VMWare or Microsoft

I work for Kernel team at Intel. I am a low level system software engineer (not a CS grad but a EE grad i.e. both Masters and Bachelors). I recently started interviewing and got offers from VMware and Microsoft. I am unable to choose one from the both, so any help is highly appreciated. VMWare details: Team: VMKernel team (core kernel team that develops kernel for ESXi hypervisor). After interviewing (spoke with most of the team members), I felt that the work is mostly similar to what I do at Intel. Team mostly works on PCIe driver, iommu, interrupt subsystem, x86 architecture and other kernel subsystems that directly deal with H/W. Hence, a good chance to enhance my existing knowledge. The recruiter also said that I will be working directly ("as an apprentice".. his words) with a Sr. Staff Engineer (with almost 35 yoe and sounded like he knows everything about ESXi Hypervisor). So, I believe, the learning/work will be fun. (I am aware of yearly layoffs at VMWare). TC per annum: 220k (Base: 180k, Stocks: 19k, Bonus: 21k) Signon: 20k Location: Palo Alto Level: MTS-3 (Tried negotiating for 25k stocks per year but the recruiter said the offered TC is almost at the high end for MTS-3) Microsoft details: Team: Azure storage team. This team is developing an accelerator to offload the present S/W based storage stack onto a dedicated H/W so as to reduce work load on CPU. I will be developing driver for this accelerator and might well be involved in architecture. I am not a storage expert, so definitely there is room to learn and grow. I am assuming, I might get a chance to learn about cloud in general too (I have no idea about cloud). The recruiter said that I will be working directly with a Partner Engineer (with 25 yoe and who sounded as an expert on PCIe and he contributes to PCI-SIG (group that works on PCIe spec)). TC per annum: 200k (Base: 150k, Stocks: 30k per year, Bonus: Upto 20% of base (20k (approximately))) Signon: 20k, Relo: 5k Location: Redmond, WA Level: 62 As Washington doesn't have state tax, Microsoft TC almost compares with VMWare TC after factoring in living cost. Pros at Microsoft/Redmond: 1. I could potentially buy a home in near future which I think might not happen in Bay area (with 700k to 800k I could get a home in Seattle suburbs but is most likely not the case in Bay area). 2. Amazing stock growth Pros at VMWare/Bay area: 1. Lots of companies, so could probably hop around (maybe 2 or 3 years down the line). Both teams sounded great to me. Lot of potential to learn and grow (I will be the youngest in both the teams). Any pointers in making a decision are really helpful. Current TC: 170k Base: 135k Stocks: 20k Bonus: 15k (approximately) Location: Bay area Yoe: 5 years (1 year as an intern and 4 years as a full time engineer) Note: I am glad that people are voting but if you don't mind, could you please let me know the rational behind voting for one or the other (I am happy even if the reason is just a word, I am just looking for "why") Update: Very sorry! for getting late to this thread. I lost my mobile and some other personal stuff came in along. I have decided to go with MSFT and the reason.. the team has scope for working at different levels of s/w stack. Predominantly it's driver development but will also involve working with user space apps/libraries and also has scope to learn about cloud. Hence, decided to give it a shot and see if I like the job role or not. Thought that I could come back to kernel space if I don't like working at full stack. Many thanks for blind community in giving me lots of inputs! #vmware #microsoft #azure