We don’t love negotiating with Dell because they don’t tend to pay very well compared to Facebook, Amazon, Google. With that being said, don’t let this discourage you because an increase however small or big can be extremely life changing.
- Base Salary
- Dell Equity Package (see Dell's RSU vesting schedule below)
- Dell Signing Bonus (not included in all Dell offers)
- Performance Bonus
Dell doesn’t usually give out that much equity and they only offer refreshers for senior roles.
Dell’s performance bonuses are a little small for junior roles but they are almost always guaranteed and there are rumors that they might increase bonuses going forward. Here are the targets for a few levels:
- SWE II – 5%
- Senior SWE – 8%
- Principal SWE – 8%
- Senior Principal – 15%
- Technical Staff – 25%
Dell is open to remote work for roles, but it also has an in-person presence. As for the pay at Dell, it is dependent on location and org.
If you need to move for a role, Dell provides a relocation package but there is a contingency to this bonus. If you leave before the stipulated time in your contract (usually 18-24 months), you will have to return the relocation package at a prorated basis.
Dell’s most negotiable component is the base salary. Other components like Dell sign on bonus and Dell equity are also negotiable but increases will be smaller.
For more information on how to negotiate with Dell, look at our articles on email negotiation strategies, how to prepare a script for salary negotiation, and negotiating start-up equity and stock options.
Dell doesn't usually require written competing offers.
Dell doesn’t like to go above band but if you have a competing offer, it can help in moving the needle.
The hiring manager has a bit of sway with your salary and especially with increases so you should definitely build a strong relationship with your HM.
The hiring process at Dell is of course different for every role. However, the general hiring process has three stages: tech screen, HM interview, and offer stage.
Note: If you are looking for interviewing prep resources, we have an article comparing different interview resources like interview cake, leetcode premium, etc.
Let’s consider a Dell L7 software engineer salary to that of a Band 8 IBM employee . Dell offers more equity ($60k/year) but that is mostly because IBM doesn’t offer equity at this level. It is not an impressive equity number. The base salary at IBM can go up to $250k/year which is more than the entire top of band total compensation at Dell ($243k/year which includes a $170k/year base and an 8% annual bonus).
Dell has pretty standard benefits. The only unique thing in their benefit is that they do a 6% default match for 401k.
L5
L6
L7
L8
L9
L10
L11
Equivalent Level at Google
L3
L4
L5
Between L5 and L6
Between L6 and L7
Between L7 and L8
Between L8 and L9
Our Clients Love Rora
Coming from a non-FAANG background, I was shocked to find out how much I could be earning. Before I signed up with Rora, I made the mistake of telling Amazon my current compensation. Thankfully, Rora knew exactly how to fix it and ended up getting me an offer that was 2.3X what I previously made and more than $600K higher than Amazon’s initial offer!
Through several weeks of interviews, Ganesh was always available to make sure I knew what to say for each conversation. I interviewed with start ups, Google, Facebook and Amazon and was really impressed that Rora knew the comp ranges and were able to give me tailored advice for each – even the start ups.
There ended up being two particularly complex moments in my negotiation. One of the start-ups I had a personal relationship with and I wasn’t sure how it would affect the negotiation. I like that there was a focus on my individual circumstances and that they were leveraged to get me a higher offer. The other situation is that Amazon made a mistake on my written offer and initially wouldn’t rectify it. Ganesh was able to guide me through a challenging conversation to get it resolved.
Thanks to Wilson and the team at Rora I got a ~$250K increase on my remote Facebook offer! I was initially worried I wouldn’t have much leverage because Facebook reached out to me, and I wasn’t interviewing anywhere else. Rora introduced me to an Amazon L7 recruiter and helped me get that process started. I didn’t even end up needing to finish the Amazon interviews, since we were able to use some early compensation conversations to justify our numbers to Facebook.
At one point I was also considering pushing for an E7 role, and they wrote up a great script for me to broach the subject with my recruiter. She ended up giving me the option to do an additional interview to be considered for the higher-level position.
The whole process was very smooth, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use the service for any future negotiations. I found the regular calls with Wilson where we walked through strategy and discussed the scripts to be extremely helpful. Not only did it help with this negotiation, but I also learned a lot of useful negotiation tactics that I’ve already started to use in other situations.
As an engineering leader with decades of experience and having now gone through the negotiation with the team at Rora, the only thing I can say is — get the help. Whether you realize you need it, or even if you think you don’t. Just because you have done well in engineering doesn't mean that you understand the tactics and limits of the recruiting process.
Rora helped me get a $200K increase on my original Facebook offer without any competing offers. It was clear that Rora was deeply familiar with Facebook's negotiation playbook. I’d honestly give the experience an 11/10.
In addition, Rora guided me on how to get the position switched to a revised remote role which was a huge deal at a personal level. They showed me how to redirect FB’s questions so that I could explore the possibility of not relocating, without ever having to say no to my original offer.
This is my first FAANG role and I'm so happy I worked with Rora (thanks again Annie!) for the negotiation. My goal was to increase my Google offer, but I was in a tricky situation where I only had 1 other interview (no offer yet) at a small startup. With their guidance, I managed to get a $240K increase on my Google offer, despite Google's policy of requiring cross offers in writing to justify an increase.
The mock negotiations were a big part of why I was able to get this increase. Going into the negotiation, I assumed the key factor was what to say but I quickly learned that how you say it is equally if not more important. This was clear when over the course of the call"no" turned into "I'll see what I can do" and eventually"I think we can make this work". A big part of this was also having someone with me on the calls to provide real time guidance. This took a lot of the stress out of the situation. I can't recommend this team highly enough!
After receiving several job offers, I needed to make a decision within a few days. I wanted to make sure I was getting the best offer possible, so I decided to use Rora. I was very pleased with their service. My coach, Sameer, was well prepared and had information about what compensation increases were likely possible. He provided detailed scripts covering a range of scenarios, and he did practice negotiations with me that helped me feel confident when I had the actual conversations.
With his help I was able to increase one offer by $45k per year plus get a $50k signing bonus and then use that to increase my offer from Square, which was my first choice. All throughout he was very responsive as I was dealing with some tight deadlines and looking to wrap things up quickly. Rora's fee was only a tiny fraction of the increase they helped me negotiate, and even though they would have made more money if I had taken the highest offer, Sameer always put my goals first and never pressured me to do so. I highly recommend Rora!
My friend introduced me to Rora and I’m so glad they did. I initially did some calculations to see if working with them would be worth it - my final increase ended up being ~3x higher than what I had estimated to be possible!
Their data is much more accurate than anything I found online. Without Sameer's guidance, I would have never known (and would have probably been too nervous) to ask for >$800K for anAmazon L7 offer. Of course, it's not just not enough to throw out a big number, you also need to be able to justify it. Sameer guided me through negotiating an up-level at another company, which I didn’t even know was possible at my level. With their scripts, I was able to leverage my competing offer to get exec approval for my Amazon offer. They also knew all the tricks Amazon would play (e.g., assuming 15% stock appreciation) and exactly how to counter them.
My total 4-year compensation increased by $570K. I don't think I've ever had a higher ROI – I’m very thankful that this service exists!
Dell
has a unique set of negotiation policies. If you don’t have experience negotiating with them, you risk losing out on large amounts of money because of very small mistakes.
There are many of these rules you need to know to get the highest
Dell
offer possible