Assuming you agree on total compensation and already hit the base max, what is better: maximise the sign-on bonus or stock?
If you are not in any money crunch.. It is stocks. Especially considering the Amazon stock price...
Stocks considering the growth
Does it make any difference in term of tax benefit? I thought cash is better... You get the cash and if one want can buy the Amazon stock ...with freedom of investing elsewhere.
Cash. Your first serious portion of stock will vest at the end of 2nd year and you may decide to leave by that time.
👆🏿this. Negotiating signing bonus up by x is equivalent to negotiating stock up by 5x, because of the vesting schedule.
If you agreed on the total comp and maxed out on base all you have left is a mix of sign-on and stocks vesting on a specific schedule. Are you getting an extra bonus?
I went with stock. Got an extra 50 RSUs priced at 800.
If you think AMZN will be higher in 2 years than sign-on bonus is today, then pick stocks.
Sign on because it’s immediate liquidity and you can diversity away from only AMZN stock: