Fair Compensation
I am entering my full first year of working for a startup as a salaried employee. Initially I was hired to do back end Ruby on Rails work while I completed college... now that I am graduated, the company let some contractors go and now I am also responsible for all our dev ops on top of back end development and code reviews. I haven't gotten a raise since taking on the new responsibilities. Is this normal in start ups? When will it improve / be justly compensated? Am I overblowing my own worth? I have received no equity offers.
what are they paying you?
52800 before taxes. No benefits
Yeah that's pretty bad... Is it in Oklahoma or something like that?
Not uncommon in small start ups, but also not something you should deal with if the pay is not worth it. My first job was at a small start up and by the time I left I was doing development, QA, customer support, DBA, and Dev ops, all for the same entry level salary I started with. I gave up waiting for it to get better and got a new job with a much larger company. Still somewhat of a start up, but much better managed and staffed. Got a $33k raise and went back to only doing development work and code reviews.
Did you have to relocate to make the transition?
Not really, first job was in North West Indiana, second was downtown Chicago. I did move to the Chicago suburbs, but I could have stayed in NWI and taken a train to work no problem
I was in a similar position. Started working part time for a start up while in school, and went full time once I finished classes. But they made me a real salary offer with benefits, equity etc and I wouldn't have stayed otherwise. Highly recommend your renegotiate or leave.
I wouldn't waste any more time, I'd start looking for another gig. You're worth more and they know it.
I have completed TripleByte and have a tech interview scheduled in 10 days
Geezus. In the bay area you would be like at least $130k base plus benefits plus stock
same here in Seattle
Bay Area is more than 3 times as expensive to live as well as OP does in KC, though. People who spend too much time in the bay bubble lose sight of just how insane the COL is out there.
I'll do devil's argument on this. Depending on your startup, your access to career growth opportunities could be worth more than that 20K. I, and a number of other engineers I know, started our careers in similar situations (since it's pretty common to startups). We were allowed/required to do more than peers of the same level at more established companies, and often had to be creative about doing more with a lot less. Ultimately, our careers have had sharper upward trajectories than our peers who took easy money. However, it has to be the right startup and you should constantly asses the full 360 package of hard and soft benefits you receive, along with opportunity costs over time for not taking that sweet sweet cash. Startups are exploitative by nature and need. You're being fucked on a casting couch. It's just a question of how hard, when you get out, and if it ever leads to an actual acting job.
Getting no equity in startup is like getting doubly fucked. Get out of there.
I wouldn't take less than 130
You're getting DP'd. The salary is banging your throat while the equity is balls deep from the back.
sounds like you're getting fucked in the ass.
That's what I was coming here to figure out. This is my first job in CS out of college. Took the position because I have to support my family and this seemed alright (in the Midwest). I have no idea what I'm worth but I think it's more than this by about 20,000
Get another offer and counter your company if you want to stay. Then build a team as the lead or manager.