Before working here, think twice. - QA Engineer TestDevLab Employee Review

Hi! As we care a lot about the feedback received, we would like to offer the company management's perspective and a deeper look into the mentioned aspects of working at TestDevLab: - Thank you for some of the mentioned pros of your review, we do try to create a laid-back atmosphere in which anyone can showcase their initiative, bring new ideas to the table, and discuss any matters with the management of the company. - We are also happy and proud to have provided hundreds of people with internships and entry-level positions in the company to kickstart their careers in IT, this is something that most employers do not do or at least not as vastly as us. On top of that, internships are oftentimes unpaid, whereas we ensure that the minimum wage in each country where we operate is covered. After the internship is successfully completed (in most cases after 3 months of the internship and getting relevant certification), each and every engineer can continue growing their skills and salary and are offered support in these matters. This aspect is commonly defined, visible and explained internally on a regular basis to set clear expectations. Of course, taking the first career steps in IT is not easy and comes with a fair share of learning, hard work and dedication. That being said, we treat interns as part of our team and entrust them to work on challenging projects whilst learning and getting actual practical experience. - At TestDevLab, we believe in informal communication and team bonding, which can happen in various ways. One of the ways is through company-sponsored teambuilding activities which we encourage employees to use. Another way is to organise social gatherings based on employees' own initiative. These gatherings can also be organised onsite with the management's approval and are a great way for anyone to join and socialise after working hours. Some teams use this possibility less often, some more often, but generally, it is not limited to any group of employees. - All of the remuneration decisions made are as objective and fair as possible. To ensure that, we take into account both the team's and client's feedback as well as include team managers in the discussion. HR and generally all other administration roles are also included in the remuneration system with defined goals, feedback and individual discussions taking place. It is also important to note that on average, just like in other companies, in TestDevLab salaries for administrative roles are lower paid than for engineering roles based on average standards defined by the industry for each role. - Similarly to most other IT companies, the HR department or anyone else from the administration is not in the capacity to make business decisions, decide the company's faith or get special treatment, bonuses or any other benefits. Moreso, HR always acts in cooperation with the company's management and all parties can respond and explain their decision-making. - As the whole of the IT industry, we are experiencing turbulent economic times at the moment which also impact the way we conduct business. So far we have been transparent with our employees on the financial situation, showcasing every month in a company-wide call how it is going and what steps are being taken to mitigate it. Right from the beginning of major tech companies announcing layoffs, we informed all employees that we would re-evaluate performance and if it fell below average expectations, part ways with respective employees - no “silent firings” have been done. At the same time, we were clear to stop our activities of hiring juniors and entry-level specialists at the company and have not done so since then. To provide concrete data, we hired 2 interns at the beginning of 2023 and currently interns make up less than 1% of our workforce. At the same time, we laid off approximately 4% of our workforce since the announced performance re-evaluations in November 2022. - TDL School courses are a way through which we create added value as an employer and giving everyone working in IT a chance to learn and explore various technologies is something we are very proud of. At the same time, there are online resources and various types of certification that employees can also choose to complete in order to showcase their skills, meaning that TDL School courses are never a mandatory requirement, it's just a helpful means through which to gain new knowledge and skills, but it is not the only one that we offer. Moreso, if the employee decides to learn on their own tempo, they can also choose to do that, completing an internally prepared technical task. Additionally, we collect feedback after each course in order to improve the quality of TDL School. We are also sad to see such reviews being written, especially as none of HR has any capacity to act in the way described by you, unanimously deciding to fire someone based on their feedback, nor has ever done so. We have always been open for conversations and can provide further context if needed in individual conversations - so please reach out if you deem it necessary - we have various means through which employees can engage in feedback conversations.