Airbnb vs Netflix
Which offer should I take? Role is for a tech non-SWE role slightly lower band than SWE, slightly anonymized here. Airbnb is a higher level role. Airbnb offer may be negotiable. Airbnb has refreshers and stock growth potential to increase TC so overall yearly target TC is slightly higher for first 4 years (550kish) than Netflix, but first year target TC is lower without stock growth or performance multipliers. Netflix is flat all-cash. Both roles are remote. Both teams are awesome. What I'm optimizing for: 1. Remote 2. Not getting laid off or fired 3. WLB 4. Doing good work around nice people in a non-political environment.
I’m just curious how you’re finding remote non-eng (non-PM?) type roles at these companies? Their websites (well, for Netflix at least) say on-site mostly?
There is currently little to no career growth at N, so I'd take that into account.
Similar situation at Airbnb
this is everywhere
Airbnb is high variance from team to team, so it's hard to generalize. In general, Airbnb has lower layoff/PIP risk and zero risk of RTO. No concerns about the health of the business, especially after the recent leadership changes. WLB is team dependent, but if you're not supporting product releases I think Airbnb has the edge there too. The Netflix teams I'm familiar with have good WLB on paper, but culturally I think a lot of people put in extra time on nights/weekends because they're that into what they're working on. The teams I work with at Airbnb mostly punch out at 5-6 unless there's something time-sensitive that requires extra hours (rare) or they're taking meetings from a non-PST timezone. Again, can't stress enough that this is heavily team dependent. I think Netflix's technical teams are more productive per person, there are ICs at Netflix with roughly equivalent responsibilities to small teams at Airbnb. This makes Netflix better from a "do good work" perspective, but worse from a "don't get PIPed" perspective because expectations are higher. I don't think this has anything to do with the quality of IC talent - Airbnb just has mediocre technical leadership and is more political than Netflix (in terms of office politics, but also national politics.) Both great companies overall. I would personally pick Airbnb in your situation since I don't think the comp difference (even before negotiating the Airbnb offer) is enough to compensate for the higher PIP + layoff risk. But it depends on the type of culture you're looking for.
Wow that part scared me: "there are ICs at Netflix with roughly equivalent responsibilities to small teams at Airbnb"
Thanks for your insight!!!
Airbnb folks, is it easy to survive as external staff engineers at Airbnb?
Yeah, totally. It’s really not that bad. Been here about 2 years. Came from Aws myself too actually.
500K BASE???
Netflix is all cash
Of course netflix
Cash is almost always the better option. Airbnb and Netflix both have problems, but Airbnb actively destroyed some cities and ruined the housing market.
How do refreshers work at Airbnb & Netflix?
For Airbnb - refreshers granted every February with a 4 year vest, so TC ramps up linearly in years 1-4 and then falls back to around the starting level in year 5. The amount of refreshers is entirely based on role + level + performance rating. I'm guessing OP's offer is for DS or AE, which would mean ~$200k/year in refreshers for an average performance rating, or up to 1.8x that for higher ratings. If they get average ratings every cycle, year 4 would be ~$260k base + 25% bonus + $325k RSUs = ~$650k TC, year 5 would be ~$270k base + 25% bonus + $200k RSUs = ~$540k TC.
Do you need to move to Los Gatos or it’s remote for Netflix?
I see Netflix as the more stable business in the long run. AirBnb is starting to face problems in cities like New York and I think it could get worse for them.