It's always over time and then called vested or vesting. Usually it's 4 years, if you negotiated well 3 years. Often you get a 1 year cliff too which means you

It's always over time and then called vested or vesting. Usually it's 4 years, if you negotiated well 3 years. Often you get a 1 year cliff too which means you get nothing if you leave in the first 12 months. And finally you get in general virtual shares restricted to sell them in case of an exit. 5 years vesting is very very unusual. Depending on the stage on the importance of the role you can ask for more or less. The some good articles in the net explaining how much one should get. The higher the risk the more equity.