apple mle vs. meta swe (ng)

hello! i’ve recently been fortunate enough to get two really great offers at apple and meta for new grad, but i’m very conflicted on which route to go.

Apple MLE: - austin, tx - total annual comp: ~162k - under the finance/ops org (related to fraud detection) - part of a rotational program within that org that focuses on different areas of fraud detection - pros: i interned there last summer and really enjoyed my experience, the teams + everyone i met in the org were amazing, decent wlb, the role is explicitly machine learning, interesting domain and projects - cons: not sure if there’s much growth, you’re pretty limited to your org bc of how secretive apple is, org is only based in austin + seattle, might be pigeonholed into classical ml roles/fraud domain, not as much variety in work

Meta SWE: - menlo park, ca - total annual comp: ~182k - haven’t done team matching yet so not sure what i would be working on - pros: faster career growth, more opportunities for lateral switches to different teams, much more flexibility with locations, bay area, more variety in projects/teams - cons: job security, idk what work + team culture is like, potentially bad wlb, harder to switch into an explicitly ML role later since its general swe

beyond info about the role itself, in terms of location i would probably prefer bay area because ive been in texas all my life so i want to live somewhere else, my bf will potentially be in bay area full time, better weather, and generally just ~recent politics~

sorry for the long post, and thank you!! 🫡