<prompt> Human: A quick background - I picked up a 2nd job because I wanted to get a new car. The extra paycheck was being deposited into a separate bank account that would be strictly for car related purchases. My second job was some mindless work at a call center answering phones for 14hr...so after 20 hours of work per week, I would take home about 350 per biweekly paycheck. In the mean time, a friend of mine sent me a message that her company was looking to hire a head engineer. After speaking to the owner, they could not meet my full time salary demands, but we worked out a deal where they would pay me 32hr to work from home 20 hours per week. I agreed and immediately quit my call center job. The new company I started working for is a small startup that has been doing incredibly well since they started a year ago. With roughly 10 employees, they clear well over 1m in sales per year. Since the company was still smallnew, they did not have all of the infrastructure in place yet, so there was no letter of employment, handbook, etc.Over the 5 months that I worked there, they would consistently try and convince me to quit my day job and take a pay cut to work for them full time and do the start up thing. I told them how much I wanted, but they just couldnt do it. Recently, I got an email from the owner saying that the whole part time engineer thing was not enough and they needed a full time engineer...so they were eliminating my position. They paid me out for the rest of the month, which I was very grateful for. I received notice about 1.5 weeks into the month and it was effective immediately. After being laid off, the owner contacted me again and wanted to set up a call to discuss a severance package. I have an appointment set up to speak with him shortly, but I have a feeling they are going to want me to sign a non-compete clause in return for a lump sum. I am currently looking for another second job at most of their competitors since I really enjoyed working in the industry and a lot of future legislation will make the industry boom exponentially...so I want to try and keep my foot in the door.My question is - since I only worked for the company for 5 months, what kind of severance package should I expect? It is really inconvenient that I now need to look for ANOTHER job to continue paying my car off. I left on really good terms with the company, but I was in charge of the design work for their pipeline of products, so I think they are worried im going to go to their competition and spill the beans.  <response>: I would reject any severance. Why cripple your ability to get a full time job to your liking. Or strong-arm the owner to match your salary demand or even better get a share of the company. 