Choosing between non-comparable job offers
Sorry in advance about the wall of text. Currently unemployed senior SWE, left my last job 5 weeks ago, laid off with severance from a place I hated pretty much as soon as I got on the inside. Have 3 verbal offers and one "positive feedback" after onsite that didn't say it was a verbal offer but read as going that way, waiting for numbers from all of them. Also had an interview loop at Google but probably won't hear back from them in time to matter (unless I bombed it.) Going to be a little vague about the companies as they are small or small teams within, but: * Analytics company on the peninsula, near my home. Really liked the team I spoke to and a good tech stack match although the work itself is a little different from what I've been doing. Seems like a relatively slow growth place; my own read was that work life balance would be good (and 5 minute commute would help a lot) but Glassdoor comments are relatively negative on that. There would be equity but it feels like an exit is a relatively long shot. Also the only place that showed any reservation about matching my prior salary. * Non-web tech company, in a sexy space; owned by a public multinational. Sorry to be vague. Would be joining data engineering which would be a big transition in some ways from back end SWE and would involve a lot of new tools and language, but it is a huge growth area and the most fun set of technical problems. Corporate parent is definitely a strength - this is kind of part of a bet the company thing from the parent. Comes with bankable RSUs, no idea how much. Pace sounds heavier than averahe but not horrible. In the city, sort of near transit. Have the least read on managers/co-workers but am scheduling time to go back in to meet more people. * Fintech startup, owned by a big financial company. Different language from my usual but otherwise the closest to work I've done in the past. Relatively young team, a lot of technical leadership opportunity. Really good rapport with the hiring manager. No equity opportunity but they claim that cash comp will be well above par. In the city, right near transit. Pace seems likely the middle of the three and growth seems likely but not guaranteed - they're doing well but in a competitive space (I actually interviewed also with one of their competitors) and I can't figure out if the corporate parent is a strength or a risk. Not sure if any of them are going to offer a title bump but am assuming that it will be Senior Software Engineer at two and Senior Data Engineer at the other although the people I interviewed with had both Data Engineer and SWE titles on the same team. Other than the inevitable suggestions of waiting for the numbers and choosing on that basis, any suggestions for how to get more data and how to choose? Past job searches have mostly been while working and more dragged out so I've never been in a situation of 3+ offers at once. Good problem to have, I think. Also anyone here on the data engineering side who had made a recent change from regular back end SWE? I've worked on a lot of high volume operational/transaction processing systems including very low in the stack but nothing in offline or streaming analytics.
I didn't see anyone technical in my network overlapping on LinkedIn, just recruiters and an ex girlfriend who works in HR of the corporate parent of #3. She liked what she saw of the office but obviously someone I have to be a little sensitive about how much I ask about given the history. Will dig a bit further
How do challenges differ between data engineering and regular backend engineering? Seems like both involve scaling distributed systems. I'm not familiar with data engineering so that's probably a gross oversimplification.
I am trying to figure that out. The thing I'm sure of is there are a lot more new moving parts in their data stack than the other two companies' pretty bog standard transactional stacks (both have data teams and their own craziness but not what I would be joining.). All the bits sounds very interesting and also like a bit much to come up to speed on all at once.
It sounds like happiness is important to you. The real question you should ask yourself is what kind of work do I want to do and what can I learn from a new job. Then you can compare comp. The analytics company sounds like a dead-end job. Couple that with low pay environment and you have a sure fire ticket to working with a bunch of leftovers and unhappy campers. Multinational job sounds like there is job security, money, opportunity learn something new and maybe contribute technically in a non tech environment. FinTech is 𤎠but if the work excited you then and the comp is clear then go for it.
Sounds like I would join 3rd. Close to what you have done and fairly good wlb. Working so close to office has one disadvantage too: you end up telling yourself to work late so just watch out for that. Not 2 because I hate data engineering :) my impression thus far is that deng works are boring. If you like looking at data all day, rationalize them and build a good schema sure. Everyone has a different taste and preference. You might like it. If you want more money go second. It has bankable rsu.