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Anonymous posed the following question: "how much weight or importance
have you given to stock options" when considering a job offer?
I think that it depends on two things: the company and your comfort
level. If the company is quite successful, the stock is likely to be
valuable. If it's a young, still-getting-established company, you're
obviously taking a gamble.
Stock options work as an incentive for me. I accepted my present job,
with a start-up company, over another job offer which offered a few
thousand dollars more in annual salary and more vacation days. Why? For
a few reasons, one of which was that this package included stock
options. Now, my options vest over a four-year period in order to
protect the company, so I get a 25% allocation each year (so that I
can't work here for six months and walk off with a bunch of company
stock). It's a calculated risk, and one that I decided to take -- if
our company becomes successful, which we obviously all think and hope
that it will, we'll reap some handsome rewards.
I personally think that stock options are most effective as an incentive
when you get stock in a company that is on its way up, not a company at
the top of its field or on the wane. If you're going into a young
company that could potentially make a lot of money (it's got great
technology to market, or an extremely talented staff, or has identified
a unique market niche), then the chances for you to gain on that stock
would be, I think, significant. Depends on how comfortable you are
taking a gamble, and how you want your money -- maybe getting stable
money up-front in a higher salary is more important for you. I certainly
wouldn't take a job that offered to greatly underpay me and give me
stock, but as I said I did in fact take a slightly lower salary than I
would have been able to command because of the stock options I was
given. Just one person's story ... good luck choosing between your
options; it's a nice position to be in.
