I started applying for jobs. As I have over 150 repos on GitHub and 10 years of relevant work experience, the company obviously had trouble validating if I had some basic coding skills. That's why they decided to send me a coding "homework" task to build an app in React Native.

Basically, the task was building an app with 2 screens and one bonus where they indicated "doesn't need a UI". I spent half a day spinning up their project, installing XCode, their specific versions of Ruby, and around half a day building the thing.

Obviously, I wanted to demonstrate my technical skills, so I added a few tests, proper typing, comments, and so on. The project was in a good state, and on the "bonus" screen I quickly added a few components. Since I have a lot of things going on, I capped the amount of time to one day of work. I felt it was good enough to demonstrate I can build something like this.

A few days later, I received a response from the recruiter telling me they wouldn't move forward. She in depth explained that this was because of a missing key property. I did indeed miss one key property on the "bonus" screen, in the part that was not even part of the core task. This was a list of very few static elements, and the entire list only got rerendered when changing routes. Basically in this case, there would not be any visible performance impact.

The recruiter explained in the email that I was missing the eye for detail they need, and that I should "educate" myself more about lists in React. I made one tiny silly mistake in a one-day project, that a linter would've taken out (if this project had one). I've contributed to React Native myself and worked with React for almost 7 years now? Yeah, it's a stupid thing, but what is the point of these types of tasks? I thought this was to demonstrate my skillset, not to be called out on.

Either way, my question here is this: at which point does it become appropriate to send an invoice for the time I wasted on this?

Alright, I'll try writing about my recent experience without getting too emotional.

A few months ago, I started a tech job in London and immigrated here for that job. I was glad this company wanted to sponsor a visa, as that was a requirement for me to live here.

Unfortunately, after only a few months in, I learned that the company I joined wasn't quite as nice as I thought it would be. Bullying seemed to be part of the culture. On occasion, I saw coworkers crying. One of my close coworkers was dangerously close to burnout and then "left with mutual agreement". The environment felt like a high school cafeteria. People were drinking heavily early in the afternoon and people were leaving almost at the speed of a revolving door.

I recognized very early on that this was not a healthy environment for me, but as I just signed a rental agreement for a year, and spent a large amount to move here, I was kind of trapped.

Very early on, I was told that the two people before me in the same role were let go right before their probation ended. That scared me off, for reaching out to management or HR. I didn't have the financial needs to lose my job, and due to visa restrictions, therefore would have to leave the country.

When my probation was about to end, and I learned that my performance was good, I decided to provide feedback to my manager. I only mentioned a few things, but still enough. The manager seemed receptive, but it did not seem like he was actually willing to approach the problem itself.

Sometime later, I spoke to HR, explaining some of the issues, and explained my intent to resign. The rep pretended to care, but it did not seem sincere. At the same time, I reached an agreement with my landlord, so I believed I had enough money to safely move out of the country.

A few days after I resigned, the HR rep told me that I owed the company a large amount of money. A part of it was in the contract, which I accounted for. Another part, she was claiming, but was not properly defined in the contract. It said something, but it was confusing. I got a checked later with a legal advisor, and from what I understood, the company would never be able to make me pay that extra amount. This simply because of the contract being so vague.

I told the rep multiple times in the initial meeting about the flaws in the contract, but she ignored everything I said. I then made a counteroffer trying to get her to back off. She then put that in writing, but manipulated my words and kept out all the arguments I made about contract flaws, and my departure being the company's fault.

I didn't receive a reply to my counteroffer for days. It was stressing me out as this could mean I would run out of money soon. Only a few days passed before I got a medical emergency at work just because of the stress all of this caused me.

I saw a doctor and immediately got 2 weeks of sick leave. When I contacted the company again, I was able to terminate my contract, without returning to the office. However, they still didn't want to waive the extra amount of money.

The HR rep pointed out in written communication to my lawyer, something in the trend of "if something wasn't clear in the contract, he should've just asked for details". In that same correspondence, it also stated that they were offering 'as a favor to me' to reduce the extra amount to only a third of it.

Since I never actually wanted to go to court anyway, I decided to settle with that. Now I'm packing to move out of the country, without a job and soon to be completely broke. If I would've stayed where I were and never moved to London, and never worked a day for the past 7 months, I would've had more money on my savings account than I have at this point in time.

I hope I at least learned something from this. I don't think I will move somewhere with a company-sponsored visa again anywhere soon...

Thanks for listening. Ranting does make you feel better :)

This is my first ever post on DevRant, and it will be more of a question: Is the tech sector more toxic than others?

I've been working for my entire adult life in tech, supporting tech companies of basically any scale. I've always worked in engineering teams, building the core software/product of the company. After years of passion and working hard, I believe I gained some skills in what I do.

However, every so often I reach a point where I feel burned out by all the chaos going on around me. I work as an "expert" in engineering and frequently I get the feeling that I'm not being listened to. Any feedback I give seems to be disregarded.

On top of that, I've met many people with a rather aggressive/abusive communication style. Engineers who truly believe they're far above and beyond everyone else, but with little to back that up. Talking shit about their predecessors, trashing junior engineers,...

I've seen behavior toward women that is grossly inappropriate. I've seen female coworkers cry more than once because they don't feel heard. I've seen coworkers being criticized for personal life choices they made.

In almost every company I've worked at, there was at least one engineer who was so stubborn that it became nearly impossible to work with. Just shutting people up, forcing the rest to follow their plan, and failing to provide any form of accountability when results don't pay off.

Here's the thing. I love developing products. I care about the people who want to use them. I really try to be nice to the people I work with. I started working in this sector because I really wanted to make a difference. However, all of that melts as snow on a sunny day, when I experience toxic behavior.

I am wondering if this is the same in every sector or if these problems are specific to working in tech. Is it maybe because tech is male-dominated and we've lost touch?

Every so often, when I lose my job or leave by burning out, I wonder... Is the grass greener on the other side? Would I be happier choosing another career?