>fuzzy-numbered stock options

We aren't talking about stock options, we are talking about concrete RSUs with real valuations.

A Staff Engineer at Google can easily be vesting $200k in stocks alone each year.

Staff is even one level above senior.

It's true that they make a lot of money, so do the owner of a SME or a director in a large organization. It's not a position most employees will ever attain in their lifetime.

Directors are equivalent to staff +1 or staff +2. Staff engineers are usually equivalent to 2nd level middle managers, with 1st level are managers of teams that are just ICs). Jr Engineers can be 30-50% of an engineering organization. So it's not that impossible.

Director (L8) is two levels above staff engineer (L6) in Google. But promotions get exponentially more difficult after L5, particularly if you intend to stay as an IC.

I meant director as a general title in corporations, not google specifically.

> fuzzy-numbered stock options

That's true for non-public companies, but stock options at a publicly traded company like Google or Apple are much easier to value.

RSUs are easily going to be half or more, unless large bonuses are involved (which does happen). Keep in mind RSUs aren't options.

I wouldn't say "easily". The shit offer I got from Google past year was about 60% base salary. The non-shit offer I took from Twitter is about 55% base.

Why didn't you use the good offer from Twitter to push Google up?

Well, the good offer came a couple months after I rejected the Google offer, and it was for one level higher (which I didn't think Google was going to budge on).

Stock options are distinct from units. They have a clear value, current market value, discounted by your fear of the future.