Which offer to choose

Amazon LuckyDay!

Nov 13, 2018 92 Comments

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Have the below offers in hand. Which one would you choose if you want to optimize for future career growth? All offers are for Senior position.

Here are the pros and cons:

1) Airbnb :
Pros: More upside. People are genuinely nice. Strong business with a lot of room for growth
Cons: Engineering problems aren’t that great when compared to other companies

2) Facebook :
Pros: Top notch engineering problems to solve. Faster career growth if one can handle the pressure. Can explore different domains/teams
Cons: Cutthroat culture driven by PSC. Lots of short term hacks? Rough WLB in certain teams

3) Lyft :
Pros: Good engineering problems. Company is trying to play catch-up, so lots of opportunities for personal growth. Good WLB
Cons:
Not sure about this one. Can folks at Lyft help me with this?

4) Netflix :
Pros: Great company culture. Freedom to work on things without any red tape. Tons of engineering problems
Cons:
Only present in CA. Being on H-1B, a bit unsure about the keepers test.

PS: I’m not trying to offend any company by listing it’s cons. These are only my observations from my interviews and blind. And this isn’t a humble brag of any sort. Interview involves a ton of luck and I’m grateful to be in this position.

Current level: 5
YOE: 8
TC: 230k

362 VOTES SELECT ONLY ONE ANSWER

Airbnb - 200/750/50
Facebook - 185/700/50
Lyft - 185/700/30
Netflix - 420/0/0

VOTE VIEW RESULT

Facebook Netflix Airbnb

14 92

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TOP 92 Comments

Microsoft Shxhebxj

You deserve those offers. Your post is one of the better ones with good writing, clear explanation, breakdown, modesty and great information. I will be happy at any of above but Lyft offers seems not as competitive. If you have family, probably Netflix. If not and weigh in on career over life, then Facebook. If you want to enjoy young life, Airbnb.

Nov 13, 2018 44 1
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  🙏 Thank you!
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
Microsoft UMbR31

Teach me sensei, are you accepting any disciples at the moment?

Nov 13, 2018 25 6
- Microsoft UMbR31
  
  Thanks man!
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- LinkedIn / Eng gTBK55
  
  Would love an overview of your preparation if it's no trouble. Congrats on this!
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Axtria TopCop
  
  Yup, please post here OP about how you prepared and you interview experience
  
  Nov 13, 2018 2
- State Farm / Eng 599
  
  @OP, yeah if you can share how you prepared that would be great! Congrats!
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Cisco / IT softhackmore
  
  +1
  
  Nov 15, 2018 0
Facebook pipirupiru

Netflix, because 420.

Nov 13, 2018 23 4
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  How’s the career growth at FB? How hard is it to go from E5 to E6?
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Facebook Instagrаm
  
  Holy shit, that’s a huge E5 offer, especially given the stock price.
  
  Nov 13, 2018 2
- Rockwell Collins cscY72
  
  40% of 420 going in taxes.
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Capital One 4962798
  
  Not necessarily. It depends on how you play stock options.
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
Expedia Ejxnsk

Airbnb ~= Netflix > Lyft >> FB

Nov 13, 2018 17 2
- Facebook / Eng kill -1
  
  Lol
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Expedia Ejxnsk
  
  I prefer kill -9
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
Amazon LuckyDay!
OP

Hey folks,

I’ve created a new post containing my preparation notes here:

Check out this post! "Preparing for interviews (Career)"
https://us.teamblind.com/s/wPkyC8nU

Nov 13, 2018 13 2
- Microsoft wattodo
  
  Thank you!
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
- New / Eng Ramdevbabamore
  
  Thank you .
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
Uber Tonest

Why do people say Netflix has great company culture? It’s obviously unique and controversial, not for majority of folks imho.

Nov 13, 2018 2 1
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  Exactly. Netflix has a culture where only certain type of people would thrive. It’s not for everyone and that is completely ok.
  
  If you like not having processes and can shoulder the responsibility for your actions, Netflix is a great place.
  
  Nov 13, 2018 6
New khEu77

Congrats. How did you time it to get 4 offers in the same week?

Nov 13, 2018 3 4
- Google / Eng Howdy2
  
  This is the real surprising part to me...
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Square Ifja58
  
  This. And how do you delay your answer so long if not all in the same week?
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- New khEu77
  
  Especially with larger companies, the process is long and schedule is rather inconsistent
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  I tried to even out the pace of the companies by slowing one down/ asking the other to speed up deliberately. Example for slowing down: After the recruiter call, I’d ask for a few weeks for giving out the PS date
  
  Starting from the initial recruiter call to the final onsite, rinse and repeat this strategy
  
  Nov 13, 2018 2
Netflix hoot hoot

Moved from FB to Netflix recently and I'm loving it. WLB is waaaay better and having freedom to do whatever is great. I honestly am not sure how the keeper test would work yet but it feels like everyone is competent and wouldn't be let go, at least on my team

Nov 13, 2018 4 3
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  That’s great to hear! Thanks for sharing.
  
  What would be the biggest disadvantage of working at Netflix when compared to Facebook
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Netflix hoot hoot
  
  Freedom and responsibility extends reaaaaallly far. No designated holiday schedule and a lot of other stuff so in the beginning it's hard to gauge what's "normal". I'm still not sure tbh but I think all in all its a great thing
  
  Nov 13, 2018 1
- Netflix Nqac32
  
  +1 that the extreme freedom can be a bit disorienting at first. But now, I wouldn't have it any other way.
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
Google / Eng Howdy2

No google? :(

Nov 13, 2018 4 1
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  I suck at DP and felt I won’t be able to make it through the interviews. Ended up skipping it. Next time around :)
  
  Nov 13, 2018 1
Unity noqD28

The lyft offer seems low considering its not liquid.

Nov 13, 2018 5 0
New pqmzy

Let's say your work there for the next for years

Netflix: 420 * 4 = 1,680,000
Air: 200*4+ 750 = 1,550,000
Fb: 185*4 + 700 + 50 = 1,490,00
Lyft: 185*4 + 700 + 30 = 1,470,000

Netflix comes on top with real money. Other depends on the stocks and going IPO in next 4 years.

I will go with Netflix.

Nov 13, 2018 2 4
- Netflix Lovers
  
  You’re not including annual bonus or stock refresh for FB. 15% target bonus and 175k target refresh puts FB at 1.6M+
  
  Nov 13, 2018 2
- Indeed / Mgmt Crufty
  
  Also not considering the implications of long-term capital gains treatment.
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Google / Eng dvfd32a
  
  Airbnb and Facebook both do stock refresh and bonus.
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
- Netflix anonynon
  
  That should be covered by Netflix pay bump every year. It matches the market
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
Intel confused@

How do you get so many offers? Are you from a top ivy league school

Nov 13, 2018 0 3
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  Couple of months of LC. It sucks, but that’s the only way out.
  
  For designs, I had the opportunity to design a few systems at Amazon and that helped a lot
  
  Nov 13, 2018 3
- Amazon / Eng sos567
  
  Congrats on the offers. Is 2 months of LC enough? Approx how many problems did u solve?
  I am starting LC end of month. Planning to give interviews next Feb. Any tips?
  
  Nov 13, 2018 1
- Salesforce vmmmm
  
  @OP any tips?
  
  Feb 4 0
BlackRock RPMf48

Congrats on the amazing offers and thanks for the detailed information. Can you share tech stack you work on ? Is it ML ? Also prep strategy too, how many LC problems etc. thanks again

Nov 13, 2018 0 2
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  Thanks! I’m working on a backend team and have never done any ML so far.
  
  I’ll put together a prep doc and share it through a blind post. Good luck!
  
  Nov 13, 2018 4
- New / Eng Ramdevbabamore
  
  Thanks OP that really would be great.
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
Netflix anonynon

Congratulations! I like working at Netflix, but at the same time given your years of experience your career will pretty much be stagnant. Yes there is freedom and responsibility culture, but it comes with you always being treated as a contractor. Given the H1b situation, Netflix is not the one where it would send you to some other place till your visa issues are resolved. So that's a big con. Having said that, pay is great. You never have to worry about whether you are getting underpaid than someone who has joined new or if you will get paid more when you move. Culture is good if you want to be at the same stage always and never care about any policies.
And for the question whether people get fired, all I can say see is number of people getting fired is greater than number of people leaving voluntarily

Nov 14, 2018 2 5
- LinkedIn Popovers
  
  Does Netflix adjust salaries every year to match market and incoming hires? How much is the usual yearly hike?
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
- Netflix anonynon
  
  They do match it every year. There is nothing like percentage hikes they give yearly. It's a number which they say your current market salary is this. In the past 3 years, every year on avg it's around 20%
  
  Nov 14, 2018 1
- LinkedIn Popovers
  
  Wow, that’s great!
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  Thanks for the reply. Have a few queries.
  
  1) Can you change teams if you feel you aren’t learning much in your current team? Do you have to re-interview with the new team?
  2) How’s the WLB overall? It can certainly vary by team, but a general sense from an insider would be helpful
  3) Visa issues: This is a big worry. Have you seen anyone working remotely or from an international office till their visa issue has been resolved?
  
  Thanks again!
  
  Nov 14, 2018 0
- Netflix anonynon
  
  1. People do change teams. There is no policy or guideline on changing teams. It is not very common though.
  2. WLB is not bad at all. I think it pretty good compared to Facebook.
  3. Nope. You will not be sent to any international office. And working remotely will only impact your performance. There is this saying of we work like football team. If you don't perform you are out. Given that, by working remotely your performance would go under. That means you will be let go. This part scares me.
  
  Nov 15, 2018 0
Apple Icml2017

I will go for FB, if you like the team. RSUs are really great for L5 and with a low stock value, the potential is higher. Lyft offer is weak for pre IPO company with no yearly cash bonus and 401K match. But I have heard work environment is good in Lyft; so I might have opted for Lyft if TC was around 50K more.

Nov 13, 2018 3 0
Amazon / Eng redshift

Hi @OP just curious which one did you end up choosing.

May 30 2 1
- Intel Kitten420
  
  Mr exorcist here bringing this thread to life
  
  Jul 31 0
Amazon QkAF80

I am new to blind, so can you explain the breakdown format. Is it base/stock/signing bonus?

Nov 13, 2018 2 1
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  Correct
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
Salesforce NGCx18

Imho, moving from E5 to E6 at FB is going to be challenging, depends on the group, manager (E7), Director and also VP. Your group will be decided after Bootcamp and so it could be hit or miss. Also moving to E6 also prefers you to be a manager (they call it as M1).

Nov 13, 2018 2 0
VMware / Eng vm12

how did you negotiate with FB? Does FB match lyft offer?

Nov 13, 2018 1 2
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  These are the first offers. Haven’t started negotiating
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
- Facebook Instagrаm
  
  +1
  How did you up level?
  
  Nov 13, 2018 0
Salesforce Bigly123

Netflix!!! How many LCs did you solve and can you elaborate on your prep?

Nov 13, 2018 0 1
- Amazon LuckyDay!
  OP
  
  Close to 300. I’ll create a prep post and share it
  
  I’d say the number of LC problems don’t matter. What matters more is whether you know a data structure completely and can find out patterns in problems
  
  Nov 13, 2018 1

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