Friday, January 25, 2008

Pay Compare

I thought i'd give everyone a 10sec writeup on pay structure, that is as compared between a very quickly growing startup and that of corporate america.

* corporate america
pay interval: 14-18 months, average pay increase 3-4%. the only way to beat the system is take a job transfer and hope you time it right so it doesn't screw up your scheduled increases. if your unlucky, you change and they pull in your increase and only give you another few percent, and you sign yourself up for another 16month wait. it takes a lot of work to change jobs, and this ultimately forces you into something you are neither good at, or enjoy. way to go corporate America.

*successful startup
pay increases are YEARLY and directly line up with reviews. there is good profit sharing (stock options). you can take on new responsibility and be recognized immediatly and have your pay adjusted accordingly. I got my first raise/promotion at just around the 4 month point.

risk/return
it goes to show that there really is a direct correlation between risk and return. I figure the startup is probably 5-10 times more risky (yeah, i made that up, i have no idea how to measure that) than corporate America in terms of job stability and long term employement. but the potential return is astronomical. as always there is talk of an IPO, and i'm so happy to be in on the ground floor.

2 comments:

forkev said...

i'd call my job corporate, yet i'm inline for 2-3% raise yearly for first 4 years + cost of living, which some years adds up to over 6%
at 5 year mark it peters out and I have my good medical and 3 weeks vacation. year 7? or 9? (can't remember) I get my 4th and final week vacation. Good luck ever getting out of my position for 4 weeks!
but my overall cap is smaller then average corporate but the chance of loosing the job is slim unless the economy tanks (think 9/11)
all in all, if I can buy a house in the next 5 years, i won't matter what I make. Then A job at tocobell could hold down my lifestyle! (well, minus the medical)

Unknown said...

you and me man, working taco bell. I'll flip the burgers, no wait, i'll roll the burritos and you can run the register. its the american dream.