This is un update of the Original post
Sorry everyone for the late update, I have to say it was a roller coaster and I had a lot to process about what happened. I took some time off to spend with my gf and talk about what it with my friends/familly
I would like to thank you ALL! I have never received that much support, and i was reading your comments right before entering in the meeting, which gave me reassurance I made the best decision.
You are a FORCE, and every positive comment counts!
So yesterday I was called in a meeting in order to receive my offer. I was greeted by the RH, my manager and the owner of the company.
The manager clearly was nervous, which indicates from the beginning he was not very confident about my reaction.
They started by “pitching” my position with a powerpoint presentation, in which they stated what I did for the company, the evolution, the projects, the achievements, etc, which I appreciated, but didn't comfort me at all, since it was all only words of appreciation. They litteraly tried to pitch why I am a good fit for the company (not a bad ideea from my pov, it shows they wanted me, but you will see later more).
They showed me the future projects of the company and asked me what do I think of them, but I didn't get into much details, because I didn't want to give them free solutions, and I stated that I can clearly manage all these 5 big projects which are in the scope of my expertise and my studies (actually I am the only one in the company capable of managing these projects).
They showed me the job description with the position, which was project manager, but they added a lot of CIO responsabilities, which I pointed out.
I clearly said that I will never accept to add to my normal duties, CIO responsabilites without paying me for it. They didn't took it very well, but they stated that this remains to be discussed.
When we actually started to talk about the money, my manager I noticed he was very red, he was almost freaking out (I guess from panick, knowing what will happen if I don't accept).
When they put on the table the offer, it was 20k less than the offer I already signed, plus 2k bonus yearly.
I asked them surprised if this is all, and they replied to me “It's already a good offer, right?”
I told them that this is borderline insulting for me, and that my offers at the moment are 20k more than what they are offering to me (not to mention all the bonuses).
FYI I literally did forensic cybersecurity for them last year, managing to catch a employee (a director actually) which stole data from the company, and I am the only one that saved that company. Another time, I managed to retrieve data which was lost from the files server because the backup was not set properly and we had 3 disks down. I managed to reconstruct all the data using the 3 disks which were already down. These are only a few examples
They didn't know what to say, it was a clear silence for about 20 seconds, in which the owner replied that this is all they can do.
Then I realised: they bought 2 weeks ago a new HQ with 30 offices, so they clearly have the money, so that is not the problem. The problem were my colleagues, which are paid borderline slavery wages. If the company would give me what I deserve, everyone would notice and they will ask for more as well, which clearly they don't want.
The salary they offered me already was higher than their current management, but no worries, I will make sure to tell everyone that they are really underpaid.
So in reality the problem is that everyone in this company is satisfied with a slavery wage, this is why the company doesn't pay that much. If everyone asked for more, they would be forced to pay.
Anyways, I told them I will consider their offer and I will come back with an answer in 2 weeks. They are shitting bricks at the moment, because they are starting to realise I will most likely refuse their offer.
They asked me if I can continue to work for them few more months after the contract ends, which I clearly said NO, because I don't want to help someone who didn't respect me enough to pay my efforts.
My contract ends in 2 months and there will be no one to train the new IT guys, and they will be faced with the fact that they will have to pay A LOT MORE than me to find people to do my job, but that's not my problem.
I really don't see how they will manage to get out of this situation without my help, I believe they will try to convince me to stay 2-3 months more, but I will refuse (I don't care about the money, if they didn't care enough to pay me for the efforts I made).
My manager(which is not even an IT manager lol) was almost about to cry in the meeting, realising the fact there will be no one in the IT to keep the business up and running and tried to give me human reasons why to continue in their company (like environnement, respect, etc, LOL)
I will give them the answer in 2 weeks, and I will finish my contract 100% professional as always, but my job will be finished at the end of my contract.
I will graduate (Marster's degree with 3 specialisations -Systems, Network and Cloud Computing) in 2 months in my will take 2 more months to relax and afterwards I will continue my journey 🙂