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I’m making 55k in Chicago. Am I underpaid?
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Rising Star
One off pandemic bonuses aside, I make more in-house in big tech than I would in biglaw at my YOE (4), factoring in just base, bonus and stock (tc $355k). If I factored in benefits (cheap insurance, 401k match, espp, etc.), it wouldn’t even be close. That’s just the money side. We haven’t even discussed WLB, which I now have. When I’m promoted to the next level, which likely will happen sometime soon, tc will increase by a min of $75k, just based on bonus % increase and min increase in annual equity alone. This is all dependent on the company you work for. There’s no rigging of the salaries like with biglaw. You might find a company that pays more, etc.
Are there any companies that are known to be chill like yours you could name drop so I know where to apply in a year or two?
TC $200k, non-CA/non-FAANG, 6 YOE. You can expect a lot more from FAANG or Bay Area pay scale. It doesn’t match biglaw by any stretch of the imagination, but my job is great and I don’t have to plan my life around work. For people like me that are powered by stress, not being glued to your work phone during free time is like a weight being lifted off your chest.
An associate corporate counsel (around 2-4 years of experience) at a FAANG, or FAANG equivalent, can make around $270K, which includes a mix of base and restricted stock. On top of this, some places have annual bonuses that are in part tied to individual performance and in part tied to company performance. Some place give automatic annual stock refreshers that stack on top of each other. Pretty much all of them have some amount of 401K match and also allow for back door Roth IRA contributions. There are lots of other benefits like WFH and health-expense benefits as well as flashy offices with free snacks and meals all day. Depending on stock performance, it can be pretty competitive to big law.
Considering the whole picture that definitely beats big law for the experience.
Total comp in big tech can be comparable if not better than big law. It’s pretty common for corporate counsel to make 500k+. More if there is good stock growth like we’ve seen in the past few years. Also much better WLB and perks compared to big law. As a caveat though, there are material differences even within FAANG in terms of leveling/perks/ comp/ WLB.
Any advice for getting a counsel position at google? I’m a junior in V25 ip litigation
My So in Big Law had a in-house role and with performance bonuses, made 1.5M in a year and a few months. Would say, you can be lucky!
Wow that’s the life haha
Is it comparable or better to Product Manager TC? I’ve been thinking about going to law school and then moving in-house at some point at a tech company. But based on numbers online, it looks like the pay would be comparable and that isn’t even including the lost salary during school and the cost of school.
Comp is better than PM at same levels, but they don’t hire straight out of school so you’re looking at 3 years of school + 5 years of experience before having a shot at going in-house in big tech. If you can get a PM job now and the only thing you care about is comp, PM is the better path.