After the transaction you will definitely know - for the reasons you mention and b/c uncle sam wants some of your recent gains. The issue that people are gener

After the transaction you will definitely know - for the reasons you mention and b/c uncle sam wants some of your recent gains. The issue that people are generally raising is that sometimes unscrupulous characters try to impress naive candidates with job offers that only have the number of shares -- "You should sign today b/c you get XX MM shares.." which sounds great but could mean that you just accepted a worthless offer depending on shares outstanding.