Average yoe from new grad to senior

Sep 11, 2019 18 Comments

I'm trying to decide between a few offers right now with similarish TC. So far I have offers from Google, Microsoft, Bloomberg, and Riot Games. I'm in the interview process with Palantir, Facebook, and Twitter, but I may have to pull out due to Microsoft deadlines.

Google (116 base, 160 stock, 50 sign on)
Microsoft (110 base, 120 stock, 50 sign on + 18 relo)
Riot (125 base, 18 ssp, 20 sign on)
Bloomberg (135 base, 0 stock, 30 sign on)

My focus is learning and maximizing opportunities I can get further in my career, in the event that I want to switch companies.

Starting at the lowest level for all of them, I'm wondering what is the expected yoe it would take to get to Senior SWE level at these respective companies. Industry standard Senior, since you can get Senior at Bloomberg a lot easier than other places lol.

Thanks!

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TOP 18 Comments
  • Google / Eng
    proletaria

    Go to company page Google Eng

    BIO
    Workers of the world, unite!
    proletaria
    Speaking only from my experience at Google:

    The new grad to L5 (senior) timeline can be anywhere from 2.5 years (have two friends who've done that), to well over 4 years.

    I'd say expect 4 +/- 1 years for L5 from new grad (2 +/- 0.5 years for L4).

    My experience has been that those who come into the company as new grads tend to get promoted faster (mostly due to selection bias; the people coming in as new grads tend to be better engineers imo).

    If you want to maximize future opportunities, I don't think any brand name has as much value on your resume as Google.

    In terms of overall growth and learning, Google is massive and you can move around fairly easily, but the work afforded to junior workers tends to be fairly routine or boring. However, there's a ton of internal resources for growth, from free classes and big education reimbursements, to design docs explaining major architecture that doesn't even exist anywhere else.

    I'm leaving next month, but I'd definitely recommend Google as a good first job for a new grad.
    Sep 12, 2019 4
  • How come Microsoft reloc is 18k? :o Last year it was only 5k!!
    Sep 11, 2019 1
  • Epic
    spin shark

    Go to company page Epic

    PRE
    Microsoft
    spin shark
    Google: 5y from L3->L5
    Microsoft: 5y from 59->63
    Bloomberg: 2y to Senior

    Take Google since their levels are valued more at other companies.

    63 from Microsoft often gets downleveled to L4 at Google, while Senior at Bloomberg with 5 yoe gets downleveled to L3 even or 62 at Microsoft.
    Sep 11, 2019 2
  • Intel / Eng
    Wlbyo

    Go to company page Intel Eng

    Wlbyo
    Congrats! I would guess 5-7 years?
    MSFT offer looks pretty good. What org?
    Sep 11, 2019 3
  • Based on TC I'm guessing you got an Assoc offer from Riot. 4-5 is a reasonable ball park, with changes coming up to better align levels to industry, I foresee a shift slightly downward, notably the jump from mid to senior.
    Sep 12, 2019 2
    • Do you know what kind of upleveling/downleveling would occur if one we're to leave Riot? Would an Senior leaving Riot be equivalent to and L5 at G?
      Sep 12, 2019
    • Fwiw I'm on the opposite side, having hired former googlers into Riot. But with some of that realignment work, goal would be that a senior maps to L5, staff to L6. Anything beyond gets fuzzy and frankly most places tend to not hire at that level much vs promoting up.
      Sep 12, 2019