For someone with two years experience, would moving to one of the successful startups (Pinterest, Airbnb, Snapchat, Dropbox, Slack) have financial upside vs staying at Amazon or going to FB/Google?
stock compensation. it's a gamble
Worked out well for you?
Just be careful and analyze your motives for switching. If you're dissatisfied where you're at, figure out *exactly* why. The reason I am saying this is I left my secure work for an insecure startup and ended up with mental illness.
That sounds terrible. Hope u recovered. Startups are full of people with mental illnessss
Yeah, I went back to my old employer and worked for 20 more years.
Maybe wait 6 months before you jump, just to be sure
At this point I'd take options that are worth real money.. startups are a gamble
Maybe if it were a couple years ago. I just have a sneaking feeling we are on the verge of another tech bubble and the start-up capital will dry up for a bit. If that happens you're up shit creek without a paddle competing with all the other engineers that lost their jobs.
I definitely have way lower compensation than folks from FB and Google even if we'll count RSUs. On other side it is more than almost all other places.
Ask only for cash. They might actually respect you since they are probably screwing everyone else.
The equity is a very huge part of your comp and they are a gamble. As it becomes more of a sure thing, the equity numbers are generally reduced in the offers to new hires. That said, the answer varies across the companies you listed. Uber and Airbnb may have the highest total comp apart from hedge funds if they are successful. Others you listed are lower.
Yes if you think the monopoly money will someday be worth something.