The thing is that employee stock options really can be a bad deal. Sure, you can point to plenty of people that have gotten rich off of them but that doesn't ch

The thing is that employee stock options really can be a bad deal. Sure, you can point to plenty of people that have gotten rich off of them but that doesn't change the fact that so much that can go wrong. If you're trading a salary for them that you could be saving and investing today you should be aware of the risks, sadly it doesn't feel like a lot of people in the industry really are. - Company fail? Oops, not worth anything - Company succeeded but sold for under whatever the last round was raised at? Oops, not worth anything - it all goes to the preferred stock holders - Raised a huge round at a great valuation? Too bad, you can't take any money off of the table like the founders probably can. Also, any options you now exercise are 'worth' more and oops, you just triggered AMT and now owe a bunch of taxes for income that may or may not ever exist and that you most certainly can't access yet - Company went public and the stock shot up? Great... unless it tanks before your 6 month lock up period is up and you're stuck with a tax burden you can't afford to pay Layered on top of this is the fact that a lot of the decisions that have real, tangible effects on the above are totally out of your hands (things like how much dilution your company takes on). Even if your founders go to bat for you the investors have very different incentives than you do in all but the totally ideal outcome. My point isn't that people should avoid accepting options but that they should be viewed as a nice perk along the lines of someone buying you a big stack of lottery tickets. I've had too many friends comparing offers between companies multiply what percentage of the company they'd be getting (if the company is even telling them this) by the company's current valuation and treating that like it's money in the bank. By all means, trade salary for the opportunities that working at a small startup could give you (like responsibility, an opportunity to learn, coworkers you like/respect, etc...) but be _very_ aware that what the company tries to sell you RE stock is a reality viewed through the rosiest of glasses.