Hi Everyone,
I'm a new grad software engineer graduating this upcoming spring with a master's and bachelor's in Comp Sci. I'm looking for advice on salary negotiations and also which location I should go to. My main goal is to put as much away into retirement & savings as possible.
Context: I was recently offered a position at FinTech company A in a rotation program. Benefits are great (stock purchase program, excellent 401k matching, etc.) and I'm set to receive $95k base, $10k signing, and $1k relocation at a low CoL location (with no state income taxes) in Texas. I also have the option to go to one of their other offices on the east coast with high CoL with a base of $105k (all other benefits and bonuses being the same) in Washington D.C. Both locations would require me to have a car, are roughly similar in terms of team quality, and have engineers there who are VERY satisfied with the work environment & facilities. I've read before that despite living in a high CoL area, the higher base salary might be better for me as promotions (which occur often in this company) and salary increases are usually done by %, so I would net more in the long run.
As a disclaimer, I've been unable to visit either location, but it seems the Texas location is a suburbs area (w/ centralized campus) whereas the DC location has more of a city-feel (w/ a decentralized campus). I've experienced both suburb & city life and I'd be okay with either.
The low CoL location would allow me to pay maybe $1k/month for an apartment with very nice accommodations whereas the high CoL location would be more on the order of $1.5k-2k/month w/ fewer amenities. From basic searching, it seems used car prices are similar in both locations.
Any advice on which location to pick? I am honestly torn between the two and could use advice or additional factors that I'm not considering. I can provide additional relevant information as needed.
On the negotiation front, I've attempted to negotiate my base salary up by $5k and my signing bonus by $5k, but I received a reply that basically said that because you're joining a 'program', we don't want to make changes to the compensation package. I mentioned having other offers, used good reasoning to justify the increases, and was very professional in presenting my case. This being said, I've talked to others who have accepted an offer to join this program and they received a $5k signing bonus bump after negotiating, so I feel a bit lied to. I'm pretty sure at this point that touching the base salary would be impossible, but I'd still like to negotiate the signing bonus, despite being told that the compensation package isn't usually touched. Any suggestions for how to approach this?
Thanks!
Submitted February 18, 2017 at 10:15AM by Surprisedn00b http://ift.tt/2lviPhc
