New job at a startup company

I can't believe I forgot to post about this. Blame it on my hiatus and just being busy in general.

I got a new job ;) As I've written here before, I do a lot of contract work on the side. I have been doing it for a little over a year. Well, over the christmas holidays I was told that the company was generating more business than we could handle as part-timers. So, the owners asked me to jump with them and go full-time.

We all quit our days jobs in mid January and have been working at this since. I'm a lot busier than I was at megacorp, and my job responsibilities have increased beyond just programming. I am involved a lot with business decisions from interviewing and salary recommendations to planning and revenue discussions.

Salary wise, the move was somewhat of a lateral one for me. Meaning, on a yearly basis, the salary is comparable. However, the compensation package is less. I get no paid holidays, my health insurance is four times more expensive, and I don't get a lot of the little perks that add up. However, I have infinite more flexibility with my work hours (even though they are more!), and there is the potential for profit sharing next year if our growth rate continues.

The biggest hit to my bottom line is that I no longer have a side gig paying a 25% "bonus" to my day job. However, it's important to realize that even if I'd stayed at megacorp, I'd have lost that portion of my yearly income. My new company needed a full timer, not another contractor. So that gig would have dried up for me no matter what.

Anyway, I'm getting in at the ground level with a new company. Even though this is technically our third fiscal year, we all had day jobs before this. I'm betting on this really taking off and being a company I can grow with for the next 10 years. Ideally, I'll be able to evolve with the company and take on new roles. After all, I can't see myself being a programmer for the rest of my career.

Wish me luck!