OP provided no context. So I'll fill in the blanks: Ex-FAANG engineer got an offer at Dropbox. Dropbox needs to be competitive, so made an offer around 200k + full remote. FAANG in bay area pays 200-300 for senior total comp, so it was probably a salary cut for OP. If you're Joe Blow in the middle of the US, you are probably not going to get a similar offer unless you're already on a similar wage.