These articles make front-page HN every couple of weeks and I find it very tiresome. Stock options most likely aren't going to be "worth it" (which is not to sa

These articles make front-page HN every couple of weeks and I find it very tiresome. Stock options most likely aren't going to be "worth it" (which is not to say that they're going to be entirely worthless, but $25k before taxes isn't turning any heads). Some bullet points: * Stock options for common stock mean you're dead last in line for making money. Before you are banks/lenders/creditors, investors & board members, founders and any extremely talented management that were brought in. * Unless everything goes absolutely amazing and according to plan, your options are not going to be worth much money. All it takes is one down round or a market downturn during your lockup and you're wiped out. * If your company goes IPO, you have a long time before you can do anything with your shares. In the meantime, the market may not be kind, and your options might be underwater. * If you get acquired, big flashy numbers can turn sour pretty quickly. "Top-billed" numbers (e.g. Company acquired for $2bn) can have a lot of fine print. Your options very well may be worthless, or you may be subject to lots of earn-outs that A) you probably won't hit or B) the acquirer has no real reason to help you hit them. And that's not to mention the whole ball of fun that comes along with figuring out your taxes. People (speaking mostly just about friends & coworkers) spend far too much time fussing about various outcomes and calculating things when, at the end of the day, it's not worth worrying about. You're probably not going to get rich off of stock options; negotiate for what you think you're worth, but once you have, forget about them. Of course, if you're a founder or a first-5 employee, the situation probably warrants a lot more scrutiny and have your lawyer/accountant look over the paperwork. But if you're not, it's really probably not worth more than an hour or two of reading the paperwork and asking some questions.