Which do you prefer? More TC or more base?
200k base. I'm assuming the stocks vest once at the end of the year or whatever. Getting 200k base means more money coming in every month that I can invest freely into whatever I want and get that compound interest going. And if a bear market comes when your stocks vest, then your TC is fucked. The exception would be stock in a pre-ipo unicorn that actually has a decent business model.
Baseās forever. Stocks grants have cliffs. You can certainly assume that youāll be a good employee that consistently exceeds expectations and always gets good stock grants / awards / refreshers, but... you never know.
C.R.E.A.M. But seriously, liquidity, NPV, and optionality are a thing, so give me that cash
RSUs are great for a rainy day on a sunny market
Agree that higher base is preferred over stock that has cliffs and vest cycles especially when the difference isnāt much. Also, is there an annual bonus component? Assuming there is, that should be x2 times compared to what you can make with 100K base and thatād make the TC a lot more closer than the 20K delta you are looking at now.
Base all day. It's how housing loans are approved
In a bull market, definitely the RSU package. In a bear market or the current uncertain market, $200k base
It depends whether TC is 200k or $1M. At $1M the higher TC, at $200k the higher base has more impact
Literally had a choice like that (numbers on my Atlassian offer rounded slightly in case someone here reads Blind) - 290k (200k salary, 15% bonus, 60k RSU per year) - 300k (175k salary, no bonus, 125k RSU per year) The former was a no brainer. Cash is king. Turns out to have been a good choice in other ways, Atlassian is an awesome place to work and while I don't want to name company B their stock has been pretty flat while ours has done really nicely.
Dumb question. Why wouldn't anyone pick the higher Total Compensation? If you don't like RSUs, set it to sell automatically on vest and then it's exactly like receiving cash. Also wondering how OP got into Google. I guess leetcode doesn't test common sense.
Seems like the third answer choice got to you
Because stocks don't go up forever and your real Tc can be much lower during a bear market.