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Comment by headcanon | Hacker News Reader

I've worked at startups in Michigan my whole career and have not seen a signing bonus either. Are these typically exclusive to FAANG companies?

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Not just specific companies, but largely specific areas (which have to compete with specific companies). New grads will, statistically, never see signing bonuses in their career, much less out of school. People paying bonuses for new grads is a sunk opportunity cost and a company should never do it unless it hurts them in some measurable way (cost-benefit analyses are important).

I've interviewed hundreds of people in Southern California, some who came out of google (does give signing bonuses) or Amazon (rarely signing bonus) and it has happened that Blizzard tempted some people with a little bonus...but these are uncommon.

People who jump company to company (google to amazon and back) don't get bonuses (as rehires), although that's outside the topic of "new grads".

I joined Amazon as a new grad. Signing bonus was part of the standard new grad offer.

> People paying bonuses for new grads is a sunk opportunity cost

Sure but FAAMG aren't really trying to pinch pennies. Signing bonuses also usually have a clause where you have to return it, if you don't at least stay a year. Signing bonus as a new grad is a HUGE help to the new grad. When you're competing between FAAMNG, that signing bonus can sway what offer a new grad would accept.

> google (does give signing bonuses)

I'm currently at Google but I had to negotiate the signing bonus. It wasn't part of my original offer.

> People who jump company to company...

They absolutely do.

I think Amazon's standard offer includes a large signing bonus over two years to compensate for the abnormal vesting schedule.

I'm in SoCal, lots of companies around here will do low five figure starting bonuses now if you ask. I've seen 5k-15k in my offers at either smaller startups or non FAANG.

Between myself and the people I know in NYC/SF, I would expect signing bonuses in tech, finance, law, and medicine.

No, I received one with a startup in none of the above locations after negotiating salary and being ready to walk away.

Nope, have had a couple offers from small and mid-sized cos with signing bonuses in Austin. Not anywhere near FAANG-sized signing bonuses, mind you, but they exist.

I am curious about standard Bay Area FAANG signing bonuses for mid-senior level. This new grad offer from the post sounds insane to me, regardless of talent:

$115,000 salary

$240,000 equity/4 years, 1 year cliff then quarterly

$100,000 signing

Congrats to the winner of that deal.

100k signing is absurd, I've never heard of that

3 of my friends got this, all at Facebook. Not to say this is standard, but this is not outlier. Some hedge funds pay more.

AFAIK only Facebook gives 100k signing, and it's usually for returning interns and after negotiation with competing offers (usually other FANG or hedge fund offers).

Amy idea of their signing bonus outside of new grads? I'm wondering what they offer people with real experience if they give that much to people without any. Relevant for me because I'm interviewing with a large financial firm that "pays similarly to FB". I doubt their claim, especially in light of these numbers.

Startups in non big VC states (WA, NY, CA) tend to not have signing bonuses. Every company I'd apply for has some sort of signing bonus, FAANG and not-FAANG.

I've gotten signing bonus from recruiters trying to close a deal at non FAANG. Not $100k signing bonuses but 4 and 5 figure for sure.

Just to add a data point, I joined a FAANG company at one of their east coast offices and didn't get a signing bonus.

Just from my experience, Amazon almost universally offers signing bonuses to new hires in order to make up for backloaded vesting.

I am kind of shocked at how poorly Amazon pays new grads on top of unfavorable vesting schedules. There is a reason most of my friends left it in < 2 years for better work and pay.

I joined as a new grad at Amazon. What do you think I'm paid, and what do you expect me to make?

I hope you are paid what you wanted to be paid. On average my experience has been that Amazon's offers are lesser than Google and Facebook's. Not to mention no free food which would be okay if Amazon paid more but that is not the case.

> On average my experience has been that Amazon's offers are lesser than Google and Facebook's.

I'm sorry, are you saying I'm lesser? I don't understand what you mean by this.

I don't think this innuendo helps anyone considering offers at multiple places.

There is no innuendo ? I clearly stated Amazon's average offer is less than G and F. No one said "you are lesser". Whatever that means.

That's the direct implication, however. Unless you claim offers are decoupled from the labor market's value of an individual, which is certainly a novel idea I'd be interested in hearing about.

In that case most tech people are "lesser" than investment bankers. I didn't say anything about an individual's worth being tied to their offer. That is asinine in my opinion. You are projecting that by yourself. If you want to stick to numbers ask your peers who got offers from all 3 how they stack up. I also know the perks at Amazon suck. Food is a big perk for me and not having that is a straight 4k+ hit to your comp. 401k matching plus mega backdoor 401k , better health insurance. Even keeping absolute numbers aside Amazon is a penny pincher when it comes to its employees.

You can be the smartest engineer and have a bad interview day. Your offers then won't reflect your true "labor market worth". In the absence of a solid evaluative metric to judge a person, tying what an employer pays them to their worth is stupid. If you work for Amazon my unsolicited advice would be to get out if you want to be paid more.

I've negotiated a signing bonus for one (small ~50 person) company.

You never know until you ask but I would expect it to be rare.

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