Jobs Report: 9/11/24

Students and New grads we’re back!

24 new intern roles opened up as well as some co-op roles. Go apply before its too late because the competition is fierce.

Total Comp: RSU v. Options

Something not often talked about when it comes to compensation are stock awards and how to value them. With equity compensation, RSUs and stock options are two siblings with very different personalities.

At public companies, RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) are the responsible, reliable sibling. When you get RSUs, the company promises to give you actual shares of stock once they vest, no strings attached.

You don’t have to lift a finger—just wait for the vesting period to end, and boom, you’ve got shares. Of course, Uncle Sam takes his cut immediately, as they’re taxed as income when they vest. Its REAL money in your pocket.

Even in private companies those are your shares, and you’ll get cash once the company either IPO’s or gets acquired. On the other hand, stock options are the wild child.

They give you the option to buy company shares at a fixed price, but there’s a catch: the stock has to be worth more than that price for you to make any money. If the stock tanks, your options are worthless. Your money is lost. If the stock soars, though, you’re in the money—after you pay taxes when you exercise or sell.

For private companies, stock options are even wilder because you’re getting monopoly money in exchange for your labor. When you hear the recruiter say “if we exit at $1B its worth X, but at $100B its worth Y…” blah, blah, blah. Ignore it.

At the end of the day no matter what picture the recruiter is trying to paint, Its value is $0. Not only is it worthless at the time of signing but you still have to PAY for the option to own monopoly money! Absolutely, wild my friend.

In short when evaluating your offer, RSUs are the safe bet, while stock options are a high-risk, high-reward gamble.

Resume Tip

Did you know that Recruiters scan your resume in an F shape? First they scan your experience vertically looking for key words. When a keyword is found they scan horizontally to dive deeper into your experience.

All of that happens in ~10 seconds because the average recruiter is reading about 200 resumes per day. Make sure you put the most impact verbs and stats at the beginning of each work experiences. Same for your projects and course work.

Low Baller of the week

OMG who in HR do I need to chat for them to get the message!? 119k for a Senior Software Engineer position in San Francisco 👏 IS 👏 LOW 👏 BALL 👏 ENERGY 👏 . Bye. Don’t work at Figure.

(But you know, it ain’t bad if you unemployed. Lol get that paper how ever you can get it but just know you need to bounce at the first opportunity. Know your worth!)

And BTW, Applied Intuition is unserious for even listing the low end range as 65k for a software engineer in mountain view. Again too low, for an expensive city. Somebody talk to the HR folks!

Big Baller of the week

Sure $400k role at Applied Intuition, as a ML Software Engineer, in SF, is nice an all. But what about $92k as a Senior Software Engineer in Kenya at GiveDirectly!?

By the rules of geo-arbitrage, you would be living like royalty honey. According to Levels.fyi, the median salary is $18k. Win. According to Numbeo, if you made 90k in NYC, you would need around $19k to maintain the same standard of life. Jackpot! So if you live in Kenya or have the ability to move there, go get your paper and enjoy the spoils!