>>I'm underpaid. Average is about $35k + benefits in this area. I make $28k with no benefits, no sick days, 1 week of vacation after I've been full time for a year, and as far as I know that won't increase. I do get 3% of sales, but we've only had one sale since I went fulltime.
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>>Why do I stay? I have almost total control over the product. I'm not going to get that kind of freedom in a larger company. What interests me in consulting is keeping the freedom but getting decent pay for it. Of course, I still won't have benefits, but my husband has excellent insurance so that's not so bad.
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>>-Michelle
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>Yeah, I know what you mean. Speaking of having control over the product, I too have pretty much control over those I'm working on, but still I'm starting in a new job, new company next monday, after being here for 15 months. I mean, what the heck, I'll gain control there too, I didn't start in this job with total control either...
>I thought I'd experience working in a major IT company before any "independant" thoughts might struck me, and that's where I'm off to. I would also say we're on about the same level, Michelle, when it comes to VFP, so I can relate...


It's kind of funny that I ended up with so much control here. I interviewed for the job in the summer of '97. Didn't get it. That November, I got an email from the guy who got the job saying that they're looking for someone to help and I came in second on the original interview. So I took it. I've since found the original letter the guy wrote to the boss saying I'd be good for working on the web page and doing some debugging. :) Well, I _was_ still in college at the time.

Anyway, about 2 months after I started, the guy quit and I became the only programmer! The boss lives 6 hours away, and doesn't program anyway, so I had to learn the job real fast. Thank God I found the UT since I'd only been using VFP for 2 months.

Eventually, the guy that wrote the software originally came back, so I got some help, but I've pretty much taken over the Tripsoft program. He's working on a Taxi Manager. Last summer I told the boss that version 5 sucked and I was starting over for version 6. So it's my baby, now.

I'd been working on the project 2 months before the boss even saw it. He's only looked at it once for about 10 minutes. Which is a good thing for me, considering the stupid "suggestions" he's had for Taxi Manager. :)

It's an interesting situation. Fresh out of college, with a LD boss who's practically computer illiterate. Basically, I designed this version and I'm programming from my design. It's worth the low pay to me to get that kind of freedom.

But eventually I'm going to run out of things to do, and I don't think I could handle working in a tightly controlled environment after this, so that's what got me thinking of striking out on my own.

-Michelle