Microsoft offer negotiation
I have an offer from Microsoft for L63 program (product) manager role in Seattle. This is for office group. Two days back, my recruiter asked me to give him a number. I asked for a range. He refused. He stayed firm on a point that I have to give him a number first. What should I do? If I have to give a number, what's a good number for Base/RSU and sign on? What's the best way to negotiate level like asking for L64? I'm a PM with 9 years of experience.
Take a look at the offers on http://levels.fyi as well
Glassdoor numbers are just way too off. Microsoft offered good bonuses recently. Not sure if that would have any impact on new hire TC. Hope fellow blinders can help.
i know they offered a big batch of retention bonus. dont think it applies to new hires
Levels.fyi are completely off too. I'm lv62 and make more than what levels.fyi report at level 64. The only way to really have any leverage is to have number from a competing offer. Anyway lvl 63 you can expect at least 160k base, maybe 50k cash bonus and 200k stock.
So L63 may be $180K base, $50K sign on and $250K stock?
Are you a program manager too?
My read on the situation: you're coming from IBM (known to pay poorly) and probably a lower cost market on top of that, so they're hoping your expectations are misaligned with the local (Seattle) market and you'll lowball yourself. They probably already have a good idea of what you actually make based on what you do and where you do it. How much do you actually value this opportunity (and how willing are you to lose it)? Personally, I'd play hardball: "Ok. I have a few other interviews lined up, so I'll get back to you when I have a clearer picture of the numbers the market is offering right now."
The office org. is good, but my team's work seems poor. I'm fine to lose it if I have to. I have a good offer from other non-FAANG company. I know MS can't match it, but you never know. Would you suggest giving a hard number?
Give a number if you're really confident that you know your market value (and the only reliable way to do this is to go out and get a few other offers). You can also search around here, but that's hit or miss (some numbers I've seen are accurate, and others are not--people also have a strange fixation on years of experience here, but that by itself doesn't much matter in the real world past a certain point). Again, iffy that they're trying to force your hand on this. Usually a precursor to a lowball. Personally, every single time I've been asked directly for my current comp and/or pushed for expectations, I got a shitty offer afterward (even when I inflated it, which I always did). They have more data on what the market is paying than you do (usually), so if they were comfortably meeting or beating those numbers they wouldn't have to force you into a corner to begin with. Microsoft is pretty well known to come in fairly low on industry hire offers relative to the other tech giants in Seattle (yes, even relative to Amazon). FWIW: I don't know how closely Microsoft's PM comp bands map to SWE, but the more reliable/legitimate L63 SWE offers I've seen people post are somewhere in the low 200s, total (150-160k base plus bonus target, and 100-300k in RSUs).
Sorry, can't help with your question, but how was the interview? What interview process they follow, etc. Recruiter is too though
I saw a 63 swe offer last week that was 170 base, 320k stock, 50k sign on. That was pretty high. I bet you can probably get 160, 250, 50. Cant hit to ask. MS will match offers as well as long as they make sense.
Thank you! My other offer is from Bay Area so cost of living will play a role. Is 15% difference reasonable? If not, how much do you think makes sense?
With the tax difference it's much closer to 25-30%.
That's just rude, but you can use levels.fyi as a reference and adjust it a little bit (from SDE to PM level) to get to the number to shoot? Oh and also use glassdoor numbers