[Advice] Foreign SWE here, built most of the tech for a small startup, not sure if I'm being taken advantage of or just inexperienced. Help me see clearly.
So I work at a small company (not going to say where, not going to say what I do exactly, you'll figure it out lol).
Here's what a typical week looks like for me:
– Full stack work (React, Express, FastAPI)
– Built and maintain AI pipelines (LLM agents, custom models)
– Hundreds of automation scripts for core business operations (quick correction on this, these aren't written every week, these are scripts I've built over my entire time here that run on a recurring basis, sorry for the confusion! Also just to clarify since someone brought it up, there are well over a thousand of them and they're not one liners either, they follow a structure but are at least 70% unique from each other)
– SEO — from scratch
– Paid ads and marketing campaigns
– Managing junior team members(i am in early..early 20s)
– Basically… if it's technical, it's mine
– Even got a fancy title for someone with very less experience(might give you a lot of context)
I'm fast too. Like genuinely fast. Full pages in a day. Complete features in a week that I've seen quoted as months elsewhere.
Now here's the thing. I don't have years of experience. I made architectural mistakes early on (and fixed most of them already).
So Now I am starting to wonder if all this (everythign) is actually good for me…..
Because "everything" includes:
– ~¥2.8M/year in Tokyo (you do the math)(all the tax is basically paid by me, like not even health insurance is included)
– Overtime? Unpaid
– Occasionally pulled into *other* business ventures. Also unpaid.
– Management style that oscillates between fine and… not fine
I'm not here to vent (okay maybe a little). I genuinely want to know — is this a me problem or a them problem? Am I underselling myself because I'm early career? Or is this just what some workplaces do to people who don't push back?(i am scared lol, and weak, but optimistic)
Foreign worker context matters here too…… it adds a layer of "just be grateful" pressure that I think clouds my judgment.
Be honest with me, Reddit.
by CarelessShower1665