• Education: PhD in CS
• Years of Experience: 0
• Prior Experience: Interned at Google twice
• Date of the Offer: Fall 2021
• Company: Google
• Title/Level: Software Engineer L4
• Location: Seattle, WA
• Salary: $140,000
• Signing Bonus: 0
• Stock bonus: $120,000 stock grant vested over 4 years (33%, 33%, 22%, 12%)
• Bonus: Performance-based bonus 15% of salary every year ($21,000)
• Total comp (Salary + Bonus + Stock): ~$190,000 per year (averaged over 4 years)
• Benefits: Standard Google benefits
• Other details: This is the initial offer I got. This is probably the lowest number among other L4 offers I saw here and there. Quite disappointed. I will try to negotiate without competing offers. Planning to say no thanks and look for other opportunities.

EDIT: They did not negotiate even a bit without competing offers. Since I got quite some time until my graduation, asked for 5 months to continue my job search. Got a few competing offers from FAANG and then negotiated. The numbers are still slightly lower than the competing offers. HR insists on saying Google's offer outperforms others in the first two years due to front-loaded vesting scheme. I told them I am planning a long term career, not just for two years and asked for them to at least match. However, this is the absolute highest they would give. Accepted the offer since I wanted Google.

TLDR: Get competing offers or get lowballed.

Compensation after negotiation with competing offers:

• Salary: $150,000
• Sign on Bonus: $75,000
• Stock bonus: $350,000 stock grant vested over 4 years (33%, 33%, 22%, 12%)
• Bonus: Performance-based bonus 15% of salary every year ($22,500)
• Total comp (Salary + Bonus + Stock + Sign on): ~$275,000 per year (averaged over 4 years)