Blog - First impressions at Yandex

Added on Wednesday, 2011-01-12 17:15 CET in categories Moscow, Programming
Yesterday was my first day at Yandex, where I will be working on Yandex News.

My first impressions are very positive, I'm part of a very nice team, with lots of Vim users ;) The office is very reminiscent of all those Google offices you see articles about, with hammocks, a massage room, bean bags, sporting room, high-up balconies with a view over Moscow, etc. See also pictures of the office itself.

My commute to Yandex is by bike, and it takes about 20 minutes. When I had my first interview at Yandex, there was still a parking place for bikes, which was pretty full. But for some reason, Russians seem to think that in winter, when there's snow, cycling is forbidden. Not a single other cyclist did I see, and the parking place for bikes was also gone :( I did get a lot of strange looks though…

Because Yandex is a Russian company, in generally only Russian is spoken, however, there are of course many people who speak other languages as well. I even met my first colleague who speaks Dutch :)

There are a lot of small clubs at Yandex for whatever you may come up with. There are language clubs, e.g. for German and Turkish, sporting clubs, probably a photography club, etc.

As for the actual work itself, I can't wait to properly get started :)