🍎 FAANG+ Hiring Data, +$150k/yr Negotiation, Lots of Jobs, Referrals 📈

Jan 28, 2024 - Real job referral and negotiation stories plus tons of target companies

🌟 I am considering offering an intensive weekend interactive workshop to jumpstart your tech job search and land your next interview. 4+ hrs each day Sat and Sun with the first session starting as soon as this coming weekend. Resume reviews, actual outreach, and more included.

👀 If interested, please fill out the survey here: https://maven.com/forms/7875aa

---

With the ripple of layoffs in January behind us, we take a look into:

1. FAANG+ hiring trends

2. +$150k/yr offer increase using silence

3. Lots of new hiring companies

Here we go…

📋 Table of Contents

💼 Hiring Trends

• FAANG+ is mixed on hiring: There are some bright spots in Apple, Uber/Airbnb, and even Amazon and Meta despite recent layoffs.

💸 Take action. Get Hired.

• 💸 Real Candidate Stories:

  • A PM I was coaching got a +60%, +$150,000 offer increase without other offers with a simple strategy

  • I told someone how to find referrals and they got one 16 minutes later

• 🔥 Company Power Rankings: Apply to trending, top paying & newly funded co’

• 💼 Who’s Hiring? Companies posting new jobs this week

• 💰 Top Paying Companies: Top 20 highest paying companies for mid-level

• ⏱️ IPO Watch: Track who is and isn’t going public in 2024

---

💼 Hiring Trends

🏀 The 3-Pointer

1. Among FAANG, Apple and Amazon hire most, and even Meta outpaces Google

2. Uber and Airbnb picked up hiring the past few months

3. OpenAI and other AI companies continue to accelerate through Jan 2024

See the companion bonus post with data deep dives into FAANG+ hiring trends.

Forward Top Tech to a friend! Everyone should be building their job options in 2024.

---

💸 Get Hired

🧰 Job Search & Negotiation Tips

I have two candidate stories today.

1) Finding Referrals - Just do it.

First, I just sent this message to a PM I was mentoring and it took them just 16 minutes before they had a referral response:

1. Search on LinkedIn for people and filter for your school, your past company, or 2nd degree connections

2. Send them a message mentioning your common connection and the role you're interested in + the hiring manager to get an intro (found via search as well - see my other posts and upcoming articles)

2) A +60% Job Offer Increase in 24 Hours By Keeping Quiet

Yes, salary negotiations are still happening all the time in this market!

I was helping a Product Manager negotiate their job offer with no other offers on the table.

They pitched their unique value to the hiring manager, and when they got the offer they just said “thank you, I will review the offer this weekend.”

What happened? They got an email the next day saying they increased the offer $110k/year! But they stayed silent again and said “Thank you, I will review the offer this weekend.”

And yet again, the recruiter got back to them a few hours later raising the offer another $40k/year.

That was +$150k/year and +60% in 24 hours by using one of the simplest tactics in negotiations: stay silent.

And the crazy thing is that they could still negotiate up even more because we didn’t start using the more advanced tactics.

Silence:

1. When receiving an offer, stay neutral and say “thank you”, but don’t react or agree

2. Ask for time to review the details with your family/mentors/whoever. Take your time.

3. Keep in touch, but stay “silent” on your reactions and don’t feel forced.

Check out my 42 minute Salary Negotiations video and stay tuned for much more.

---

📈 Company Power Rankings

Now it's time to take action…
Here are this week's company power rankings, so go start those reach-outs!

Legend:

💸 Pays top of market

💰 Pays competitively

🔥 Heating Up

Tip: Consider these as targets

• 💸 Airbnb

• 💸 OpenAI

• 💸 Uber

• 💰Amazon

• Anduril: Increased hiring and performance for this DefenseTech company

• Rippling: +42% Engineering job posts in the past 3 months and pays well in the US, but India is home to most of the tech teams

• 💸 Databricks: The company continues its 2-year+ hiring spree with even more hiring in January

• xAI: Reportedly looking to raise $6b at $20b valuation and likely hiring

💵 Raised Funds This Week

Tip: Should be hiring soon. Reach out to hiring managers before they even post the jobs

• ElevenLabs: $1b+ valuation for the voice-generating GenAI Brooklyn startup

• Flexport: Raised $260 million from Shopify to recoup burned cash from 2023

• Bilt Rewards: $200m at a $3.1 billion valuation for the New York-based rent rewards card

• Anomalo: Palo Alto startup uses AI to monitor quality of business data

• AiDash: $50m to the San Jose startup uses AI and satellites to spot weather and fire risks to power lines

• Norm AI, $11m to the NY startup helping chief compliance officers automate regulatory tasks

• Ozone API: $10.8m round for the London startup that lets financial institutions use open APIs

• Spellbook: $20m Series A for the Toronto-based GenAI startup for drafting and reviewing contracts.

• Torq: Portland startup raises $42m Series B for automating business security

• TravelPerk: Barcelona-based startup similar to Navan/TripActions raises $104m at a $1.4 billion valuation.

☁️ Proceed with Caution

• Tesla stock slid among reduced forecasts and targets

• Cruise autonomous vehicle startup released internal reports and has funding slashed from parent GM

• 💸 Figma slashed its valuation from $20b to $10b after Adobe’s acquisition didn’t go through, offering employees buyout packages if they want to leave. However, this could mean they want to hire more people who really are excited about the product and you can get in at the more realistic valuation for your stock offer.

• Palantir is reportedly seeing slowing growth and we saw very depressed hiring in 2023, with a slight uptick this month.

🚀 Who's Hiring

Companies posting new roles this week
All have some remote roles posted

Public

• Microsoft: Multinational technology corporation with a range of software, services, and hardware.

• GitHub: Platform for software collaboration and version control.

• GitLab: Open core software company specializing in a comprehensive DevSecOps platform.

• Cloudflare: Web infrastructure and website security company offering content delivery network services.

• 💸 Meta (formerly Facebook): Social media conglomerate known for its social networking services and products.

• 💸 Coinbase: Digital currency exchange platform facilitating the buying, selling, and storing of cryptocurrency.

• ServiceNow: Provider of cloud-based platforms and solutions for digital workflows.

• Hims & Hers: Telehealth company offering prescription and over-the-counter health and wellness products.

• Block (formerly Square): Financial services and digital payments company.

• Pinterest: Social media platform for discovering and saving creative ideas.

• Oracle: Multinational computer technology corporation known for its database software and technology.

• Affirm: Financial technology company offering installment loans to consumers at the point of sale

Private

• 💸 Stripe: Technology company building economic infrastructure for the internet.

• Reddit: Social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website.

• Navan (formerly TripActions): Business travel and expense management solutions.

• 💸 Databricks: Data and AI company with a unified data analytics platform.

• Talkspace: Online and mobile therapy company providing mental health services.

• Acorns: Financial technology and services company specializing in micro-investing and robo-investing.

• CoreWeave: Cloud solutions provider specializing in GPU-accelerated computing.

• 💸 Plaid: Financial services company providing technology to connect to users' bank accounts.

• Rippling: Company offering an employee management platform that handles payroll, benefits, and IT.

• Runway AI: Technology company focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

• Attentive: Mobile messaging platform for innovative e-commerce and retail brands.

• Motional: Autonomous vehicle technology company working on self-driving cars.

Top 20 Highest Paying Companies

Source: Levels.FYI, Software Engineer II

🕒 IPO Watch

We expect more private companies to offer secondary sales to provide investors and employees liquidity this year as they wait before testing the IPO waters.

Shein is the only big update this week, but the watch continues…

🟢 Promising

• Circle - Major USDC stablecoin developer confidentially filed for IPO

• Zeekr - Chinese electric vehicle company planning 2024 IPO

• Reddit - Social media community platform planning March or April IPO, but could push

• Rubrik - Data management and security company pushed back plans to Spring 2024 or later

• SeatGeek - Sports/concert ticket marketplace filed for IPO in April 2023, expected in 2024

• Turo - Car-sharing startup has delayed IPO plans a few times, but could go public in 2024

🟡 Still waiting

• 📉 Shein - Chinese fast fashion giant seeking approval for US IPO, but Beijing is investigating and US lawmakers are hoping to stall the IPO. Investors tried to sell shares at a -30% discount on the private markets due to the uncertainty.

• High-paying 💸 Databricks, 💸 Plaid, and 💸 Stripe have all not yet revealed IPO plans

• Unfortunately, 💸 Databricks, SpaceX, and 💸 Stripe have all allowed employees to sell shares to investors recently to delay the need for an IPO

• Navan, Fanatics, and Klarna have all been quieter after earlier IPO speculation

📈 Recent IPOs:

• Oddity Direct-to-consumer beauty brand

• Arm England-based chip designer

• Klaviyo Marketing automation platform

• Instacart Grocery delivery

---

Forward Top Tech to a friend! Everyone should be building their job options in 2024