Ask HN: Salary cut for position change Front-end – Back end?

[knoblauch]

Long story; I want to know if a salary cut is justified in my situation.

18 months ago, I started my first job as an android developer in a fintech startup, after graduating with my Masters in a top 20 university. When I joined, I was the only android developer and built 2 relatively complex apps from scratch (designing architecture, app development, some security/crypto/api). My CTO, to whom I report directly, knows since the day he hired me that I don't want to be doing front-end my whole life, and we agreed this summer that I'd be switching to the back-end.

At the time, I asked him if there would be any salary change with the switch, and he reassured me that there wouldn't be, because he allows his engineers to move horizontally without any salary change.

Since 2 months, I've been learning about the back-end language, Functional Programming, and other frameworks they use. All on my personal time in the evening and on week-ends.

Last week, the CFO asked to speak with me and told me that we'd have to sign a new contract, and that they're going to decrease my salary (by over 10%). His argument is that he wants to align my salary with the other back-end juniors.

This news came to me as a shock and I am very confused if this is a normal practice or not. I've explained the situation to some of my SE friends and older acquaintances and all of them without exception find it scandalous and have told me that I should not accept the offer and start looking for another job.

I feel like the company is not valuating my work and my experience at their place. During these 18 months, I have shown that I am able to learn and adapt fast, that I deliver good results, and they have seen that I am highly motivated and positive in a very consistent way.

(Continuing the text in comment)

[knoblauch]

(Next part of the text):

Obviously, this career switch would be a great opportunity for me to move into the back-end world, learn a lot of new stuff, broaden my SE skills, build a better CV and invest in my future.

There are many arguments that I can find on my side to find it disgraceful and why they shouldn't decrease my salary. I feel I shouldn't even have to defend my salary in the first place in this situation, as decreasing my salary is a bit of a low blow.

Some notes: - The startup has a lot of cash - We are ~20 software engineers - I am quite confident that I could earn more than my current salary with my experience if I moved to a bigger city in my country - The other juniors didn't have more professional experience when they were hired, and don't have a better education - I absolutely love the the project, and the other employees, our culture, and the office - Even if I do accept now, I don't know why they'd want to do this to me when they know I am not happy with the situation, as their are making me lose some of my loyalty to the company, taking the risk that I'll leave when I get enough experience on back-end

I feel like they are forcing the pay cut on me, after promising me a switch, then promising there wouldn't be any salary change.

HN, shed light on my situation and tell me what you think.

[_ah]

Sounds like this is a small shop. When you were off by yourself, your compensation stood alone in its own category. If you join the other backend devs, then your salary is compared against theirs and it "looks bad" on the internal spreadsheet. This is an internal political game and your CTO is not willing to spend his political capital on a junior developer. That may or may not be a reasonable decision on his part. Your excellent work up to this point (and future potential) isn't being weighed as much as it should be and there's probably very little you can do to change that.

I wouldn't accept a pay cut. It's too early in your career for that.

The ideal option is to tell the CTO "I can't take a pay cut. Keep me the same, and I promise I won't tell anyone." That might solve his political problem. If he won't go for that, then your options are: (1) continue in your current role (unhappy, but better paid), (2) leave for a different position. You probably will want to start planning for your eventual exit anyway, since this smells like a place with limited growth prospects.

[JamesVI]

I think it is reasonable for you to be compensated according to the skills you have and the performance you demonstrate. I think it's reasonable for everyone with similar skills and performance to be compensated the same.

You are moving from a role you have 18 months experience into one where you have much less. Personally, I wouldn't cut your salary immediately, but I would work with you to build a transition plan made up of SMART goals. At the end of the transition period (probably 3-6 months in this case), we would discuss your performance relative to the expectations of the role and level you have transitioned into.

If, at that time, you were performing at a level more junior that you are being compensated, I would offer you the option of returning to your former role (assuming we still had a need for someone in that role) or level you down and adjust your compensation accordingly.

The CTO was foolhardy in making a blanket promise that you could move "horizontally" without impact to compensation, but the CFO is also overly focussed on what could be a small amount money (2.5-5% of your total salary).

I'd suggest that you go back to the CFO and the CTO and propose a transition plan with an eval at the end to determine your level and compensation. You should also ask what the promotion path forward would be like if you transitioned and were leveled down. Will you be stuck there for a long time or will you have a chance at being promoted back up once you have a year of experience? Then you can decide if a possible (presumably short-term) decrease in compensation is a valid investment in your long-term career.

"my SE friends and older acquaintances and all of them without exception find it scandalous"

Obviously, you need to balance an anonymous voice* on the internets against your friends and acquaintances, but this really isn't that scandalous. Perhaps they've just not experienced it themselves.

Actually, the biggest problems you have right now are that the CFO and CTO aren't on the same page and that the CFO is making decisions about compensation for engineers. The CTO (or whoever your direct supervisor is) should be making your compensation decisions based off strategic decisions taken in conjunction with the CFO (and others).

*I'm actually the head of engineering at a growing startup, but maybe I'm lying :-D