Senior and experienced people will tell you not to write programs for money during your early stages. But the fact remains the same, some of us are broke. We code to become great software engineers and get well-paying jobs. If not we want to solve problems in our society by starting a company that will finally generate income.

Why money?

I jumped into this fellow who told me to implement his idea on software. Yes, the ideas were great, he was very determined to create wonderful e-commerce that for sure could hit the market. So we agreed I could take 15% of the total shares in his company. But the expectations are always different from reality. We ended up going on a different path after 6 months of commitment to the project.

Since then, I hate when a non-technical person approaches me with the idea of ‘shares’. I feel it’s a bad idea as a junior programmer. However, it will depend on your financial condition. If you are good, then don’t go for money.

Why Shares?

We have many startups that explode the market, but the developers behind the scenes are never appreciated. This occurs when a company buys or employs you to work on their project, then you get paid at the end of it.

That is when you feel pain. The code you implemented is now earning a company millions of dollars, but you are not part of it.

Just as normal, you never know about the future. But as a young programmer, you need to get experience. Handling different projects with passion will make you learn a lot of things. This goes hand in hand with joining a small company. You get exposed to many staffs.

Yes, as a developer, you will get much pressure, from development to testing, to deployment. Then you are there to maintain the code. But remember, you are improving your skills.

As the load work increases, this makes the shares limited. If it is the money, any additional part, you get paid separately. This should work similarly to shares.

If you have agreed to implement a model, any modification should increase your shares. Otherwise, those non-technical members will increase their demands. It sucks when you are the only developer in a team that just needs to see the software working.

From design, coding to production is a long journey. The worst part is when those people push you with deadlines. The project is huge, they are not paying you any allowances, but they need the software. It’s always good to make the final decision.

Currently, I can accept shares, but on condition. I would rather accept 5% of shares with some dollars during the implementation process. At least, if the project fails, my time will be worth it. So, it’s up to you, make a personal decision, be wise not to be used. Remember, debugging is hard.