I wouldn't down play the "neat" product or culture, or the burn out from past experience. Money isn't everything. Personally, if I was given a low ball offer an

I wouldn't down play the "neat" product or culture, or the burn out from past experience. Money isn't everything. Personally, if I was given a low ball offer and was told I wasn't allowed to negotiate, I would negotiate anyway. That might include negotiating with my feet: "Sorry I can't accept that offer, if you aren't willing to come up to $X then I will have to look elsewhere." Of course, they might say "We can't negotiate" and I will have to look elsewhere. On the other hand, there are times when making less money but enjoying what I do is very much worth it. These jobs aren't forever, we don't get into jobs in this industry and stay there until we retire very often. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad making half as much but really enjoying getting up every morning and having the opportunity to go into work because the product challenges are exciting or because the culture makes me feel good about myself. Obviously, if it causes deep financial stresses than that's not a good trade off. But if you can swing it personally, it might be a great experience. I wouldn't call this "being taken serious advantage of". This could be just the benefit some engineers are looking for in their career.