I recently interviewed for Google L4 but they recommended L3. I am inclined to take it since I feel burnt out at my current role (61 SWE at MS) and I feel I can get promoted around 1 year. My question is, how does compensation change at Google from L3 to L4 in Seattle area (other than the base comp)? Are stock awards good and comparable to getting hired at L4? TC: 190k
They changed the policy recently so when you get promoted to L4 your stock award will be prorated and will mostly be a L3 stock award depending on when you get promoted It’s shit
This is why coming in at L3 is shit, even if you get promoted.
Why did they change this
As a general rule of thumb, an internal promotion will almost always come into the next pay grade at the bottom of a band. A new hire will generally come in at the middle of the band (obviously this can vary wildly). You almost always do better getting promoted via changing companies than being promoted internally.
I don't know about other companies but the first part is not true in Google. You generally get promoted to above 50% of the band at the next level. As a new hire, you could be placed anywhere in the band, depending on your previous tc and other offers in hand.
" burnt out at my current role (61 SWE at MS) andI feel can get promoted around 1 year. " You have to work extra hard than being an l4 to get promoted to l4. You are wrong on this.
@OP this ^ and that too if you land in a good team with a good manager. TC wise it'll take you 3+ years to catch up with an external hire L4.
I’d think coming in at L3 with a little experience would be easy to get promoted because you’re getting graded against new grads
Hey @Op how long it took for you to team match? Is your preferred location is Seattle? Is the role in GCP
The recruiter said l3 team matching will take longer since there are few openings currently but they are going to have more soon
So you’re HC approved for L3 but waiting for TM ?
What is your new TC
Hey @op did you hear back from recruiter?
How was your tech screen and interview , which were initially targeted for l4?? Just LC style questions and googlyness?
Honestly the tech screen and interviews were pretty easy, the OA was a question around heaps (find k most frequent values), first onsite was pretty easy and I over thought and over complicated it (got that feedback from the recruiter). Other on-sites were finding path from first column of a grid to a the last (can be solved using dfs or union find algorithm) and last was a question around intervals which is leetcode hard and I guess I got lucky and was able to solve it on the spot
What about system design?