> Lots of people, at lots of companies, Google and Facebook included, get meaningful add-on grants, often larger than their initial ones. This is I guess sort

> Lots of people, at lots of companies, Google and Facebook included, get meaningful add-on grants, often larger than their initial ones. This is I guess sort of true. They're certainly meaningful, it's unusual for them to reach the size of your initial grant quickly, and they'll usually trend upwards over time. > These are frequently timed to the 4-5 year mark and especially handed out alongside promotions This is empirically untrue. It may be true at some companies, but it is rare enough to be a blip at Google or Facebook ("Discretionary Equity" is the term, and its very rare). How these companies actually work is that there's a target stock grant at your level, let's say 50K. Your initial grant is larger (potentially much larger, depending on a number of factors, but usually 2-3x larger at a minimum). Higher performance increases the grant size, and promotion increases the target. So there's nothing particularly timed specially at the 4-5 year mark that increases the grant size. For reference, my stock grants (which are more or less typical) were ~130K at hire, 30K, promo 70K, 100K, 105K (I've reached the ceiling at my current level). My 130K at hire was above average for a new grad, but an experienced industry hire could get 200K+, and still experience the refresh grants I got.