I need help deciding between these 2 offers. Location: Seattle YOE: 8 Position: SWE Microsoft Azure: Level 63 TC for first year: 234K (160K base + 15% target bonus + 100K RSUs / 4 years + 25K signing bonus). Average TC for next 3 years: 209K Amazon AWS: L5 TC for first year: 248K (158 base + 80K cash bonus + 5% of ~170K in stocks) Average TC for next 3 years: 233K I haven't done any negotiations yet. These are the initial offers. Azure Pros: * I liked the team more than the AWS one (new team working on a new project). * From what I hear (even the impression I had visiting both offices) WLB/culture seem better at Microsoft. * L63 seems to be on the higher bracket of L5 (between L5 and L6), so probably positioned better for promotions. AWS Pros: * The leading cloud platform. * Slightly better pay. Let me know your thoughts, mainly on 2 points: 1. Which offer do you think is better overall? 2. How much room for negotiation do you think I have?
What's happening to Blind today, saw some other post and people recommended Amazon over Coinbase, now Amazon over Microsoft 🤔 Take Microsoft!
Could you elaborate please?
Use Amazon Offer to negotiate and go to Microsoft. Way better WLB, even if they lowball you Microsoft is any day better than Amazon.
Way better wlb at Microsoft. Even if your team is hardcore at Msft, you're going to be working less than a normal team at Amazon. Definitely negotiate. You can get your TC close from msft. One thing to consider: which is a better commute for you... They're on opposite sides of the city.
I'll be moving anyways for this role. Any significant difference in housing costs between Redmond and Seattle downtown?
🤷♂️ I bought a house several years ago. Redmond is the 'burbs. It's nice. Seattle is the city. I love the city, but there are downsides to it too. They're very different places.
Depends on what you value. If you want more WLB/less learning, more of a catch-up game, I would say Azure. If you want less WLB/more learning, more of a leading game, I would say AWS. That’s really what it comes down to.
Take other things into consideration...location within seattle area..., paid time off, 401k, health subsidy/ benefit, free food if they offer
Good point, Microsoft’s benefits > AWS’s.
No free food but benefits are way better. Amazon’s 401k and insurance are shitty
You can definitely negotiate with Microsoft to get closer to Amazon offer or even better beat the offer.
I’m curious why you consider working with C#. Is a downside. It’s an objective better language than Java, albeit less so now. You should be able to catch up with the likes of Java if and when you move
This. C# is miles better than Java
I agree with you. I worked with C# before and really liked it. So I misspoke here. It's more about the whole tech stack at Microsoft being more specific to Msft. Thinking more about this point, it applies to Amazon as well, so I would drop it altogether.
I was earning more at L62. Negotiate with your Amzn offer. 233 is easily doable at L63
Make sure you end up with the same team that you spoke to at Microsoft. Things usually change at the time of joining. Wlb depends on your team and manager. Can’t generalize for the whole company.
- AWS; Azure is only trying to catch up to AWS. - They're lowballing you hard on the RSUs for L63. - Don't assume cushy WLB just because it's MS.
Thanks! I'm not assuming cushy WLB. Just something reasonable and I hear a lot of mixed feedback on AWS. Also, the AWS team I interviewed for seemed more focused on Operations, and therefore I would assume more work pressure at AWS.