4 ms·

It would be helpful to have stock as number of shares. For example, Microsoft is up 40% on the year, Pinterest went public this year, etc. Also, the graph from

It would be helpful to have stock as number of shares. For example, Microsoft is up 40% on the year, Pinterest went public this year, etc. Also, the graph from the Medium post showing comp vs years at company would be really helpful. In the OP, there's a 2nd year near $300k and 9.5 year employee at $150k. Have companies every asked to be removed from levels.fyi? I see at least one company missing from there now.

Thorrez 7y ago
I don't understand why number of shares would be useful. levels.fyi asks for stock grant value, not stock vest value.
- pedrosorio 7y ago
  Look at FB stock in the past 2 years and see how the same stock grant value has wildly different outcomes.
  - Thorrez 7y ago
    Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Just because some Facebook employees' stocks went up after grant, and some Facebook employees' stock went down after grant, does not indicate what your granted stock will do after you get hired by Facebook. Also, if you do want to try to predict future stock moves via past stock moves, simply look at the stock charts. You can predict how much stock you will be granted via levels.fyi then adjust that based on how you predict the stock will move. I don't see how knowing how many stocks employees are granted will help you predict anything.
- choppaface 7y ago
  Number of shares is useful in several ways, especially for new employees looking to compare the value of a promotion / offer versus what the company is paying somebody 2-3 years their senior. You can backtrack and ask “what did the company think its stock was worth two years ago?” If a company drops the number of shares much faster than the stock appreciates, then that can signal they over-value their stock. Both Facebook and Uber saw large declines in the stock price during the 1-2 years surrounding their IPO. Facebook was going for $40-45 during the months before their IPO (at $38), and 6 months later they fell to $20. Microsoft today might have a similar boom and bust. In these sorts of cases there will be lots of employees compensated unfairly one way or another. When total comp offers are all similar, a major differentiator can be how much hubris a company shows valuing their own stock.
  - Thorrez 7y ago
    >especially for new employees looking to compare the value of a promotion / offer versus what the company is paying somebody 2-3 years their senior. If you want to compare what you are given to what someone else is given, isn't grant price better than number of shares? Grant price is what the company gives people. >If a company drops the number of shares much faster than the stock appreciates, then that can signal they over-value their stock. Maybe. Or maybe the company is simply paying employees less. Or maybe they're migrating to provide more compensation via salary or bonus instead of stock. Why would a company cut down on the number of shares granted if they overvalue their stock? Another thing is that a company could do a simultaneous stock buyback, which wouldn't cause the number of shares in existence to increase, and would only cost the company market price for the stock. If you are given the average number of shares that an employee has vest per year, how can you determine if a company is dropping the number of shares? Really what you would want is data on every single grant event each employee has been given. If you know the date of each grant event, it's then equivalent whether you know the number of stocks of each grant event or the dollar value at grant time of each grant event.
Zaheer 7y ago
Interesting, will add that to docket for when we release dynamic visualizations. One thing to note though: typically when folks switch companies they negotiate on the compensation they would be earning at current job (which includes the stock upside). This is actually why FANG comp has exploded. To attract talent whose stock has gone up, companies have to offer the same or more to poach that talent. Factor in a bull market for the last few years and it results in the massive offers we see today. Re YoE Graph: Noted. We’re hoping to build dashboard functionality of sorts where you can choose what you want plotted and we'll dynamically generate graph. No one has ever asked us to be removed. In fact, many companies have reached out to get their levels added. Which company is missing? We realize we need to add many more companies and are slowly adding more as we get data for it.

Thorrez 7y ago

I don't understand why number of shares would be useful. levels.fyi asks for stock grant value, not stock vest value.

pedrosorio 7y ago
Look at FB stock in the past 2 years and see how the same stock grant value has wildly different outcomes.
- Thorrez 7y ago
  Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Just because some Facebook employees' stocks went up after grant, and some Facebook employees' stock went down after grant, does not indicate what your granted stock will do after you get hired by Facebook. Also, if you do want to try to predict future stock moves via past stock moves, simply look at the stock charts. You can predict how much stock you will be granted via levels.fyi then adjust that based on how you predict the stock will move. I don't see how knowing how many stocks employees are granted will help you predict anything.
choppaface 7y ago
Number of shares is useful in several ways, especially for new employees looking to compare the value of a promotion / offer versus what the company is paying somebody 2-3 years their senior. You can backtrack and ask “what did the company think its stock was worth two years ago?” If a company drops the number of shares much faster than the stock appreciates, then that can signal they over-value their stock. Both Facebook and Uber saw large declines in the stock price during the 1-2 years surrounding their IPO. Facebook was going for $40-45 during the months before their IPO (at $38), and 6 months later they fell to $20. Microsoft today might have a similar boom and bust. In these sorts of cases there will be lots of employees compensated unfairly one way or another. When total comp offers are all similar, a major differentiator can be how much hubris a company shows valuing their own stock.
- Thorrez 7y ago
  >especially for new employees looking to compare the value of a promotion / offer versus what the company is paying somebody 2-3 years their senior. If you want to compare what you are given to what someone else is given, isn't grant price better than number of shares? Grant price is what the company gives people. >If a company drops the number of shares much faster than the stock appreciates, then that can signal they over-value their stock. Maybe. Or maybe the company is simply paying employees less. Or maybe they're migrating to provide more compensation via salary or bonus instead of stock. Why would a company cut down on the number of shares granted if they overvalue their stock? Another thing is that a company could do a simultaneous stock buyback, which wouldn't cause the number of shares in existence to increase, and would only cost the company market price for the stock. If you are given the average number of shares that an employee has vest per year, how can you determine if a company is dropping the number of shares? Really what you would want is data on every single grant event each employee has been given. If you know the date of each grant event, it's then equivalent whether you know the number of stocks of each grant event or the dollar value at grant time of each grant event.

Zaheer 7y ago

Interesting, will add that to docket for when we release dynamic visualizations. One thing to note though: typically when folks switch companies they negotiate on the compensation they would be earning at current job (which includes the stock upside). This is actually why FANG comp has exploded. To attract talent whose stock has gone up, companies have to offer the same or more to poach that talent. Factor in a bull market for the last few years and it results in the massive offers we see today. Re YoE Graph: Noted. We’re hoping to build dashboard functionality of sorts where you can choose what you want plotted and we'll dynamically generate graph. No one has ever asked us to be removed. In fact, many companies have reached out to get their levels added. Which company is missing? We realize we need to add many more companies and are slowly adding more as we get data for it.