Amazon Stripe
Currently L6 at Amazon, got offered L3 at Stripe around the same tech skills area. The pay difference is barely 16-17% if I exclude the perf. bonus component. 30-32% if I include the performance bonus. (Work culture, quality of work, visibility wise both seem nearly the same). Stripe doesn’t seem interested in negotiating a lot?
Confused between staying v/s moving. Given lack of negotiations from Stripe, should I take this to my boss at Amazon to match?
Total work-ex: 9.5 yrs.
FA1: Thank you, that’s what I’ve been thinking . But been conflicted as I’m on “visa”.
SM1: I agree with you so far. Let me add some more data points, if it helps you guide me better.
1. I interviewed L6, was brought in L5 two years ago. Made L6 within a year (so been only a year in L6 capacity so far).
2. Currently L5’s in my role are being offered 40% higher salary than my L6 salary. Which seems unfair to me. (Also when I was going to L6, I was promised the number that Amazon is currently paying L5’s in the market — and I’m 40% below that promised number).
Great. So that practice of paying external hires more is one reason people hop jobs. People in tech say it’s the best way to increase salary. SM1’s thoughts make sense to me, but also on the other hand it seems like you do need to switch jobs to advance your career. I guess it depends on the person’s specific situation.
Stripe has a better long term growth advantage and your equity will be worth significantly more. That said, you’ll be missing out on the career trajectory and promotion path at Amazon. Coming to stripe will be MUCH higher workload, ambiguity, and advancement will take longer to set your roots on the team here.
The question you should be asking yourself is
“I am a good engineer on the international space station. It’s hard work, but stable. Stripe is a new space mission going to deep space. They seem likely to find a massive asteroid of money, but it’s dangerous, more work, and higher risk overall”
That’s an amazing analogy to think over. Infact it does add direction to my evaluation process (because this analogy also adds data points towards a personal level factor too).
I’m not traditionally a risk averse person. But this year, certain family events have forced me to be risk-averse (will have to be atleast till spring next year). So now I’ll need to weigh in this too.
A lot depends on your manager and skip manager. I’ve had managers that genuinely understood we’re all playing the same game and part of that is you have to to get external offers at times to increase your comp and they totally “got it” - I’ve had other managers that took this stuff super personally or didn’t want someone under them “moving up.” It’s obvious you’re a strong performer given you’re sub two years promo so if you have a supportive manager who “gets it” I’d push for a dive and save comp bump. Especially if you’re underpaid now
That makes sense I know a few people that did that and while it wasn’t a match they did get more money (base and fast vesting RSUs). They decided they’d rather stay, even though the new spot was more since Amazon didn’t fully match starting new obviously has its challenges.
Based on your description, don’t leave based on the money. I recently read a good article about job hoping stunting career growth. I’ll find it and add the link.
You called out that both have the same visibility. Even with that visibility, you be starting fresh and trying to demonstrate your value. It will take longer to get tot that next level of influence. If you stay, you (presumably) are a trusted L6 with existing recognition based on your stated visibility. That will take you to L7 faster than the move to another company.
Unless you turn in your resignation, it’s unlikely you’ll get a pay bump from saying you have an offer from a competitor. Let’s be honest, as an L6 you are well compensated. Look past the pay bump and consider the long term impact on changing roles, and the reset to get to the next level.
Moving companies will get you a pay bump but you’ll work harder up to you
I would take to your boss and see if they match. Companies aren’t negotiating much rn because of the fact that some are banking on attrition.
I would never switch L6 to L3 unless my pay is doubled
According to levels.fyi Stripes L3 is somewhere between Amazon’s L5/L6 (unfortunately that’s for an SDE role).. their L4 is said to be “staff” level equivalent. Unfortunately there is no bench mark to compare against for non-SDE roles.