Context: If you work at Microsoft as a senior you get 15% to 30% cash bonus plus stock awards between 10% to 15%, considering that you have a good review. That's around 25% to potentially 45% total annual bonus. Now I heard that Tableau pays very well and that a lot of ppl from Microsoft have moved there. If everybody gets (only) 10% bonus how can they pay more? Does that mean that base salaries are higher or does most of the compensation is on stocks?
My guess: they're not paid more.
Warning: point sample A friend of mine got his Masters degree from a top 5 US CS university after 2 years' industry experience after his BS and got into Tableau. His salary in his first year there was less than $100k/yr but they have him $160k in stock over 4 years. ...then their stock price tanked (early 2016: from the $90s to the $40s). Ouch. At least it was stock instead of options.
Same happened to another friend can confirm comp was 95k plus 160k stock over 4 and stock tanked after starting
I can confirm that 95k base 160k stock is the base package for new grads. Several former interns confirmed this. Stock tanked and management is not doing jackshit to help employees. Bonus refresher for engineer is ~80k stock per year. Cash bonus is target 10% of base for everyone depending on sales. So no, Tableau does not pay well. People are leaving. Attrition in 2016 is 4x that of 2015. Granted, our company size is larger in 2016 than 2015.
FWIW My refresher was only 30k.
Same here, 30k. The grant was made when the stock was much higher, so it's closer to 15k.
I was L64 about 2.5 years ago when I left Msft for Tableau. Got same base salary and about $350k RSUs over 4 years. Sure the stock price is 45 and it was 60+ when I joined but that initial grant is still decent. And the refreshers I got so far were at least 2 or even 3x what a L64 is typically getting. So. All in all, my compensation is substantially higher than Microsoft. But your mileage may vary.
Thanks for your response. By the way what is the equivalent level of a MSFT L64? Will that be a Senior or Staff at Tableau?
That's a good question actually. At Tableau the IC and Manager tracks are different: - IC: (non-senior), senior, staff, principal - Management: Manager, Senior Manager, Director, Senior Director, VP So I would say that a L64 manager would end up a Manager but a L64 IC would be right there between a senior and a staff.
Most engineers I know who were Principal at MS received Senior title upon joining Tableau. I would say L64 will most definitely be Senior, not Staff.
I see, so for the equivalent levels for ICs between MSFT and Tableau will you say they look like this? MSFT -> Tableau SDE, SDE II, Senior (L59-L63) -> Software Engineer Senior/Principal (L64-L65) -> Senior Principal (L66) -> Staff Principal/Partner (L67+) -> Principal
Like Burst said, Senior is a very wide band in Tableau. If you were Senior at MS, you would get Senior title. Low MS Principal will also likely get Senior. Tableau's Senior salary band covers L65, while yearly stock refresher is 2-3x more. We will see in a month if this still holds, lol. Staff and Principal are rare titles in Tableau (order of magnitude rarer than Senior). I have only seen Staff level offered to a newcomer twice.
Senior is a very wide and inconsistently applied title at tableau. There are people that have a few years experience that are senior and there are principals from Msft that have it. If I was a principal at Msft, I personally would only consider a staff or principal role at Tableau.
I know 62s who went to Tableau and made senior. In fact one said upon leaving "I will say I'm finally a senior." It's not hard to get senior at Tableau. But it is wide so expect to never leave either.
You're wrong on MS stock awards. I'm senior and got over 20% last year. It's a fixed range per level, not % based like cash bonus.