Medtronic Offer

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Hi All,I am a fresh PhD out of grad school. I am offered a Sr. R&amp;D Engineer Position at Medtronic at its Santa Rosa, CA office.&nbsp;Base 133kBonus 10%&nbsp;Signing Bonus 10kJust wanted to check if this is a good/lowball/average offer. I also have another offer at Milpitas, CA (Base 155k, Signing bonus 23k). How do living expenses compare between these two cities?

grant · Accepted Answer

First off, congrats on the offer!For cost of living, you can use something like nerd wallet to compare. That said, the only true measure is going to be looking at what kind of housing you could afford in either city and what's near those locations.Assuming you can find comparable rents in both cities, the second offer does sound better to me. You'll really be able to jump right into enjoying yourself in a new place with that bonus.I also hope it goes without saying that if both companies are legit, at this stage, you should be able to mention the competing offers to each company and say what's giving you pause about accepting. Medtronics might up their offer. I've had offers upped by $10k base just for sounding hesitant, not even directly asking for a raise or having a competing offer.

kXJ89y13rn · Answer

Some things to consider when you look at cost of living numbers in my experience moving across the country:

- Do you have a monthly budget already? If you don't, I'd HIGHLY recommend you build one and establish what your baseline for quality of life will be. Food, housing, entertainment, utilities and bills, etc.
- Will you have a commute? Travel expenses to and from your new home for the holidays, vacations, etc are all things I forgot to factor in when I moved to SoCal from OH. Longer drives and traffic = more gas, airfare for holidays, etc.
- I'd look at Craigslist, Zillow, and Redfin to get a sense of the housing options and go from there.

backpack3rsfan · Answer

Congrats on the offer. Santa Rosa is a beautiful city. Haven't been to Milpitas specifically, but San Jose is pretty fun. Way more urban and lots to do city wise. Plenty of people so making friends shouldn't be hard in Milpitas.

I love the outdoors so Santa Rosa being in the heart of wine country and national forests is incredible. The redwoods are a short drive away. That being said, col is a little bit higher.

EngulfingDoji · Answer

MDT can go higher; they should be able to match. My salary for the same title was a tiny bit higher and that was back in 2018. There's been over 25% inflation between then and now. Unless HR changed policies after I left, Santa Rosa's pay bands are considered Bay Area. Source: HR left the corporate pay bands Excel file on the public network drive for anyone to access. Out of date now but very insightful at the time.

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