
Ask HN: Moving to SF. Which offer should I take? - fananta
I&#x27;m fortunate enough to have a few job offers, all at the same level and relative same comp (base + stock).<p>Some of these companies are public which makes the comp more liquid and some are not.<p>The offers I have are from Instacart, Flexport, Square, and Uber. How would you rank them?
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lhorie
I'd ask:

1) what type of person are you financially. If you're risk-averse, stocks are
preferable since they let you convert into different investment vehicles
earlier, whereas if you're risk-tolerant RSUs and options are a bigger gamble
- the latter much more so

2) having talked to the teams, which one seems most interesting

I wouldn't worry too much about gossip/social cachet. Speaking as someone who
does technical interviews at one of the companies you mentioned, I can say
that for engineering positions, interviewers at future employers will only
really be interested in whether you can do good engineering work.

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halfbrown
Mostly what I was referring to regarding the gossip/cachet (which I admittedly
didn't elaborate on) was the negative buzz that still circles around Uber.
Another decent sized scandal could really tank things internally, which would
likely affect their workforce.

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lhorie
(Disclaimer: I work at Uber, my views are my own, etc)

I joined a few months before Dara took over as CEO, sort of right in the
middle of the storm; long story...

Anyways, to be honest, I think the company has done a lot to get itself back
on track since Dara took over. There was extensive investigation about
employee misconduct after the Fowler incident (culminating in some 200 cases
being reviewed by an independent firm, with substantiated cases resulting in
termination) and training policies were implemented; the 2016 data breach
cover-up incident resulted in the head of security being fired; espionage
programs were shut-down; and the company is in full cooperation w/
investigations about the Tempe SDV killing incident.

With all that said, I don't want to sound like I'm defending Uber, just giving
my two cents as an insider, given that media tends to focus on the shocking
negatives but not necessarily on the follow ups.

I think more than considering how media portrays a company, it might be more
fruitful to consider its size, since smaller companies have different dynamics
than larger ones, and might be more suitable to one's preferences/experience
than the alternative.

~~~
halfbrown
I would agree that a lot has been done, and believe me... I wasn't dumping on
Uber. I still use the app myself. I'm just saying from a practical viewpoint,
it's a serious consideration to be made if someone is moving to a new job.

~~~
lhorie
I think it's fair to be worried about that, but conversely, given that I
believe Uber is legitimately getting its act together, and the recent Wall
Street ratings of its stock, I think now might be a particularly good time to
make a bet on it.

Personally, when I joined, I made a similar bet based on what I could gather
about its growth trajectory at the time and a belief that corporate scandals
eventually get closure.

I'm a bit on the risk-tolerant side, so RSUs two years ago with IPO rumors
flying around and bad public perception seemed like good timing. With the
current landscape, I think Uber is less risky than two years ago, and I even
agree that Square might be more attractive to a more risk-averse person, but
yeah, at the end of day, I think it still boils down to personal
preferences/risk tolerance.

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halfbrown
Square, Flexport, Uber, Instacart... in that order. The reasons are myriad,
but they include a combination of long-term viability, visibility within the
market, stability in (or of) their industry, executive team (including the
"gossip" surrounding it), and the social cachet a job at each place would look
to a future employer, among other reasons.

Good luck out there!

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malandrew
Uber, Square, FlexPort

I would rank FlexPort higher for growth potential, but my understanding is
that they have a gnarly large Ruby on Rails legacy codebase that I wouldn't
want to work on. If I'm wrong here, please correct me.

I don't think Instacart will do well long-term.

