Hi. Your post read like a blast from the past. I started out in a Ruby on Rails shop with an internship making $10 an hour. My laptop was an old HP, with fans that whirred (for some reason HP can&#x27;t make&#x2F;procure fans to save their lives). Everyone else had sleek new equipment. I built a couple great features, squashed tons of bugs, and learned a lot along the way. Near the end, I talked with the founders about raises a couple times, but it&#x27;s clear what they needed was a way to save money on development for as long as possible. And what I needed was the experience of working with a real software team.<p>We all got what we were looking for. It&#x27;s just a question of when you don&#x27;t need that basic training anymore. Sounds like that time came for you around the same time it did for me. I can tell you - at that point, the only way up is out. You are much, much more employable now. Don&#x27;t &quot;beg for work&quot; ... present yourself well and ask for market-rate. You said that&#x27;s $75,000 in your area? Better yet, say you&#x27;re looking for a range of $80-90k and see what they say.<p>I&#x27;ve got a question for you, and maybe an idea. Did you sign a non-compete agreement beyond just your term of employment?<p>Even if you did, it might not be enforceable in your state. Go to the billion-dollar rival and tell them how you&#x27;ve got almost a year of domain expertise under your belt working on a similar product. You&#x27;re looking for that next step - full-time Software Engineer, and a chance to build on what you already know. You&#x27;re able to make clear comparisons between the two offerings, and I bet you have some ideas about how theirs could be the best of both worlds. Oh, and when they ask you...<p>&quot;Why did you leave your previous job?&quot;<p>Don&#x27;t panic. 18 story points on your last week, remember? You&#x27;re a sharp web developer who <i>rapidly</i> rose in value - far faster than your perceived value to a CEO who forever saw you as &quot;the cheap intern.&quot; Since you couldn&#x27;t reach an agreement that met your salary requirements, you parted ways. Now you&#x27;re able to devote more of your time to the search. That&#x27;s all you need to say - so practice saying it with confidence.<p>Email real people at the target company (email is the new cover letter) or start asking questions on Twitter - don&#x27;t just drop your resume in an upload. Start a conversation. Get your Team Lead and as many coworkers as possible to jump in with recommendations, when they ask for references.<p>My next offer after the internship was a real one, at market salary in Silicon Valley. There&#x27;s light at the end of the first-job tunnel. It&#x27;s tough now, but please believe me when I say it does get better.