It happens. Gain experience. Move on. I worked for a tyrant for $12/hr fixing bugs and adding new things to the program. Over a year and a half I did this. It was Visual Basic 6.0 and this job I had about 6 years ago. I was severely underpaid, especially for putting up with his crap, but with no money and student loans @ $40k, I had to do what I had to do. No sense in just quitting a job without having another lined up.

So what did I do? I always kept looking for a job during my time there, but in my time there, I did what I had to do, acquired all the knowledge I needed, added everything in detail on my resume -- for example, I made the program more user-friendly and boosted our sales by over 200%. It definitely looks good on my resume and I'm able to talk about it in interviews. I was pretty much hired to make the program more user-friendly and that is what I did, and it drew so many new customers. That was about the only benefit to me, I did not actually see any raise for my efforts.

In fact, it was not until I found another job, making just $16/hr when he offered me double my salary. I think I tried it for about a week before I realized I was going to suffer immensely: "I'm paying you to do this job... why.. how..." and all that kind of stuff. He also installed spy software on my computer to make sure I was doing the job. That's the kind of boss he was, a micromanager, complete with paranoia. Read more about that here: http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/the-opportunity/

I think most of us... are never making the salary we actually want and most of us probably won't unless we are working in Silicon Valley OR we run our own business and charge our own prices. Companies are certainly after profit, but rather than always try and ask for the salary you want: see what else the company will offer you.

For example, I had gotten a job with another company that paid a pretty good wage, far more than the $12/hr, and they also gave me a company phone which I don't pay for, 3-4 weeks vacation + sick days, and I had only lived about 10 minutes from the job.

That first job, I may have disliked, but I knew it wasn't going to last forever because I am a college graduate with skills that are in demand. I'm a web developer and a programmer. Always learning new things. What company would turn away a person with college experience AND programming skills? I've expanded well beyond Visual Basic 6.0.

While working at your current company, build up your portfolio and your resume. Update your LinkedIn profile and get RECOMMENDATIONS ( http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/useful-feature-li... ) Get some clients from freelance and have them write reviews about you. Any kind of experience you can get: write it down and turn it into something beautiful on your resume and if you have a portfolio, add it there too so you can have proof. Don't hesitate to take screenshots of your work.

That first job gave me all the tools and experience I needed. I even built a website for the boss which I took a screenshot of as well as screenshots of the areas of the program that I worked on and built the user interface. I left my name in the meta data as a creator of the website and it is still there over 6 years later! Definitely ensures no company questions that I actually built the website. It also gave me real world experience for understanding how to deal with an arrogant micromanaging tyrant boss.

My advice is this: Always aim for a price range of the salary you want to be making, within a $5000 range or so, ask for it, and negotiate a bit. Companies are after their own best interests, and if they can get you cheap, they will. They will take advantage of your services. If you want to ask for a raise after a year, which you probably should because that is normal, than at least have something to go on: build a case for reasons why they should give you a raise.

But do take into account what the company offers you besides money. You could also do what I do.. how I make the extra money I want to be making, although I'm still always working on it and not fully there yet: side projects, freelancing, etc. There are certainly ways to make money without asking your company for it. Maybe they have a set budget that they want to pay everyone. Just remember: Those making the highest salaries are usually looked at first when it comes to layoffs.