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One of the tables has this important piece of information at the bottom: "Amazon's vesting schedule is 5%, 15%, 40%, and 40% over the 4 years" This is a signi

One of the tables has this important piece of information at the bottom: "Amazon's vesting schedule is 5%, 15%, 40%, and 40% over the 4 years" This is a significant deviation from the industry standard, which is to have a one year cliff, and have stock vest month-to-month afterwards. What happens if you leave in the middle of year 3?

aluskuiuc 10y ago
This is a little disingenuous - that schedule only applies to the RSUs granted at offer sign time. Yearly stock compensation vests over a 2-year period 50/50.
- stepny 10y ago
  We straight lined Amazon's stock signing bonuses for comparison with the other companies.
qihqi 10y ago
Short answer: you are screwed. Longer answer: most people can hold half a year more.
chatmasta 10y ago
The word for this kind of vesting schedule is "golden handcuffs," because once you cross the threshold of two years, it would be irrational to leave for somewhere else. Amazon is paying you in year 4 for value you delivered in years 1, 2, and 3 (otherwise you wouldn't make it to year 4). It works well for Amazon because they only pay you lots of money once they know you're a good engineer, and because you have an increasing incentive to stay each year.
- pc86 10y ago
  > It works well for Amazon because they only pay you lots of money once they know you're the type of person that will put up with their unending stream of shit.
loeg 10y ago
"Backloaded." Amazon's average retention is 2-3 years so they mostly don't have to pay that out. It's pretty horrific for individual employee compensation. If you leave in year 3, you lose 80% of your signing grants.
- tamana 10y ago
  Amazon has front loaded cash signing bonuses. What you call "signing bonus" I call "guaranteed raise if you stay"
tamana 10y ago
It's actually 5; 15; 20,20 ; 20,20 and there's also refreshes that vest at (probably) a different time of half-year.

aluskuiuc 10y ago

This is a little disingenuous - that schedule only applies to the RSUs granted at offer sign time. Yearly stock compensation vests over a 2-year period 50/50.

stepny 10y ago
We straight lined Amazon's stock signing bonuses for comparison with the other companies.

qihqi 10y ago

Short answer: you are screwed. Longer answer: most people can hold half a year more.

chatmasta 10y ago

The word for this kind of vesting schedule is "golden handcuffs," because once you cross the threshold of two years, it would be irrational to leave for somewhere else. Amazon is paying you in year 4 for value you delivered in years 1, 2, and 3 (otherwise you wouldn't make it to year 4). It works well for Amazon because they only pay you lots of money once they know you're a good engineer, and because you have an increasing incentive to stay each year.

pc86 10y ago
> It works well for Amazon because they only pay you lots of money once they know you're the type of person that will put up with their unending stream of shit.

loeg 10y ago

"Backloaded." Amazon's average retention is 2-3 years so they mostly don't have to pay that out. It's pretty horrific for individual employee compensation. If you leave in year 3, you lose 80% of your signing grants.

tamana 10y ago
Amazon has front loaded cash signing bonuses. What you call "signing bonus" I call "guaranteed raise if you stay"

tamana 10y ago

It's actually 5; 15; 20,20 ; 20,20 and there's also refreshes that vest at (probably) a different time of half-year.