Hey Blind! I’ve got an offer to join Unity in a Senior role out in Bellevue. I know the stock has dropped recently and I’ve seen conflicting opinions about whether or not it’s a good time to join. Wanted to see if anyone would be willing to chat about how things are going over there. I’m currently weighing their offer versus a larger FAANG company offer. The FAANG offer is larger financially (~450TC vs ~300 at Unity) but I think I’d have more scope and impact at Unity (the culture seems like a better match too). Any thoughts? I’ve also heard different things about how refreshers work (even between recruiters). Insights there would be super useful. TC:300 #Unity
For 150k more the FAANG offer seems better. Unless you want a career in something related to game dev. (not sure if thats what a unity job nets though?)
Refreshers are yearly, 4 year vesting. Not guaranteed, based on performance. What‘s unclear about refreshers?
I’ve been told that refreshers are based on my base salary, then whatever stock I had vested that year, then that it’s based on my whole initial grant lol. It’s been a journey :)
Unity switched from options to to RSUs in 2020. Around the same time employees got eligible for refresh grants annually. Before that refreshers were more rare. In 2021 there was a change to grants from number of shares to $ amount (converted to number of shares when the grant is approved by the board). TC of some new hires last year took a big hit because of that (initial grant at stock price above $150). Joining now might be a good deal, but still risky after the bad last earnings with uncertain guidance. And refresher policy might change at any time as it has in the past.
The stock being very low means you will likely have a good upside on your initial grant. You'd be eligible for a refresh July 1st next year. Refresh is 20/40 percent of your original grant for meets/exceeds (manager discretion). There's a lot of room to make a very large impact if you can navigate the ambiguity and chaos. You'll need to develop relationships with other teams to get things done effectively. If you can do that you can be very successful.
By original grant do you mean the total RSUs that are issued when I start, or what vests each year? I’ve heard different things but I assume you mean all the RSUs right? Comps actually a lot better than I thought if that’s the case.
Total RSUs that are issued when you start, if you get the max refresher it is pretty good
Scope and opportunity for impact (financial/professional) at Unity will be much greater than FAANG. You’ll get a good deal on equity if you join now too. Imo, culture is one of the best in tech. This is coming from someone that’s worked at FAANG and other startups.
I've also received the similar offer for the very similar role recently. Panel consisted of 1 Eng Manager and 3 Product Managers. Some of the panel members switched the orgs recently. Hiring Manager and the panel told me there is too much learning and growth in the TPM org which contradicted the movement of folks. They all accepted there is a need of process improvement and the current situation is pretty chaotic. Their products look promising, but stock price tells the other story. Despite the stock market crash, will the unity stock be back to where it was before i.e. in 200s? The offer is not aligned with the market either which means they don’t have budget or don’t appreciate the talent. I suspect layoffs in upcoming months. Based on my understanding on above points, I have declined the Unity Offer. All the best to you if you proceed with the offer.
John R, is at the helm, not looking good. Just check his past accomplishments. Unreal will swallow them sooner or later.
It was the most unnecessarily chaotic and disorganized place I’ve ever seen. The leadership is incompetent and there are lots of people in senior positions with very little experience. As a result, zero clear direction and you have multiple teams doing the same thing and no one knows it’s happening because the leadership can’t bother to align. Not to mention that the CEO is going to run that place into the ground. EA was lucky they fired him before he ran that place into the ground.
Had a similar experience there. Complete shitshow and lots of infighting between the Create and Operate leadership and teams…John R is too busy creeping on women to provide any value. There’s a reason the stock has plummeted…
I respectfully disagree with your comments. Smaller organizations (or, startups rather) aren’t for everyone. Also, Google and Amazon were once in the same boat as Unity (both companies were underwater at one point - do your research). The stock market as a whole is taking a hit, not just Unity. VMware was trading at $95.71/share back in May and is down 17% in the past year alone. And, if you go back to 2019, VMware was down more than 50% from May numbers. JR has done a great job at helping us scale, as well as expanding the business outside of gaming. Unity is expected to be profitable by EOY too. I hardly consider that running the place into the ground. 🙄
If you're interested in staying in the gaming industry and are very into using only Unity and internal tooling all the time, choose Unity. If you want to be using technology that's useful outside of the gaming industry, hard pass.
What if you’re not a Dev and more like dev support? QA, performance, security, IT? Would the above still apply?
What team? I think Unity culture is more like startup. No doc, no limit. But to make impact you need to make something that generates rev, which is something SDEs usually not good at. Is it harder to make impact in faang? Is that feeling comes from people competition or the tasks are minor maintenance ? The latter one exists everywhere. Pick the one that makes your life easier.
+1 for startup culture
+2 for startup culture. Many like the startup environment, including myself. If you’re looking for a comfortable place where you can just chill, I suggest somewhere other than Unity.