Hi, Does anyone have any insight they could share more about the expectations of a new grad at Netflix? And general culture in Netflix? Friend of mine recently got an offer for Netflix New Grad. They are also considering an offer from Pinterest. So far, they have heard the culture at Netflix is quite intense, and isn’t confident about performance and NOT getting fired quickly. They have heard good things about Pinterest in general and their decent WLB though. Does it matter which they start their career off with? Would one be much better than the other? Or are there any other considerations or questions they should ask themselves or the companies? Netflix TC: ~220k Los Gatos ~200k base ~10k relocation ~10k sign on (Recruiter said can negotiate and at least match Pinterest first year pretty easily) Pinterest TC: 240K (first year) San Francisco 145k base 115k (vested over 4 years) 55k sign on
No stock component at Netflix?
nope
It's optional. You can spend 0-100% of your salary on stock options.
Oh interesting, they take new grads now? So only new grads and seniors huh
Yep, they just started new grads this year so it’s kinda unknown how things will be. They also started taking in interns last year.
Netflix has been hiring interns and new grads for close to a decade now. They just formalized it in the last year or so.
Is netflix new grad ~220k? From levels, it seemed like people were getting $350-450k
The recruiter said that it’s possible to negotiate fairly easily (I.e. give me a number and we should be able to get you that as long as it’s reasonable). So I’m assuming that’s what happened for those offers and also utilizing competing offers for negotiation as well or being a masters student. Also not sure how true this is but interview performance might play a factor too.
Those were senior offers @Dashy
At N it's VERY team dependent. For instance my team heavily indexes on Freedom and Responsibility and has a very unstructured process. For me personally it would not have been a good place to start my career.
Why do you say it wouldn’t have been a good place to start your career? Could you please share more if you’re comfortable? Is this because lack of mentorship (since there was only one level), and needing to just figure things out on your own?
Yes and yes. We don't have the best practices and standards but can get away with it, to an extent, because there's a high level of trust amongst the engineers and each other's abilities. Personally, as a young engineer it took a while for me to learn best practices and how to be a good "engineer".
Netflix hires new grads?
Yes just started this year
Go with Netflix, it's easier to go from an intense culture and environment to a relaxed environment than the other way around. Pressure makes diamonds and I'll suggest Netflix for the same reason too. Netflix looks like they will also raise salary accordingly if performance is being met without much fanfare.
Thank you! Yeah it’s just hard to imagine how intense it would or could be and not knowing if they’re ready for the challenge/culture.
We're really serious about this new grad thing eh? Interesting
I guess "until some screwup happens"
Why do you care about WLB as a new grad? I would definitely do Netflix if they had a new grad program when I was in college.
Congrats. Both good options. Netflix has kinda surprised with how talented everyone on my team is. There’s no mediocrity imo so it’s good pressure in a way. If you’re up for the challenge I think that kind of environment is great.
This is something they should have discussed during the interview rounds. The conversations they had during this should have given them a clearer idea of what things are like here. If there are still doubts, I suggest asking the recruiter to setup a conversation with the hiring manager. I’ll add that since this is the first year that the company is doing this, your friend is going into uncharted territory in terms the types of expectations for a new grad vs a senior and so there might not really be a clear answer yet which I guess is all part of the risk.
Yeah that makes sense. Thank you. That risk part is just so hard to measure….