Relocating to Seattle from Tokyo
5 yoe (Quality Assurance Engineer 2.5 years, SDE 2.5) I did a lot of automation infra as a QAE, don't discount it as 2.5 years of "testing". I have an internal offer from AWS (Amazon AI) for 138,890 base and 19 RSUs total next year bringing it to ~ 177k (1750 * 19 * 1.15). I have only 3 shares vesting in November, so they added a 2240/month bonus to make up for JP's low comp. + Relocating package and 10k before tax. This seems pretty low for SDE II, but I was only just promoted in April. The job role change affected promo schedule. I essentially traded L5 QAE in 6 months for L4 SDE immediately when I made the switch. Thoughts on the offer? I really wanted 200k, but at this point, I don't really want to go through more interviews externally. Thinking I might take it and try for Google in Kirkland in a year depending on promotion outlook. If it wasn't internal, I'd say 177 for 5 yoe is low.
Update: they are coming back with a revised offer. Should get it within the next few days.
187 (5 more shares). Love negotiating.
Do you think Tokyo typically pays ~55% of US at all levels? Are you aware of any colleagues that break $200k TC in Tokyo with <10 YOE?
I highly doubt it is possible for an IC to break 200k regardless of YOE. Anywhere in Asia that typically requires director level, both because of lower general comp and because non managers are not valued
China easily pays that much in Asia (comparable to US tech), but I doubt you can get that kind of TC in Japan.
Why would you move from Tokyo to Seattle?!
Salary perhaps? I've heard tech workers aren't well compensated in JP.
177 is low, but it beats 103. I make about 9.7M yen (~88k USD). I have 15k of stock vesting next year. But not just salary. My wife and I might have another kid and although she takes care of our daughter full time, the thought of a newborn + toddler in Tokyo by ourselves is daunting (her family is in Kyoto). If we move to Seattle, my mom and sister are 30 minutes away, and I have a ton of friends with kids. I've been here for 2.5 year, and it's been great!! But we'd like to have more date nights. Her parents come over about 3 weeks per year, which isn't bad, but every week would be amazing. And also, there are not a whole lot of teams here. I really want to get into ML. I've taken a dozen MOOCs related to it over the last year. I'll be building services, but that's also an exciting change for me. The code is literally the product.