<prompt> Human: Hi all,Thanks for taking the time to read this. Ill try to keep this as short and concise as possible:About 6 months ago I was hired for what was supposed to be an assistant type job. I was unemployed and a friend got me an interview at an incredibly successfulgrowing company. It paid about 15,000 less than my previous job and I took it out of mild desperation and knowing full well that there would be a lot of opportunity for advancement.Now I dont know how to say this without sounding conceited, but I am much more talented and capable than your average office worker - and this has already shown through in my current job. Within less than a month I was promoted from that assistant job to a product development position where I am responsible for developingsourcing millions of dollars of goods. I say promoted because it was never official. The company saw promise in me and kept bouncing me around and giving me more and more responsibilities until I ended up here. But there was no official raise and no official title change.This is what I am worried about. Because the company got me so cheap, even a 20 raise would not get me close to my old salary irrelevant I know but its still frustrating as I am working much harder at my current job. Nor would a 20 raise get me close to what sites like payscale.com have listed as the average median salary for someone in my position. However, I am still not a full fledged product development manager. I do all of the responsibilities associated with this job title, but I still answer and work relatively closely with my direct supervisor. Okay, okay, we get it OP - but what do you want from us?Here is my question: Because I was initially hired at such a low starting salary...not even a salary as I am hourly right now, I am afraid that my company has me over a barrel and they know it. They know my options are relatively limited or I would have never agreed to work for such a low pay. It is obvious that I will be getting a promotionraise within the next 3 months, but as I stated before - even a 20 raise will make it so that I am barely getting by I am currently in debt at the end of each month. I am wondering if you guys can give me some advise on how to best navigate this upcoming discussion in order to get my salary closer to what I actually deserve.If you made it all the way through, thank you for taking the time to help me with this. You are a total stranger and yet your advice might very well change my life. Thank you.EDIT: First post brought up something I meant to address - simply finding another job. For one, my work experience is relatively limited. I am 25 years old and have only had two real jobs previous to this. Number two, and probably more importantly, I couldnt do that to the friend who got me the interview in the first place. It would reflect poorly on him if I came in, worked for 3 months and then left.  <response>: Its not clear why you cant move jobs again 