Are jobs with no bonus / equity worth considering?
Dec 23, 2021
15 Comments
When I worked for small companies (<50 employees) earlier in my career, I didn't know that one could get bonuses of 10-20% their salary. I thought it was just 1-3k Christmas perk the owners gave their employees as a thank you for their hard work. That changed when I joined JP Morgan.
Now, because of Levels and blind, I see that "big" companies routinely pay these "large" bonuses, and "tech" companies offer some sort of equity / RSU on top.
Interestingly, the base salary doesn't seem to fluctuate too much for most companies (of course there are outliers)... Given this information, I am genuinely wondering why anyone would NOT work for a tech company.
TC 155k, 10yoe, LCOL US
comments
You can’t neglect to count bonuses when comparing different job offers, but by that same token, you can’t totally rely on getting the bonus at all.
My company used to all but guarantee 15-20% bonuses, and had a track record of delivering that when I joined. Bonuses have been decreasing every year since then, and last year we got 10.1%, literally 0.1% more than the bare minimum, in a year of record profits. It was a slap in the face to say the least.
But the world is not made up of only software engineers, and there are plenty of people who need to get their foot in the door.
Also, TC + YoE or GTFO
The reason this has come up is that I’m now looking. I came into a finance company and didn’t know about bonus targets, so I didn’t negotiate a big one.
Levels + blind = more educated, time for a change.
I’ve gotten offers and they’re a 0-10% increase. That’s good base comp, but has no bonus/equity. If it weren’t for levels + blind I would have thought that was a good move. At this point, I’m disheartened with small (non-tech) companies and just confirming that I should just go tech. I should easily be able to pass L5 with my exp, studying for L6.
After ? Can’t think of a reason
From senior dev onwards you basically can double your income.
Some people either don’t know or can’t pass the interview / perform at this level
The rest is excuses because it’s the same job