CompensationNov 27, 2017
Facebookserially

Sharing my offer numbers from big companies for your reference

I see many questions on compensation here and would like to help answer some of them with the limited data I have. I'd like to shed some light on what the industry is paying and also encourage people to negotiate hard. I went on an interviewing spree recently with the big companies for an SWE position and would like to share some offer numbers. The numbers below are all annual figures. I have two years of professional experience. 1) Google - 140k base, 100k RSUs, 50k sign on, 15% bonus 2) Facebook - 160k base, 75k RSUs, 75k sign on, 10% bonus 3) Lyft - 170k base, 180k RSUs, 20k sign on 4) Dropbox - 160k base, 115k RSUs, 10k sign on 5) Airbnb - 150k base, 75k RSUs, 15k sign on 6) Palantir - 150k base, 50k stock options, 25k sign on, 25k bonus TWO years of experience, figures above are ANNUAL. I chose FB in the end because the TC was among the highest and I resonate with FB's move fast culture. I enjoyed talking to FB interviewers the most and they made me feel very welcome. Lyft's offer was great but it's not public after all (yet) and I'm more risk adverse. Also, the commute up to SF everyday will kill me. Curious to know which you would have chosen if you were in my shoes. EDIT - many commenters are asking similar questions, I'll answer them once and for all here: 1. How did you go about having so many overlapping offers? I did my phone screens early and arranged all the onsites together at a later date. There was a huge gap between some of my phone screens and onsites. I set recruiter expectations early and told them when I would make a decision. I held some offers for close to a month. 2. What's your background? Two years of professional experience. Bachelors. Non-ivy league school. Previously from a unicorn startup. I'm mentioning these because people ask, not that I think they matter. 3. How did you prepare for the interviews? Sadly, do lots of LeetCode. I wouldn't say my method was very optimal as I spent two months and did around 200-300 questions before the interviews. Did all the easy questions, half the medium and a fifth of the hard ones. It's important to get both quantity and quality such that you can identify the pattern of questions on first sight and know what technique to apply. Cover a variety of topics. Don't have the mentality that you won't be tested on DP. Till this day I still do LeetCode for fun as I enjoy doing them. It has become a lifestyle for me. I also used mock interview practice sites. I didn't practice much system design questions as I felt that I was pretty strong in design for my field. 4. Are you bullshitting? You can believe what you like since it's anonymous after all. Some commenters do agree that such numbers are possible, and they're totally right. 5. Did you get rejected anywhere? Yes, I got rejected by some smaller startups at the onsite stage. 6. Why didn't you apply to Microsoft, Amazon, Apple <insert big name here>? I did. I applied to every big company out there. But the application process of large companies is so noisy that chances of getting noticed are so low. Thankfully I had FB and Google referrals else I doubt I would have gotten a reply at all.

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Microsoft COTV56 Nov 27, 2017

His numbers are per year, not 4 years

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

I did mention that the figures are annual

Qualcomm oiiy Nov 27, 2017

how many years of experience?

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

It's mentioned in the description - two years

Pinterest sgslaowg Nov 28, 2017

Two years after bs degree?

Microsoft COTV56 Nov 27, 2017

Where did you before FB?

Microsoft COTV56 Nov 27, 2017

And how were the interviews ?

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

Was previously from a unicorn startup. The interviews were ok perhaps because I prepared adequately for them.

LinkedIn AlgoLover Nov 27, 2017

So Lyft is 180k stock annually?? :O Wondering why you left a 350k TC at Lyft..

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

Because Lyft stocks aren't worth anything at the moment and I don't really like having to commute to SF everyday.

LinkedIn AlgoLover Nov 27, 2017

Hmm makes sense.. Btw may I ask what area do you work in? Is it AI/ML/Data science? Bcos the offers look very high

Google zMjT02 Nov 27, 2017

Toss up between Google, Facebook, and Lyft depending on your interests. Lyft’s offer is the only pre-IPO that seems like a reasonable counter to Google/Facebook. Personally I would go to Google over Facebook (which I did), but perfectly reasonable to go to Facebook. Would you mind sharing your G/F pre-negotiation offers if you have them? Presumably this is at L4/E4.

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

I wasn't able to negotiate on base pay as I had given the recruiters the offers from other companies and the first offer I got was already pretty high. Pre-nego values for Google was 250k RSU (total) and for FB was 30k sign on.

Facebook Sona Nov 27, 2017

You negotiated 62k rsus/year to 107? Pretty solid

Credit Karma roadkill Nov 27, 2017

RSUs are divided by four to normalize to annual, and they are units or $$? If units, what’s the stock price?

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

Annual, usd. Stocks prices are confidential sadly

Asana imrandom Nov 30, 2017

I think roadkill meant what is the valuation of the stocks, not the exercise price. In particular I'm interested in what valuation was used for Dropbox since its valuation is believed to have declined from the 10 billion valuation at which it raised money.

Pandora qwe1 Nov 27, 2017

Did you share your current TC with recruiters at the time when you were interviewing?

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

Nope. That's the first rule of offer negotiation!

Pandora qwe1 Nov 27, 2017

Totally agreed, was curious to confirm it

Oracle l769als7 Nov 27, 2017

Can you explain your negotiation strategy with so many offers?

Lyft WNeX18 Nov 27, 2017

Would like to know as well!

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

I didn't do much negotiation. Simply gave them the numbers and let them work out the offers. I would say having multiple offers helped greatly.

Dropbox TradeJoe's Nov 27, 2017

Wow. I am so underpaid

LinkedIn Brighton Nov 28, 2017

By this standard, yes!

Apple Bnhjk56 Nov 27, 2017

Insane for 2 years! Congratulations. I know folks with 5 years making less. Bachelors or Masters? Which field in SWE?

Facebook serially OP Nov 27, 2017

Bachelor's. I'm doing client side development.

Google Linkedin Nov 27, 2017

Man, 5 years is nothing :)