I'm currently a Senior Data Scientis.t Although my plan was to grow into a Director of Data Science role at Nike, I responded to a cold email from a Shopify recruiter who was looking for a Senior Data Scientist. I went through the usual interview process. Started off with a call with the recruiter who among other things asked me what my current compensation. During the time of the call my base was 149K with a 15% cash bonus. Next, I had my life story interview which was new to me and I think I did well. Next I had my pair-programming interview on coderpad and I was told to code in python. However, before the interview started I asked the interviewer if it would be okay if I programmed in R as that's my preferred language. The interviewer agreed and I was able to solve the problem with a few minutes to spare. The last stage of the interview there were 3 rounds. First a technical deep dive where I went into the details of a data science problem I solved recently. The next one was a technical problem solving round where the interviewer gave me a problem statement and asked me generate ideas to solve it and discuss how I would present the results to a leadership team. The last interview was another pair programming interview on coderpad and this time I had to do it in python. I solved the problem with several minutes to spare and asked the interviewer if I should generalize the solution he said yes and I was able to do that in a few minutes. Next the interviewer asked for another enhancement and I was not able to finish it on time. However, I kept trying to solve it on coderpad after the interviewer disconnected from the call. I solved it in the next few minutes which is when I got a message on coderpad saying "nice job" or something to that effect. So I knew the interviewer was keeping an eye on coderpad even after the interview I felt really good about the interviews and was expecting an offer. In the meantime my base pay had increased from 149K to 177K as a part of the regular annual pay hikes. The 15% cash bonus remained the same. I get a call from the Shopify recruiter 2 days after the interview and he gives me the following feedback 1. I didn't come up with simpler solutions for the technical problem solving interview 2. I didn't use OOP python for my pair programming interview However, they still made me an offer Designation: Data Scientist Base pay: 135K-145K RSU: 75K vested over 3 years (33% vested in 1 year. The rest quarterly) Other benefits: worth around 10K I told the recruiter that my base had increased from 149K to 177K since we spoke last, so he said he will come back to me with an updated offer. The next day he calls me with this Designation: Data Scientist Base pay: 150K-155K RSU: 100K vested over 3 years (33% vested in 1 year. The rest quarterly) We didn't really discuss the other benefits but I'm assuming that's still 10K I didn't really have to think about it before rejecting the offer. It makes no sense to take a lower designation and a pay cut to join a smaller brand... Right? What do you guys think? Was this a fair offer? If the Shopify stock stays flat my total compensation at the end of my first year would be lower than my current total compensation. Even if the Shopify stock doubles (what are the odds of that??) at the end of my first year my total compensation would only be about 17K higher than right now Should I have tried to negotiate? #interview #offer #negotiateoffer #shopify #datascience Total YOE: 8.5 years
Pass…
sounds like you got down leveled to L5 (one level under senior), though on the upper range of L5
Yeah.. that's what the recruiter told me
Location?
I wouldn't call it a smaller brand. In fact , it's much better brand in tech. Nike is a huge brand but people know it as a shoe company. Shopify on the other hand is a unicorn tech company.
^ true but brands don’t matter. Your impact and projects do
True. But Nike is not a tech company. So when I said Nike is a bigger brand I was basing it on the market cap
Bad offer. Looks like you’ve been down levelled and in turn lowballed
28k in an annual pay raise! Is that normal at Nike?
My current TC looks 🥜🥜when comparing to this
Are you a data scientist?
don't join . it's not worth it. you already have a good role at nike unless something better than that comes along
nah you made the right decision
Bad offer. Do not join.
Would they even make such an offer?
Because that is what the interview feedback would have looked like. The panel probably felt your level was not at senior. I am surprised they actually increased the RSU because Shopify does not normally change the RSU. But it is completely reasonable for you to reject the offer that is of course your prerogative. In terms of Nike being a better brand again very subjective. If I was in tech I would say Shopify is a better Tech brand than Nike but to each his/her own. Good luck!