You get a 4 year grant when you sign your offer. Then, usually after your first full calendar year, you get another 4 year grant which usually is worth about 1

You get a 4 year grant when you sign your offer. Then, usually after your first full calendar year, you get another 4 year grant which usually is worth about 1/4 of your initial grant. This way, your total compensation stays somewhat constant* year to year even after your initial large 4 year grant finishes because you will have accumulated 4 1/4 sized grants. *There are some caveats to that like usually people experience a slight drop in total compensation on their 5th year, FB/G refreshers are much much better than Microsoft's and Amazons (Amazon won't even give you refreshers if the stock is doing well like it has because your are "overpaid"). Netflix doesn't do any stock stuff at all and instead pays everyone in straight up cash and yes, they do offer senior engineers 300,000+ a year in base salary.