when i got my offer from google and i
saw how much they're gonna pay me it
felt like a dream come true because all
my hard work finally paid off of course
i had some idea of what to expect
regarding my compensation but it hits
different when it's real and official
and in writing if you're watching this
video chances are you know that software
engineers at google make a lot of money
and it's true but how much is a lot and
what does the average software engineer
at google make if you want to know more
keep on watching
[Music]
before we begin i just want to give a
quick disclaimer that this video is not
meant to brag or to show off how much
money i made i'm making this video to be
informative how much money google
software engineers make is actually one
of the top questions i receive on my
comments and on my instagram secondly
i'm making this video to inspire others
by showing just how much money you can
actually make as a software engineer at
google because it's a life-changing
amount and thirdly it's a video i wish i
had because i actually didn't understand
my total compensation when i first
signed my offer letter it's something i
had to learn along the way with all that
in mind let's get back to the video hey
everyone i'm john your friend in tech if
you're new to my channel i'm a full-time
software engineer at google who loves
making videos to help and inspire others
about career tech and life if any of
that interests you consider subscribing
maybe
okay let's get straight into the point
of the video as you can tell from the
title i have earned over 1 million
dollars in my career as a software
engineer at google not clickbait it's
100 facts to give a little bit more
context i'm still fairly early in my
career i've only been working for a
little bit over five years and i'm still
in my 20s and this amount of money is a
big deal to me especially because i
don't come from a wealthy family i
understand i'm very lucky and privileged
to be in this position and so that's why
i'm sharing this information so that
more people have access to it and can
act on it in today's video i'm going to
share how much money google software
engineers make at each level i'm going
to explain in depth how total
compensation at google works because
it's so much more than just salary and
then i'm gonna talk about my path and
how i reached my million dollar
milestone i have a lot to cover in this
video so let's get right into it how
much do software engineers at google get
paid in this section i'm going to share
real compensation figures from actual
google employees and to get this data
i'm going to use a website called
levels.fyi which is a website where tech
employees anonymously share their total
compensation as you know pay
discrimination is real and so by sharing
your salary you're helping make sure
that everyone gets paid fairly and so
that's why all these tech employees
share their salary on this website one
thing to keep in mind is that pay varies
by location and level all things equal a
software engineer will get paid more
working in silicon valley over a smaller
city like austin texas because silicon
valley has a more competitive market the
cost of living is way higher and so many
more other factors just know that when
you're looking at these salaries make
sure you're looking at the location as
well and by level i mean job role and
title and so in this video i'm only
going to be covering the software
engineer role and then i'm going to be
talking about the different levels like
entry level mid-level senior level so on
okay so let's dig into the actual
numbers and i'm going to be using bay
area salaries because that's where i'm
from but later on i'll share some
compensation values from other locations
as well at google the entry level
software engineer starts at level 3 or
l3 base salary is 139 000
equity is 35 000 and bonus is 22 000
which comes up to an average total
compensation of 196 000
so it's very possible to be making
multiple six figures as an entry-level
software engineer level three includes
people who just graduated so new grads
and also people who transferred in from
other companies who are still entry
level the next level is going to be the
mid-level software engineer at google
and that is level 4 or l4 base salary is
168 000
equity is 83 000
and bonus is 29 000 which adds up to a
total compensation on average of two
hundred and eighty one thousand dollars
you can stay at level four for your
entire career if you want to i know
someone that's been in l4 for over 10
years and it's just a personal decision
their reasoning is that they find the
job relatively easy to do and so that's
totally valid but i also know a lot of
people who try and get to at least l5
which is senior software engineer so
level five software engineers at google
will get a base salary on average of 198
000 they get an equity of 138 000 per
year and the bonus is 37 000 per year
which adds up to a total compensation of
374 thousand dollars per year as you can
expect as you level up and get promoted
you're gonna have more impact and more
responsibilities in the company which is
why you get paid a lot more money and
just to show how much money you can make
as a software engineer level eight is
the principal software engineer and they
make over one million dollars a year and
then i also made this table that lists
the average total compensation of google
software engineers from different
locations at each level and i converted
it to local currency so i hope this is
helpful it's not an exclusive list so if
you don't see your location here you can
always look it up on levels.fyi or
another site like glassdoor so pause
here if you want to compare otherwise
let's move on to the next section okay
how does total compensation at google
work total compensation at google is
structured so you get paid in three
different ways base salary bonus and
equity in this section i'll be going in
depth about how each component works and
how it affects your income first up is
base salary which is the most
straightforward base salary is paid out
in cash and it's transferred to your
bank accounts your base salary is what
you're going to be paid in your
paychecks that happen throughout the
year for me i live in the us and so i
get paid about every two weeks which
equals about 24 paychecks per year and
my salary is pretty evenly distributed
between all of those paychecks here's a
table showing examples of base salaries
and the associated paycheck values
pre-tax if your base salary is 150 000
and you get paid 24 paychecks throughout
the year that gives you about six
thousand two hundred and fifty dollars
per paycheck or twelve thousand five
hundred dollars per month before any
taxes are taken out taxes are really
important but they're going to vary
depending on your location and so if you
want to estimate how much taxes are
gonna be taken out of your paycheck you
could just google your location plus
paycheck calculator and that'll give you
a good estimate next up let's talk about
bonus which is also paid out in cash now
there's actually a lot of different
bonuses you can have and so i'm just
gonna list them all out sign on bonuses
are going to be a lump sum bonus that
you receive for signing your offer
letter this can vary depending on what
other job offers you have google uses
the sign on bonus to incentivize you to
join their company versus joining some
other company my sign on bonus was 20
000 and it was paid out within the first
30 days of me joining the company you
can also get a relocation bonus if you
have to move to join the company this
should cover things like flights travel
and any other moving costs for me i
received a 3 500 relocation bonus
because i had to move from my college
town back to the bay area to work at
google in their headquarters in mountain
view when you're working at google you
can also get bonuses from other
employees at google so someone in your
management chain or one of your peers
that want to recognize you for your hard
work or for going above and beyond their
normal work duties so a good example of
this is volunteering to help another
team or something like that this year i
received about six thousand dollars in
these types of bonuses but the big bonus
that most people talk about when it
comes to your total compensation will be
your annual bonus and that's going to be
a percentage of your base salary the
exact percentage will vary depending on
how you perform throughout the year so
basically it depends on your performance
reviews if you meet expectations you can
expect a 15 bonus if you exceed
expectations you can receive a slightly
larger bonus and if you don't meet
expectations you'll receive less bonus
this year i performed well so i received
a 20 bonus on top of my base salary and
then here's a chart to demonstrate what
i'm talking about using the l4 bay area
average base salary of 168 000 here's
what a bonus would look like at
different bonus target percentages next
up we'll talk about equity which is in
the form of restricted stock units or
rsus at google we call them google stock
units or gsus when i first joined google
right after college i had no experience
with stocks and so this was the hardest
for me to wrap my head around because it
was all new to me the only things i knew
about stocks were things i seen on tv or
in the movies
your total compensation will come with
an equity grant which is valued in usd
but you're not going to be paid in usd
you're going to get paid again in stock
so you know for your salary you're going
to get paid in cash into your bank
accounts for your equity you're going to
get paid in stock and it's going to go
into your brokerage account that google
will set up for you there's a lot of
nuance to know here but i'll try and
simplify it using an example let's say
you joined in january of 2017 and your
equity grant is valued at 100 000 the
stock price at that time was 796 which
means that you'd get 126 stocks over
four years or 31.5 stocks per year now
how you get paid the 31.5 stocks will
vary depending on your investing
schedule in this example just to make
things super simple we're gonna assume
that you get paid all 31.5 stocks at the
beginning of each year and just to
clarify this isn't a realistic investing
schedule it's just to make the example
really simple so in january of 2018 the
first quarter of your grant will vest at
a price of one thousand one hundred and
seventy dollars which means you'll get
paid thirty six thousand eight hundred
and fifty five dollars now you're still
getting paid the 31.5 gsus but the value
of your google stock has increased so
you're gonna get paid over eleven
thousand dollars more than the grant
price in january of 2021 the last
quarter of your initial equity grant
will vest at a price of 1 835
which is the price of google stock at
that time in this vesting period you're
going to get again 31.5 google stock but
now it's valued at a total of 57
802
and that's going into your brokerage
account and once these are transferred
into your brokerage account you have all
the power to sell the stock if you want
to get it as cash or you can hold on to
them as google stock if you want to okay
and that was just for your initial
equity grant you're also able to get a
new equity grant refresh every single
year which again will invest over four
years and so you're gonna have times
when you have multiple equity grants
vesting at the same time which is a
really happy day for my brokerage
account so i hope i didn't lose you with
all those numbers but basically what i
want you to take away from this is that
equity can really drive up your total
compensation if you stick around long
enough for your stocks to fully best and
of course this assumes that google stock
will continue to increase in value as
well which it has been doing for the
last few years to recap you get paid
your total compensation in three
different ways your base salary which is
cash deposited through your paychecks
you also get bonus which is also paid
out in cash into your bank accounts and
then your equity is paid out in google
stock which is transferred directly into
your brokerage account which you can
then buy or sell hopefully that all made
sense if it doesn't or you still have
questions let me know in the comments
and i'll reply to every single one of
them now let's talk about my career path
to one million dollars now that i've
gone over how much software engineers at
google make and how total compensation
at google works i hope you can see that
making 1 million dollars is quite an
achievable feat for any google employee
this is one example of how i did it and
what my path looked like to 1 million
dollars so i joined google in 2016 after
i graduated from college and i started
out as an l3 which is the entry level
software engineer as an l3 i performed
really well and i was promoted to l4 or
mid-level software engineer after one
and a half years of working at google
when you get promoted you also get a
nice bump in your total compensation so
now you're gonna be getting paid at the
next level i've currently been in l4 for
the past three and a half years and i've
been getting high performance reviews
again so my total compensation has had a
nice bump every single year as i'm on
track to become a senior software
engineer so one part of the equation was
hard work and that's honestly the only
thing i had control of which is the
quality of my work the other part of the
equation is going to be the amazing
run-up that google stock has had these
past few years when i first signed my
offer letter i was still in college and
that was one year before i started
working full-time and two years before
my first stocks actually vested from the
time i signed my offer letter to the
time my last stocks from that initial
equity grant vested the google stock
vesting price was more than double the
grant price which really boosted my
income ultimately i was able to earn 1
million dollars thanks to my promotion
early on in my career for performing at
consistently high levels and because the
google stock increased so much my final
message for you is that if you want to
work at google you should apply as soon
as possible there's really no reason to
wait just consider all the money you
could be making if you do get hired if
you like this video be sure to give it a
thumbs up and if you haven't seen it
already i recommend you to watch my q a
video of how i landed my job at google
i'll see you in the next one
[Music]
you