Sounds like you learned all your lessons in one go. Well done. Never take a pay cut in exchange for lottery tickets. Check. Never take a pay cut in exchange

Sounds like you learned all your lessons in one go. Well done. Never take a pay cut in exchange for lottery tickets. Check. Never take a pay cut in exchange for a vague promise of returning to your real rate later. Check. Never let anybody position your market value in the context of what another developer has negotiated for himself. Check. You got all that out of the way in the first year. Time to move on to that better job that pays you in money. Bet you'll never make any of those mistakes again. Good luck!