Google Offer Target?
I just finished team match with Google, manager said I have a strong profile. 3 YOE at a small company and then contracting. Approved at L4/Software Engineer III. Matching at low COL location (Pittsburgh). I have an offer from a FinTech company: 220K base, $20K signing, $60K options over 4 years, 4% 401K match. As a contractor, I estimate my earnings potential to be roughly equivalent to $320K TC after payroll taxes, expenses, insurance, etc. Helps that I can take profit instead of all salary, and dump 25% of my payroll into my Solo 401k. Question: What should I target from Google? What should I use to make my case, without another big tech offer? Should I write myself a competitive offer letter from my company? (Just kidding on that last one)
What FinTech company is that which is offering 220k base?
Seems to me like a lot of them are in that range for a Senior at an NYC-based company.
Expect mid-high 200s max for L4 at Pittsburg. They will try to match Y1/Y2 and factor in refreshers
Filter on Years at Company = 0 to 1 yr to see the real external offers at levels.fyi Some of the other records in there consider stock appreciation and give their current number after being in company for more than 1 year . Once you have that list of L4 Google numbers, you will have to consider that the top offers range are all gonna be people who had Facebook offers and Google tried to match the higher FB ranges. I would say you should expect Google to be able to get you an offer right under the tops 10% range you get from there if you negotiate hard without any FB offer because they really only match FB in normal circumstances.
You should check levels.fyi and see what other people have been offered. Then you can say “according to my market research I’d be happy to get $x”. Probably better to get numbers from your recruiter first
I've spent some quality time with levels.fyi. That's what scares me. Even the highest offer listed in Pittsburgh with more YOE only makes it to $280K TC. Meanwhile, it goes up to $485K in Mountain View. I thought LCOL was only supposed to be 25% less - which would be like $360K. Pretty big gap.
Well 485 is one of the highest ones, look at the median for Bay Area.