Open guide to equity compensation

My personal preference only: I'm glad my current employer has no equity compensation altogether; just base salary and bonus. My former employer did have RSUs, but they have an auto-sell program that I utilized every year.

In college the computer science department had an extracurricular talk about finances for a software engineer; the invited speaker was very adamant that holding most of your net worth in a company that employs you was an unacceptable concentration risk. I remembered that to this day.

A lot of employers who only pay cash have salaries similar to companies that pay cash salary plus equity. Perhaps the equity won't be worth anything, but often times it's extra on top of what's being offered. Those accepting cash only are often leaving potential expected value on the table.

Not true at all in my experience. Employers who do not give equities tend to pay much more generous bonuses.