Two years ago, mid-pandemic I broke out of a downward spiraling career as an engineer in the Oil and Gas sector by getting an opportunity with a professional services firm in the Tech sector. This company essentially supplies project teams to help organizations who need software development, data strategy, or integration services. After a few months of learning the business as a BA the founder and family friend who hired me asked me if I'd like to transition into sales. I had a few accounts that had been left by my predecessor and I was excited to get started. Initially, the role began with only salary compensation, which was on the low end, but since I was learning a new industry and coming out of an unemployment period due to COVID I was happy to accept whatever. At the 9-month mark, I closed my first big deal - 900k USD at which point I broached the conversation of adding a performance comp component to my salary. The founder explained that in PS we don't make a tonne of money off individual deals, but that he could give me 2-3%. After going on to crush it for another six months - numbers that would effectively double my base comp he pulled me into his office and fired me. The kicker here is that three weeks before there had been a yearly business review, where he assured everyone that no one was in danger of losing their job. The secondary kicker was that the company had been doing work for one of his clients, who was "waiting on investment money" and eventually didn't pay any of their $2M in bills. When I asked about my bonus compensation the founder told me that there was a company performance aspect to bonuses being paid, and since the company was now going to lose money this year I wouldn't be compensated.
Sharing as a cautionary tale to get paid ASAP and to get everything in writing.
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