Portside, Inc.

This is Alek, one of Portside’s co-founders. Alina — I don’t know the details of your particular interview experience, but on the issue of languages, our policy is simple: for every meeting, call, etc., we use the language that everyone in that particular meeting or that particular call can understand. It’s the only practical solution we could come up with. We do have people in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan who do not speak Ukrainian. We have people in the US and Canada who do not speak either Ukrainian or Russian. When someone talks to me (I grew up in Kyiv but have been living in the US for 20+ years), they are welcome to choose any language they like — Ukrainian, Russian or English. But if you happen to be interviewing for a team with co-workers in Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan, the only language you have in common happens to be Russian. This is because the team in Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan does not speak Ukrainian. They speak English, but then we have people on the Ukrainian team who do not speak English. There are companies that only hire Ukrainians who speak fluent English, but we never instituted this policy and we do hire people on our Ukrainian team with less than average level of English (enough to write tickets in JIRA, not enough to express themselves on a call). Operating in multiple countries and time zones adds a level of complexity, language being one of these complexities. I hope for your understanding, but if you feel that you were treated unfairly, please reach out to me directly — [email protected]. Thank you!