21–30 of 155 posts
Wow, off topic I know but this is the kind of question and responses that give me faith in HN (and online communities in general) being a useful resource for people to participate in. This is a real world problem of someone who has had the courage to ask for help and they're receiving some decent responses and encouragement. My only words are yes I would say you are underpaid and I'm sure there's a better job out the…
I found the salaries and day rates there are a little higher than those I discovered by speaking with colleagues, but it's a great rule-of-thumb.
Use things like this to press for a raise/promotion or decide to jump ship/re-skill in more commercial languages.
If your stammer doesn't affect your ability to perform your job (as it's unlikely to do as a programmer vs. say, a call centre agent) you should be paid market rate.
Web developer market rates here: http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/salary-checker/average-web-developer... ...be sure to go to 'top salaries' for your county as the usual London weighting is in effect!
You're getting screwed at £15k, I've never been paid that little for developing web. For reference, my salary history over my 6+ year career is as follows: £20k->£26k->£45k->£450-£600/day Note that I am a totally average developer, nowhere near as smart or knowledgable as a lot of the guys here on HN. I have a CS degree, barely (I got a 3rd), so that helped at the beginning, but most of my luck has been thanks to an…
You're getting screwed at £15k, I've never been paid that little for developing web. For reference, my salary history over my 6+ year career is as follows: £20k->£26k->£45k->£450-£600/day Note that I am a totally average developer, nowhere near as smart or knowledgable as a lot of the guys here on HN. I have a CS degree, barely (I got a 3rd), so that helped at the beginning, but most of my luck has been thanks to an…
£42k after 3 years? Where are you working - London? That makes rather a large difference, as I'd be shocked if someone was getting that after 3 years for web dev here in Manchester.
I ran across this interesting freelance/consulting contract yesterday: https://github.com/ashedryden/freelance-contract. It stipulates that all the day-to-day communication is text-based, with in-person or phone meetings as needed but scheduled 2 days in advance.
With that kind of contract, you could realistically avoid dealing with most in-person/phone client stuff, or do it alongside your business partner if needed.
I don't think this kind of arrangement would look abnormal to a client. There's efficiency reasons for wanting everything text-based (IM, Basecamp, etc.) and for having a single point of contact for phone/voice meetings (your business partner).
You're also fortunate to be in an industry where online communication is the norm, and it should be fairly easy to pick up side work and build up your skills and experience that way too. During my years freelancing, I worked for clients where 99% of communication was done via email, Basecamp, etc, in which case having a stammer is a non-issue as very little communication is voice.
Good Luck!