Blind people please consider refreshers when looking at offers
I really want people who don't know about refreshers and only look at the initial offers to know and understand refreshers and how they work at various companies before accepting an offer. Too many times I see on blind people accepting an offer that might be like 5k-10k more with a company with terrible refreshers over a company with good refreshers. Company with good refreshers like Google, Facebook and Apple, give you sizable amount of refreshers every single year that vests over 4 years as long as you are not a bad performer. They give you more if you are a good performer. And these refreshers stack. It looks something like this: (these numbers are examples. Assume these numbers are in thousands) Years 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Initial 25 25 25 25 Refresh Y1 10 10 10 10 Refresh Y2 15 15 15 15 Refresh Y3 20 20 20 20 Refresh Y4 25 25 25 25 ... Total 25 35 50 70 70 ... Refreshers will go up with higher performance and promotions. This is a big deal especially if you want the flexibility of staying at the company 3+ years. A lot of people who work at companies without regular refreshers don't know and don't take this into consideration. TC: 300k
Also take into account if you dont get promoted but have a smaller amount refreshers, after the initial 4 year cliff, if the stock price has been doing very well, you may end up with a pay "cut" when those original ones have vested
Even if the stock is stagnant even, you will likely have a 4 year cliff if you never got promoted. But yes, good point. I'd also point out, year 4 pay is significantly higher than year 1 pay because of initial grant stacked with 3 refreshers. And I would argue the cliff and where you fall to are both higher if you go with the company with good refreshers. Another reason for the cliff is that usually initial grant is a lot higher than one refresher. So when the initial grant drops off, you feel the drop, unless you got promoted and been doing well enough that refresh > initial grant or if you got a tiny initial grant.
Yep so it basically comes down to: 1. Do well and get promoted at or before cliff 2. Do ok enough to stay for 1-3 years then find another role. Rinse and repeat.
Is refresher basically the same as a yearly performance bonus then
If your yearly performance bonus is awarded by additional RSUs then yes
They can be the same as ash_ketch mentioned but for clarification, you can have yearly cash bonus and refreshers. For example Google gives yearly cash bonuses AND refreshers. Refreshers are just additional RSU grants similar to the ones you received when you got hired. You get it as part of your yearly compensation increase. Amazon only gives refreshers for high performers or at year 3 or 4 when RSUs are about to drop out. They tend to not stack them but defer it to year 5 or 6 for example.
Salesforce, for example, doesn't automatically give refreshers
It's more common that the company doesn't give refreshers, and rare to find ones that do. I can only think of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Snap that give decent sized refreshers to everyone who don't perform bad. I'm sure there are a few more.
Oh. Okay. I figured this was a Salesforce negative.
So, I’ll ask.... what is a refresher?
Wondering the same
The problem for me is, out of the companies you mentioned, I would only consider working at Apple. I don’t know if Apple hires in Seattle or not.
They sure do
Why only apple
Google execs have already expressed how deeply offended they are by people of my political persuasion. And Facebook’s product literally wastes human time.
I guess I’ve never thought about Snap before. Were there any others?
Thanks for the info! So this is nothing like amazons comp philosophy!!
At the end of the day every company has a budget of $x they plan on spending on you and there is really no magic formula the will make that 2x. In every company you get 2x from them by getting a top rating, or by the stock going up. Google has a higher target comp at the same level than Amazon, but that has nothing to do with the structure of the offer. That's really just how the define levels. Amazon's going to give you refreshers explicitly to hit a given target, and if you perform well that target is going to go up, a lot. Google's going to give you a piddly refresher if you are just plodding along and an awesome one if you kick ass. Every FANG will find a way to jack up your pay if you are great and all will eventually make you fall off a cliff if you are not.
Were you around at amazon when the stock more than tripled? Nobody got any refreshers irrespective of performance. Everyone’s tct was way more than promised. This really screwed top performers more than anyone else
This is very true. Or you can just change companies every 2 years and not worry about refreshers...
Yeah, that's an option, but then consider at least the first refresher if that's your plan. I just want people to have the knowledge of this and make the decisions instead of not knowing or considering.
I change every 2 years. My interview skills up to date. More tc. More connections. Higher title.