These offers were received in the March timeframe. Blind has been great for providing insights into what offers can be achieved. This post is partially to pay it forward and provide another data point to Blind users, as well as to get feedback from others. What choice would you have made? YoE: PhD + 4.5 yrs relevant internship experience from both product/research teams in these companies. I don't believe they really take this into consideration when determining Level and TC. Thoughts? These are for security roles, fairly specialized to my background. Company, Location, Level: base, equity, bonus%, sign-on, TC yr1 NVIDIA, Hillsboro, ICT4: $190k, $324k, none, $80k ($50k yr1, $30k yr2), $311k MSFT, Redmond, L62: $153k, $225k, 10%, $100k ($50k yr1, $50k yr2), $275k Google, San Diego, L4: $170k, $397k, 15%, $32k, $358k Meta, Menlo Park, E4: $168k, $450k, 15%, $75k, $380 Intel, Hillsboro, G7: $142k, $80k, $18k, $15k (split over 2 yrs), $186k I chose Google for WLB, location and more stability in this volatile market. Combined TC for years 1&2 of Meta/Google is very close. My rationale was that after 2 years, I will hopefully be up for promotion and as a result the compensation that should be focused on is only the first two years. Some notes on the process: + Google low-balled very hard as to be expected. Several rounds of negotiation required. I still feel at the end I should have pushed for more but was tired of the process and wanted to be done with it. I have small regret there, but it is what it is. I'm sure part of the rationale behind doing this is to wear down candidates into accepting offers. They required proof of competing offers. I did not have the final Meta offer in time to use it to negotiate further with Google. Would this have made a difference, or this is as high as it would go for the level and location? + I did not bother negotiating with Intel. + MSFT originally leveled me at L61. Thankfully, the hiring manager was invested and helped advocate for L62. I really liked this team and the projects they had on the roadmap. Somewhat conflicted still, as this TC in Seattle area is maybe as good as the Google TC in SD. + NVIDIA originally offered ICT3 level. I'm hoping this was a mistake, since it is the true new grad level. They did not put up any resistance when I pointed out that this wasn't acceptable. I'm happy to answers any questions or hear your two cents. Cheers!
Tips for negotiating with Google? I got my first numbers and they’re about $30K lower than my highest offer.
What's the breakdown? Normally, the strategy is to request additional equity; but, seeing what is happening with the economy you might be better off trying to negotiate your base. In my opinion, you should have some real leverage citing inflation as a case for narrowing that gap. I don't know if this sort of negotiation tactic has been successful. If you give it a try, report back and let us know how they receive it. Competing offers is the best way to get an increase in the package. Since you've already done this and they're still offering less I would simply continue to push back. There are clearly companies willing to pay more and this speaks to your value--try selling this as much as you can. I realize this sort of game might be a bit scary in the current environment, but if you are willing to walk away, continue to advocate for yourself based on your strengths and current economic situation (experience, specialization, rent $1-2k more than 6 months ago, etc).
Google all day. But G should have matched/upped equity and sign on had you waited for Meta offer. Anyways, decent offer and congrats
Thanks! Ideally, I would have waited but unfortunately the timing of the offers was off. Meta offer was staggered and came in a few weeks later. Google recruiter was starting to get pushy since those negotiations themselves had already been on-going for a few weeks. Do you think they would have matched, given that Meta offer is Bay area and supposedly they tend to stick to this SD comp should be 10-15% less mindset?
Equity and sign on are lot less location dependent than base, so yeah could have still helped. No point ruminating now, G offer is good enough for you to live very comfortably in SD
Nvidia told me they aren’t doing sign on bonus. Kinda seems like they are trying to low ball me.
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Not even close. Massive difference in prices between SD and Bay
You mean for the TC of yr1 + yr2? I know this is the conventional wisdom, but rents in SD have skyrocketed since the pandemic. The average 2BD/2BA for SD vs. Bay is roughly equivalent at this point, around $3.5k (again, just the average, not luxury). If you are looking to buy property, that is a different story. House prices in Bay are still significantly more, of course. From a renter's perspective, do you still think costs are much higher in Bay? Gas, food, utilities are mostly the same I would think. Not creating an argument, just trying to get a real understanding of CoL for SD vs. Bay post-pandemic.
Having lived in both areas, I'd say there's nothing that compares to the Bay. Gas etc similar but I'd say about 8 to 10 % difference. Once the economy settles down It would be unlikely that rent in both areas is the same. I guess another difference is the area in the Bay. The closer you are to a major big tech company the more the rent goes up. For eg renting in mountain view for a simple 1 bed room apt would likely cost you above 3k. Renting further away from the office would cost somewhere between 2000 to 2700.