12-14% is better than average. I was using it as a euphemism for "mediocre", which it is for a person who lives in a high-COL city (one of the main reasons rents are so high is that career progress is faster out here) and in lucrative industries. When people not 1/10 as talented or capable as I am are, at the same age, making MD in investment banks, being acquired for millions, or making 500+ in private equity, I think it's fair to say that a 12-14% trajectory is pretty damn uninspiring. Money isn't an issue, but I'd be calling way more shots at my age if I hadn't taken so many bad risks (read: shitty startups).
I'm 0 for 2 in picking startups. The first just didn't have legs (our CEO had no idea what people actually wanted and would pay for) but my mistake was to spend almost 3 years trying to make it work. The second had unethical management who (a) tried to use my engineering credibility to justify dodgy personnel moves, attempting to force me to sign affidavits claiming my colleagues were incompetent (they weren't, but they had "too much" equity) and (b) after I resigned, did all sorts of disgusting stuff to try to fuck with my career.
You're right that if you don't change employer or get a promotion, you're unlikely to get a substantial raise. I assume that anyone who isn't promoted after 2 years is, unless they have essentially full autonomy to direct their work, going to start looking elsewhere. You'd be insane not to. Your future is your real boss, because the future is what actually pays us.
I am at a non-US profitable startup where the founders know exactly what people actually want and would pay for, but I wouldn't say the technical side of the start up is good enough to even call mediocre. The "technical" co-founder is more like a sales guy who takes a brief look at the technical side of things one day a week. They've been hiring fresh graduates without any experience. The code is getting difficult to maintain and performance is sluggish, resulting in excessively high server costs. The founders were fresh graduates when they started this company and I don't think they got funded by any venture capital. They have a knack for figuring out what people want and selling to them but I feel they lack technical experience.
I've been interning here for a few months, and they've already asked me to stay when I graduate, so that I can lead the IT team (around 4) on two products, handling software architecture, development process, performance optimisation, etc, etc and basically replacing him and hinted at offering a more than average graduate salary. They were apparently very impressed at my software engineering abilities. (I had done some freelancing work before) I've asked them why don't they consider hiring someone experienced in their 30's instead and they said that's what they're going to do if I reject their offer.
I know how to do what they want me to do more because of what I've studied at university than from my experience, and I feel nervous being given such a large responsibility. I want to work with people who write good code, with projects that already have a good architecture in place. Is that possible or are most companies in similar shape? I also feel that it won't be easy to advance this fast at another company and I could be missing a great opportunity. My friends who recently graduated and are working at large companies tell me they're lucky to write >10 lines a day and that they are always stuck in meetings. There are other startups here but I don't think I'll get offered a salary that's any good.
The fact that they're good at figuring out what people want is not to be understated. That's not common, and most startups fail because they don't produce something people want and will pay for. All the technical muscle in the world can't overcome that. I've worked in two startups (one failed, one was too sleazy to even discuss) and did excellent technical work at both, but that didn't matter in the end because of executive problems. If your "business guys" are good at finding customers, figuring out what they want, and delivering it, that's a major asset.
Here's what you need. Get a VP-level title so you can hire people better than you and not push yourself down, because that's what will happen if you don't have a title. At this stage of the company, titles mean nothing, but at 40 employees, they will.
Now find at least one technical person who's better than you and try to recruit him. He'll be your mentor. He'll possibly want a title once he learns that you have one. That's fine. Make sure the founders are willing to make him VP as well, so you're equals. (You don't want to be the boss of someone better than you, so mandate that the people you hire answer directly to founders/the board).
They only call themselves Directors (who are supposed to answer to VP's), so what title should I ask for? They suggested "product manager", but that is BS because product managers are responsible for the features of a product, while I'll be involved in its development. I've also been told they don't plan to hire another technical person after me for two years. They made hiring decisions before by having votes between the founders. So even if they give me a vote I won't be able to hire/fire anyone I want. I suppose I can convince them later on...
Thanks for the advice, I have a clearer idea of what I want to do now. :)
I'm 0 for 2 in picking startups. The first just didn't have legs (our CEO had no idea what people actually wanted and would pay for) but my mistake was to spend almost 3 years trying to make it work. The second had unethical management who (a) tried to use my engineering credibility to justify dodgy personnel moves, attempting to force me to sign affidavits claiming my colleagues were incompetent (they weren't, but they had "too much" equity) and (b) after I resigned, did all sorts of disgusting stuff to try to fuck with my career.
You're right that if you don't change employer or get a promotion, you're unlikely to get a substantial raise. I assume that anyone who isn't promoted after 2 years is, unless they have essentially full autonomy to direct their work, going to start looking elsewhere. You'd be insane not to. Your future is your real boss, because the future is what actually pays us.