HelloSelf Reviews

Avoid HelloSelf if you want to grow as a Scala developer especially if you want to work with a functional typelevel stack. I joined with expectations of developing my functional Scala skills but the reality is that I spent a lot of time working on legacy code that I felt was poorly written, designed and structured. A lot of intelligent, experienced developers I respected and learnt from were made redundant or resigned. I learnt more about what not to do if you want to build a scalable backend platform. Personally, I did not learn much or developed my skills beyond my first few months at HelloSelf. Moreover, day to day work as a developer was extremely unfulfilling. I felt like the current code base and architecture was horrible to work with. In my opinion, there was way too much inefficiencies in the codebase; extremely poor solution design made it unnecessarily complex and almost impossible for me to build on top of. In my experience, developers were encouraged to use hacky solutions to fix bugs and build features as there was pressure to deliver things quickly over designing proper long lasting solutions. Best practices, or even good practices weren't really a thing here. Even tech leads were making changes that I found would be considered unacceptable in most other companies. Releasing even simple changes often felt like walking through a minefield because of how unreliable and fragile the platform was. Projects developed over months were often shelved or rolled back, which made day to day work feel even more pointless. I found the messy state of the codebase particularly frustrating. After experimental features or iterations, code was often left in place - unused, duplicated, or poorly structured. This made it incredibly difficult for me to navigate. On several occasions, I would spend hours just trying to decipher old, unreadable code before even being able to make my own changes. In my experience, attempts to clean up the codebase were actively discouraged, and it was clear to me that management prioritised feature development over addressing tech debt. This was especially frustrating because, from my experience, the constant need to wade through this mess actually slowed down feature development, making it feel like I was working around a broken system rather than improving it. I don’t believe that the Leadership Team have the competence, skills, knowledge or vision to lead HelloSelf. The direction of the company was constantly changing, and as a result, months spent on planning and developing features were often wasted. When things didn't go as planned, it was always the people lower down the hierarchy who took the biggest hit, whether it be redundancies, drastic changes to team structure, or changes to the way we were managed and the way we worked. The messaging from LT was that those of us lower down were not building things fast enough, we needed to change the way we work, “work smarter not harder” and deliver more value. There was no admission or acknowledgement that there needed to be improvements in the way decisions were made from the top. Job security is at an all time low. With layoffs happening frequently, the mood is down and those who are “safe” still wonder whether they are the next to go. There seems to be a continuous cycle of layoffs, resignations, hiring to backfill roles. The redundancies did not seem to be based on merit since we didn't have performance reviews and direct managers did not seem to be involved in the process. Messaging from LT about redundancies was weirdly positive and secretive, which in my opinion was very out of touch. It is not a stable environment to be in, let alone build a career. There are little to no opportunities for growth, regardless of seniority. There was barely any attention to performance, personal growth and individual career goals in my time there. Even when many developers left and roles were backfilled, there was never a conversation for existing developers to be promoted into those roles. The fact that there were no performance reviews, pay reviews or open conversations around promotions shows how little they cared about rewarding people who contributed to the company. When I tried to start a conversation about being evaluated for a promotion, it was met with awkwardness and then ignored, which made me feel very demotivated and unappreciated.

- Your mental health will inevitably suffer at HelloSelf. The company thrives on a culture where employees are expected to sacrifice their personal lives to fuel the self-serving ambitions of a CEO who I believe is both callous and heartless. During my first interaction with him, he openly bragged that he doesn’t believe in work-life balance—a statement that perfectly encapsulates the disregard for employee well-being that permeates the organisation. - No one believes in the CEO anymore. It’s just endless garbage that comes out of his mouth - from proclaiming the company is “basically profitable” and promising that there will be no rounds of redundancy, to running multiple rounds of redundancy in less than 6 months, through to creating his own little nonsense podcast so he can pretend he’s a celebrity and relevant in the industry, or that creating a social network will “save the company”. It’s all genuinely nonsensical drivel and unfortunately even the “C” level executives don’t believe it anymore and are too cowardly to actually say anything. Which brings me to my next point. - A quarter of the company consists of “leadership” with no real expertise or qualifications. They’ve landed their titles because the CEO either “likes their vibe” or gave in to their whining about not feeling included. This means you’ll constantly wrestle with their incompetence, all while they angle for inflated titles like “CTO” or “Chief of Staff” so they can jump ship and claim glory at their next gig. (“Chief of Staff” for a failing 40-person startup? The delusion is staggering. - The company lacks a coherent strategy, frequently shifting direction based on the CEO’s whims, leading to instability and confusion. - The feeling isn’t even one of urgency anymore. Everyone knows the company is circling the drain—except, perhaps, the CEO and his self-important deputy. Most employees are either actively job hunting or waiting for a convenient excuse to start. - Skilled employees find their abilities squandered on poorly conceived, uninformed directives from leadership, stunting career growth. - If you try and make a change you’ll inevitably be frozen out or be informed through back-channels that questioning and challenging half-conceived ideas is not appreciated. That’s not your job at HelloSelf, your job is to fluff the leaders ego’s so they feel better about their failing company. - The quarterly re-orgs are a joke. They have no idea how they should be operating so instead of admitting it they instead move people around, give old things new names without ever really changing the initiatives and force endless conversations and cycles around planning zero direction from the “leaders” because they’re all too busy working from their homes rather than being present and active in the company. I mean 2 of the “C-level” work part time and they spend all of Thursday in their “leadership” meeting. They literally work about 3 days a week and then wonder why the can’t scale their “start up”. - The entire back-end system is a complete mess—a patchwork of rushed, stress-fueled hacks cobbled together years ago by overworked employees. New team members are thrown into this chaos, expected to make sense of it while being pressured to deliver more, faster, and with fewer resources—all to an impossible standard that the company doesn’t actually hold itself to. And just when you think you’re making progress, one of the so-called “leadership team” will swoop in and derail everything with their baseless opinions. No data, no evidence, no facts—just their random shower thoughts wreaking havoc on your day, week, and month. - You’ll join for the mission but you’ll leave because it’s a joke.