Everything you need to know about Joining Bonus and Retention Bonus

1/ None of them are generosity 2/ Both are activated when budget is locked. But the trap door is open 3/ Joining Bonus is like giving someone a marriage proposal with a Rolex… 4/ Retention Bonus is like hiding divorce papers inside the same box 5/ It's not extra money - it's oregano for you, pizza for someone else 6/ If they truly valued you, they'd just put it in fixed and shut up 7/ Yes! it's not illegal to play with your offer letter with these clauses 8/ A 1L joining bonus is cheaper than giving you a 15K/month raise - and they know it 9/ The joining bonus hits your account fast - so your brain doesn't have time to ask "Wait… why am I being paid to join?" 10/ It's the company's way of confusing you - "don’t look at the base too hard" 11/ Bonus has no upper cap, no logic, purely driven by degree of desperation 12/ For elevated audience - you really thought the retention bonus will be factored into next year's CTC, during comp review. Awww - How cute! AFAIK - most orgs don't carry forward guilt.

Clearly, the formula STILL works. Candidates still fall for it.

PS: Wondering about Cliff Vesting? Don't. Remember (in the corporate world) love always comes with conditions