Google L6 promo vs OpenAI L4 offer at ~$660K TC: which would you pick?
nian2326076 · reddit · 2026-11-03
A Google engineer freshly promoted to L6 this cycle also holds an OpenAI L4 offer (roughly Google L5 equivalent), both on ML performance teams, with near-identical pay:
- Google: $640–690K TC counting RSU appreciation, refreshers and the promo bump ($590K without appreciation)
- OpenAI: $660K TC ($295K base + $365K RSUs/year); the recruiter maxed out the number but ruled out L5
The dilemma: without the promo it would have been a no-brainer. His WLB at Google is poor despite decent team culture. At OpenAI's reported $1.25T valuation he no longer considers the offer life-changing, but values the talent density. Married, no kids, prioritizing TC — asking Reddit for advice.
More from Companies & People
- Beff Jezos shows off his 'perfect SF tech brother day': Waymo, vibe coding, peptides — beffjezos · 2026-11-03
- Hugging Face joins Asimov 1, building on the open robotics platform — mishig25 · 2026-11-03
- Gary Marcus doubles down: Anthropic's AGI projections were 'insane,' $10K bet still on — GaryMarcus · 2026-11-03
- AMLab at University of Amsterdam hiring multiple PhDs on physics-inspired deep learning — AnnaCiaunica · 2026-11-03
- Ramp data shows Anthropic growth slowing sharply; Gary Marcus calls Q2 an anomaly — GaryMarcus · 2026-11-03
- Cities Worldwide Build AI Services on NVIDIA Nemotron, Cosmos and Omniverse — NVIDIAAI · 2026-11-03