I’ve received a few offers, the two most competitive being at google and citadel. Google offer is for L4 at 220 TC, Citadel is 285 TC. I have less than 3 years experience out of college. Google numbers are 155 base, 180k stock over four years, 15% base target performance bonus. Citadel is 165 base 120 target bonus. Any suggestions?
Low ball google offer
Low ball Citadel offer too. They can do much better than this. Citadel is desperate for SWEs. (because they burn out or fire their SWEs so quickly) That’s why Citadel gives offers which explode in 5 days.
Every company is desperate for engineers. But I don’t think they give exploding offers. On the contrary, hedge funds want to retain talent long term and avoid these tactics.
Google not matching Citadel?
Google. The stocks are bound to appreciate. So the 220 you see is more than that. L4 seems great for less than 3 years experience. Most importantly, financial institutions won’t expose you to technical challenges as much. You are a technologist, work for a tech company. It will build your career and you will learn tons of things. You will make more impact, work on products that help people and make their life easier rather than helping a hedge fund make more money.
Googlw for a few years then quit
Citadel just did a huge lay-off on SDEs early this year. Actually they do it frequently because they don’t value SDE much.
both companies are large and diverse, so it's hard to answer concretely without knowing which teams
No signing bonus from either?
What are you interested in? If it’s growing technically, having a stable workplace, or opening the door to other SWE opportunities down the road, go with Google. If it’s taking a risk that could pay off with big TC and the opportunity for big impact, go to Citadel. Their initial offer isn’t great but if you do well there, they give big raises. As other have said, they also do massive layoffs and reorganize frequently and can be very chaotic. Personally, given the Citadel offer isn’t great compared to what they usually offer, I would pick Google.
I’ve worked for financial companies in the past and am currently working for big tech. So early in your career, I suggest working for big tech. You’ll see more tech for sure. This isn’t to say you don’t see much tech in finance...in fact much of what’s been developed has been for the financial industry. There’s a lot of innovation. It’s just that to be very successful working for financial companies, you need to know the business and speak in their terms. A lot of techies aren’t interested in that. Also the pay is, for the masses, higher in tech than finance. All said, you should always work for a company where your work directly brings IN money. You’ll be treated very well. Most others are seen as expenses for the business. Good luck!
Go for google, ull hate urself at citadel.. though no guarantee u wont hate urself at google either