Yeah, you're guaranteed significantly more than $52k/year in stock working as an engineer at Google. When you adjust for risk, the $52k/year from a startup is

Yeah, you're guaranteed significantly more than $52k/year in stock working as an engineer at Google. When you adjust for risk, the $52k/year from a startup is probably more like $5k/year, or even less. I think people have said over and over again that you shouldn't work at a startup for the money. I hope all the 20-somethings moving to the Bay Area are listening. It's a pretty bad deal for the money, to the point that VCs are writing about it [1]. It's good to optimize for learning early in you career, to be exposed to different problems, etc. A sweet spot is to work at a bigger company with quality people (that part is very important), and to also make sure you are launching things, moving around, and learning things. [1] http://blog.samaltman.com/employee-equity http://blog.samaltman.com/employee-equity