[TriLUG] Positions with Google in NC

[Magnus]

Aaron, thank you so much for your thoughtful contributions to this 
thread.  I've personally found it very interesting to read, from both sides.

Just an unsolicited $0.02:

Aaron S. Joyner wrote:
> So, base salary isn't what one might typically expect.  And even from
> the offer letter, it's sometimes hard to make an accurate assessment of
> what the compensation package provided by Google really is.

Bang.  Right there you've got a big red flag for geeks that are further 
along in their careers... maybe someone like me who is supporting a wife 
& three kids.  Guys like me would much rather have a "sure thing" that 
may or may not be less than an income that can vary widely depending on 
how your own performance is perceived, how the company performance is 
measured by the bean counters, and how the compensation plan itself is 
inevitably going to be restructured as the company matures.

A lot of us got burned, badly, during the heady dot-com years when so 
much of our compensation was based off of company performance, stock 
options, and so on.  These days, it is a lot more attractive to be able 
to bank on getting $X per paycheck rather than a substantially lower 
number with *potential* for a balloon payment annually of unknown value.

These flexible compensation packages are probably more attractive to 
people right out of school, dual income families, single adults, or 
childless couples.  I do think that this sort of package would tend to 
repel breadwinners from single income families or families with a number 
of children.

-Magnus