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Comment by dewdler | Hacker News Reader

They apparently work developers to the bone and use they’re name to easily backfill with above average talent.

> to the bone

You would work to the bone too if you were getting rich off of AMZN stock options.

If anyone but upper management was getting AMZN stock options. Everyone else gets RSUs and the RSU vesting rates are ridiculous. 4 years to be able to vest less than 50% of my options? And then at the end of those 4 years the only people getting increased comp rates are management?

You can fuck right off, Benzos.

As well as the annual "bonus." It's not a bonus. It's a stack of money on a string that they'll pull away from you if you leave before the year's up.

Crunch time isn't worth it for half of what Adobe would be paying me.

I don’t mean to feed the troll but the schedule is hardly a secret and is 5%/15%/40%/40% (20% per 6 months in the last two years), so they have vested 60% at 3 years.

Have you redeemed your options? Do you know vesting rate is on adjusted (logarithmic) and not gross (cumulative)? Do you know you have to give notice before you redeem them? Do you know your options become null if you're terminated? Do you know what they call people around here that redeem their options?

Your previous post wasn’t clear if you were talking about options or RSUs. It jumped from one to the other like you were describing the same thing.

Obviously there is an additional mystery world of option grants at Amazon that we aren’t aware of.

If you don't like your situation at Amazon, by all means take the Adobe job. Nobody has nailed you to your desk.

Saying that I'm crucified to the coffee table that's referred to as a Desk (TM) around here, would be an understatement.

Ever since G's cronies have been revising the "non-solicitations."

There is no annual bonus at Amazon. Just a sign on bonus.

Also your initial stock grant vests 100% after 4 years. 5, 15, 40, 40

Your facts are all wrong

Five on one hundred. Fifteen on ninety five. Forty on eighty and three fourths. Forty on forty and forty-five hundredths. Then twenty on thirty eight and seventy six hundredths. Ad infinitum -- IF your performance is "up to par." Pro-tip: Very rarely is it ever.

Your stock options will never be fully vested. At around 8 years you'll be nearing 100%. That is, if you're: not fired/dead from exhaustion/dead from others.

You get an annual "bonus" as well. It's not a bonus and it's not called that. It's an advance on salary. It's the justification for your lower-compared-to-industry salary. It's null too if you're gone before the year is up.

So no, sir. Your facts are wrong.

> Your stock options will never be fully vested.

You're still making money off of the vested portion of the options if you exercise them.

You seem to be claiming you're forced to stay since you aren't 100% vested. This sounds more like golden handcuffs than crucifixion to your desk.

Apparently your problem is Amazon stock keeps going up, so you're loathe to leave. Leaving my last job was easy since the stock options were underwater :-) glub glub. Your problem is one I would have liked to have.

I think you have your facts wrong. Amazon issues RSUs not options. The same process is used for essentially all employees. The annual proxy report describes the process for the top execs (Jassy, Wilke, Blackburn) and it is identical to the process for a L4 SDE.

New hires get RSUs that vest at 12 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, 42 months, and 48 months after they start. These are 5%, 15%, 20%, 20%, 20%, and 20%, respectively, of the total initial RSU grant. It doesn't change.

You do get more RSUs in future years, but that does not impact the vesting schedule of the initial grant.

There is no annual bonus at Amazon. You get 1/12 of your base salary each month. New hires get additional cash each month for the first two years (usually more in the first year), but that is the sign-on bonus. It isn't an advance.

The only case I know of that does not match the above is for sales reps -- this is a limited set of people and I doubt that many are reading HN.

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