My non-new-grad employment with Microsoft had a 1yr vesting cliff. As others have previously mentioned, as long as it’s an established company I see no issue with this since you get a solid signing bonus if continued cash flow is the concern.

This is to the point - cash bonus can compensate this somewhwat. And cash bonus typically doesnt have to be paid back in case of layoff.

I saw a recent (< 3 months) offer from MSFT and it contained the „standard“ 4y vesting schedule with a 1y cliff and then quarterly vesting after.

I think removing the vesting cliff is great but personally I am not worried as I never sew the cliff as a problem.

I should clarify that my experience is with startups (pre-seed to B stage etc) not FAANGs or big cos.