I find it hard to believe it’s the case for an average researcher, we know their pay package for most L6 engineers is a bit under 1m. But maybe a “fellow” or distinguished engineer?
Yes, it probably applies to the most qualified hires, so probably folks who are already around $1M total comp where they are.
But the most important point is, you don't get that money now, and maybe never. The most likely scenario where you get that kind of a payday is if they go public and if the pre-IPO pie-in-the-sky valuation holds for a good while.
It might. But it's far more of a gamble than your FAANG stock.
I assume an engineering fellow at Amazon or Google is making well over 1M, so that actually makes sense to need to give them 3x or more for drastically less liquid comp.
