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Comment by JohnFen | Hacker News Reader

> I mean... does any startup when compared to FAANG?

Yes, in my experience. Unless, as you mentioned, you count stock options or similar (which I don't).

You should really count them. They're basically cash after you vest with a public company. Startups have a very low chance of that stock becoming worth anything even after it vests.

Comparing faang compensation at $300k tc vs $180k salary plus Monopoly money... Faang wins often enough since you never get enough stock in startups for it to be really worth it. (Short of being a founder)

> You should really count them.

I've been in the industry too long to put any real value on them, regardless of whether they're from a Fortune 50 company or a startup. Sure, sometimes they pay, but it's always a gamble. I sorta view them more like lottery tickets than actual compensation.

Dude, the stock you get as a Facebook employee is literally money. It vests every month, so you can go to a broker every month and sell it for thousands of dollars of hard cash. No waiting for IPO, no hoping the stock goes up, no 4 year vesting, no board approvals, no nothing.

It may be close, but it is not literally money. If it were, then why wouldn't they just pay the money rather than going through the hassle and expense (for both the company and the employee) of issuing stock?

But that's all beside the point. I understand why these sorts of things may be appealing to people. They just aren't to me, so they don't factor in as "compensation" when I'm evaluating a job opportunity.

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