I worked at Google, Meta, and LinkedIn – here’s how much I made

A woman has revealed how much she really earned while working in tech for Google, Meta and LinkedIn – and the figures might surprise you.

US-based Mitchie Nguyen has spoken to Insider to chart her six-year career to date, which has seen her rise through the ranks at the biggest corporations in the industry.

The rising star, who studied sociology and media in college, said that she found it difficult to land a job at first because it was ‘really hard to convince companies to take a chance’ on her.

But after finding her feet she was able to climb the ladder and soon secured a $196,000 job – but she has since turned her back on the bumper salary.

Mitchie Nguyen, from the US, has spoken to Insider to chart her six-year career to date, which has seen her rise through the ranks at the biggest corporations in the industry

Mitchie had no prior experience in tech or the corporate world, but set up a club at college called Diversatech in a bid to gain skills that would help get her foot in the industry door.

It was this that ultimately helped her land her first role at LinkedIn after joining their business-leadership program in 2017.

The scheme saw those enrolled rotate across customer operations and recruiting roles before ultimately being offered a position as a sales associate, which came with a $50,981 base salary plus a $17,000 annual target bonus.

Mitchie revealed that it was not the highest-paying position available to graduates, but said she was keen to get a big name on her resume early on in her career.

But after realizing that she was not particularly passionate about sales, she began to look elsewhere.

It was then that Mitchie took a job as an associate product-marketing manager at Google, which came with a $91,000 base salary, 15 per cent annual bonus target and $64,000 stock package vested over four years.

And, on top of that, there were business trips to 10 countries a year, including Japan, Austria, Australia, Italy and Spain as she explored how to run a business within each location.

However, Mitchie revealed that she was approached by Meta in 2020 about joining their privacy product-marketing team, which turned out to be an offer she could not refuse. 

Mitchie revealed how much she really earned while working in tech for corporations including LinkedIn and Google (stock images) 

Mitchie rose through the ranks at Meta and by the time she quit in June 2023 she was on a whopping base salary of $196,000 (stock image)

Having ‘aggressively negotiated the salary and also secured a promotion,’ she ended up with an extensive list of benefits which included a $150,000 base salary, $15,000 target bonus, $80,000 stock package over four years and $20,000 sign-on bonus.

Speaking about her time at the tech giant, she said: ‘I had the opportunity to be at the forefront of emerging technology and work on some really cool early product development.’

Mitchie rose through the ranks and by the time she quit in June 2023 she was on a whopping base salary of $196,000.

Despite her impressive pay packet, the rising tech star told the publication ‘the number one reason and motivation has always been to gain a breadth of experience.’

She continued: ‘When you’re starting out in your career, it’s important to explore roles and build a network in new companies. 

‘Through all these jobs, I gained confidence and skills from sales to product marketing.’

Mitchie has since decided to turn her back on the corporate world altogether and quit her high-paying job to build her own startup in the ‘creator economy.’

She concluded: ‘If I were to sum up the biggest learning out of my short, six-year career, it’s to not be afraid of change and take a chance on yourself — trust that everything will work out.’