Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

    "was if you're in the Bay Area and you take a job with 
    Zapier we'll pay $10,000 to help you relocate to 
    anywhere, or as we call it, de-locate."
..so this is just a one time re-location "bonus"? I think many large companies "pay you" something close to this amount to re-locate to the bay area. This really doesn't help that much. What would be better is to pay bay area salaries/rates in another part of the country that doesn't have stupid expensive housing rates + 10k/yearly for not working in the bay area.


Many/most companies pay something like this for relocation. I never thought of it as a bonus, rather a way for an employer to offset the expense and misery of moving. If a company didn't help pay for relocation, I wouldn't want to work for that company. It's not a bonus, it's an expectation.


Facebook pays $50k to relocate to Bay Area!


But then you have to live in the bay area.


And freeze your eggs


That's a benefit that is extremely valuable.


What? Why?


[flagged]


Or because your comment offers nothing relevant to the discussion


But then you have to work at Facebook.


Say what you want about the business side, but everyone I've talked to from Facebook on the engineering side loves it.


Don't get me wrong, it would be a lot of fun to work with world class engineers, it's probably a blast, but life is too short to work for unethical organizations run by egomaniacs.


Everyone I talk to there is practically contemplating suicide (their words) before their RSUs vest. Trying to add some process just doesn't go over well, apparently!


$10k is usually the signing bonus I get for just changing companies. Is this in addition to the signing bonus?


Yes it is separate. At Amazon the signing bonus you owe if you leave within one year but the relocation bonus you owe if you leave within two; both are prorated


> At Amazon the signing bonus you owe if you leave within one year but the relocation bonus you owe if you leave within two; both are prorated

Um, wow. Yet another reason not to work at Amazon.

How does Amazon still get employees when they just seem to pile these kinds of irritating, anti-employee behaviors up one after another?


The bonuses are quite high, is the reason.

Amazon pays competitive salaries.

They are probably a bit below Google or Facebook salaries, but compared to an average SF startup, they pay literally 50-100% more. (the offer I just got from them was 80% more than my SF startup salary).

Some of their behavior is indeed "annoying" ie they have a weird stock options vesting schedule, but if you actually do the math, and think with your head, you see that their total compensation is quite competitive.

The moral of the story is, if you care about compensation, don't work for startups. Even the "less competitive" companies like Amazon, with "scummy" behavior like claw backs, are still miles ahead of the average startup, in terms of compensation.


> 80% more than my SF startup salary

Were you making 100k or something? Or are you looking at total comp?


I was looking at total comp. Total compensation is way high at big companies. And total compensation is the only thing that really matters.

You get RSU stocks that are actually worth a bunch. You get huge signing bonuses, you get great benefits as well as 401K matching.

All that adds up to something like 70k+ a year in "not salary" benefits, even though it just as good as cash (on top of a much higher base salary ).


I've seem most BigCo offers to be a bit lower salary than startup offers (at senior or staff level engineer, excluding Netflix) but total comp is indeed much higher.


Are these bonus terms not standard? These prorated periods are the same for Microsoft.

How else do you stop someone walking out on day 1 with 50k cash?


The alternative would be to have a "guaranteed" bonus after a certain amount of time, but people overwhelmingly prefer having something now, even if it means they might lose it later.


I'm surprised about the relocation for 2 years. I would have expected one year for anything. Two years is an eternity in tech.

> These prorated periods are the same for Microsoft.

Ah. Understood.

> How else do you stop someone walking out on day 1 with 50k cash?

If that happens enough that you have to actually worry about it, you have much bigger problems.


I've had similar repayment terms on every signing bonus I've gotten.

Especially at large public companies, a huge chunk of your comp is either a bonus at year end or stock on a vesting schedule with a 1 year cliff. When switching companies, it's fairly common to get a sizeable signing bonus to compensate for the reduced cashflow for the first 12 months.


They also clawback their contribution to the 401k if you leave before (iirc) three years.


This is common in the normal business world. Most 401k vests over a period of three years with a prorated clawback mechanism.


My understanding is that you no longer have to pay back the signing bonus. Not sure about relocation bonuses.


Or two years, which sometimes happen at Amazon.


Heck, I moved half way across the country and I got about that much for relocation.

Neither location involved the Bay area.

This seems to be the standard (and not special) relocation benefit.


Even if it's a one time bonus it's a pretty good deal for people who were looking to get out anyway.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: