Employee Stock Options as Explained By an English Major(thebillfold.com)
thebillfold.com
Employee Stock Options as Explained By an English Major
http://thebillfold.com/2014/02/employee-stock-options-as-explained-by-an-english-major/
4 comments
Twice, I have had stock options, as an employee in the low-10s at small companies. Company 1 IPO'd in the dotcom boom, my options that had actually vested came to maybe 6 months worth of my then-salary. A nice chunk o'change to be sure, but buying a house? No way. Paid off my student debt, had a couple of very nice vacations. By the time the rest vested, they were underwater.
Here's the kicker: employee #1 was a good friend of mine and we did a show-me-yours-show-you-mine. He got exactly the same as I had. Huh.
Second time, small company acquired by much larger public company. Again, about 6 months worth it worked out to, tho' of course my salary was abit higher then. Paid the deposit on my first flat which was nice, and some furniture and a fancy TV, but very, very far from buying the flat outright for cash.
Nowadays I work for a giant corporation, my salary is actually just over the salaries from those two jobs combined, and stock options are of zero interest to me.
Here's the kicker: employee #1 was a good friend of mine and we did a show-me-yours-show-you-mine. He got exactly the same as I had. Huh.
Second time, small company acquired by much larger public company. Again, about 6 months worth it worked out to, tho' of course my salary was abit higher then. Paid the deposit on my first flat which was nice, and some furniture and a fancy TV, but very, very far from buying the flat outright for cash.
Nowadays I work for a giant corporation, my salary is actually just over the salaries from those two jobs combined, and stock options are of zero interest to me.
This person might think they have a grasp of stock options, but it's like saying a 5 year old understands shipping logistics, freight tariffs and export restrictions because someone explained how a propeller works.
> This is why people shittier than you always want to “get in on the ground floor.”
This clearly shows that this person didn't believe they gave a good input into the company or that they weren't deserving of stock options.
They don't truly understand the incentives they offer in a competitive employment market.
Shoe-horning ignorance into a blog post. Eugh.
> This is why people shittier than you always want to “get in on the ground floor.”
This clearly shows that this person didn't believe they gave a good input into the company or that they weren't deserving of stock options.
They don't truly understand the incentives they offer in a competitive employment market.
Shoe-horning ignorance into a blog post. Eugh.
TL;DR: "Always join a company before the lawyers do."
That was really loooong.
English major.
stock options are not a lot of money. they're just not. unless you're employee #5 at dropbox or something, you really aren't going to become super wealthy off of your start-up options, and you most certainly will make more money working for a bigger company.
this isn't to say "don't work at a startup" - it's more like, "don't work at a startup because you think you'll become wealthy." work at a startup because you believe in what the company does and you want to just get things done without red tape and excessive meetings and other crap. just don't think you'll get rich working for someone else; it's possible, but very unlikely.