The Google Résumé: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any Top Tech Company

Chapter 11. The Offer

David and I met over drinks to discuss my job offer. This was negotiation number 3. I'd thought a more social atmosphere might relax the situation, but things didn't quite go as planned. David ordered just a glass of water—at a wine bar—and I couldn't help but note that his frugality with drinks seemed to fit so well with his lowball offer. Of course, if you talked to him, he'd tell you that the offer was more than generous.

We'd each appealed to higher authorities: David to the company's investors and to the Internet, and I to my super-CEO mother. The venture capitalists just shrugged and told him that it was his decision. The Internet gave him a conveniently decisive range for how much equity engineers get. My mother explained that "normal" ranges are meaningless; that it's a complex trade-off between salary, equity, vesting schedule, benefits, and job expectations. "Obviously, if your salary were a million dollars per year, you wouldn't need any equity." I couldn't disagree with her logic. Wine-is-too-expensive-for-me David could.

Ultimately, I had one thing on my side that he didn't: the word no. I could walk away, and my branding of an ex-Googler/Microsoftie/Applite would land me a new and equally exciting opportunity. David, however, had just cashed his check from the venture capitalists and desperately needed help getting his company off the ground.

Two more meetings and two more glasses of wine later (both mine, of course), we eventually struck a deal ...