Snapchat is Offering College Grads $450,000 to Work There Instead of Google

 

According to Business Insider, this year’s magic number is in between $100,000 and $150,000, plus $300,000 in stock grants that vest over four years — almost half a million in total. Last year, Snapchat offered students even more with $400,000 in stocks.

So what do you need to land a sweet deal with Snapchat? The checklist is short but exclusive.

One, it helps if you go to Stanford — basically the “Whole Foods” of Silicon Valley, where all of the area’s tech companies go to grocery shop for the freshest talent. Stanford is also where Evan Spiegel created Snapchat with two other co-founders before dropping out to focus on the startup full-time.

Two, the job offers are going out to both graduate students and lucky seniors at the top of their class. Stanford doesn’t have the country’s best software engineering program, but the fact that it is just down the street from some of the world’s biggest tech companies makes it the local favorite. This is the one case where being at the top of your class and having good grades really pays off.

And that’s basically it. Another alternative includes being as creative as this guy, whose entire resume was a snap (no word yet on if he even got the job).

By comparison, other tech giants like Facebook, LinkedIn and Google typically offer a $100,000 to $150,000 salary plus $100,000 to $200,000 in stock grants. However, they are all profitable and publicly-traded companies — things that Snapchat is not (yet).

The Los Angeles-based Snapchat is still a growing company. In 2013, founder Evan Spiegel famously turned down an offer to sell his company to Facebook for $3 billion. Last year, Snapchat raised $500 million at a $10 billion valuation; this year, they’ve raised $200 million at a $15 billion valuation.