Variation in Google L5 comp. by role/dept

Jun 4, 2018 15 Comments

I recently interviewed at Google for the position of a Systems Programmer/Administrator (think it's basically a Sys Admin position). The recruiter asked me for my comp. expectations before sending my packet to the hiring committee. He said that my interview feedback was very positive and this was primarily for figuring out leveling in the hiring committee review. I usually don't like being the first to throw out a number but I made an exception in this case because I really would like to work there. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have. I looked at Blind, Levels.fyi, etc and in an attempt to try for an L5 position, gave him $350k TC. His reaction was pretty much, there's no way that's happening. He said that the Systems positions only go up to L5 and the absolute max. that he could push for is about 250k. He told me to aim for the Systems SRE position since those go further up than L5 and could pay more (this is what I had originally interviewed for but got rejected). I was taken aback because Google not being able to pay me to leave my job was the last thing I thought was going to be my problem. At this point, our numbers are so out of whack that he's not planning to send my packet to the hiring committee.

I'm pretty confused at this point. I do want to work there but $250k is what I make right now, all cash (no equity). I guess there are 2 things that I could use some help with:

1. Can anyone shed some light on whether an L5 SWE, L5 SRE & L5 Sys Admin, all have different upper limits on TC? I think I've seen L5 SWEs hover around the 400K mark. A Sys Admin at the same level max'ing out at $250K seem strange to say the least.

2. Any suggestions on what can I do here? For some background - I have a great WLB right now which I value a lot but I've stagnated and there aren't really a lot of positions internally that I'd want to move to. I've been trying to move for years now and this is the first real opportunity that seems interesting.

Thank you very much!

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