Hi guys, I recently got 2 offers and just trying to evaluate which would be the best move for me both money-wise and career/skill/progression development wise. BlackRock, Data Engineer, Investor Data Group in APG, SF location TC - 190k Base-140k (renegging) Discretionary bonus - 35k(renegging) Sign on- 15k RSU, one time, payable at end of first year Capital One, Full Stack SWE (still in team matching), SF location TC - ~172k(not sure abt year end bonus) Base - 147k (probable, recruiter will come back with concrete numbers after team matching) Sign on - 20k (payable after first month) Bonus - don’t know but guessing ~5k? Would appreciate y’alls input on what company/offer would be better overall. I want to grow as a SWE and eventually be an ML/Data Architect, and would also like a place where there is good career progression (along with the compensation) Current TC : 107k YOE - 1.5 EDIT: BR base 145k, C1 base 155k. C1: ML Model monitoring team. Will be the first hire in SF. Not sure who the manager is gonna be. But opportunity to kinda fully work remote since entire team is in NYC. BR: Will be building out the data platform including ingestion and compute, working with Snowflake, azure data lake, airflow, kafka, nosql like couchdb, cassandra. Main lamguages are python and node and will be using a multi cloud approach for running our platform including azure,aws and on prem vmware. #blackrock #capitalone #dataengineer #softwareengineer #tech
BlackRock is a joke
Cap1 here with some insight (im non SWE role). -Work life balance is pretty amazing, really relaxed and no one tracks time off. -Great place to gain exp for early career. The SWE’s on my team do great work in a healthy environment. Lots of our tech talent eventually land jobs with faang -Salary progression is pretty archaic, big raises come from promotions otherwise slow
Thanks so much for that insightful comment! Culture, environment and tech stack/skill dev are definitely my top priorities given the salary/tc is not low. In terms of salary progression in the tech space, how much do you think it is in avg yearly given I perform above average?
For Cap1 specifically, salary progression is purely based on your rating during year-end and mid-year. We have a 5-tier rating system and salary increase can be 2% - 8% based on rating. Probably the biggest downside of the company in my opinion as salary progression doesnt match the rest of tech. With all that being said, I’ve enjoyed working here and it’s an easy going place with interesting projects.
You are reneging on blackrock?
Yeah told the recruiter about my cap1 package and he said he will try to reneg the bonus or base. Nothing concrete tho.
Wait. I don't follow. You accepted and are reneging. So why is recruiter is reneging ?
Why join banks / investment. They all suck and will treat you a third-class citizen. Zero growth and no new tech
Have been hearing that as well but at least in C1, I know they have a huge focus on AWS and as far as I have heard they are doing some interesting work as well. Just the TC is making me think twice although it’s still a huge jump from my current situation
I’d take the capital one offer and start grinding leetcode and leave after a year. 20k different is nothing
Still leetcoding for now and applying as well. But no luck elsewhere. I am trying to stay in SF so applying to companies in the city. Thanks for the advice!
Is the BLK offer associate or VP?
Don’t join banks. If you must have to, Capital One is far better than Blackrock
Thanks so much! At this point in my career I am looking for a place where I can grow the most as a SWE given the opportunities I have and also wouldn’t mind a pay bump given Im making absolute peanuts. I would have stuck it out and waited till I had gotten offers from proper tech companies but I don’t see that happening any time soon given my resume is getting filtered out and I don’t have any relevant industry standard professional experience, and that’s because right now I’m stuck in a team that doesn’t do interesting work and what makes it worse is I get paid shit to do it. Thanks again for the advice and I think I’m probably gonna pick C1 as well.
Good choice. You can definitely grow in C1 as it’s fully in AWS (there are obviously a lot of red tapes) and have good WLB.
"start grinding leetcode" should be a banned phrase smh lol. If you like great opportunities and good WLB go with C1. Ignore those who tell you to leave after 1 year or "dont work for a bank". You obviously are skilled so go for it and make your next decision based on YOUR experience.
Thanks so much! Just the encouragement I needed to end the day. Everything feels so intimidating and this feeling that I can’t really be happy with what I got. I will definitely keep pushing but I guess at my own pace. Thanks again and hey if you work in the SF office, hmu and we can connect over LinkedIn or smth.
Capital one is much better
Thanks! If you could elaborate why you think so I would appreciate it! In what aspects do you think they are better?
Newer tech, better culture