A Software Engineer’s Guide to Seniority by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

A Software Engineer’s Guide to Seniority

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reaching investment—but we are specifically focusing on obtaining them and grasping concepts on how you will be able to manage the windfall.

For example, say that I am going to work for a Silicon Valley company. The recruiter returns to me with my verbal offer and gives a brief of the amount I happen to fixate on them saying that they are going to give me $200,000 in RSUs. When you hear $200,000, you think “Holy shit!” because that is a lot of money. However, there is a question that you need to ask: What is the vesting period for the RSUs?

Vesting Period

The trick with RSUs is that you do not get the entire lump sum of money that the company is offering you right away. They are given to you over a period such as 25% of the RSUs over 4 years. This span of time is what is known as the vesting period. The other trick about RSUs is that you need to stay at the company for the entirety of the vesting period to get the money.

A nice bonus of the vesting period is that if your company issues based on the number of stock units vs. the stock price, the amount of your stock units will ebb and flow with the market. So, it’s possible that the 25% of your RSUs on your vesting date will be worth more than what it was when you originally were given them. The opposite can apply, but if that happens, you don’t have to immediately cash out your stocks if they are low. You can hold onto them for as long, or as little, as you want. When to hold and sell is up to you, and this is not financial advice, but I recommend researching about the stock market and other ways to reinvest on your own and to make your own decisions.

With that said, I don’t believe that much of your compensation should be bundled into RSUs. If you feel the same, you can have that conversation about the percentage between your base salary and RSUs.

Bonuses

We are used to bonuses as a capitalistic culture. You get one in the winter at the holidays because companies want you to have extra money for gifts and food around that time. It’s also possible that you will receive bonuses if the company has excessive profit at the end of the fiscal year and wants to share that with you. From the job offers that I have received in tech, bonuses are talked about strictly as percentages and always given as what you could earn.

Why is it framed like this? It means that your max bonus potential is not guaranteed! Because it is not guaranteed income—no matter how much the recruiter makes it seem like you will max out the percentage—I don’t include

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