> I'm not saying Google makes horrible offers, but I'm not sure how their recruiters marketing matches up with their internal calculations of target comp. I have read complaints on blind that Google is using it to show higher first year offers or to compete with other offers.
I can certainly believe this, lots of companies play games to make first-year comp look higher, I certainly don't put it past my employer.
What I'm describing however, isn't anything to do with external hiring, its a common complaint made by existing google employees about how they feel comp drops in year 5. I agree with you that its not totally rational, but people aren't totally rational, and it wouldn't at all surprise me if doing something like this improved retention past the 4 year mark (but it also wouldn't surprise me if the better year 1 comp makes Google appear more competitive with Facebook. Two birds or something).
And yes, you should absolutely compare stock refreshes (if you can get data) when comparing offers! FWIW, I have no clue if Google's are particularly good or not.
I can certainly believe this, lots of companies play games to make first-year comp look higher, I certainly don't put it past my employer.
What I'm describing however, isn't anything to do with external hiring, its a common complaint made by existing google employees about how they feel comp drops in year 5. I agree with you that its not totally rational, but people aren't totally rational, and it wouldn't at all surprise me if doing something like this improved retention past the 4 year mark (but it also wouldn't surprise me if the better year 1 comp makes Google appear more competitive with Facebook. Two birds or something).
And yes, you should absolutely compare stock refreshes (if you can get data) when comparing offers! FWIW, I have no clue if Google's are particularly good or not.