Google L4 (downleveled from L5) base 170, stocks 400K/4, 15% bonus, 50k sign on First year TC 350K, rest 300K Dropbox IC3 Base 200K, stocks 500K/4, 15% bonus, 40k sign on First year TC 395K, rest 355K Amazon L6 Base 180K, 1st year sign on 220K, 2nd year sign on 170K, 150 RSUs (510K) 5/15/40/40 TC 425K guaranteed 1st and 2nd year and also years 3 and 4 if they always make sure I'm paid according to 15% stock appreciation, ~380K otherwise 5 YOE I liked the people and manager at Dropbox the most, Google team has the most interesting technical project (ML infrastructure), Amazon team seemed OK: no crazy on call (made sure to confirm this. retail, not AWS) but projects seemed deadline driven which could be stressful in Amazon environment. Overall, pay seems commensurate with responsibility. Currently leaning Dropbox > Amazon > Google. If I stay for 4 years, the refreshers and perks bridge some of the gap between Dropbox and Amazon. Or should I go with Amazon because the stories are overblown and stock is on fire? Or with Google and aim for promo? Or maybe go to Dropbox/Amazon for now and try for L5 at Google/Facebook in 1/2 years (no guarantee that happens though)? Have a poll but I'm mostly interested in comments, especially from Senior engineers at Amazon or people who have worked at 2 or more of these places.
Dropbox or Google. Base is everything.
Why do you say that? Can't just ignore stock lol. Especially as you get more Senior. Amazon actually gives the most guaranteed cash because their sign on is paid out with pay checks, not lump sum.
Scratch that. They are paying you 220k in bonus??? Is this SDM? Just go Amazon. Even if you last 1 year you have nothing to lose.
Which dropbox team?
Product team that seems fairly greenfield. Don't want to reveal more though.
Location?
Amazon maybe in BA as the base seems high.
I would strictly avoid Amazon. The deadline pressure add forced pip is real. Plus the engineering has no bar in the Bay area. Anyone goes to Amazon. It is cut throat and political. I was there. Go to Google if you plan to stay at the job longer and not hop. Great refreshers, wlb and interesting work. Plus you can easily grow into 5 with your yoe. Dropbox is great TC wise but their stock is doing very bad over last 2-3 years so your TC can even decrease in the future.
This answer lines up with my current biases but I do wonder if I'm overblowing problems at Amazon. Seems team dependent and my manager there seems like a good guy if maybe a little stiff. Can confirm the interview technical bar was hilariously low though. If I go to Google and go for promo quickly, because my L4 offer is already top of band, it still seems like my L5 pay would be low. Would almost prefer to go Dropbox for a year and try Google L5 interview again. I also didn't like the Google manager as much as the Dropbox one, but he seems alright to be fair.
Your l4 offer is more than some l5 offers too. You will get a good increase in base for l5. And Google has great refreshers. My wife did the same (l4 to l5) hence I would say in 2-3 years your offer will become really good for l5. Also if the Google work is good and team is impactful, its very good then. Definitely you can try drop box for a year but then you'll have to switch in a year again.
The Amazon reputation scare is real. A couple other red flags include pushy recruiter and low technical bar. Seems like no choice involving Amazon is a no brainer. But the pay is certainly nice and their stock is 🔥. Probably going to invest in Amazon either way lol.
What's L3 at Uber equivalent to - SDE2 ?
You should look at levels.fyi. IC3 at Dropbox seems Senior, L4 at Google is mid-level. My feedback from Google for L5 was fairly positive, I think they're just cautious with levels. I could have done better in each round but thought I did good enough. Amazon's interview technical bar was hilariously low (1 LC easy each coding round) and was half behavioral, but the people on my team seem fine although I haven't seen the code.
L6 is SDE3 right? Wow prep tips?
Come up with like 20 different behavioral interview answers and tell the stories with confidence. LC and system design bar was low, but idk if I just got lucky or not.
I thinks thats a tip for amz, what about google?
OP, what's the secret to cracking these crazy offers ? Do u have great projects at Uber ?
Idk, I definitely studied some of the more esoteric leetcode topics, but I've always found things like DP easy. And systems design questions are really just data structure questions in disguise too.
What are these esoteric topics and were these asked in interviews too ? Also you are not mentioning about your work experience ? Don't u give credit to your projects at Uber for impressing these tough companies ?
You will be remote at Dropbox and can choose LCOL area.
I'm going to stay in my HCOL area either way because my partners job will still be in-office and I like it here. Would prefer remote-optional tbh
Tech Industry
Yesterday
461
What is driving the decline in Tech Jobs?
Tech Industry
Yesterday
1206
Question about women in their 30’s?
Tech Industry
4d
43079
What happens when most of your team is Indian?
Software Engineering Career
Yesterday
3010
L4 Google -> 45 interviews, 5 offers, AMA
Tech Industry
Yesterday
3515
BREAKING: Internal sources confirm another round of layoffs just hit emails at Tesla. For real.
Dropbox or Google for refreshers.
Even with refreshers, Dropbox would only match Amazon total comp over 4 years. Is that part of your calculation? There's a chance I only stay 1/2 years before trying to bounce somewhere else too, but I'd prefer not to have to do that.
Very high chance you won't last 2 years at Amazon. They will try to PIP you before you get the big chunk of RSUs.