
Ask HN: How common are sign-on bonuses? - 0x01030307
What was your title? And if you&#x27;re comfortable sharing how much did you get?
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chollida1
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.

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Arcten
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.

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pmulv
75k-100k in cash, or in RSU's at the FAANG's? That seems so high to me for a
new grad - congratulations on the offers!

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Arcten
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.

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idunno246
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%.

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saamm
Small sample size, but in Austin I've seen 5k-10k.

