Got an offer from Google, fear its a lowball?
I am leaving Microsoft after 3.5 years. Started out of college and am an L60. Didnt do so hot due to personal issues and never dug myself out of the hole (judge away), so no promo in sight realistically yet my managers keep holding the carrot on the stick. Bitterness/venting aside, here are the numbers Google offered me:
118K base, 35K signing, 150K stock over 4 years. This is approximately 170K TC with 15% target bonus, not counting a refresher, and assuming ‘Meets Expectation’ performance.
I also received offers from Amazon and Palantir that are sort of comparable.
Palantir: 165K base, 25K signing, 30,000 options (~400K value), with guaranteed 20% raise after 18 months (198K base after, have it in writing), 10% target bonus
Amazon (SDE1): 130K base, 45K Y1 signing, 37K Y2 signing, 61 RSUs (100K)
All of the above I have in writing.
The Google offer seems low when comparing to levels.fyi for others in my YoE band who also got L3 offers.
Can someone confirm? My current salary is 120K and so Google’s base is less than I currently make.
Also my recruiter is very “threatening”. Says a lot of things like “Do you know how many people I reject everyday?”. Wondering if this is normal and if not, how can I report it, because it seems disrespectful.
Assuming options are worthless, Palantir’s offer seems stronger, but Google didn’t budge.
Interested in others’ thoughts. Thank you!
UPDATE:
I told Google that I was taking another offer, though I didn’t give details. I asked them for 135K base, 35K signing, and 220K stock. This is a huge increase but thought I might throw a Hail Mary. They called back in 5 minutes and said no. The moral of the story to me at least is you must have a competing offer that Google internally considers better. My recruiter mentioned a tool he used where he plugged in other offers and it determined if the compete was better or not. Alternatively, make it very clear that you value something else highly that Google cannot offer.
The offer I ended up taking was Mixpanel: 165K base, 10% target bonus, 30K signing, 500K options (worthless on paper). It checked all the boxes (good manager, interesting work, nice people) except compensation, and when I asked them to match Palantir they went above and beyond. Maybe I’m still underpaid, but I’m much better than when I started and can build some momentum in a new role.
My recruiter’s last words were: “Going to Palantir over Google, I don’t understand it, but hey, I wish you the best”
Thank you for all your help!
Levels.fyi - Compare career levels across companies
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But you are being lowballed a little.