I have offers from these three companies in Austin. Which company do you guys think would best prepare me for a software engineering role at a FAANG company? Salary isn't that big of a concern for me, but here are the details so far: Visa 105k base 10% Bonus RSU depend on performance (pretty rare) VMware 105k base 30k RSU 12% bonus Favor 105k base 3% bonus 5k relocation bonus This might be worth mentioning: VMware's offer is for their Austin office which they're just starting to expand. It's pretty empty right now. I'd be the only person on my team until more people get hired. I'd be working with people in the Palo Alto office via conference calls. The team is present onsite at Visa and Favor. I only mention this because I'm concerned that working with the team remotely might hinder my growth. TC 70k 2 YOE Edit: I was strongly considering Visa before I made this post. After reading all of your responses and seeing VMware's counter offer, I accepted the offer from VMware. Thanks for the advice guys!
VMWARE >>>>> Visa
Would you mind elaborating?
I rejected visa offer. Their hiring experience is bad and heard the culture is toxic and full of politics
For Visa it depends on the team. The experience on the consumer/merchant focused orgs approximates mid tier tech companies. The rest of Visa approximates a bank.
Interesting, I'd be joining the Visa Digital Developer Platform team. This team seems to be consumer focused and feels like a tech company. At least, that's my impression anyway. Do you know anything about this team in particular?
That’s one of the two SVP groups I had in mind for approximating a tech company. That group is responsible for a broad collection of products. The most well known externally is probably Visa Checkout.
What are the offer numbers? VMware > Visa to prepare you for being a better engineer
Updated the post
Favor’s service is inferior to other on demand delivery services. I’d go with VM, a real tech company
Hmm gotcha, yeah there really seems to be a consensus here.
One thing to keep in mind is that there is a big Bay Area bias on this forum... Favor/HEB has a cool new office space on the east side at least. I'd consider them if their offer ends up being good.
Visa: (100 *1.08 * 4) / 4 = 108 VMware: (101 * 1.09 * 4 + 25) / 4 = 116 Plus VMware has a Cloud story and works with Amazon. It's a no brainer.
Do you think the fact that I'd basically be working remotely for an indefinite amount of time could hurt my career growth? Or, am I essentially worrying about a non-factor? I'm fairly early on into my career, and I think I could learn a lot more with a team around. I dunno.
Id think bout it this way, as the office grows you’ll be one of the first guys there giving you a certain amount of clout. I’d be worried only if they weren’t going to expand the team at all
You have different numbers in your initial post and latter post regarding VMware offer so which is it? Also do you know what grade you got hired as? Example MTS 1, MTS2, MTS3, MTS4 aka Sr MTS etc.?
Sorry for the confusion. I removed the older version. VMware updated their offer since I first made this post. The details in the original post should be the most accurate. I'm not to sure about the level. That wasn't really explicitly talked about. I have 2 YOE, so I'd guess MTS1 or MTS2?
MTS2 is for a fresh graduate usually. You should ask for MTS3 may be!
Just keep in mind some other factors too... Visa do 200% 401k matching up to 5%. So if you put 5% they contribute 10%. VMware is 100% upto 6% match so Visa definitely better in that regard. Vmware does have good employee perks like free snacks, coffee, drinks, etc. Visa and VMware both have ESPP programs but the latter does not have lock-in period so it's better. Visa I believe has better health insurance etc.
Those are all very valid points. I'll have to dig deeper into the benefits to get an idea of where these two companies sit holistically. Really my main deciding factor is how well these companies can prepare me for work at a FAANG. Honestly, all of these offers were more than what I had in mind when I started looking, so salary won't be playing into my decision that much. Do you have any opinions on which company would be more worthwhile for someone to start their career at?
VMware probably. Their tech processes/practices/standards will prepare you better for FANG than Visa
Very straightforward and to the point. I appreciate it man.
Also if you can , check with recruiter if it's MTS1 or 2. Will help determine how good offer is . Although for 2yoe in Austin this is really good..
Right? At this point I kinda just stopped caring about the numbers. I'll definitely check what level they're trying to hire me for. That'll give me an idea if this offer is realistically the the best they can do.
VMware, very good WLB
Thanks, I appreciate your input.