Salary of Product Counsel at Google/Apple/Amazon Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have a rough sense of the salary (all in) for a product counsel at one of the larger and more established tech companies, such as Google, Apple, Amazon, etc. How about hours and possibility of advancement?

[Anonymous User]

Depends on seniority (of course), but assuming you're leaving biglaw around year 3-5, you'd be in the same boat as my cousin who's making $160 starting salary at FB with generous stock grant vesting over a few years. Her hours are usually pretty great, gets in at 7 and heads home around 4, and works from home fairly frequently and doesn't log back on for a sustained period of time unless something big is happening. No idea about advancement.

[johndhi]

Google and Facebook are known to pay very well -- I'd expect a base salary around 200, a bonus of ~15 pct, and then shares that get you up toward high-200s in total comp, if you're a mid-level.

Amazon is different -- their comp is really heavily on the side of shares. So their base and bonus are lower, but with shares, you get up into a similar ballpark, but only if you stay for the 3 or four year vesting cliff they require.

[Anonymous User]

It’s about 200k total for entry level in-house, not 200k base. 200k bade is for a more senior position.

Co-worker recently went in-house at one of these companies. At 3-5 years, they was offered 150k, with stocks and bonus adding up to be about 45k per year.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any insight into the Facebook legal department? Most interested in the litigation side, and am curious about the compensation at different tiers of seniority (counsel, lead counsel, AGC), promotion possibilities, etc.

[Aptitude]

Google and Facebook are known to pay very well -- I'd expect a base salary around 200, a bonus of ~15 pct, and then shares that get you up toward high-200s in total comp, if you're a mid-level.

Amazon is different -- their comp is really heavily on the side of shares. So their base and bonus are lower, but with shares, you get up into a similar ballpark, but only if you stay for the 3 or four year vesting cliff they require.

Very different overall company cultures too. Google and Facebook, especially Google is known to be cushier - a lot of people go there knowing it's easier to coast. Facebook has basically become the Microsoft of their generation, they seem to be entering that phase where they haven't really innovated that much in comparison to their competition, but they've been smartly acquiring competitors.

Amazon's a much more intense culture throughout. It's known for it and long hours compared to the other big tech companies (FAANG). They're best known for their golden handcuffs, as I rarely meet employees so happy there that they want to stay for the next decade (compared to Google, FB, Microsoft I'll see a decent number of 10 year employees throughout). They're really big on their core values and push it throughout, every department, like a cult. Companies like Google/Facebook/Uber use to be like that but they've eased up a lot. I remember these companies from 10 years ago, have worked at one, and have friends that worked at them in various roles, and seen the way they've grown and changed in comparison to each other.

Amazon as a company is huge in comparison, their HQ basically encompasses, packs, and jams South Lake Union. You walk around South Lake Union and it's uniform Amazon t-shirts, jeans, and backpacks (dev uniform). At Amazon, you're expected to drink the kool-aid, so you better be ready to embrace frugality, have a bias for action, and a customer obsession

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any insight into the Facebook legal department? Most interested in the litigation side, and am curious about the compensation at different tiers of seniority (counsel, lead counsel, AGC), promotion possibilities, etc.

Seconding this.