They are used in Finance, regardless of title, to help entice people to leave a competitor.
Almost everyone in this world works on a decent salary and potentially large bonus model for compensation. To help entice more long term thinking, and hold people to the firm, bonuses vest over 2-4 years.
It's extremely common to have a discussion with a potential new firm about how much money you are walking away from unvested bonuses and for them to just match that bonus number and vesting schedule as a precondition for joining a new firm.
As a new grad from CMU undergrad, every offer I had came with a sign on bonus (n=5). Size ranged from 5k at a smaller public company to 75-100k at a couple of FAANG companies, one of which I was a returning intern at.
Thank you. Those were in cash, RSUs were separate. It is definitely very high, and I feel fortunate to have gotten it. Many of my fellow interns received similar signing bonuses on their return offers, so at least for people in similar situations it's not out of the ordinary.
in the bay area, pretty much every offer ive gotten has some sort of signon bonus. Sometimes it was labeled as moving expenses. Ive been in a postition with options at the previous company you need cash to exercise, or having to payback a previous signon for not making it a year. Or the equity in the new company has a cliff of the first year so it kinda covers that delay.
I think the real reason is its easy to say 'your first year cash comp is XXXXXX' and hoping the candidate doesnt realize that second year is XXXXXX*75%.
Almost everyone in this world works on a decent salary and potentially large bonus model for compensation. To help entice more long term thinking, and hold people to the firm, bonuses vest over 2-4 years.
It's extremely common to have a discussion with a potential new firm about how much money you are walking away from unvested bonuses and for them to just match that bonus number and vesting schedule as a precondition for joining a new firm.