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Comment by yannickmahe | Hacker News Reader

I like the idea, but as a developer there is little chance I'll do contract work before getting a job when I'm looking for a "real" job. Right now, finding a job is easy enough that I don't think a lot of people will jump through a lot of hoops before getting the job.

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It's like accepting a lower starting salary hoping that, since you love doing what you do, you will prove it to everyone that you're good at it and that you will get a raise eventually. I got burned with this twice -- believe it or not, low starting salary coupled with uncertainty about whether there will be an eventual raise played a big role in me actually stopping loving my work (which at the time was a good thing since I acquired more productive interests, but that's besides the point).

I'm looking for Rails work now and I've been offered substantially low salaries compared to what I make now. I was thinking maybe I need to adjust my expectations but your post makes me think twice. Thanks!

I will repeat the parent's sentiment - do NOT accept a lower salary. I was nearly caught in this trap a year ago, trying to get out of my current job that's not exactly fulfilling. I was given an offer that would have forced me to take a 13-18% pay cut and nearly had my vacation time slashed in half. I politely declined. I stuck it out for a little more than a year and just got offered a position that's going to pay 55% over what I'm getting now. Keep plugging away and keep looking..

Edit: Not sure about the vacation thing with the new role, but this is on a 6-month contract. I'll assume long vacations are out in the mean time, but it'll pay well enough that I'll be living ok for a little bit if I don't go full-time after.

On the flip side, I know people that took pay cuts to work for Google and never regretted it. Culture, work environment, and coworkers are worth something, and it's up to you to figure out how much they're worth to you and decide accordingly.

I don't totally agree with this. If you shift from big company to startup, you'll almost certainly have to take a pay cut, but usually you're doing this in exchange for seniority and equity. I wouldn't agree with a blanket statement that you should never take a lower-salary job.

Yeah, this is a tough one. I recently took a (7%) pay cut to join a new company, but my situation was a bit different. I had quit the previous company outright without anything new lined up, and I was being paid a bit above-market (their attempt to retain me despite the fact that I was unhappy). I'm sure I could have eventually found a company willing to match or beat my last salary, but I would have had to pass on several interesting opportunities to do so. So you can't just make the blanket statement that taking a pay cut is bad for any reason.

Very good point; I hadn't thought of this angle because the parent hadn't mentioned anything about going to a startup. In my situation, this other company was anything but a startup, rather, it it was a well-established but still very niche company that I dealt with. No seniority, no equity, no raise.

Interesting viewpoints.

I don't look at it as jumping through hoops, it's just as much for your benefit as it is for the company. Yes, you can quit at any time (of course, in California, you can be fired at any time also) but it's much cleaner if you both go into a trial period trying each other out. Should you decide the company isn't up to your standards, there's no pressure you stay, and you have a clearer expectation at that point of what you'd expect from compensation.

Yes, I agree. I was just recently looking for a new job (and found one fairly easily, one which I'm now very happy with). There were a couple companies that I was assured were "hot right now", but which wanted me to do a silly brain-teaser code-challenge as a condition of even talking to them on the phone. I said no thanks, and I don't regret it.

So sure, maybe if you're a company that everyone wants to work for, and you're getting bombarded with resumes, you can pull off a non-traditional recruiting strategy, but for it to be workable for any company to do it, I feel like a large number of companies would have to start doing it.

yannickmahe, it may be easy to find a job as a developer, but I recommend trying a company out if possible. It gives you a chance to see if it is worth quitting your job for.

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