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Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

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41–50 of 272 posts

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#41

Well, I’d love to work for Apple, but I have no interest into moving from Minnesota suburbs to the Bay Area with all of its sanitation and ludicrous cost of living problems. If I was Apple… it was the wrong time to build fancy headquarters. You got a few years, and now the area around it is falling apart and your employees have fallen in love with remote work.

The Bay Area is 6900 square miles of land and cost of living is as high as any other metro on average per square mile. London, Tokyo, New York and pretty much every other major metropolis has problems akin to the Bay Area but we never quite as frequently refer to London or Tokyo “falling apart” the way we like to attract all our collective attention to bash the Bay Area here.

With all of its wealth and demand, the Bay Area should look like London or Tokyo or New York. Instead it looks like Tracy. It’s not falling apart, but neither is it growing up. It’s stagnant.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#42

Apple is clearly an incredibly successful company but to take an example why would an energetic young developer ever choose to work on Apple Music over Spotify? I say this as an Apple Music subscriber but one is a company that is existentially all in and the other that sees a revenue stream. This is evident in the quality of the respective products. If you’re not in the AR/car divisions then what is the point.

> why would an energetic young developer ever choose to work on Apple Music over Spotify? I say this as an Apple Music subscriber but one is a company that is existentially all in and the other that sees a revenue stream

I imagine some people had similar thoughts when considering Netscape Navigator vs Internet Explorer.

> If you’re not in the AR/car divisions then what is the point.

Some people are more interested in a stable paycheck and will take a bullshit job to enable it.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#43
Back in 2008 or so I remember rumors of Google giving million dollar stock awards to keep engineers from leaving, particularly female or other under-represented classes. These Apple award numbers sound downright stingy for a trillion dollar tech company.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#44
On one hand it seems like it would have happened already, but I still have to wonder if the FAANG arms race will have consequences in 5-10 years when all these overpaid engineers call in rich and decide to go work on something more interesting and with less bureaucracy in the way.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#45
Speaking of employee stock options,

Does anyone have a recommended resource that details what practically happens to my options when a company IPOs?

I know there’s a lot of variables but I imagine there’s some common patterns and things to be aware of.

The entire thing is Greek to me and might become very important soon.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the designers get all the glory… sign me up! Maybe I’m naive, but designing UI stuff is a lot less stressful than making things actually work.

Designers and PMs. Apple is being ran by designers and PMs. Which is not really a bad thing from users point of view.

Apple has product managers?

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#47
Apple is the biggest brand in the world and consumers love the company more than any other brand. Meta/Facebook is a peanut when it comes to the consumer hardware space. AR/VR will probably replace the smartphone in 10 years but I don’t think Apple has anything to worry about. Apple will cannibalize the iPhone themselves.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#48

> "Most engineers received stock worth $80,000 to $120,000, with the bonuses provided as restricted stock units that are set to vest over the course of four years provided the employees stay with Apple and do not take jobs at other companies." Is that really a significant amount enough to ward off being poached? 120k over 4 years is 30k a year if linear. I would think at the pay scales being discussed they would get…

Not sure if this is how it works, but if they're awarded now and Apple maintains its current growth it could be worth 4x (AAPL is up ~400% compared to 4 years ago).

Well, the engineer could also take a job at another company, and just used the increased compensation to buy more Apple stock. Unless they significantly believe that they working in Apple will be a significant factor in Apple stock price increasing 4x, in which case, they should probably ask for more stock.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#49

> "Most engineers received stock worth $80,000 to $120,000, with the bonuses provided as restricted stock units that are set to vest over the course of four years provided the employees stay with Apple and do not take jobs at other companies." Is that really a significant amount enough to ward off being poached? 120k over 4 years is 30k a year if linear. I would think at the pay scales being discussed they would get…

I work for an public enterprise software company and it's a constant drip of RSUs as performance bonuses, retention, company milestones, anniversary dates, "well we can't give you raise right now but how about some RSUs?", etc.

So after a couple years as the vesting dates hit these start to stack and they end up becoming quite significant.

Re: Some Apple engineers rewarded up to $180k in stock bonuses as incentive to stay

#50

Apple is clearly an incredibly successful company but to take an example why would an energetic young developer ever choose to work on Apple Music over Spotify? I say this as an Apple Music subscriber but one is a company that is existentially all in and the other that sees a revenue stream. This is evident in the quality of the respective products. If you’re not in the AR/car divisions then what is the point.

Because they are just engineers, not the owners of the company.

That’s almost precisely my point. If I wanted to atrophy on a subpar product I’d choose Apple Music too. But I admit I say this not knowing the general compensation of either product.
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