got an offer for a Senior Software Engineer role (their L5 equivalent) in Amsterdam. posting numbers since there's almost nothing public for Booking specifically.
base: EUR 110,000/yr annual bonus: 10% target, paid out based on company + individual performance relocation: EUR 10,000 lump sum, one-time equity: no RSUs. they don't do equity for ICs below a certain seniority. this was a surprise. other: 30 vacation days (legal minimum is 20, this is above that), NS Business Card (Dutch train pass), pension contribution around 5%
total cash on target would be ~EUR 121k. on paper that's roughly $130k USD at current rates, which feels light compared to US senior salaries. but cost of living in Amsterdam is also not SF, and the 30 days PTO plus commuter rail pass are real benefits.
declined, but not because of comp alone. mostly because the relocation timeline didn't work for my situation.
4 replies
contractor_kai
the no-equity thing for ICs is notable. for someone coming from a US comp structure that's a real adjustment. have you seen any data on whether staff/L6 level gets equity or is it purely cash all the way up?
numbers_only
from what I could gather, equity does exist at principal+ levels but it's not a big part of the package even there. Booking is still largely a bonus-and-cash culture. if equity upside is your thing, this isn't the move.
corp_refugee
30 days PTO is not nothing. I burned out partly because US law has no floor on PTO and my previous company had a 'unlimited' policy that somehow translated to 6 days actually taken. 30 real days hits different.
finance_faye
worth noting the Dutch income tax rates at that salary level are not trivial either. ~EUR 110k base puts you in the 49.5% marginal rate bracket. the 30% ruling for highly skilled migrants can offset this significantly if you qualify, but it's worth running the actual net numbers before comparing to a US net salary.