I will start on Google as Soft Engineer L6 on January (TC 450k) in terms of the bonus, means I will not get it this year 2020?
Congrats on the new job! I started about 6 months ago, so I am getting 50% of my annual bonus and no stock refresher. You’ll be getting 100% of your bonus next year + a refresher
How much after taxes?
I’m starting in Feb. My manager said that the 2020 bonus will be unaffected by my start date and stock refreshers will be prorated.
refresh is not prorated but bonus is
Not exactly true. Even an offer letter says now that refreshers can be granted at the discretion of the direct manager. It’s not guaranteed like the prorated bonus, but it can happen.
If you possibly can, adjust your start date to December. Otherwise your first stock refresh won't be until December 2021. If you start in January 2020, you will not get a stock refresh in December 2020.
This.
If you know when the bonus is paid out change your withholding so you can get the most out of the bonus. If you can elect more in your 401k it’s a good time to max it out with the bonus since it’s supplemental compensation and taxed at a higher rate.
The downside to a January start is no equity refresher first year. Best time to start is late in the year because of this. If you can do perf and get CME in spring do it. Then if you get EE or better on next you might get a refresher.
Can you elaborate? What do you mean by "if you can do perf"? Do you mean you can influence whether you get a mid-year perf review or not? ...and what is CME again? I heard at my interviews that your first review is usually pretty much a pass/fail and doesn't count for much. Reviews are every 6 months?
Reviews are every six months finish in March/October. The problem with a January start is that you don’t have much time before perf starts in February to get up to speed. You usually get an NA (not applicable) then you don’t do perf for 9 months and get CME (consistently meets expectations) because it is the default and then you get no refresher first year even though you spent 11 full months at the company. Technically you can get better review but practically it very very rarely happens to the point where some managers don’t think it’s worth the hassle to even try for. When I learned this after starting I January was naturally frustrated. Hopefully next years refresher makes up for it oy vey
This issue might be the deal breaker for me. I told my recruiter and he gets it. I have been in team match for 4 weeks but nothing yet so it does not look like any chance of onboarding in 2019. Since no refresh, that is a miss of 100-110k for an L5. No refreshers until Dec 2021. Already got a pretty decent signing bonus in the offer so not much upside potential there. Will have to see what he can do on the equity. (Yes, doing comp and TM in parallel) I know not to fall for the "HM can give additional discretionary bonus to make up for it...."
I am in a similar situation. I join first week of Jan. I didn’t even realize it could affect my bonus or refresher. Should I reach out to my recruiter to prepone to a date in late Dec? Op: What is your plan?
Yep