Years ago, I worked at an unnamed MA-based "start-up" with $100MM in revenue and 400+ employees worldwide with a footprint in AWS. I was brought on as a "junior" Operations person and within two years I was basically indispensable to the team and had acquired a reputation as "the guy that finds the most interesting bugs".
What I didn't know at the time, was that in those two years I'd obtained experience and knowledge that at any other company would have warranted a 25% pay increase from what I was getting at this start-up.
The excuse? You have "options". That you can "exercise". And maybe eventually be worth something. Maybe.
Except this company had gone well past Series B. And had no exit strategy.
Given what I know now, I've resorted to telling recruiters and HR people that I'm not interested in "stock" or "bonuses" or anything else of the sort. The company pays me for my expertise and my hours, I give them what they pay me for. No promises, no gimmicks, no dice-rolling.
TBH, people in high-school and college looking to enter the workforce need a series of workshops on compensation, benefits, and HR before they start their first "real" job.
Had I known that the "options" I was being given access to would: A) "vest" over time, B) not be worth anything even 5+ years later, C) be IMPOSSIBLE to sell on the secondary market, and D) would result in a deflation of my take-home wages... I'd have told them "skip the options, bump my pay by 10%, and maybe I'll take you more seriously".
People need to realize that equity != pay. Equity is so dependent on so many other factors that you have ZERO control over that the risk-reward ratio is heavily slanted toward the former.