so i was thinking today on the train how i’ve been reading and hearing a lot lately about signing bonuses or golden hand shake or what have you…
i was wondering what are people’s take on them. obviously we want them, but how would you go about asking for it? do you feel it should be a given? how big should they be? i’m not in a position to ask or get one now as i have a steady job, but i’m just curious as to the general concensus…
cheers -paul
Unless you’re a rock-star designer I wouldn’t expect one.
Signing bonuses were popular during the Web 1.0 era for programers, but I’ve never heard of an industrial designer getting one.
The one situation where this could actually happen is if a company were trying to steal a director level guy away from a competitor. They may need to sweeten the pot with an upfront bonus.
Anybody get one??
I recieved one as a part of my salery negotiation.
wait, i feel like that makes me sound like an ass.
i wanted the new job, but the salery bump was not as much as i hoped. i was offered 7-8% raise versus the 10-12% that i was shooting for. the signing bonus was the way we split the difference
J
i’m impressed that you got a “signing bonus” considering you misspelled salary twice!
… uhm, burn 
Seriously though, a lot of it depends on the company’s standard practices, esp in a big corp. Do some digging, and dont be afraid to ask (if you have an offer), the worst they can say is no. If you have an offer in black and white, now is the time to negotiate (nicely). They can’t give you less than you have on your offer letter…
I’ve gotten one before. It was part of the negotiation process. They came in a little lower than I hoped on base salary, and I tried to get them up closer to where I wanted to be. They couldn’t really come up much, so they tacked on a bonus to sweeten the deal.
I’ve gotten sign on bonuses at my last two jobs.
I got hired in as a contractor…without a sign on bonus…5 months later it was converted to a full time position… with quite a hefty bonus and a slight raise! Couldn’t get sweeter! Well, the raise I had to negotiate for. So ask! It will do no harm.