Amazon along with Google and everyone else way overpaid for tech talent the last few years which has made it a lot harder for small companies to compete. My company lost a lot of engineers of varying quality to big tech companies.
Google is massively profitable. That money has to go somewhere. Why not the workers?
If Google is succeeding at attracting talent from other companies, including the company of the person I was responding to, then it's more likely that they're not "overpaying", they're just paying enough to attract the talent away from other companies.
This is capitalism working. Google has a lot of money and they're putting it towards attracting and keeping their talent.
Amazon's vesting schedule is so toxic that 90% or more google engineers have higher total comp, better benefits, and better WLB than Amazon.
The backloaded stock gives you stability up front with their high signing bonus, and high growth potential for TC assuming stock growth in two years. My pay is basically equalized over 4 years at current stock prices when I began, so my expected 4 year outlook without raises/performance bonuses/stock appreciation is:
Y1: ~70% Base, ~26% Bonus, ~4% Stock (5% total initial grant)
Y2: ~70% Base, ~18% Bonus, ~12% Stock (15% total initial grant)
Y3: ~70% Base, ~0% Bonus, ~30% Stock (40% total initial grant)
Y4: ~70% Base, ~0% Bonus, ~30% Stock (40% total initial grant)
Rough numbers, you get it. Not everyone has the same deal, but from what I've seen @ Amazon this is pretty standard and honestly significantly better than having to deal with the volatility of a 1 year initial vesting cliff like most public companies.
- Year 1: base + high prorated signing bonus + 5% stock vest
- Year 2: base + slightly lower signing bonus + 15% stock vest
- Year 3 and 4 - base + 40% stock vest
If the stock doesn’t move, you should make about the same amount Years 1 through 4 or slightly more.
Lesson learned, but I don't think there's an archetype of engineer that prefers that kind of risk profile over large cash payments each month. My downside for Y1 at Amazon is 4% of the agreed upon TC.
Perhaps I'm not as good as a negotiator as I thought (or the schedules are within the past two years) b/c I haven't ever received an offer that balances the agreed upon TC as you describe. It sounds great!
Anyone who was hired over the past two years would have been more than happy to receive a large stable cash prorated signing bonus over the past two years than stock.
If your business can’t “buy” the supplies needed for your products - in this case development labor - and sell them at a cost where you can have a sustainable business, then you don’t have a good business model.