My friend has on offer from Amazon for sde2 at Cupertino. She is a new grad with ~1.5 years of experience in India + internships in the US 172k base 80k joining in first year 62k joining in second year 180k shares over 4 years(5%, 15%, 40% 40%) TC 260k higher TC even in 2nd year She just got an offer from Google for L3 and they are not willing to negotiate (she is a returning intern) 125k base 50k bonus 300k stocks over 4 years(25% each year) TC 230k Google has told her that she can reduce the stocks and increase the signing bonus or vice versa. Any advice on which company she should join? Both the teams look good. But google team seems a bit better. Amazon base seems very attractive, higher TC in 2nd year too, but Google being Google has been the dream of every new grad. Plus all the other perks at Google. Really confused. Also, if she plans to join Google, by how much should she reduce the stocks and increase the bonus? More money should be in stocks or more signing bonus? if she puts a lot in stocks right now will they normalize it in the second year?
Go AMZN, it's a higher level with more money. You will learn a ton, then if you want, you can join google as L4 in a year or two.
Consider team as well. For TC, there is ~50k refresh from 2nd year, while it’s zero or very little in Amazon. And it’s not hard to promote from L3 to L4 in 2 years, while it’s much harder to get senior in Amazon. The TC difference should be mainly in first couple of years.
Google for benefits and better long term
That Amazon offer is near the top of the SDE2 band. If she's actually performing at that level with 1.5 years experience then she could make it to SDE3 within 2-3 years with a large scope of impact. Or, get managed out if she's not ready to deliver at that level. Not sure what Google's like but definitely consider trajectory over time, not just current comp
This is a normal offer for sde2 these days. I would not hold my breath for sde3 promo in 2-3 years - it is pretty much unrealistic given YoE. Sde2 is a parking lot for majority of engineers at Amzn.
The Amazon recruiter that interviewed me said only 9% of engineers are SDE3 level.
Cool offers! Congratulations to her. Is she a masters grad or Phd grad? Also, Where did she graduate from?
Master’s
That Google offer is too good for L3. You are also not adding the annual bonus. Of course Google will have yearly refreshers too
google
Any thoughts which will make it easier to evaluate?
More stress to perform at amazon than at google. If you are looking for better wlb google otherwise amazon