Is it better to start a job at a lower level but top of band or higher level at the bottom of the band?

Ohh no, I am wondering what the downsides of taking a role at a company at the “top of the salary band” might be. I’ll rephrase the question, ty for the freeback

Hmm so does that mean if you could in effect make a t6’s salary at t5 with good performance? In that case I do feel like it would be beneficial to stay a t5 rather than ascend to t6 if you want the option of taking a half easy for greater WLB

Key is to still be “amazing” 5 and get Greatly Exceeds or above which is not tough id you already perform at 6 level. GE is 2x

Same

Have to agree. Interested to know about top of band L5 vs L6 for Amazon

Hmm I feel like I may have poorly phrased my question and we are on different pages about this. For the sake of solidifying my larger question: Say you get a T6 offer from FB for 450k a year TC (and the TC cap for T6 at FB is 700k) Say you also get an offer from Google for T5 for a TC at 450k (and the cap for T5 TC’s at Google is ~450k) Which offer should someone choose and why?

In this case, you should choose FB. Cause at Google you are not getting promoted in a year, so no change in TC. However, you might get a decent hike at FB.

Is this assuming everything else is the same such as TC, company brand etc? Would your answer change if the companies were not in the same tier?

This is a great point. I suppose this adds another facet to the question. What if you are currently at the top of your band at your company and get an offer from another company one level up but at the same salary 🤔. This question stemmed mainly from a few recruiters telling me “being at the top of your salary band is not a good thing” which feels kind of like a dirty tactic?

It isn't, in the sense that comp growth is lower at top of band. Just depends how you personally prefer to balance comp and expectations

None, you just make more than your coworkers who are in the same band.

I guess the only one I can think of is if you don’t want to ascend to the next level (because the expectations of a t6 are tremendous coming into a new company with no allies in the org) and want to live as comfortably as possible. But this is really more of a response to getting a few offers “at the top of the t5 band” where recruiters tell me “this might be bad because there is no room for growth” and I was hoping to decipher if that is a tactic or genuinely not a good situation to be in.

@pinkstache. Have you seen this happening at Lyft?

Yes...