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Comment by halfmatthalfcat | Hacker News Reader

I know it doesn't mean you get all the RSUs at the 4 year mark but if you leave after 2 years, you only get 50% of your RSUs. Why leave potentially hundreds of thousands on the table to jump after two years? I've never heard of this two-year stinting.

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You shouldn't view the RSUs as different from any other compensation package, even just an all-cash package.

If Google says they'll give you $200k per year in cash + $400k split over 4 years as RSUs, that's the same as just getting $300k per year in cash.

Why would you leave $300k per year in cash on the table? Because another company is offering you $350k per year (or more likely in the case of FAANG, another company is offering you the same $300k/yr but with significantly less stress).

Yeah I guess I'm just surprised that, once you're at the FAANG level, the packages are going to vary that much that one would jump every two years. Also, having just interviewed at the FAANG level, they are very weary about job hoppers to the point where if you haven't worked at a place for longer than 3+ years, they want a detailed explanation why.

> if you haven't worked at a place for longer than 3+ years, they want a detailed explanation why.

Interesting. At my FAANG (Amazon) we explicitly are told to not ask this. It would be kind of weird for us to ask that, really, considering the tenure of most people here is <2 years.

This has not been my experience at all. I've job hopped every 2 years to promote in transition and take on significantly more compensation. I'm about 18 months into my current role and I'm looking for the exit. Why? Because my future compensation at these companies is based on "impact" instead of what the market is willing to pay. So even if I have the highest levels of impact, I'm losing compensation staying at my current company.

Yeah I mean historically I've done the same. Most of my jobs have been at most 2 year stints. This is my first experience under this kind of scrutiny. It does make sense, since most of the people (at least on this team) are all 4+ years tenured but it was a surprise.

>If Google says they'll give you $200k per year in cash + $400k split over 4 years as RSUs, that's the same as just getting $300k per year in cash.

It’s not; the RSUs are priced at grant, not at vest.

Plus there’s annual top-up grants.

You’re not factoring in stock appreciation there. It’s somewhat common these days to see people sitting on huge unvested grants, so in your example, your yearly comp won’t be the $300k/y you had at year one. Then it’s pretty hard to get a match on your “inflated” TC anywhere else. You don’t get that in an all-cash package, even if you buy stock from the company with your cash comp

If you're granted an equal amount each year, then you'll get a similar amount in your first year at a competitor who also grants an equal amount each year.

Also - for talented engineers at companies I've worked with, we gave starting bonuses ~equal to the value of the unvested options as a recruiting tool.

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