Ask HN: Am I being lowballed? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Am I being lowballed?

2 pointsteknologik7 comments

I develop Python / JavaScript applications and have a few years experience programming but am not formally educated in CS. I worked for 1.5 years using both languages on the job and have been working on a side project for the last few months.

I interviewed with a local company a few times and have been offered a rate that seems unusually low to me, $15/hr. This is much less than I made prior to leaving my last job to focus on my startup. The employer says that it is a trial period and pay would increase if all went well, which I understand; still, this rate seems lower than would be reasonable to pay even an intern when everyone else is compensated at market rate.

I'm not sure whether to take a chance and prove myself or how to respond to this. Do you think this is an unfair rate? I am in a large Texas city.

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Founder of Lambda (http://getlambda.com) here. We negotiate these sorts of deals for a living.

We charge more for short-term trials (say 1 week), not less. Employers understand that flexibility is valuable and are often willing to pay more to avoid commitments. Conversely, they usually expect discounts for "buying in bulk", so it's reasonable to offer reduced rates for long-term (say longer than 3 months) contracts.

That said, $15/hr is way too low in any situation. There's a reason we set Lambda's minimum to $100/hr: doing so cuts out most clients that we don't want to deal with. I don't know much about your experience level, but a few years programming experience and some time spent as a startup founder should be enough for you to ask for $100/hr. I'm less familiar with the Texas market (we do business in NYC and SF), so $75/hr might be more appropriate, but I wouldn't go any lower than that.

If you send me an email, I'd be happy to hop on a quick call. We don't have many clients in Texas, so I don't think I'd be able to get you a better offer immediately, but I could give you some general negotiating advice.

Sounds very low -- how long is the trial period and what would the pay increase be? You dont want to start at the low rate and have to fight for the increase after an undetermined trial period - definitely get the final salary and trial period in writing.

Good advice. I'm not sure how long it would be. Probably 6-8 weeks.

I think you can find this kind of work on oDesk at the same if not higher rates. In Texas you should be able to at least double the rate as a junior developer, if not triple it - a sure sign that you might be better off hunting around for a while before settling on a trial rate like this.

yes you are being taken advantage of and I am sure the employer knows it. However depending on your long term goal you can use this as a stepping stone to a better job.

Ya, that is really low. It sounds like an intern's salary.

I've interned a big places like Google and at little start ups, and $15/hour is way too low for an intern.

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