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Through 2021, recruiters at Gopuff were fairly open to negotiating, and the company was able to pay top of market rates. However, Gopuff did lay off 100 people in January 2022 and hiring has slowed, which is always a precursor of tougher negotiations. Gopuff negotiations are heavily driven by competing opportunities / cross offers, which requires setting up the right negotiation strategy.
- Base Salary
- Performance Bonus
- Gopuff Equity Package (1 year cliff - see GoPuff's RSU vesting schedule below)
- Gopuff Signing Bonus (not included in all offer packages)
Gopuff performance bonus targets are not negotiable, which is quite normal in the industry. Gopuff bonuses are paid out consistently so you should factor them in when comparing to other offers. Usually, performance bonuses are between 10-15% depending on role and level.
They also offer performance-based refreshers, but are less transparent about targets. As a general rule of thumb, strong refreshers are 25% of the initial grant multiplied by performance rating.
Gopuff, like some other tech companies, has switched to a system where most technical roles are remote. Pay bands still differ based on geographic location despite the remote-first approached. However, you should not expect a discount if you are working remotely from a high cost of living area.
Gopuff is mostly a remote-first company (as mentioned above). This implies there aren't many situations where the company requests you to move locations for the role. However, if you are being required to move, the default for junior to mid-level positions is a $10k+ relocation package. Senior roles tend to have custom relocation packages.
Equity is the most negotiable component of a Gopuff offer package. You are more likely to see bigger increases in equity compared to sign on bonus or base salary components. Cash performance bonuses and stock refreshers are not negotiable. At many companies, the next best component to negotiate is sign on, but this actually isn't the case with Gopuff. If you focus on signing bonus the outcome will typically be quite small, and you should expect base salary to have the second most flexibility. As a general rule, we'd recommend focusing the negotiation on total compensation to start and then focusing on specific components towards the end.
Gopuff usually takes a candidate on their word and will not require written competing offers when negotiating, but they may ask for additional information regarding the offer like location, breakdown, etc.
For senior positions in 2021, we had some very successful Gopuff negotiations where candidates received above band offers. This is certainly possible but more difficult in 2022 and also more difficult for junior to mid-level positions.
It is always beneficial to have a strong relationship with your hiring manager as it can tip the scales in your favour during a negotiation. This is particularly true at a company like GoPuff which is growing rapidly and has less ridgid policies.
The hiring process at Gopuff is different for every role. The hiring process for a software engineer typically has four stages: phone screen with recruiter or hiring manager, technical screen, onsite interview (coding, behavioural, systems design) and offer stage.
Let’s consider a L2 Gopuff software engineer salary in 2021 vs DoorDash L4 (comparable levels). Both Gopuff's total compensation and Doordash’s total comp at this level was around $325k per year. However, the split can be a bit different (e.g. DoorDash used to not offer performance bonuses).
While Gopuff negotiations should focus primarily on base salary and equity, it is worth comparing perks when deciding between two competing offers. Overall, Gopuff's benefits are fairly standard for tech and there are no particular standout components (either positive or negative).
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Equivalent Level at Google
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Coming from a non-FAANG background, I was shocked to find out how much I could be earning. Before I signed up with Rora, I made the mistake of telling Amazon my current compensation. Thankfully, Rora knew exactly how to fix it and ended up getting me an offer that was 2.3X what I previously made and more than $600K higher than Amazon’s initial offer!
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There ended up being two particularly complex moments in my negotiation. One of the start-ups I had a personal relationship with and I wasn’t sure how it would affect the negotiation. I like that there was a focus on my individual circumstances and that they were leveraged to get me a higher offer. The other situation is that Amazon made a mistake on my written offer and initially wouldn’t rectify it. Ganesh was able to guide me through a challenging conversation to get it resolved.
Thanks to Wilson and the team at Rora I got a ~$250K increase on my remote Facebook offer! I was initially worried I wouldn’t have much leverage because Facebook reached out to me, and I wasn’t interviewing anywhere else. Rora introduced me to an Amazon L7 recruiter and helped me get that process started. I didn’t even end up needing to finish the Amazon interviews, since we were able to use some early compensation conversations to justify our numbers to Facebook.
At one point I was also considering pushing for an E7 role, and they wrote up a great script for me to broach the subject with my recruiter. She ended up giving me the option to do an additional interview to be considered for the higher-level position.
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As an engineering leader with decades of experience and having now gone through the negotiation with the team at Rora, the only thing I can say is — get the help. Whether you realize you need it, or even if you think you don’t. Just because you have done well in engineering doesn't mean that you understand the tactics and limits of the recruiting process.
Rora helped me get a $200K increase on my original Facebook offer without any competing offers. It was clear that Rora was deeply familiar with Facebook's negotiation playbook. I’d honestly give the experience an 11/10.
In addition, Rora guided me on how to get the position switched to a revised remote role which was a huge deal at a personal level. They showed me how to redirect FB’s questions so that I could explore the possibility of not relocating, without ever having to say no to my original offer.
This is my first FAANG role and I'm so happy I worked with Rora (thanks again Annie!) for the negotiation. My goal was to increase my Google offer, but I was in a tricky situation where I only had 1 other interview (no offer yet) at a small startup. With their guidance, I managed to get a $240K increase on my Google offer, despite Google's policy of requiring cross offers in writing to justify an increase.
The mock negotiations were a big part of why I was able to get this increase. Going into the negotiation, I assumed the key factor was what to say but I quickly learned that how you say it is equally if not more important. This was clear when over the course of the call"no" turned into "I'll see what I can do" and eventually"I think we can make this work". A big part of this was also having someone with me on the calls to provide real time guidance. This took a lot of the stress out of the situation. I can't recommend this team highly enough!
After receiving several job offers, I needed to make a decision within a few days. I wanted to make sure I was getting the best offer possible, so I decided to use Rora. I was very pleased with their service. My coach, Sameer, was well prepared and had information about what compensation increases were likely possible. He provided detailed scripts covering a range of scenarios, and he did practice negotiations with me that helped me feel confident when I had the actual conversations.
With his help I was able to increase one offer by $45k per year plus get a $50k signing bonus and then use that to increase my offer from Square, which was my first choice. All throughout he was very responsive as I was dealing with some tight deadlines and looking to wrap things up quickly. Rora's fee was only a tiny fraction of the increase they helped me negotiate, and even though they would have made more money if I had taken the highest offer, Sameer always put my goals first and never pressured me to do so. I highly recommend Rora!
My friend introduced me to Rora and I’m so glad they did. I initially did some calculations to see if working with them would be worth it - my final increase ended up being ~3x higher than what I had estimated to be possible!
Their data is much more accurate than anything I found online. Without Sameer's guidance, I would have never known (and would have probably been too nervous) to ask for >$800K for anAmazon L7 offer. Of course, it's not just not enough to throw out a big number, you also need to be able to justify it. Sameer guided me through negotiating an up-level at another company, which I didn’t even know was possible at my level. With their scripts, I was able to leverage my competing offer to get exec approval for my Amazon offer. They also knew all the tricks Amazon would play (e.g., assuming 15% stock appreciation) and exactly how to counter them.
My total 4-year compensation increased by $570K. I don't think I've ever had a higher ROI – I’m very thankful that this service exists!
Gopuff
has a unique set of negotiation policies. If you don’t have experience negotiating with them, you risk losing out on large amounts of money because of very small mistakes.
There are many of these rules you need to know to get the highest
Gopuff
offer possible.
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Company-specific negotiation guides
