Why to not work in a startup in Sweden (part 3)

This is part 3 of 4 on the positives and negatives on working in a startup in Sweden.  You might wish to read about part 1 first.

As mentioned previously the timeline leading to today have caused me to leave the Titanic.  Here are the reasons why I will not work in this particular startup ever again.

Lack of money
During my first interview I asked the CEO about the finances of the company.  He pretty much told me that if they spent nothing on marketing they have enough money to last one year.  Which means the company will continuously need funding.  That is not a good sign.  Money (Capital) is the lifeblood of any company.  But I thought it might be a good experience to join anyway, since I have never been in a true startup environment.

But please, work for me anyway!

Why to not work in a startup in Sweden (part 2)

This is part 2 of 4 on the positives and negatives on working in a startup in Sweden.  You might wish to read about part 1 first.

Since joining a startup in Sweden, it has been nothing sort of a slow sinking Titanic.  I'm glad to say that I'll be leaving for greener pastures and have learnt a lot during these 7 insufferable months.  Let's try to create the timeline events leading up to this point.

May
Resignations: 0
I joined on the 8th of May and spent pretty much the first month looking for an apartment.  Was introduced to the team including two additional people who I have not met previously, a Macedonian, let's call him "Mocka" and a Russian, let's call him "Pushkin".  There was also an Egyptian named "Mohammed" and a Bangladeshi, let's call him "Shafiq".  I thought things were a bit weird with Shafiq when he was asking me pretty simple questions that I knew as a graduate, but cast that aside.  These 5 were part of the development team, including me.  And the team leader, let's call him "Lenin", was in Russia for "personal reasons".  So 6 in total, but there were no Swedes in the team, which was a big red flag to me.  We also had a marketing team, but let's put that aside.  Our product manager was called "Fred", his real name.

June
Resignations: 0
I went galloping around London and Belgium, moved into my new apartment and witnessed the first disastrous deployment of the company's website where nothing worked.  I have never witnessed such insanity in all of my working professional career.  Mocka and I looked were looking a problem when the website was deployed only to be told by Fred that it was a "waste of time for two people to be looking at a problem".  Lenin, our great team leader in Russia, asked me to write a document on how to improve the process, which I did.

Pretends to know about software development.

Why work in a startup in Sweden (part 1)

Since my startup experience in Sweden is about to end, I thought I would list down the lessons learnt from joining one.  Why you should join one, if it interests you.  Personally I would never join a startup in Sweden ever again, likening it to the Titanic, but here's my take on the good points.  Afterall there is always good in something, even if it wasn't what you expected it to be.

Super flexible environment
This is a big plus for me, there are no real rigid hours.  Sure, there might be core hours, but even those can be bent.  This is Sweden afterall.  People in my office arrived late, and no one really cared or bothered.  Some would disappear during office hours, and no one really cared or bothered.

You get the point.

Leaving the Titanic

It's almost Christmas time and I've been in Sweden more than 7 months now.  How time flies.  I've found a new job and will leave my present company most likely at the end of February.  To say it has been a rollercoaster ride is nothing short of insanity.  From drunk colleagues to people who simply refuse to ever show up to work on time to on-the-spot firings, this has been hands down the worst company I've ever worked for.  Everyday was like living in Trump's "The Apprentice: Swedish Edition" and comparable to real life Dilbert.  In fact I swear at times there's a camera living somewhere in the office recording our movements.

The Apprentice: Swedish Edition on Earth 2, without the hot girl.

Promoted at work

So me and two other guys got new titles at work.  I'm now "Scrum Master".  Note that I'm never a person to go with titles.  Afterall I already own Skyjuice Software and can call myself anything I want.  But now as a "Scrum Master" I have to take charge in leading the team, getting them to follow the process of how to develop software properly.

New title, more responsibility.

But why did I volunteer to take lead of the process?  Well simply because it was a complete disaster before.  Saying it was a disaster was an understatement actually, the team was run by someone who was a complete incompetent fool who did not even know how software is properly developed.

Can you survive a layoff?

So I was informed in confidence with regards to some terrible news.  Some people I may know will be fired soon but the exact details are yet to be determined.

Can you survive a... ?

I'm not inclined to say more except all of them have families and it's going to be quite tough on them.  What's worse is that they will not be told directly but be put on some sort of improvement program which will lead to them leaving the company anyway no matter how well they perform.  It's frankly rather stupid to be wasting their time as well as the company's time.  All of this is simply political.  So the clock is ticking for them and if I were them I would probably just leave because they have no future at the company.

  

Two weddings and no funeral

I have left Sweden and am currently in Singapore for two weddings, my cousin's and my brother's.  My cousin's was on the 4th of September and that was held at the W Sentosa, which is rather posh.  I have to say all of this poshness isn't for me.  That's the contemporary trend in Singapore, to have a posh wedding in a posh hotel with plenty of guests.  Maybe it's the non Asian in me speaking, but I would rather have mine at the top of a mountain with the bride and a photographer.

My brother's wedding was held at the Four Seasons hotel on the 11th of September.  The food was pretty similar to my cousin's, it was good but I wouldn't pay that much for it.  If you ask me frankly weddings today are just exorbitant especially the ones in Singapore.  I don't see the point in spending so much money for a wedding, wouldn't it be more prudent to save it for a nice honeymoon or future expenses?

Visby, Fårö, Gotland, Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden

Two weekends ago I spent several days in Gotland, the largest island off the coast of Sweden.  We caught the bus to Nynäshamn on the Friday and then the ferry to Visby which is the main town on Gotland.  It's amazingly beautiful and reminds me of the time when I lived in Australia, in particular, Tasmania.  I stayed in the town of Visby where it was medieval week.  Visby has a town wall, plenty of ruins, and is quite historic.  We visited the city museum on Saturday and Sunday me and Kerstin rented a car and drove to the island of Fårö, where we saw lots of rauks.  Which is pretty much rocks, you guessed it.  But yes that's how rauk is spelt in Swedish!  There are also plenty of apple trees here, just like in Oslo.

Almedalen, Visby.

Summer in Stockholm

The past couple of weeks have been quiet in Stockholm since it's now summer holidays.  Two weekends ago I spent some time in Farsta Strand.  It's not that far away from Central Stockholm, about 20 minutes by metro.  I was looking to do some fishing there, unfortunately my fishing rod was missing the part where you connect the nylon.  So unfortunately I had to use my work colleague's fishing rod, and not only that we didn't really catch any fish!  It was still fun though and it was a really nice view.

Farsta Strand.

Bank account, work BBQ, Zbox, Pokemon Go, Stockholms Stadhus

Sometime in the last two weeks I finally obtained my Swedish ID.  The clowns sent it to my hotel apartment even though I left, and somehow it got redirected to my home.  I cancelled my maestro account and opened up a proper bank account with SEB.  It only took me what, almost two months before I got everything finally sorted.  By the way if you're opening a new account I do not recommend SEB as its interface is entirely in Swedish.  You would be better off opening an account in Nordea for example.  But I needed to get paid and wanted to get paid asap and SEB were the only ones willing to do it.

I'm finally a "normal" person in Sweden!

By the way, this sort of nonsense is just unacceptable in Singapore.  Singapore is incredibly efficient, unlike the clowns here.  Don't take my word for it, live there and you will know what it's like.  Anyway...

Euro 2016 Final

The past two weeks have been rather uneventful.  I ordered some clothes off the internet, since it's much cheaper to get them online, and with free shipping as well, it's just a no brainer.  The problem is I didn't have my Swedish ID yet and the immigration card is not accepted at the post office, so I had to bring my passport instead when I picked up my clothes.

The Euro finals.

Atomium, Mini Europe, Brussels Comic Book Museum, Brussels, Belgium, Day 3 and 4

On the 26th of June I visited Atomium in the morning and then later in the afternoon I went to Mini Europe.  The original plan was to visit the inside of Atomium, but it unfortunately it was closed.  I took some photos then went to Mini Europe instead.  I walked around for a few hours then went to have some lunch, which was mussels, and then caught the metro back into Grand Palace where I met another friend, Dominika, at the Starbucks and then we went to the comic book museum.  We spent about an hour there then I went to have dinner again which was mussels again and then it was back to the hotel where I saw Belgium beat Hungary 4-0 in the Euros.

On the 27th of June I had to fly back to Stockholm.  I headed straight to the office after my flight.  It was a fun filled couple of days.

Atomium, a huge massive structure depicting an iron crystal.

Bruges, Market Place, Belfry, Belgium, Day 2

This morning was an early start.  I bought a ticket with Sandemans to go to Bruges, which is where the movie "In Bruges" was shot.  It's a very picturesque town.  Later in the afternoon I walked up the Belfry of Bruges, a medieval tower with 366 steps which a spectacular view of the town.  And after that it's back to Brussels where I visited the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral.

Welcome to Bruges.

Grand Place, Manneken Pis, Triumphal Arch, Brussels, Belgium, Day 1

On the morning of the 24th June I flew into Brussels, an early morning flight at 7:05am.  Since it was midsummer, the roads were completely deserted.  I caught the T-bana into Stockholm Central only to discover that the central terminal was closed so I couldn't catch the flybussarna which is the private airport bus, and had to catch the exorbitant Arlanda Express instead which is twice as expensive.  But I paid for it anyway since I had no choice.

I walked a record 24 km today, first getting a sim card for my GPS needs then going to the Sandermans new brussels tour.  Later in the evening I met a friend who I met last year in Berlin during Xmas.  I had dinner with him and two of his friends, then later we sat in front of the Triumphal Arch, had something to drink and then went to another bar, sat down a bit more then I went back to the hotel after that.

I always thought they spoke German in Brussels but I was so very wrong.  They speak mostly French here.  They also have an astounding 1500+ different beers.  The most famous ones are the trappist beers.

Grand Palace, huge square with lots of people (omitted on purpose).

My apartment, a wedding and Ikea

On the 9th of June I finally moved to my small cosy apartment in Solna.  It's ridiculously small but liveable enough for one person.  I pretty much live next door to my landlord which is very convenient.  It's close to work as well which is good for me, only 10-15 minutes away by t-bana, i.e. the metro.   Unfortunately I only have this place until 31st December which means I may need to find another place before then.  But let's hope I will get to stay at least for another year!

The 11th of June was Fred's wedding, and I and a few others from work attended.  The wedding was small but formal.  I didn't have that formal clothes to wear so I was a bit underdressed!  But it was a nice ceremony with plenty of singing.  After the wedding me and Kosta who is another work colleague walked around in the city.

On the 12th of June I went Ikea furniture shopping, or rather my friend went and I tagged along.  I ended up buying a clothes basket, and of course also had Swedish meatballs.  And some cake later in the afternoon!  The Ikea in Stockholm is simply massive, and also listed as a tourist attraction.

On the 24th to the 27th I would be in Brussels, since it's the midsummer holidays I bought tickets to Brussels, Belgium!

View from my (one) window.

Tower Bridge, Greenwich, London Zoo, Natural History Museum, London, England

The highlight of my 4th week in Sweden was spent in London.  I spent 3 nights there, 3rd June until the night of the 6th of June.  Monday the 6th of June was Sweden's public holiday and I didn't know what to do so I thought I would fly to London.  All of this was very last minute.

Summary

Day 1 - 3rd June evening

I flew into Gatwick after work, my flight being delayed by an hour.  After catching the Gatwick Express to Victoria I discovered the underground had stopped working since it was already past midnight.  Thereafter I spent about 30 minutes getting lost trying to find the bus from Victoria to Paddington, not helped by the fact that one of the staff working there gave me incorrect directions!  But I made it eventually where I would stay at the Chrysos hotel in Paddington, it was ridiculously expensive for what it was, but at least I had a place to stay considering all of this was pretty last minute.  

Day 2 - 4th June

After breakfast I went to the nearby Three shop where I bought a sim card for my phone.  Then I caught the underground to London Bridge Underground and walked to the Tower Bridge where I spent a few hours.  At 2ish I was done and walked around a bit.  Had some pumpkin soup with potatoes then I caught the overground to Greenwich around 3ish.  When I arrived the observatory was already closed, but there was a free area where you can take a photo of the Prime Meridian Line where the longitude is 0 degrees.  Basically you're in the middle of two halves of Earth.

After greenwich I caught the underground back to the hotel, rested a bit and then had dinner at a nearby Italian place and then went to Whiteley's to watch "Me Before You".  Honestly I had no idea what the movie was about, I simply looked at imdb's rating and saw that it was well over 7.0 and so with 15 minutes to go before the movie started I bought the ticket and watched it.

I arrived back into the hotel probably around 12ish or so.  I messaged my friend Kat and we decided to meet at St John's Wood (I know, what a name)  around 10:00 the following day.

Giant chess set in Paddington.

Pre-summer party, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, The Museum of Medieval Stockholm, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden

Wow it's my third week already!  Time is flying!

Downtown Stockholm 29th May.

26th of May was highlight of the week.  It was the pre-summer party at work which started at 2:30pm and ended close to 5am.  There were games, singing, dancing, a lot of singing and finally I went home at 2am ish.  Shots of alcohol were consumed.  And a lot of coffee.  I drank so much coffee I couldn't even sleep properly and woke up on Friday just plain exhausted.  To make things worse I've been having a pretty bad cough from all the karaoke.

Pre-summer party, table tennis!

House hunting, the second week in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden

The second week in Stockholm involved me looking at several places since I need a permanent place to live after the apartment hotel.  I spent the 17th, 18th and 19th of May looking for a home to live.  At the suggestions of my work colleagues, I placed an ad on blocket.se and within a few hours I was, amazingly, getting responses!

My friendly blocket.se ad

I got to visit quite a few places around Stockholm as a result of the ad placement.

First week in Solna, Stockholm, Sweden

After months of waiting for work permit issues to be sorted I am finally in Stockholm.  I arrived on the 9th of May Liberation Day and am presently living in Solna in a hotel apartment that costs an astounding 3300 USD a month, thankfully most of it is paid by the company.  My first day I showed up at work even though I was very jet lagged after flying from Singapore to Helsinki and then Helsinki to Stockholm, it took me a whopping nearly 20 hours.  In life, attitude is everything and even though I was told that I didn't have to show up I did anyway.  I also needed to keep myself awake since I was very jet lagged and did not want to wake up in the early hours of the morning.  I think I even made dinner which I hadn't in months, nothing fantastic, just pasta.  It's a lot of work since I hadn't cooked in months.  Before Singapore I was on an epic trip around the UK, and spent every day eating out, so it's going to take a while for me to get to grips with cooking regularly again.

On the 10th of May I had an appointment at the immigration department to make my residence card.  That's also in Solna.  I had some initial difficulty finding the place since google maps isn't always the best, but I found it eventually.  The woman told me it would take 5 to 10 days and would be sent to my current residence.