And even those who receive just a standard "Meets Expectations" rating receive sufficient refreshers that there isn't that big a cliff after four years either. It may go from something like $500k to $450k.
There's a lot of jumping around at the 3-year mark, especially for people who want to cash in their FAANG brand for a similar package somewhere else. But once you get to E5 and higher there is significant financial incentive to stay with FB for longer than the initial four years.
For an E5 you get ~600k initial grant and 120k refresher for meets all. So your equity comp goes
Year 1: 150k
Year 2: 180k
Year 3: 210k
Year 4: 240k
Year 5: 120k
That’s a pretty big drop. It’s less if you have higher ratings or promo of course.
There's a lot of jumping around at the 3-year mark, especially for people who want to cash in their FAANG brand for a similar package somewhere else. But once you get to E5 and higher there is significant financial incentive to stay with FB for longer than the initial four years.