Please review my Verizon Media vs start-up offers. How much should I aim for in negotiation?
YOE: 2 Level: Software Dev Engineer I (assuming this is their lowest, I'm a little insulted? I got higher with every other company including Amazon) Base: 130k Stock: 40k vested over 3 years Incentive plan: 10% of the base Sign-on: 13k (so 10% of the base too) 401k matching: 6% Location: north Virginia / Reston Team: ads platform and media monetization I have a second offer from start-up. Level: Senior Software Engineer (2nd level I think) Base: 140k (initially 133k but negotiated) Sign on: 5k (initially 0 but negotiated) Stock: none 401k Matching: currently none, but they said they'll add it soon. I think it'll be 3% but who knows Incentive / annual bonus: currently none Company size: 100 total employees, about 60 engineers Good WLB in start-up too. Priorities shift somewhat often but tech seems interesting. Environment seems similar to Verizon Media except for start-up vs company that might be losing more market share in future. But they're both in media business, which should get better during and post covid. Which offer is better, and what should I choose? Start-up offer can't be negotiated higher#. How much should I negotiate Verizon media offer?
Am I having deja vu? I saw you cross post many times. In short, your VM TC seems average, not bad, maybe even good after considering the location. Level wise, it’s not really low for 2 YOE. I would guess your interview feedback is not strong. If it’s the TC your aiming for, and VM’s offer not the best, you can do aggressive negotiation. But seems it’s not the case. I know you want to strike for the highest possible offer, I mean, who doesn’t? But the most effective way is to show a competitive offer, and you don’t have one. I would say unless you get yourself up leveled, 20k more stock at most is what you can get after negotiation, if your interview feedback is strong positive. Not sure about your financial situation, but that doesn’t seems a lot to me, as it’s just a 7k pretax annual income. I suggest you try to negotiate but don’t hope for a big jump on the number though. Instead of focusing on the minor TC difference, I suggest you focus more on whether you like the team, the tech stack and if it would be a good skill growth and career grow. Ask recruiters to set up some meeting for you and teammate if you can’t make a decision. I always do that. If you don’t like the VM TC, the other option is asking more time before giving out the decision and arrange other interviews asap.
Don't join a startup if they don't give you equity
I could have negotiated that, but i felt like my efforts were better spent negotiating base, since equity could account to nothing in the end
I'm OP btw