Spent 12 weeks at Snowflake as a SWE intern last summer (Bellevue office, Core Engineering team). Just wanted to share the conversion process since I couldn't find much about it when I was going through it.
First, the return offer timeline. I got my verbal offer at week 10. Written offer came about 3 weeks after the internship ended. So if you're waiting a few weeks after wrapping up, that's apparently normal. My recruiter said they batch all the intern decisions together after everyone wraps.
The internship itself: I was on a data movement/replication feature. My manager was direct about what mattered for conversion, which I appreciated. Basically three things: ship the project (or get close enough that your manager can defend you) get visible with people outside your immediate team the mid-internship check-in is NOT a formality, treat it like a real performance conversation
Conversion rate: my recruiter wouldn't give me a number and I asked twice. Anecdotally, from my intern cohort of about 15 people I stayed in touch with, I think 9 or 10 got return offers. A few didn't hear back or got declined. One person had a visa situation that complicated things.
The return offer comp (SWE, new grad L3, Bellevue, 2026 start): base was $155k, RSUs vesting over 4 years, sign-on that I was told was standard. Total first-year comes out to something in the $220-230k range depending on how you value the equity. They gave me about 3 weeks to decide.
Negotiation: I tried to push base by $10k and they said no. I asked for additional sign-on and they bumped it by $15k. No counter on RSUs. My recruiter said the L3 SWE band is pretty locked, which I half-believe.
One thing worth knowing: the full-time new grad interview loop and the intern-to-return-offer process are completely different. Return offer doesn't require another loop (at least in my case). The decision is based on intern performance review. So performing well during the internship IS the interview.
The team matching for FTE is also different from how they place interns. You can express preferences but they don't guarantee you land on the same team.
Happy to answer questions if anyone is going through this process right now.