Microsoft Offer Advice
SDE2 @ Amazon, current TC 200k (rsu value has doubled since my hire). 2.5yoe. Absolutely crushed interview loop for specific position listed as Sr Soft Eng (loop had 2 principal, a senior, and a mid level eng). Got offer but haven’t talked numbers just yet. I’m worried recruiter will lowball due to low yoe. Thing is I crushed interview, team loved me, and I have very hard to find and specialized domain knowledge. The business need to fill role is also very high. Any tips on strategy? I want to ask for 225k TC (not counting sign on), target L63. I have 120k+ unvested RSU coming up (60k/year), is this unvested valid leverage? Any thoughts? Did not get competing offer yet. I have Google interview coming up. Was considering shooting out my asking price, and if they accept offer to just cancel my Google interview. Think they might go for it? How much can I get if I do end up shoehorned into L62?
A Google L4 offer, if you can get it, can easily be 250k+, and with really good negotiating it can go 300k.
Wow ok I didn’t realize L4 can go so high. This could give way more leverage than I considered
2.5 yrs won't make you Senior. If you can land L4, it can go around $250k. Msft might give you L62 with strong stock grant pushing TC to $210k+. Msft has 401k match, espp which adds another $12k
Hmm that’s unfortunate. The role really does demand sr. Lots of cross team decisions and mentoring. Big impact role. The hiring team seemed to really love me. I’ll wait and see what happens. I really like the team and want to take the offer. It would just be inappropriate to take too low of pay or too low of level for the job demands. Yoe really is irrelevant in this scenario But if I had 200k+ as 62, could this be strategic in my favor, if I could get to 63 very quickly? This might be a positive thing!
We need to know vaguely what team it's on to help you.
What team did you interview for? You can PM me for some negotiating tips with MS hiring managers.
From my recent experience, MS does not really offer as per market standards. Google can always match you with your expectations (should be reasonable enough), or if you have a competing offer. @Pwhfdo is correct. $250 for L4 is easy to get from Google, and if you have competing offer, $300 is achievable. I just finished interviewing with Google. I got $255k ( includes $30k sign on) for L3 SWE
How did you count the sign on? Is it 225k excluding sign on? You shouldn't include sign on in TC imo as it is not consistent.
May I know what is your specialized domain knowledge? Which team you interviewed for in MSFT?
Sorry can’t say. It’s easily identifiable if I do. Just a hard to hire for and difficult area to learn of product dev
MS is offering level 63 for 2.5 yoe? That must be some really rare knowledge you've got
Have yet to figure out if they will offer L63. The job reqs and interview loop were senior, but i have yet to get down to numbers quite yet.
When is the Google interview? It's usually better to have a competing offer than not have one. Generally better to get them to make the first move before you say your number, what if they were gonna offer you more than expected? If/when you say your number, say a number slightly higher than what you're hoping for, then move down from there. Unvested rsu can be used to ask for more signing bonus.
Google interview coming up in a week. Good point on what if they offer more. Any way to handle lowball, for example they say 175k TC? I’ve had past offer lowball based purely on yoe (ended up declining)
Competing offer is your best bet. For now you can either try to stall or just be upfront and say you have other interviews to attend. The latter may make them open with a higher number hoping that you'll abandon your other interviews. They might say the offer expires in X days or something to that effect, usually it's a lie. If you choose to call their bluff, say "sorry but this is a really big decision for me and X days is simply not enough time for me to make the right decision.".