How to Negotiate a Big Tech Offer as a Software Engineer - with @RahulPandeyrkp

Rahul worked at a startup, at Pinterest and is now a staff engineer at Facebook. He negotiated close to a dozen offers. We share practical advice on how you can - and should! - negotiate Big Tech software engineering offers: both fro the side of the candidate, and from the viewpoint of the hiring manager.

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I've been a hiring manager at Uber, and Rahul, has worked at a startup, at Pinterest and Facebook. How does a compensation package look like for a software engineer at tech companies? How do base salary, annual bonus, equity (options, RSUs), signon bonuses and perks usually add up? What parts of the package can you negotiate? How can you line up multiple offers at the same time? We talk about these and more in the video.

00:00 - Intro
01:03 - Rapid fire questions
02:30 - What does compensation mean for software engineers?
05:15 - How important is equity?
06:06 - Offer negotiation advice from Rahul
08:45 - Offer negotiation insights as a hiring manager
09:55 - More negotiation advice from Rahul
12:26 - Tactical advice for negotiating

[RahulPandeyrkp]

This was really fun, let's do it again soon! Happy to answer questions if folks want to connect 💯

[Jyashintaan]

Very useful information! Now my concern is how to get multiple big tech offers at the same time when I can't even get one

[XueyongQian]

I love the idea of "Be input driven, not output driven"! It is a good advice of avoiding or at least reducing burnout and having a more sustainable career

[MrBlockyTV]

lol he applyed 9 companys to get 6 offers this is crazy - after finishing university last year it took me over 300 resumes to get 2 offers

[KaroCodes]

Being transparent with your recruiters that you are applying to multiple places is a great advice! 🎉 Recruiters will actually try to get you the best offer as the company puts time and money in interviewing you so they want to be sure they get a return on their investment!

[SeaWaves]

Thanks a lot, Gergely, you're literally reshaping the market for software engineers in Europe with your videos

[iamtheguitar]

Love the highlighting of important sentences. You content is always great, but the design makes it so much easier to watch through without losing focus. Keep it up!

[obiwankenobi]

The problem this isn’t super useful. There’s only a handful of people with 4-5 FAANG offers at the same time. Those people usually stand out anyway and they get a lot more money.

A real video would be about negotiating when you only have 1 FAANG offer or maybe you have 1 FAANG and 1-2 more smaller companies with clearly smaller TC.

Anyone can negotiate “hey I got 6 offers and I’m literally top 0.001% in the world in SWE”. Much harder to negotiate in other situations.

[ampersignia]

Really valuable advice from both of you. @Pragmatic Engineer, I will say your advice at 11:26 is too optimistic about other people's situations -- not everyone has been paid well before, some have people they're taking care of, and really need the money. We aren't all just interested in the subject matter & working.

[vitaliiplagov]

6 out of 9 is an impressive ratio!
A very valuable advices.

I’ve been affected by mass layoffs 2 months ago and went on job search full-time, sending about 30 applications, initiating a talk with 10-12 companies and getting one offer only. It’s so stressful being in this situation, you’re afraid of negotiating and applying all these tactics, because you’re very much afraid that if you lose, it would be even worse for you with all the personal and family commitments many of us have.

[AparnaJain]

Love the advice on being input driven and not output driven. I attribute all my success to this thinking(did most of it unknowingly)

[Neolisk]

9 applications, 6 offers is pretty good. Usually it's 100 applications and 1 offer though.

[erickbravo]

Great Video! But your editing is a little too "choppy". Throwing me off a bit. It makes the timing of the conversation very unnatural.

[emmanuelozioma]

Now I’m addicted to your videos. Thank you for the valuable information. I’ll be back when I get my first software engineering internship offer 🤞🏾

[treecoffin]

"9 companies total"

>Meanwhile most of us have to apply to HUNDREDS of companies to even get an entry level position.

[uTube]

Love your channel, valuable, pragmatic content!

[simivb]

Whenever I read or watch information about negotiating salary I get quite uncomfortable because I know that there is so much potential there, that I am not really tapping into. So, although I didn't really "enjoy" your video, I still wouldn't want to have missed it :D. Thanks for uploading this!

[preksha]

Appreciated your honesty, good stuff. Not easy to do from hiring managers side.

[gppl]

I wish I had seen it when was joining Amazon. I wonder, could you make a video regarding compensation negotiations when getting promoted within company, like L4=>L5, L5=>L6, etc. I've heard that some people quit and then got themselves re-hired again just to get to the bargaining stage again. It won't work for everyone, obviously, but for some it could be a viable strategy.
Anyway, thanks for sharing, it's really useful video.

[sampleshawn]

It's pure gold for a newbie like me in this field, thanks a lot Gergely!