I am leaving Microsoft after 3.5 years. Started out of college and am an L60. Didnt do so hot due to personal issues and never dug myself out of the hole (judge away), so no promo in sight realistically yet my managers keep holding the carrot on the stick. Bitterness/venting aside, here are the numbers Google offered me: 118K base, 35K signing, 150K stock over 4 years. This is approximately 170K TC with 15% target bonus, not counting a refresher, and assuming âMeets Expectationâ performance. I also received offers from Amazon and Palantir that are sort of comparable. Palantir: 165K base, 25K signing, 30,000 options (~400K value), with guaranteed 20% raise after 18 months (198K base after, have it in writing), 10% target bonus Amazon (SDE1): 130K base, 45K Y1 signing, 37K Y2 signing, 61 RSUs (100K) All of the above I have in writing. The Google offer seems low when comparing to levels.fyi for others in my YoE band who also got L3 offers. Can someone confirm? My current salary is 120K and so Googleâs base is less than I currently make. Also my recruiter is very âthreateningâ. Says a lot of things like âDo you know how many people I reject everyday?â. Wondering if this is normal and if not, how can I report it, because it seems disrespectful. Assuming options are worthless, Palantirâs offer seems stronger, but Google didnât budge. Interested in othersâ thoughts. Thank you! UPDATE: I told Google that I was taking another offer, though I didnât give details. I asked them for 135K base, 35K signing, and 220K stock. This is a huge increase but thought I might throw a Hail Mary. They called back in 5 minutes and said no. The moral of the story to me at least is you must have a competing offer that Google internally considers better. My recruiter mentioned a tool he used where he plugged in other offers and it determined if the compete was better or not. Alternatively, make it very clear that you value something else highly that Google cannot offer. The offer I ended up taking was Mixpanel: 165K base, 10% target bonus, 30K signing, 500K options (worthless on paper). It checked all the boxes (good manager, interesting work, nice people) except compensation, and when I asked them to match Palantir they went above and beyond. Maybe Iâm still underpaid, but Iâm much better than when I started and can build some momentum in a new role. My recruiterâs last words were: âGoing to Palantir over Google, I donât understand it, but hey, I wish you the bestâ Thank you for all your help!
Cook up your amazon offer by 25% and bring the heat on the google hr. Ignore the condescending words and be firm on wanting more than your highest offer. Make them feel that you are willing to walk away if they donât play ball. Stay strong and negotiate aggressively! You are in a great spot with multiple offers. The google recruiter has no leverage over you and is showing aggression as a last resort to make you sign a lowball offer. Donât fall for it. Cook up your other offers and tell him to beat it or gtfo.
Google doesn't normally negotiate for L3 positions. Leveling decisions are final by a HC and cannot be revised. Every level has comp range and every offer needs to be approved by a VP. Too much hassle.
How not normally? I negotiated pretty hard with my L3 offer, granted I'm moving from a level 60 at MS to google L3, so I was definitely justified to be towards the higher end of the pay band, but still. I don't /think/ negotiation is abnormal at any level. Especially if you have competing offers.
Go palantir
Lol. Bullying recruiter.
If you have 3.5 yoe and you are still and SDE1, I don't think it would be a lowball. You might be a fine engineer, but honestly you don't have much to show. They see candidates that got to Senior in 3.5 years
That's fair. I thought since I am coming in as L3, high performers might be at a higher band, so I should be judged relative to other L3s.
Starting over on a new environment is the right choice, if you manage to pick up stuff fast you will get promoted easily. At 3.5 yoe depending on your background system design interviews might be quite hard, because they expect some experience that not everyone has. Btw, your recruiter is an asshole, they shouldn't do that kind of thing
Kinda sad Amazon's offering SDE1 when you have 3.5 yoe no?
I messed up the system design interview. I have verbally from the recruiter and manager they want to promote me in 6-9 months so it is not on paper so not banking on that. All things considered I am an average engineer if not below average so at this point I'm just maximizing what I can get and start over stronger somewhere else. Maybe defeatist, but also potentially realistic.
If you are average, how did you crack all these interviews? Imposter syndrome???
How dare you write about me this way. I am going to withdraw your offer
Could you give us the name of the recruiter. Bullying is NOT okay and not condoned by Google. This is something you should raise with the hiring manager you had a team fit call with (if you had one).
His tone wasn't threatening, but his words were literally "I reject a lot of people everyday, this opportunity might not come again, the bar only gets higher". These are all fair points but I felt uncomfortable since it wasn't selling the position, it was kind of fear-mongering. He also claims to have a good relationship with my Hiring Manager (says he has placed multiple people on this team), so unsure if that jeopardizes my chance if I throw the recruiter under the bus.
my recruiter was friendly and didnât need to cite number of people rejected. lines like those are threatening imo.
I had a similar experience with my recruiter (nothing threatening though but low-balled). You can ask them that you want 200k TC per year. Negotiate with them to increase your base to 130 (atleast) and stocks to 200k. Since you have competing offers, that is possible in my opinion. Even then Palantir offer seems to be very high
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Very low, but I guess if you don't have much leverage you don't have any options
Thank you. I figure this is the case. If I accept a lowball offer will performing well put me in a better relative position in my band or am I stuck with being underpaid in whatever level I am in unless I leave?
No, when you get promoted you rise to the same pay as everyone else who got promoted to that level.