Pluspunten
• My teammates were truly awesome — smart, supportive, and fun to work with. A few of them were lucky enough to escape the chaos, and I genuinely wish more had the same chance. • The company offered decent benefits: private medical insurance, Christmas presents for both employees and their children, birthday gifts, and small weekly perks like paid breakfasts on Wednesdays, pizza on Thursdays, and beer/beverages on Fridays. • Relocation support was more or less okay — they covered flight tickets for employees and their families, and provided a relocation package. Immigration matters were handled smoothly and professionally by Marina Karaoli, who truly did an excellent job. • There were opportunities to participate in charity initiatives, like blood donation drives and visits to dog shelters — something many employees genuinely cared about.
Minpunten
• Firing people on the spot — even those who had relocated to join the company — seems to be standard practice at Spotware, showing a disturbing disregard for employees' commitment and personal circumstances. • Management provided no feedback about my work. • Most of the work assigned to our team during my time there felt directionless and uninspiring. This seemed to stem from a lack of clear roadmap and proper technical leadership — the company has no CTO, and the company owner frequently injects ideas into the workflow — often poorly thought-out and lacking any real technical merit. • Right before I left, the company was running the worst implementation of Scrum I’ve ever seen, using closed story points as personal performance metrics — a practice that felt misguided and demotivating. • “Spotware Stars” — you don’t want to know what it is, trust me. • If you want a 100% guarantee to survive there, show unwavering loyalty to the owner and never question his decisions. This approach seems to work well for some. What Happened to Us — And Could Happen to You: A ridiculous Android assessment — announced by management — was forced on us with only a month to “prepare,” despite native Android/iOS development never being a clear requirement. Only then were Pluralsight courses offered — too little, too late. It didn’t feel like a genuine performance review or an effort to help us grow. It felt more like a pretext to fire people — and in the end, even some who passed were “asked” to leave anyway. Not to mention those who didn’t pass (and understandably didn’t even bother to prepare — the real purpose of the assessment was obvious from the start) were fired on the spot. Just like anyone else who dared to voice their opinion about the whole situation — criticizing the sudden, silent firings and the company’s decision to send formal “improvement” letters to colleagues who hadn’t fully passed, outlining what they needed to fix in order to be recognized as senior .NET developers. Right before the assessment was announced, the owner fired some of our colleagues on the spot for reasons that seemed completely unjustified. The team was understandably demoralized by the constant pressure — sudden firings, shifting expectations, and chaotic decisions that made it impossible to feel secure or stay motivated. And it’s only a small part of what I could tell about working there. My advice to anyone considering an opportunity to work there: Stay as far away as possible.