[reallydude]

I have never seen a signing bonus. Options, yearly bonus, even rev-share, sure.

> There can be other facets of a company that should influence your decision, such as what type of healthcare they offer,

Almost universally, company health care SUCKS. Look for major medical. If it's not there, don't bother. Save yourself the 7$ a month they will rebate you, if you opt-out. JPMorgan? Trash. Experian? Trash. etc

> What the 401k matching looks like

This is important. Generally % of paycheck up to a limit. It does take a chunk from your paycheck, which is you saving for yourself.

> whether they offer a mega backdoor Roth, whether they allow auto-sell of your vested stocks, whether there’s an employee stock purchase plan, and whether they offer free food or gym.

This is all marginal and rare in my experience. Other than a little gym you can pay for or some snacks (which will eventually be abused and changed if the company is growing) or Kombucha on tap or whatever is not a consideration for me.

[danceparty]

>I have never seen a signing bonus. Options, yearly bonus, even rev-share, sure.

Anecdata, but I have worked for two of the big faangm companies and myself and every coworker I am aware of had a signing bonus.

[headcanon]

I've worked at startups in Michigan my whole career and have not seen a signing bonus either. Are these typically exclusive to FAANG companies?

[reallydude]

Not just specific companies, but largely specific areas (which have to compete with specific companies). New grads will, statistically, never see signing bonuses in their career, much less out of school. People paying bonuses for new grads is a sunk opportunity cost and a company should never do it unless it hurts them in some measurable way (cost-benefit analyses are important).

I've interviewed hundreds of people in Southern California, some who came out of google (does give signing bonuses) or Amazon (rarely signing bonus) and it has happened that Blizzard tempted some people with a little bonus...but these are uncommon.

People who jump company to company (google to amazon and back) don't get bonuses (as rehires), although that's outside the topic of "new grads".

[bluedevilzn]

I joined Amazon as a new grad. Signing bonus was part of the standard new grad offer.

> People paying bonuses for new grads is a sunk opportunity cost

Sure but FAAMG aren't really trying to pinch pennies. Signing bonuses also usually have a clause where you have to return it, if you don't at least stay a year. Signing bonus as a new grad is a HUGE help to the new grad. When you're competing between FAAMNG, that signing bonus can sway what offer a new grad would accept.

> google (does give signing bonuses)

I'm currently at Google but I had to negotiate the signing bonus. It wasn't part of my original offer.

> People who jump company to company...

They absolutely do.

[runT1ME]

I'm in SoCal, lots of companies around here will do low five figure starting bonuses now if you ask. I've seen 5k-15k in my offers at either smaller startups or non FAANG.

[chris11]

I think Amazon's standard offer includes a large signing bonus over two years to compensate for the abnormal vesting schedule.

[lotsofpulp]

Between myself and the people I know in NYC/SF, I would expect signing bonuses in tech, finance, law, and medicine.

[ilikehurdles]

No, I received one with a startup in none of the above locations after negotiating salary and being ready to walk away.

[heurist]

Nope, have had a couple offers from small and mid-sized cos with signing bonuses in Austin. Not anywhere near FAANG-sized signing bonuses, mind you, but they exist.

I am curious about standard Bay Area FAANG signing bonuses for mid-senior level. This new grad offer from the post sounds insane to me, regardless of talent:

$115,000 salary

$240,000 equity/4 years, 1 year cliff then quarterly

$100,000 signing

Congrats to the winner of that deal.

[hellocs1]

3 of my friends got this, all at Facebook. Not to say this is standard, but this is not outlier. Some hedge funds pay more.

AFAIK only Facebook gives 100k signing, and it's usually for returning interns and after negotiation with competing offers (usually other FANG or hedge fund offers).

[heurist]

Amy idea of their signing bonus outside of new grads? I'm wondering what they offer people with real experience if they give that much to people without any. Relevant for me because I'm interviewing with a large financial firm that "pays similarly to FB". I doubt their claim, especially in light of these numbers.

[Ancalagon]

100k signing is absurd, I've never heard of that

[taurath]

Startups in non big VC states (WA, NY, CA) tend to not have signing bonuses. Every company I'd apply for has some sort of signing bonus, FAANG and not-FAANG.

[southphillyman]

I've gotten signing bonus from recruiters trying to close a deal at non FAANG. Not $100k signing bonuses but 4 and 5 figure for sure.

[glass_of_water]

Just to add a data point, I joined a FAANG company at one of their east coast offices and didn't get a signing bonus.

[akhilcacharya]

Just from my experience, Amazon almost universally offers signing bonuses to new hires in order to make up for backloaded vesting.

[mav3rick]

I am kind of shocked at how poorly Amazon pays new grads on top of unfavorable vesting schedules. There is a reason most of my friends left it in < 2 years for better work and pay.

[akhilcacharya]

I joined as a new grad at Amazon. What do you think I'm paid, and what do you expect me to make?

[mav3rick]

I hope you are paid what you wanted to be paid. On average my experience has been that Amazon's offers are lesser than Google and Facebook's. Not to mention no free food which would be okay if Amazon paid more but that is not the case.

[jonathanwallace]

I've negotiated a signing bonus for one (small ~50 person) company.

You never know until you ask but I would expect it to be rare.

[urda]

> I have never seen a signing bonus.

I have had multiple throughout my career and so have my peers. This is actually quite common for engineers and talent on the higher end of the skill bell curve.

[urda]

Downvoter you confuse me. Either you've downvoted it because it is anecdata which is fair or you have discovered your personal market value and would rather not acknowledge that to yourself, thus making the "downvote" the way you can become at peace with that.

Signing bonuses are not not unusual at all and, again I can't stress this to the reader any further, they are awarded consistently and constantly to top performing engineers and talent in their fields.