I honestly assume my equity will give me absolutely nothing, and aim to get pleasantly surprised. Lots of things can happen. You could leave before you vest m

I honestly assume my equity will give me absolutely nothing, and aim to get pleasantly surprised. Lots of things can happen. You could leave before you vest much. They could close yet another round of financing, devaluing your shares. Oddly enough, in my personal experience, the most equity I ever got was when a company decided not to go public, but who's parent company was quite valuable. They offered to buy back our shares at a pretty nice price, since our shares were effectively those of the parent company. Nearly everyone I know has had equity in all of their jobs for the last ten years or so (SF Bay Area), and not one of us has had any lifestyle-changing equity come out of it. Surely we all hope our current or next jobs will have a nice big financial event during our tenure, but I don't plan or anticipate it.