| There's a lot of sound advice in the thread (TL;DR: many red flags, get out now!) I'd like to add my experience of having stayed at such a company, and getting the short end of the stick. If you end up making the wrong choice -- yes -- you'll lose money, bills will be scary, etc etc. I hate to sound cliché, but you sound like a bright individual, and that stuff will eventually recede in your rearview mirror. If you stay and get screwed, you will still eventually leave, and then you will think about two things: a) How stupid you feel for letting a company walk all over you. Like, "Aren't I smart enough to avoid those traps?" (Answer: only after you've fallen into them once or twice.) b) Eventually, you'll appreciate the wisdom earned from failure. I worked for 4.5 years as employee zero, with little in the way of appreciation from my employer (not just material). I saw many things I now recognize as hallmarks of mismanagement. As much as I felt like a heel for not having the gumption to quit, I earned a great deal of experience that I rely on daily. So -- if you end up staying, and you end up like me -- it's not all roses, but it's not all thorns either. Knowing what you don't want in an employer is often as valuable as knowing what you do want. A final aside: there was no malice at my old company. They were decent people, but something else was always higher priority, and the results spoke for themselves. |
Could you expand upon those? Maybe they're obvious, but I'm curious and I'm sure there are people here who would prefer to avoid learning to recognize such things from experience.