Written by Anoushka Gupta, a graduating senior at the University of California, Berkeley, studying Civil Engineering and a current Data Intern at Rewriting the Code.

Whether you’re an underclassman hoping to get your first job in tech or a senior juggling offers, recruiting decisions can be stressful. Offers have gone from simply salary details to more murky ideas like RSUs, performance bonuses, and vesting cycles, and there are so many factors to consider when selecting the “perfect job.” 

To help provide more transparency into the complicated world of compensation, we’re sharing some key findings from our annual surveys. All of this data is self-reported, so we can’t ensure 100% accuracy, but with 2000+ responses over the previous two years, we hope that it provides a clearer picture of the tech job market. 

Data Background

All data used in this article is from our 2021-22 and 2022-23 Recruiting Experience and Internship Experience surveys, submitted by women in our community. Companies that received less than four responses were not included to provide the most accurate data possible and preserve anonymity. 

Complete data can be accessed by Rewriting the Code members in their member portal.
Not a member or haven’t activated your account? Click here to join our free community!

Internship Compensation

Looking at offer counts by company for internship offers, it’s pretty clear that the number of offers has declined despite both years receiving a similar number of survey responses. This is likely a result of the “tech recession” from earlier this year, where many major Big Tech companies underwent layoffs and hiring freezes. However, it’s still interesting to see how dramatically headcounts have reduced in just a year. 

While the way we asked compensation differs across years, with 2022-23 using hourly pre-tax compensation and 2021-22 using weekly pre-tax compensation, we can still compare top-paying companies across years. Interestingly, many companies that make the top of the list aren’t just the typically coveted FAANG companies but also startups, banks, and fin-tech firms. 

Full-time Compensation

New grad pay looks very different than internships and is, in many ways, more complicated. Instead of a simple hourly wage, most full-time employees also receive stock options, relocation allowances, benefits, and various stipends. To get a more holistic view of compensation, we asked for RSU value, signing bonus, and relocation assistance in addition to just salary.

Overall, salary and total compensation are fairly aligned, with the orders being nearly identical but differ from the internship charts. Big-brand technology companies appear to have higher values for full-time compensation than internships, highlighting that internship offers may not necessarily correlate to equally competitive full-time offers. Additionally, components outside salary can’t be discounted, with some companies offering sizeable RSUs, signing bonuses, and relocation allowances.

Other offer considerations

There’s often a lot of focus on getting a job but less so on how to decide between offers. Speaking from personal experience, I’m always super stressed out around offer acceptance deadlines because I’m worried about making the wrong decision. This is compounded by the fact that, often, there’s little time to decide between offers, with approximately 36% of respondents having a week or less to accept or decline an offer. 

That’s not a lot of time to decide what always felt like to me to be a life-altering career decision. Ultimately, what helped me make my offer decision was determining which role best aligned with my long-term goals, but this can depend on the person. Looking at the top factors from across the community, while salary and location are at the top, many stated that company culture/product and the role itself were important considerations. For me, company value alignment was an important factor in my decision-making process: I knew I wanted to work somewhere that shared my beliefs surrounding social justice, environmentalism, and DEI. 

Making an offer decision is hard, but getting more information on what offers look like and how other women make decisions is helpful.

Rewriting the Code hosts woman-centered sessions on topics like how to negotiate your salary and how to manage your finances after accepting your offer.

If you’re interested in more resources like this, check out our teamRTC platform, where we have articles, webinar recordings, and frequent company events to help you successfully navigate your budding tech career!

Stay connected with RTC through Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or join our community of 25,000+ women in tech at rewritingthecode.org/join-us/.