Background: 5th year phd student in ML at a top 20 university in the US. I think I have a decent publication record (~5 publications at top venues), but not many citations (<100).

I was fortunate to receive several offers for research scientist positions at a few companies. Some are within actual research groups at big tech companies, while others have the title “research scientist” but are more data scientist roles (think finance, but not trading).

Without divulging too much information, my offers from the big tech companies were lower than expected, at around 200K total comp (130K base, rest in stock + sign-on). In contrast my best offer from a finance company is around 300K.

Right now I am still leaning towards the big tech positions since I’ll be able to publish, but I feel like I am getting low-balled. I’ve heard of phds getting well over 300K for similar positions a few years ago, albeit with slightly stronger publication records. Is it unreasonable for me to ask for more?