4 ms·
A 1-year cliff / 4-year vest has been standard as long as I remember. Is this not the case anymore?
by tedmiston 5y ago
A 1-year cliff / 4-year vest has been standard as long as I remember. Is this not the case anymore?
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y agoIt is the case, but it seems like it only persists because it is traditional. I'm not aware of any basis by which the employees should be willing to accept deferred comp for the first year. It sets up all kinds of bad incentives.
- tedmiston 5y agoI'm right here with you — along with having standard very long exercise windows… 10 years or whatnot. I've both chosen to exercise and not exercise on a short 30-day window but balancing FOMO vs future regret is hard with the volatility of a typical startup.
- kerng 5y agoNo, most big companies don't have cliffs anymore (Google, Facebook, etc...). They pay out monthly or quaterly. At least if you already worked for a while elsewhere (because they have to buy you out basically). Why would you otherwise take the risk? I'm curious about Microsoft- anyone know if Microsoft has a cliff on RSUs?
- reasonabl_human 5y agoMy non-new-grad employment with Microsoft had a 1yr vesting cliff. As others have previously mentioned, as long as it’s an established company I see no issue with this since you get a solid signing bonus if continued cash flow is the concern.
- kerng 5y agoThis is to the point - cash bonus can compensate this somewhwat. And cash bonus typically doesnt have to be paid back in case of layoff.
- tedmiston 5y agoI should clarify that my experience is with startups (pre-seed to B stage etc) not FAANGs or big cos.
- ixs 5y agoI saw a recent (< 3 months) offer from MSFT and it contained the „standard“ 4y vesting schedule with a 1y cliff and then quarterly vesting after. I think removing the vesting cliff is great but personally I am not worried as I never sew the cliff as a problem.