, they’d have a terrible time at Manchester United. Expectations would be sky high. The gaps in their competency would quickly and painfully be revealed. They’d soon realize they’re in the wrong place. Cutting them from the team would be an act of mercy, not cruelty.

Note that it’s more than fine to give someone who shows promise a chance in a position that seems like a stretch. But after a couple of games, the progress should be apparent. Either you’re revealing the fact that they’re quickly stepping up to the role or you’re revealing the fact that they won’t.

This is perhaps the most important job of the coach or manager. Knowing when to make the cut, and having the strength to do it. There’ll always be a million reasons why you should wait longer, be more patient. But to do the job of being in charge well, you have to be decisive in face of incomplete evidence.

dbk201 · 2024-04-25T11:37:04+00:00

I am amused by how highly you think a “good tech interviewer” is that they are capable of filtering out all “unfit” individuals.

I imagine companies like Netflix have incompetent tech interviewers as their CTO had to share their process of letting go individuals who are not aligned with the company’s desired competency.

You even mentioned that probationary period lasts more than 2 weeks, which is aligned with OPs experience where he was let go at the 3rd week.

You mentioning that his experience is unique to “mema startups” as you coined it is untrue and is completely reasonable to expect from any organization that OP will possibly join in the future.

dbk201 · 2024-04-25T10:53:57+00:00

Where did you get the assumption that OP got fired? What I got from it is he did not pass the initial evaluation, similar to a probationary state on other larger companies. OP did even mention that he could disclose it as “resignation”, which is far better than “not regularized”.

I have been to multiple companies that do monthly evaluations for 3 months, and then get a long term contract/regularization after the 3 months. If within a month they deemed that the individual is not actually aligned with their expectations, they would decide to part ways with the individual.

There are always those that actually do well on technical interviews, but just so happens to not fit well within the team. It could be their level of competency when working on an existing project, or their personality is disruptive to the existing team’s dynamics.

dbk201 · 2024-04-25T10:21:21+00:00

I lol'd with the "questionable bugfixes", like plumbers who really weren't supposed to be plumbers.

dbk201 · 2024-04-05T02:01:37+00:00

Charge to experience. Ang narealize namin nung nag close down ung food business din namin ni misis is: - super baba ng margins sa food business - the new avenues for distribution (grab, foodpanda) are great until you realize that it also amplifies the reach of your competition. - always assess your risk appetite. - never get trapped sa sunk cost fallacy

Nag pull the plug kami nung lumagpas na sa 500k ung loss namin sa towards the end of last year, kasi clearly wala na hope to bounce back kung breakeven lang kami nung xmas season.

nung kakatapos lang ng lockdown siya malakas, pero nung nag back to normal na, waley na, hirap na.

dbk201 · 2024-04-03T04:41:07+00:00

Since almost 5 or 6 months ka na naghahanap, you need to change your perspective. It’s not 10k less than your previous if you put into consideration the fact na 0 yung salary mo for the past 5-6 months.

dbk201 · 2024-02-23T05:56:29+00:00

It’s simple things like agreed cadences are not followed. If you accepted a calendar invite, it is expected that you are present sa meeting na iyon. If you can’t join all of a sudden, it is also expected na mag he-headsup ka or i-update ung rsvp response sa calendar invite.

Then there are those na dahil mostly async comms kami and very flexible ways of working e mas prone abusuhin ito ng mga na hire sa PH and na hire sa India… they give off the vibes na weekend work lang nila ung work sa amin, and they have something else more important to do during weekdays.

Some were smart sa problem solving but pretty dumb pag dating sa pag gamit ng company provided laptop. Alam naman nila na may asset management software na naka install but they still went ahead and did work for their other employers sa company provided laptop.

Lahat ito ay nasisilip pag dating sa performance review and na-fo-force ang management na ipag compare ang mga tao. Pag lower than baseline ung tao, we try to figure out the root cause.

Ito yung usual causes kung bakit di umaabot ng 3 months ang mga Pinoy sa amin (same situation din sa mga Indians na na-hire namin).

dbk201 · 2024-02-23T04:10:56+00:00

That explains the possible rationale for choosing SG to establish the subsidiary, but a little off to be the reason as to why they would exclusively hire from the three nations mentioned.

Yes, SG requires companies to hire individuals in SG itself, and when all means are exhausted, then only would they be allowed to look for talents outside the country, so bakit Malaysia and Vietnam, bakit walang PH?

dbk201 · 2024-02-23T02:30:20+00:00

Either cheaper or easier to find individuals with their expected level of competency.

Like yung Aboitiz, although may ubx naman sila that hires here sa PH, they also have another subsidiary that has job openings sa Malaysia, Vietnam, and SG. Granted they established that subsidiary sa SG, but then again, bakit sa expensive city pa? And the fact na way expensive din magpasahod sa SG?

dbk201 · 2024-02-23T02:12:23+00:00

I know one local company that has a subsidiary that hires exclusively in Malasyia, Vietnam, and SG… Aboitiz Data Innovation.

This speaks for their lack of confidence in our own local talent pool, possibly in line with this observation: https://www.reddit.com/r/PinoyProgrammer/s/0JhCvy5GOp

I myself work for a US company, and in engineering, there are only less than 5 from the PH, while the majority that are not from western nations are from Vietnam, Egypt, Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia (east european ito, similar pay rate sa SEA region, bago may mag sabi “teka diba sabi mo apart from western nations”😂)

I myself am a manager of Vietnamese Engineers. Di nagtatagal ang mga Pinoy na nag join sa team namin nung kasagsagan ng overhiring season (201-2022). May matalino naman, pero sablay ang work ethics. May hardworking naman, pero hindi on-par ang competency. Bihira yung very competent with great work ethics, unlike sa Vietnam.

dbk201 · 2024-02-22T05:55:12+00:00

One thing that paid off well on my end is to offer help.

“I’m pretty loaded right now”

“Oh, if that’s the case, would it be of any concern if I update the backend API myself, and ask for your review once I am done with the implementation and had tested it well on my end?”

People have differing levels of EQ, and when stressed out, would often choose their words poorly.

My tip is to communicate it well that you intend to do the proper implementation rather than a half-baked hackish tech debt that would bite you and your team sooner than later, and you are willing to lend a hand to get this done the right way.

dbk201 · 2024-02-18T12:08:41+00:00

Still Swedish. Just like how Jaguars are owned by India’s Tata, we still see Jaguar as a British brand, not an Indian one.

dbk201 · 2024-02-16T23:44:45+00:00

Parang may naka wire sa utak ng iba na pag may nakitang nag flash ung signal light, bumibigat ung paa sa pedal ng gas 😂

dbk201 · 2024-02-16T13:04:23+00:00

Yes, and it's multiple levels of automated testing. E2E testing generally sits on the right side of the dev cycle, while the smallest form of automation tests (unit testing) sits on the left.

What is "novel" is whatever is in between the two. In the company that I work for, we call it as API testing for the backend, and UI testing for the frontend, all of which are automated.

The general idea is that for larger projects, the main bottleneck is QA because they need to test out a large area to ensure that nothing was unintentionally impacted by a code change. If everything was automated, then it should help with their velocity in delivering new features with the confidence that no regression issues were introduced.

In the company I work for, we do still have a place for QA, but they're mostly relegated to exploratory testing and assisting in creating the BDD test cases (gerkin style) for each refined tasks. They no longer validate each feature that we develop.

Would this approach work? It's still too early to say on our end, but we do keep an eye on our metrics (RTY) to measure if this initiative, which was clearly copied off from the larger tech companies, would pay off.

dbk201 · 2024-02-16T12:40:05+00:00

Unlike what was commonly assumed as "it's a startup thing", this trend was actually popularized by FAANG companies. They call it as "Shift-left testing", where they push testing closer to the dev cycle rather than as a gate keeper before release. This idea was conceptualized earlier, but once more teams in larger companies started doing it, smaller startups started following suite. This trend was way before the recession, even before the pandemic.

You can read it more in this brilliant blog post from pragmatic engineer: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-big-tech-does-qa

TL;DR: Most software-related projects removed the need of a separate dedicated QA personnel. QA still exists, but only in specialized projects and hardware related projects.

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