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I'm sorry to threadjack, but it sounds like you're exactly the person I have a question for. I'm currently a high school senior. Last summer, I got offered (an

I'm sorry to threadjack, but it sounds like you're exactly the person I have a question for. I'm currently a high school senior. Last summer, I got offered (and accepted) a Java development job from a tiny company that's the commercial side of research software developed at a Top-3 CS school. I work from home (or anywhere, really), keep my own hours, and spend most of my time doing frontend/interface-type stuff (with Swing), but my knowledge of bash and Linux has also been immensely helpful (not just to help me do my job, but for specific scripts/knowledge the company needs). When I first got the job, they said, "We'll start you at minimum wage as a sort of trial, but shortly we'll give you a raise. What is minimum wage anyway? $9? $10?" Me: "That's fine. And it's $7.25, actually." [Note: The way we know each other is because their daughter goes to my school. She's the one who mentioned me when they were looking for an inexperienced coder. Before the interview, they apparently asked her how much they should pay me. She said, "Oh, he'll be fine with minimum wage." .....sigh....] So I worked a few months, got good feedback from my PM, kind of thought it was time for a raise, but was shy and didn't ask for one, and then after seven months pulled myself together and did ask for one--reminding them that it was promised to me, and citing the good feedback too. They raised it up to $8.50/hr, gushed with good feedback, and said that they'd raise it again in a few months--and if they forgot that I should remind them. Note that this is lower than what they originally thought minimum wage was. To be honest, I feel like someone with a CS degree could be doing the same work at the same speed and get $20+/hr, but since I'm still pretty happy that they took a gamble and hired a high schooler, I would've been fine with $10-15. But I do think it's ridiculous that I could be making more money as a waiter. So on the one hand I want to be kind of stern with them, but on the other hand I don't want to bite the hand that's feeding me. .....advice? -- For what it's worth, I am looking at other options. The Google Summer of Code looks really appealing, but the project I wanted to work for (Mnemosyne) didn't get accepted as a mentoring organization, so now I'm trying to see if there's another project I'd like to do. I also might get a scholarship / internship / job from the NSA, which would provide me with a large yearly salary, and give me the financial freedom to drop the Java job this summer and work on an open source project I love (and/or do something educational like doing every exercise of SICP). But neither one of these options is guaranteed, so I don't want to burn my bridge prematurely.

kovar 16y ago
If the quality of your work - code, professionalism, on time delivery, reliability, etc - is good, then you're sorely underpaid. In '80 I was in high school and working on a Wang system writing code for $15 an hour. Another summer I built computer systems for a small vendor for $18 an hour. That's 30 years ago and I was getting paid more than you, with fewer skills. If they have other options and you hold their feet to the fire, they'll likely go elsewhere. You'll be out of work, but you'll also be free to find other work, and better paying work. You could hold their feet to the fire diplomatically. Do some research on rates for similar skill sets, local and remote. Go back in with your research and their performance reviews and have a frank discussion with your manager. I suspect that it will be difficult to get them to a point where you're getting fair compensation and thus looking elsewhere is probably your best bet.
robflynn 16y ago
That is pretty much the situation I was in. I was not long out of High School (actually, I believe I started when I was 16 and thus still in HS) so I did not really expect a huge salary or anything at the time. However, after I graduated and began looking at going to school part time I was looking for a little more income so that I could pay. I was also at the age at that point that it was up to me to take care of paying for my things as opposed to having my parents help me out. It's been many years since that occurred, but from what I recall, I told the owners that I wanted to talk to them when I had a moment. We set up a time an hour or two later to get together and talk (they had been in and our of meetings all day.) I basically just laid out all the facts, everything I did for the company, in what ways I felt I attributed to the increasing income of the company, and what I thought I should be making. They listened to what I had to say and agreed that I was a huge contributer to the company and came to me a couple hours after that with their counter offer. At that point I didn't feel like negotiating, so I informed them politely that I would be accepting a position at a new company. They tried to offer me "stock" (it was a small private company that I knew would never get sold) and that they could not offer me any more money than what they offered a few hours before, and tried to think of ways to retain me. I decided, however, that moving across the country to CA would be the best bet for me to further my career. It was actually pretty tough for me as we had grown pretty close over the years, but I still felt like staying there would have held me back. It sounds like you are making the right moves, however, and trying to line up plans B and C just in case things do not go as you wish. As far as Google Summer of Code, my old project has done GSOC for several years now. I've been out of the loop for a few years now since I've left the project but they're probably accepted for 2011 as well. (http://www.pidgin.im http://www.pidgin.im). I'm not sure if you have any interest in working on the project, but it may be worth a shot. -- I apologize for the delay in responding. The plumbing at my home just decided it wanted to play a little game called "yay flood time." Best of luck to you.

kovar 16y ago

If the quality of your work - code, professionalism, on time delivery, reliability, etc - is good, then you're sorely underpaid. In '80 I was in high school and working on a Wang system writing code for $15 an hour. Another summer I built computer systems for a small vendor for $18 an hour. That's 30 years ago and I was getting paid more than you, with fewer skills. If they have other options and you hold their feet to the fire, they'll likely go elsewhere. You'll be out of work, but you'll also be free to find other work, and better paying work. You could hold their feet to the fire diplomatically. Do some research on rates for similar skill sets, local and remote. Go back in with your research and their performance reviews and have a frank discussion with your manager. I suspect that it will be difficult to get them to a point where you're getting fair compensation and thus looking elsewhere is probably your best bet.

robflynn 16y ago

That is pretty much the situation I was in. I was not long out of High School (actually, I believe I started when I was 16 and thus still in HS) so I did not really expect a huge salary or anything at the time. However, after I graduated and began looking at going to school part time I was looking for a little more income so that I could pay. I was also at the age at that point that it was up to me to take care of paying for my things as opposed to having my parents help me out. It's been many years since that occurred, but from what I recall, I told the owners that I wanted to talk to them when I had a moment. We set up a time an hour or two later to get together and talk (they had been in and our of meetings all day.) I basically just laid out all the facts, everything I did for the company, in what ways I felt I attributed to the increasing income of the company, and what I thought I should be making. They listened to what I had to say and agreed that I was a huge contributer to the company and came to me a couple hours after that with their counter offer. At that point I didn't feel like negotiating, so I informed them politely that I would be accepting a position at a new company. They tried to offer me "stock" (it was a small private company that I knew would never get sold) and that they could not offer me any more money than what they offered a few hours before, and tried to think of ways to retain me. I decided, however, that moving across the country to CA would be the best bet for me to further my career. It was actually pretty tough for me as we had grown pretty close over the years, but I still felt like staying there would have held me back. It sounds like you are making the right moves, however, and trying to line up plans B and C just in case things do not go as you wish. As far as Google Summer of Code, my old project has done GSOC for several years now. I've been out of the loop for a few years now since I've left the project but they're probably accepted for 2011 as well. (http://www.pidgin.im http://www.pidgin.im). I'm not sure if you have any interest in working on the project, but it may be worth a shot. -- I apologize for the delay in responding. The plumbing at my home just decided it wanted to play a little game called "yay flood time." Best of luck to you.