You realize you’re replying to someone who is 49 years old on their 8th job? I’m far from a naive college grad.
But I bet you dollars to doughnuts that if I told any of them that they could double their compensation by “grinding LeetCode” they would trade the “equity” in a private company that statistically won’t amount to anything for real stock being in their brokerage account every six months.
As far as being “greedy”. Are you running a charity?
Yea, this is an interesting thing. I see plenty of smaller companies still doing the shady stuff that FAANG does and then trying to offer 50% the salary. I'd maybe take that if I was trading money for feeling like I was doing something Good, but if it's just "which privacy violation do I want to support" then you don't really have an advantage to offer me to offset paying me a lot less.
And, if they want to live in any of the same locales where FAANG people happen to live, show them `levels.fyi` for FAANG, and tell them those are the people they're going to be competing with condo/house offers and apartment rents. (Well, in addition to the other parties snapping up real estate.)
Students might know starting salaries, but maybe not know just how huge the income difference can get in a few years. Nor understand how adversely the relative difference can affect their quality of life.
But I bet you dollars to doughnuts that if I told any of them that they could double their compensation by “grinding LeetCode” they would trade the “equity” in a private company that statistically won’t amount to anything for real stock being in their brokerage account every six months.
As far as being “greedy”. Are you running a charity?