UPDATE: I decided to go with Square. Thanks everyone! --------------------- Original post: I'm having a hard time deciding between three offers. Which would you choose? I would also appreciate if anyone from these companies can comment on WLB / culture / etc. Snap L5 - TC 492k - 520k (bonus structure is weird and not guaranteed) Pros: - Great pay - Excellent benefits (arguably even better than Google). - Flexible PTO. - No cliff. Monthly vest. Stock is liquid. - Potential upside for the initial 3-yr grant. (Ongoing grants afterwards appear to be similar to Lyft/Stripe/Coinbase annual grant policy) - Manager seems great. Cons: - Requires a very long commute. Manager says I shouldn't need to be in the office more than once per week, probably less. However, there's no clear WFH guidance from the top. - WLB. This team seems like it might be fine, but Snap has a bad reputation here overall. - Smaller band with higher expectations. - Lots of ambiguity in the work area, unclear metrics for success. - Unclear stock performance in the future. I don't think Snap is profitable yet. - No stacking refreshes. Square / Cash App L6 - 430k Pros: - Fully remote. - Team really distributed, so unlikely to be disadvantaged compared to those in the office. - Great people and culture. - Solid benefits. - Flexible PTO that people actually take. - Stock is liquid. - Stacking refreshes (unclear amount). - Better WLB. - Seems like a more forgiving environment. - 4-year grants and refreshes, likely to have good upside. - Manager and team seem great. - Lots of product growth and opportunity for impact. - Some of the best reviews on Blind. Cons: - 1 year cliff. - Not super excited about the work or product. - Unlikely to match Snap, but may be able to get a little higher. (That said, this is already higher than most L6 offers on levels.fyi, so not sure how much more wiggle room there is here.) [UPDATE: Not able to increase the main offer, but added a 50k signon] Stripe L3 - ~475k? [UPDATE: ~480k + 60k signon] Pros: - Fully remote. - Solid benefits. - Really interesting, high impact projects. - Seems best for career growth. - Lots of product areas to switch around to. Unlikely to ever get bored. - May have upside from IPO. Cons: - Team 50/50 split between SF & remote. May be a disadvantage compared to those in the office. - Accrued PTO (21 days), not as many holidays. Unsure if people even take the vacation they have available. - Seems like a very stressful environment. Chronically understaffed. - Poor WLB. Possible bad oncall load. - Not public. No idea when they will IPO. Upside is limited due to annual grant policy and high current valuation. - Haven't met potential manager. From reviews, it seems like there is a lot of manager churn / reorgs. Edit: Forgot to pay blind tax. Current TC - 350k granted / 430k with growth YOE - 7
YOE? Go for Snap L5. Compared to Google, the WLB of most companies will be harder. If you’re young then working in such an environment for a while will give you the needed experience. Optimize for money unless you’re 30+ and have a family.
Wow! Congrats on getting offers from top 3 companies 👏🏽
Thanks! I know it's a good problem to have :)
Remote is like +200k TC since you can live in LCOL
Due to other reasons, I'm still going to be in a HCOL area (not SF). I'm pretty sure I'd be getting lower offers if I moved.
What are you looking for OP? What are your priorities?
You can get a sense of that by looking at what things they call out in their descriptions: WLB, pay, interesting product, liquidity, easy commute/remote. OP can maybe clarify what their top priorities are?
That's a good question. I obviously care about TC. But I started interviewing in the first place because I'm bored. I think, TC being equal, I care a lot about having interesting work. I am willing to work hard, but I have no desire for regular 50-60 hour weeks, especially since I'm likely to have kids over the next few years. Edit: And like FB mentioned, I definitely don't want a regular commute. I've done the 3hr round trip before and do not want to deal with that multiple times a week. I'm also not willing to relocate at this point.
Can you clarify why? And since you're at Snap, what does your WLB look like? How much vacation to people typically take? Any more guidance on WFH from higher up?
This guy has been putting down square in a bunch of posts lol. Got a Napoleon complex
Stacking refreshers and more stock upside in Square beat the others. What is your yoe?
7. Updated the post.
I'd take either over snap, but then again I have a fintech bias. What team on cash app? Cashapp has a lot of exciting new work so I would consider talking to another team if this one does not interest you.
Can't say the team to avoid doxxing myself. I think it's more that I'm not as excited about Cash App overall (compared to Stripe). If I joined Square, I might eventually migrate to the seller side. That said, I am aware that Cash App is growing the most right now, and it would definitely be really valuable experience. It's also more interesting than what I'm working on now. If Stripe weren't in the picture or if Snap had only offered L4, this would be a really easy choice for Square.
Fair, if you're into product engineering id say Cashapp is strictly more interesting than snap. If you're more into the platform side (looks like this is the case) then you can't go wrong with stripe.
I’d take L6 Square, given it’s slightly higher level
Based on levels.fyi, they all overlap. Square L6 is the higher end of Stripe L3, and Snap L5 overlaps a lot with Square L6 and goes a little into Square L7 / Stripe L4.
I think Snap is because they had restructure of level. Lots of L5 data was at old level, while new L5 is just senior
Current Tc?
And YOe
Edited post.