Hey dudes. 4.5 year airbnb employee here. Original grant fully vested and have at least a good 3 years of pre ipo refresh grants still in the pipeline. Not a fan of my manager or skip so think i am not likely to see future career growth here. I have a hard time with rest and vest and thrive on feeling challenged and upwardly mobile. Netflix recruiter reached out in jan and I’m currently in last round of panel interviews which i believe is the culture fit round. My friends who work there say it’s time to start prenegotiating comp because netflix doesnt negotiate once u have a hard offer I am really interested in the netflix role and what the company is doing. And feel they are more stable than airbnb. But i dont want to take a paycut. Post ipo i make nearly 1m TC a year accidentally. If i show netflix the receipts will they at least try to match? Never heard of anyone taking a paycut at netflix. Anyone there from another successful company have experience with negotiating their netflix offer from another high tc gig have any tips?#tech #netflix #airbnb Pros of airbnb: ridiculous ipo, accidentally make a lot more per year now than i thought. Previous estimated tc was $400k. Cons: we never fire anyone and tons of mediocre or downright stupid people retained because people think they are valuable to the culture . Mostly nice ppl tho TC after IPO: 900k / year
Why don’t you change teams at Airbnb?
Not eng so not as much internal mobility
Not eng and $400k? Wow. Curious - are you quite high up? What is your role?
Do what you like. But “bored” cannot be reason to quit. The fkin serious money on table. Just find a R&D project in personal time or find different purpose ABNB Friend of mine has become VC for India startups.
Our best r&d stuff is all with a segment of the company u need to be a friend of a founder to join. I don’t have that so while my resume was nothing to scoff at going in, i was probably 2 or 3 years too late for a founder to give a shit about my work or impact. It’s like a cool kids group version of google x but with a lot less scale here. A handful of more tenured designers in my org have connections to this selected group but I’ll never be a part of it. Your friend is lucky and also sitting in a market where there is less scrutiny from US-led tech orgs. If my skip even found out I’m looking he’d probably put a target on my back
If you are looking for upwardly mobile, Netflix is not it. Netflix is proud of its flat org. Challenging work depends on the team. There are a bunch of teams that write wrappers around google drive on the studio side. So double check your assumptions about challenging. Netflix won’t offer 1m compensation for an IC unless you are in a niche. All in all, it sounds like AirBnB has a better financial outlook for you. Maybe do what others suggested with finding challenges outside work
Wrapper around Google drive - which specific team? Maybe I can try it.
Interested as well. I currently specialize in defining ENUMs for our infrastructure org, I could likely wrap a call to gdrive if pushed
You are literally the highest paid designer in the world. Don’t fucking move.
Netflix won’t give you 1m unless you’re principal level. You won the ipo lottery, congrats. It sounds like you need to find new projects or work to do to inspire yourself.
1 million TC and feeling bored is a wonderful place to be
Thanks guys. These comments are pretty helpful. I know I’m lucky financially, and also super aware that it’s a privilege to be in this position. My current workload is still draining weekly and while i try to think of comp as a reason to stay, without diving too deeply into the politics of the org I’m in, the ipo being successful was all that prevented me from quitting without another job lined up. Golden handcuffs are still handcuffs. Straight up pivot: if i get an offer in the end and it doesn’t measure up competitively, as I’m realizing it won’t, does netflix keep the door open for candidates they want to hire? I know for a fact rsu refreshes will be nowhere near what they were the last few years post stock split and current valuation. My comp will only look like this this year and taper off significantly in the next three. I’m afraid I’ll be unhirable by then even if I’m willing to take a paycut because my skills will have been limited and specific to airbnb for 8 years at that point.
How bad is your cliff? Would an offer from Netflix beat your Airbnb TC next year significantly?
I’m an unexpected multimillionaire after the ipo. My cliff cleared years before this post. If Netflix offered me 500k tc, and i accepted, it would take about 3 years for me to match that at my current comp cruising unintentionally without effort But i like what they are doing. I like how they hire engs outside of the silicon valley circle jerk. I like what they make and do. I interviewed at google and pinterest in the last 3 years and wasn’t interested because there was no exponential growth potential or x factor to their biz. I see that the most with Netflix. And have that now with airbnb.
I don't think you can get paid that much. Netflix will match and beat an offer if you get one new from Airbnb, but stock appreciation is not considered
How many total YoE do you have?
Do not sully years of work with AirBnB for the allure of Netflix. You're paid well and you have job security. Stay. If you're bored, find something outside of your day job to liven you up. Ask yourself how much, when it comes to what's really important in life, does AirBnB or Netflix's business matters to you. But just to be shrewd, I would do as you suggested. Show Netflix what you're making and will make after IPO, if they won't match, stay put. You hold all the cards my friend. Godspeed.
This is great advice. Bored is the right word for it but the menial work still takes up a 50 hr workweek, so no current side hustles for me
Great advice above. Turbocharge it with trying out that strategy with a few other companies (competing offers) before taking it to NFLX. Good luck.