Refreshers at meets are typically 25% of the "standard" grant (so your comp will go down after 4 years unless you have outstanding performance or your director gives you an Additional Equity grant)

Vesting cadence is typically quarterly or monthly.

If they are at 25% for meets, why will your comp go down? 25% times 4 == 100%

Most people don't join with the "standard" grant, they negotiate it up quite significantly.

Refreshers only being you up to the "standard" target TC (as defined by the company). So after their initial grant fully vests, most engineers will see their comp drop by a couple hundred k, even with refreshers.

This is a huge contributing factor to the low retention at big tech - it's why most people leave by the time their initial grant runs out.

Thanks, that is my same experience as at my bigtech.