
Ask HN: FAANG employees, how are the recent stock declines impacting you? - _m96l
The past decade has been very good for tech stocks, in particular for FAANGs where constantly rising prices bolstered generous compensation packages. Very strong stock performance has helped recruitment, morale, and retention in FAANGs.<p>However, now the RSU-heavy compensation policy is being tested, with Facebook and Netflix down over 33%, Amazon declining over 25%, and Google declining 20%.<p>For many employees, and especially engineers, these declines translate to severe compensation cuts.<p>What is the impact of these declines on you and your co-workers?<p>Is your employer responding in any way to the fact that your compensation is suffering deep cuts?<p>Are there any observed or expected impacts on recruiting, retention, and morale, particularly as RSU-heavy compensation packages lose some of the fairy-dust they carried for so long?
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Eridrus
Being down X% after a pretty serious bull run isn't really a big issue.

I'm not relying on stock sales to fund general living expenses, rather the
stock tends to be more about savings, since the base is pretty generous as
well. So it's not really top of mind for me

It generally doesn't come up on our team tbh.

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dunpeal
I realize the declines likely don't impact living budgets, for the reasons you
stated.

However, I am wondering about issues like morale, and especially recruiting
and retention.

As you know, competition for talent is quite intense right now, especially for
the kind of talent FAANG employees have. You see it both in attempts to
recruit new and current employees.

I'm wondering if there's any increase in poaching, or tougher competition on
new talent against employers offering more of a cash component.

Of course, some of these effects may only be apparent in a few months, once
year-end bonuses are paid.

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Eridrus
Anecdotally, compensation is much more of an issue for new hires than existing
employees. I've also just seen far more internal movement, both to and from
our team, than I have people leaving to other companies, though our team has
been growing and getting external hires too.

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bsvalley
That's why you should always negotiate hard on the base salary and signing
bonus. These are guaranteed money not like RSU's.

To answer your question, simply switch FAANG's when the market is down so you
enter at a low price. That's what I've seen so far...

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dunpeal
> _That 's why you should always negotiate hard on the base salary and signing
> bonus. These are guaranteed money not like RSU's._

The two FAANGs I have personal experience with aren't very flexible when it
comes to base salary, though. In both cases, during offer negotiations, I was
told the base salary is strictly tied to levels of seniority in the
organizational hierarchy, so there's effectively no room for maneuvering
there.

RSUs were much more flexible, especially after the first couple of years.

RSUs were also a more important part of the compensation. My initial package
in one FAANG was about 55% RSUs, 45% cash, and I was told that going forward
my RSU component will increase even further, and in particular most bonuses
and raises will be granted in RSUs.

So I'm not sure "negotiating hard" is a viable strategy in FAANG compensation
discussions. They can be quite generous with RSUs, but cash policy is often
strict and inflexible.

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aluminum96
I think most people have taken it pretty well, since a majority of employees
got their grants priced before the bull market of the last few years. It does
really suck though if your grant was priced in August (like mine), which is an
instant 20% pay cut.

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Cerium
I don't work at one of the named companies, but do work at a company with RSU-
heavy compensation that is currently down some 25%. It seems that many of my
coworkers are considering now that our compensation is cut, but that we are
getting cheap grants now. Our grants are sized as a percentage of our base
salary divided by the current price. Today's stock grants will be worth just
as much as past ones but they will have the advantage of higher growth
potential with market gains.

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fred_is_fred
I don't know where you work, but as someone who has been in the industry 20
years - keep in mind - stocks don't always go up, and stocks can go to 0. I
agree in general that getting more shares is better than getting less, but
it's not a guaranteed win.

~~~
dunpeal
That's a good comment. The best case scenario for tech employees is that this
is just a temporary correction, and the bull market will resume after this
short break.

This seems to be the implicit assumption in GP, for example.

However, there's no certainty that will be the case. The next few years could
be a sustained bear market, in which stock prices appreciate very modestly.

And while I wouldn't worry about stocks "going to 0" at a big corporation like
Amazon, it's certainly possible for the smaller tech companies.

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sjg007
Increases and declines are less interesting unless there is a structural issue
with the company. It's if the stock price stays flat which is when you should
be concerned... buybacks etc... lack of growth.. things like that need to be
considered.

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dunpeal
There's a good chance that after a very long bull market, we are entering a
bear market in which stock price will stay flight or even slowly decline for a
long time.

P/E ratios are too high, particularly for tech stocks, and the entire US
equity market will eventually have to go through a bear market.

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mrep
The only one down in the past year is facebook and not by much. If you are
only looking a few months back in the stock market, you are looking at it
wrong.

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segmondy
Where should one begin? There are going to be new folks accepting offer from
FAANG, where/when should they begin to look?

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mrep
In a year or 2 when you are getting refreshers/compensation adjustments.

Netflix doesn't give stock so the stock price does not really effect them. All
the rest will give you extra stocks if the stock price drops enough that it
brings you below your target compensation.

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yuhong
Personally, I am waiting for GOOG stock to drop, partly in relationship to my
essay.

