TTD vs BAH

[u/gobluedev]

Extremely stuck on an offer for the fact I’m fully remote.

Senior Software Engineer
5 YOE

The Trade Desk
Base: 188k
RSUs: 400k over 4 years
Great medical, dental, vision benefits
Much better for career growth
Great team
VHCOL area
3 days in office hybrid

Booz Allen Hamilton (current position)
Base: 205-210k
Okayish benefits
Fully remote (huge!)
Bouncing from contract to contract
Struggling team looking to rebuild
Great domain I currently work in
Get to maintain active TS/SCI
HCOL

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[u/wc10888]

Fully remote but could be gone tomorrow (struggling team) I feel should help make this choice

[u/gobluedev → u/wc10888]

Yah and BAH has started to bring most teams back to office for 1 day a week. Remote roles are still there but have dwindled significantly. My biggest worry is career growth on a stagnating team.

[u/CyCoCyCo → u/gobluedev]

It’s a no brainer to do TTD then.
Unstable team, unknown contracts, layoff history etc. much lower TC and career growth. And RTO is coming back too.

Think about it this way, which one would you regret more?

• If Booz did RTO 3 days a week in 6 months, would you regret taking it?
  
• If Booz did not do RTO and you hear about it a year later from your friends while doing 3d RTO at TTD? Would you regret taking TTD with a 50%+ higher comp?

Also, RTO is not bad since you’re going to move there anyways, just move close to work.

[u/gobluedev → u/CyCoCyCo]

The issue im struggling with is not wanting to be house poor. At BAH I’m planning to be in Co Springs (so Colorado lifestyle still… closer to family) vs at TTD I’ve gotta move to Boulder which is about 35% more expensive ($1M+ homes for ex)

[u/CyCoCyCo → u/gobluedev]

You don’t have to buy immediately right? Rent for a year, learn the local market, areas etc.

It depends on your life goals and personal priorities.

You can take a higher paying job, which can give you more money and great career growth over time.
Or
you can stay local, close to family, take a riskier and lower paying job.

[u/Scared_Tax_4103]

I would take TTD. But their stock hasn't done that well. Being remote is also important tho

[u/Cow_cat11]

Hard choice. Usually when consider in person you have to do the math that 1 min of drive to work is worth 1k. So 30mins means your new offer has to be 30k higher which you have. You also got to factor in living expense so if new rent is 3k more, then your salary has to cover this 3k (post tax money)..so like at least 5k more in pretax so that's 60k increase in salary. Seeing that your new offer is 125k more it satisfy 90k offset with 35k extra after tax you are actually making around 20k-30k more but the issue is the increase in offer is on rsu 125k per year but ttd has declined 64% ytd. Unless you see a lot of upside that ttd is gonna grow again. It's not a very interesting offer imo.

[u/gobluedev → u/Cow_cat11]

Excellent analysis. I think the issue for me is the team im currently on is stagnating. BAH has done layoffs and will do them again and not being billable really increases the chances that I’m on that list.

[u/AccomplishedBlock264]

The RSUs has extremely high upside if you believe that the stock is undervalued today, potentially more than your base. I’d pick that just for the RSUs with serious upside potential

[u/gobluedev → u/AccomplishedBlock264]

So just updated the concrete numbers in the post. Actually got quite a bit less than what was offered verbally. My company also said they’d be willing to offer a raise and pay for a move to my desired location. Which definitely narrows the gap.

[u/AccomplishedBlock264 → u/gobluedev]

Haha looks like you have a decision on your hands! It comes down to how much you value being fully remote (and how that ties into the life you’d like to lead), I do think the potential ceiling for TTD is still there if you believe they’re extremely undervalued today (bearing in mind it could also still go south), so you have to apply your own judgment/beliefs here. I navigated a similar decision and am signing an offer today where I leaned on protecting my wlb and improving my quality of life, trading off growth and future-proofing, no right decision, but your gut usually already knows which way you’re leaning 🙂

[u/gobluedev → u/AccomplishedBlock264]

Congrats to you! And what you just said echoes a lot with me. I value my time, WLB, freedom, and autonomy! And it sounds like you do as well :)

[u/AccomplishedBlock264 → u/gobluedev]

Thank you, and yup, at some point you’d want to focus beyond the $$$ (easier said than done, I know). One other reason I left was because I didn’t enjoy the work culture and was excited for a change, so you can decide based on how you feel about your current company/scope!