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Here is a primer: I just got a job at a startup (around ~50 employees) as a Support Engineer. This is my first job at a startup, and I took a decent paycut (~20k). I rationalized the paycut because 1. I didn't like Pittsburgh and wanted to move back to Colorado. 2. The company seems like it has potential for growth/it seemed like fun work. I also made sure that the person hiring me new that I was a little uncomfortable taking the pay cut.
Fast Forward two months: According to my immediate boss and the c-level people of the company I am "the best new hire" and that I am "learning the stack at an impressive rate". I am no longer playing the role of 'supporting engineer' they are now having me work on two seperate web-apps and doing some pretty hard ad challenging stuff. WHICH IS SICK! I love that aspect. I don't mind working 70 hour weeks because the problems are so interesting. I expect to get a raise at some point, but hey it's only been two months.
So what's the problem? I got my first bonus yesterday, and in my contract my 'max' bonus is 4k paid quarterly. I received a 200 dollar bonus... I haven't had a chance to talk about what's up with the tiny tiny bonus, and I don't think i should for a few days because I am steaming. After all of the positive feedback I was expecting close to 80%-90% of my max bonus, but instead got under 50%.
What gives? Am I justified in being angry? How should the conversation with my immediate boss go? How would you deal with this situation.
edit: The role of a support engineer was basically to talk to clients and help them with integrating with our software. My role is now developing RoR apps ~25-40 hours a week while still doing the the role of the support engineer.