Google: Interview for L3 vs L4 ?
Is it better to interview as L4 and then being offered L3 if you didnt do well but did well enough to land an offer or interview as L3 and then negotiate L4, upon given an offer, with counter offers ? TC: 190K
2.5 year after Grad School and couple of years before Grad school too.
You can't negotiate L4. You'll have to reinterview
So safe to interview for L3, have an offer in the bag and then interview more for L4 if required ?
No, because that will require you to do well on your interview twice instead of just once.
You can Interview for 4 and get offered 3. You cannot do the reverse.
Seems like this was my experience as well. I've heard of people getting uplevel 2nd interviews, but I think it's rare. If you have a choice, absolutely take L4. Apply to other places too, and take the step up - you will make a lot more and be more fitting for your education/experience.
4 and 3interviews are not that different. You’ll only have coding or non distributed system design problems. So just target 4. You may be down leveled though
Yoe?