>>He may have been right - just look at the list of the musicians who've been through Bluesbreakers, and how many of them had decent careers, at least.
>>
>>It's not even funny, though, when a programmer is underpaid under the same pretext, "the knowledge of this trade that you'll gain here is worth much more... and here's the NDA for you to sign so you can't use that knowledge".
>
>A bad experience, I take it? Get it off your chest if you want to.

I'm long past nausea on that one, it's more of a warning to anyone who hears such a story from an employer to be. We actually shouldn't be paid by learning (except maybe in the beginning of the career, when you learn the trade in an "educational center" type of a company), we should be paid to learn. Such knowledge of a certain type of business usually isn't going to gain you any advantage in that same business - but may just widen your knowledge. Which would have happened on any other job anyway.

>I suppose any of us who knows the difference between a function call and a bodily function, and takes some pride in the work, has been taken advantage of at one time or another. My early career was spent working for a software company where I wrote some stuff that literally earned the company millions. My salary had a nice trajectory but most of those millions did not land in my bank account. I'm not upset about it. I did just fine and got other good jobs based on that one. Besides, good work is to an extent its own reward.

There's that. I figure most of us have been through that, this way or another. And yes, this nicely connects with Walter's happiness subthread in chatter... just knowing you've done good makes you feel good. Bragging rights should be among basic human rights, whenever honestly earned :).