Aaron, thank you so much for your thoughtful contributions to this
thread. I've personally found it very interesting to read, from both sides.
Just an unsolicited $0.02:
Aaron S. Joyner wrote:
So, base salary isn't what one might typically expect. And even from
the offer letter, it's sometimes hard to make an accurate assessment of
what the compensation package provided by Google really is.
Bang. Right there you've got a big red flag for geeks that are further
along in their careers... maybe someone like me who is supporting a wife
& three kids. Guys like me would much rather have a "sure thing" that
may or may not be less than an income that can vary widely depending on
how your own performance is perceived, how the company performance is
measured by the bean counters, and how the compensation plan itself is
inevitably going to be restructured as the company matures.
A lot of us got burned, badly, during the heady dot-com years when so
much of our compensation was based off of company performance, stock
options, and so on. These days, it is a lot more attractive to be able
to bank on getting $X per paycheck rather than a substantially lower
number with *potential* for a balloon payment annually of unknown value.
These flexible compensation packages are probably more attractive to
people right out of school, dual income families, single adults, or
childless couples. I do think that this sort of package would tend to
repel breadwinners from single income families or families with a number
of children.
-Magnus
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