{"id":4227,"date":"2013-11-21T08:21:49","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T16:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canary.kcprod.info/blog\/?p=4227"},"modified":"2023-02-21T16:45:34","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T00:45:34","slug":"an-employee-perspective-on-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canary.kcprod.info/blog\/an-employee-perspective-on-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"An Employee Perspective on Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note:<\/strong> Interested in learning more about equity compensation, the best time to exercise options, and the right company stock selling strategies? Read our Guide to Equity & IPOs<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A<\/span> couple of days ago we wrote a post for company founders that describes our proposal for allocating equity to attract and retain outstanding employees.\u00a0 We call it the Wealthfront Equity Plan<\/a>. It\u2019s equally important to take a look at the Wealthfront Equity Plan from the perspective of an employee.<\/p>\n

When a prospective employee is considering a job offer she should be concerned not only with the amount of options she receives when she joins a company but also how well she is going to be rewarded for outstanding performance. Back in April 2012 we wrote a blog post that listed the 12 questions you should ask about the options associated with your job offer (NOTE:\u00a0We have since updated and expanded this post, please see The 14 Crucial Questions About Stock Options<\/a>).\u00a0All the questions focused on an initial offer because I had long assumed most companies treated follow-on grants similarly.\u00a0 Over the past couple of years I have come to realize that is clearly not the case.<\/p>\n

Not every employer does the right thing<\/h2>\n

The other day we made an offer to an engineer who had never worked for a company that gave out additional grants, so he wanted to negotiate his stock option offer which was already above market.\u00a0 We explained our policy regarding grants post-joining and he almost couldn\u2019t believe what he heard.\u00a0 Fortunately all our employees could attest to its veracity.\u00a0 Not surprisingly he joined without further negotiating his offer (by the way we don\u2019t believe in low-balling initial offers because that too isn\u2019t consistent with the golden rule).<\/p>\n

There are three types of follow-on grants to which you should aspire if you work for an enlightened company:<\/p>\n