As a non-Russian employee, I found the day-to-day culture significantly different from what I expected of an international company. Much of the informal communication in the office happened in Russian, including discussions directly related to work. While this may be natural for many colleagues, it made it difficult to participate in conversations that affected my work context and left me feeling disconnected from the broader team. Even with the scant efforts to formalize English in hiring and communication, differing levels of proficiency create persistent communication challenges.
I learned from colleagues that interviews had been conducted primarily in Russian until quite recently. As a non-native English speaker myself, I found this surprising and felt it contributed to the communication gaps I experienced once employed.
Support and mentorship were limited. I often received technically complex tasks with the expectation that I would simply figure them out on my own, which made it hard to feel set up for success. Especially when using technologies I had no prior experience in. Management structures are extremely flat and heavily centered around team leads, whose opinions carry significant influence over an employee’s trajectory. As one other reviewer noted here: "you live and die by what your team lead thinks". This dynamic creates pressure to align with a lead’s preferences rather than encourage open, collaborative dialogue.
More on the management structure: it is very non-traditional. Team leads are expected to function as individual contributors first and managers second, which means mentorship and career development receive very little attention. If you’re looking for someone to actively support your growth, provide structured feedback, or help you develop professionally, you will not find that here. In my experience, no one is really responsible for your long-term trajectory, and this lack of dedicated guidance makes it difficult to progress or feel supported.
The working evnironment is very connection-driven. Project opportunities, visibility, and "who is right" often hinge more on who you know than on transparent processes (which are sorely lacking everywhere). When paired with the language barrier, this creates a system where non-Russian speaking employees can feel sidelined simply because they lack the internal relationships needed to engage fully. I often times dealt with coworkers who would avoid interactions with me because of my English speaking ability, even though, as mentioned, I'm not a native speaker myself!
Culturally, change is glacial. Many employees have been with the company since early in their careers and are deeply accustomed to existing processes. It's not uncommon to hear individuals who are at the company for 10+ years, having no other experience elsewhere. This continuity provides stability, but it also means there is little exposure to alternative ways of working, and key individuals are resistant to evolution.
Pushing straight to main is common, code reviews optional, whole features rewritten by a team lead overnight without any warning, complex deployment and build practices based on outdated technologies... combined with competitive pressure from other IDEs and several large projects flopping, the company’s long-term outlook is bleak.
Based on my experience, these systemic challenges make it difficult for non-Russian employees, especially those with experience with other tech companies, to integrate fully into the organization and contributed in an environment that, in my experience, feels fundamentally flawed. This is why you will see a strong binomial distribution in the reviews here.
If you fall into this category, I recommend considering deeply if these systemic challenges are manageable by you.
